Archive for October, 2010

30 Characters Challenger: Jande Rowe

Hello all,

I’m Jande (aka @eccentricOrbits). I’m the wearer-of-all-hats behind Aedre’s Firefly, the graphic novel fantasy about a starved dysfunctional young girl who has been made the town scapegoat. I hadn’t intended it to be a long form graphic novel. Originally it was a simple short story of about fifty panels at the most, but somehow the main character kept on at me to tell the whole story. I don’t script it very far ahead, so I still need more character designs for her story.

I also create Wheeler’s Orbits which is a more humorous comic about a couple of guys trying to get their inherited outer-space haulage company out of the red. That one will soon to debut on my website. Plus, I have a number of novels and short stories (mostly fantasy and science-fantasy) on the back burner waiting their chance to debut. And my husband also has a number of stories that cry out for the graphic novel approach. All of these are going to need more characters.

I’ve been in the webcomics venue since January 1st of this year and so far its been quite a ride. I’m still struggling to set up my web site properly (using Comic Press), and the graphic novel I’ve been posting has gone through a number of format changes, trying to find that balance point between work-a-holism and still having sleep, food, friends, and family.

Life was certainly easier when all I had to do to justify my existence was to make a painting –landscapes and abstracts being my forte. And then I had to go and challenge myself to claim a small corner of the webcomics world, and commit to updating weekly to boot. I have always loved comics. I have been drawing since the age of three. Self-taught, I discovered the rules of perspective late in life. I was almost thirty. But what a transformative discovery that was! Yet there is always more ways to improve my art. I hope to learn more from some of you, and perhaps, you too will learn something from me.

I’m normally a very shy, very private person, so getting involved in all of this is challenging in the extreme for me. But I have been gradually making happy acquaintance with some wonderful creators as well as being able to tell a story that showcases the resilience and the capacity for growth of the individual human spirit.

30 Characters Challenger: Sake Anih

Hello everyone, my name is Sake (As in “For Pete’s sake, I am not an alcholic drink!”) Anih and I’m…feeling extremely young and humbled amongst all this talent, ahaha. I’m currently in my last year of high-school and have decided to take on this challenge while juggling band, leadership positions, six AP classes, and ten college applications for twelve schools. As all my friends have already told me, I’m clearly insane.

But uh, a little about me. I was born in China, came to the United States when I was six, and now reside in a little place called Plano, Texas, a nice little suburb outside of Dallas that is, according to Forbes, “The best place to live”. I’m hoping to attend the University of California, Los Angeles, to study Japanese and Chinese and, if I’m lucky, Design and Media Arts. I’m looking at a career in game design, and am in the works of starting a club at school with a few programmer friends to create a full-scale computer game.

I grew up around Asian/Japanese sub-culture, and so I have been heavily influenced by manga and Japanese RPGs, notably the works of CLAMP, Obata Takeshi, Nomura Tetsuya, and Soejima Shigenori. My more realistic style has been influenced by online artists as Emily Warner (“Frozenlilacs”) and Helen Zhang (“Lokklyn”). Unfortunately, school and other committments have drastically reduced my drawing time, so I’m hoping that my joining this challenge will give me some much-lacked practise.

30 Characters Challenger: Bob Learned

I am a old school comic book geek…unashamedly. I have been reading and drawing comic books since I was able to draw at all.  I now work as a graphic artist in corporate hell… and enjoys  drawing comics on the weekend and after work.

I love to share my knowledge and abilities with anyone who loves comics and drawing.  Whenever I can show off my website http://www.oxymoronpress.com or my webcomic http://www.beyondcomic.com I do.

I love drawing pop culture characters as well as my own characters. I love the idea of creating new characters and showing them off to you, and have you to share them with your own art friends.

You can follow me at @BobLearned on twitter.

30 Characters Challenger: Drew Williams

Where do I begin…?

I’m a 20 year old Computer Science major at the University of Chicago, minoring in Visual Arts.  I have yet to start my sequence for my minor, and my skills up until this point are self-taught, having a foundation in a love for anime and american cartoons and more recently being inspired by Disney and modern comic books as well.  I like sweets, techno, old Disney movies and Apple computers, and do my work on my iPad, in my sketchbook and on my iMa

c with an old Graphire 4 that I remain very proud of/pleased with.  I did writing back in the day, and won a few contests with it, but I have shied away from the art of writing in more recent years, in favor of quick sketches that can be done between classes.

I used to have a deviantart, but I grew fed up with the website’s politics, so I closed it.

I value fluidity, action, motion, and color in my drawings, and you’ll probably see a lot of urban influences.  I have a love for steampunk, fantasy, and science fiction, and I am inspired everyday by the students in my dorm, but I try to break free from repetitive characters and thus will try and mix it up a bit.

I want to do this challenge because I have been in a slump in the art department as of late, Computer Architecture taking over my life and all, and thus I want to get back in the groove, so to speak.  🙂

Also, the samples of art I include in this post are all from 2+ years ago.  I tend to sketch in notebooks more than on the computer.  Stay tuned to see how much my style has improved!  (Adding in the obligatory my-old-artwork-is-horrible, etc etc)

30 Characters Challenger: Amanda Ohsiek

Me with my internet visage, Mahewa

So. Hi.

I guess the best place to start is to talk about myself a little, eh? First, I’m a 19-year-old undergrad majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Mathematics, but alongside my academic interests have always lain creative ones. I’ve been both drawing and writing since I was very young. I’ve taken a couple of odd art classes during my youth, but for the most part I’m a self-taught artist. I’ve always loved animals, both real and make-believe; in the past few years I’ve drawn mostly anthropomorphic art so that I could practice human anatomy while still keeping my characters “wild” and unique. I’ve still got one tentative foot in the furry fandom, leftover from my affinity for anthros in the past few years. (In fact, you may know my lioness persona, Mahewa J. Huntress, from elsewhere.) In recent months, though, I’ve finally started practicing human faces and thus introducing many more human characters into my work.

My favorite genres of fiction are fantasy and sci-fi, preferably with a dash of romance. As such, the characters you’ll be seeing from me in the next month are probably going to fall into one of two different fictional canons that I have created: Teyra, a fantasy world governed by the four classic elements, and Race, our own world in a time far in the future when the galaxy’s sentient races have finally approached each other. I’ve constantly been changing and refining Teyra since I first dreamt up a story for it in 9th grade, while the world of Race was built quite recently out of some sketches from this summer and an abandoned short story from 10th grade. I’ve been vaguely considering making one of these two canons into a webcomic of my own. I may also create the occasional character that does not fit either mold, though these will be rare.

Why am I taking on the 30 Character Challenge? Because I want to push myself to draw more. Since I’ve never officially enrolled in any sort of art regime, my sketches are rarely more than doodles in my lecture notes. With this project, I will be pushed to refine my ideas and learn more about the vast library of digital art techniques out there.

Thank you kindly for your time in reading this. I very much look forward to the events of this coming month!

~Amanda

30 Characters Challenger: Matthew Goodmanson

Hey everybody!

I’m Matthew Goodmanson, and I must be crazy.

I haven’t updated my website since 2008. I’m a procrastinator, I have trouble with deadlines, I get distracted like a five year old with ADD and my motivation is constantly at war with the rest of me and that picture makes me look like a wizard. 30 characters in 30 days. Yikes.  I must be crazy.

But aren’t we all?

I work for a company out of Halifax, Nova Scotia called Silverback Games where I’m the head of the 2D department. We make casual games, with dreams of bigger things to come and I love it. I’m 32 and I live just outside of the city with my beautiful and talented wife, Meg who is a bastion of patience (one has to be when married to someone in the video game industry) and my tiny, adorable yet slightly despotic two-year old son Alexander. I’ve worked in kids TV production, was concept artist for a failed MMO and I’ve done sketch cards for Marvel, DC, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. As for non-work stuff, I’ve been playing Dungeons & Dragons for over 15 years now, so I have a little bit of experience creating characters, but I have an intense love for comics, contemporary and classical fantasy art, sci-fi or any half-geeky genre out there. Part of this challenge for me is going to be drawing out of genres I don’t usually dabble in. I know everyone here has their reasons for doing this, and I’m very impressed at how willing everyone is to share. As I mentioned above, I know my weaknesses on and off the paper (or Cintiq if I’m lucky!), and this is a challenge that I need to face.

Working as a professional illustrator, at the end of the day the LAST thing I want to do is draw for myself. But isn`t that why I got into this business in the first place? I love my job, but it’s time for me to take my creativity back for myself, if only for a few hours a day. I have to give big thanks to Tyler for setting this all up and giving all of us a chance to flex our creative muscles and show the world what we’ve got. It’s going to be a crazy amount of fun watching how the days are going to unfold and the genius that I’ll be seeing on my screen from all of you. I’m looking forward to it.

A few samples of my older stuff and if you want you can follow me on Twitter @Gensanova or on Facebook HERE

Good luck to all of you!

~Matt

30 Characters Challenger: Vito Delsante

Hey there.

So, introductions.   My name is Vito Delsante, and I’m a writer based out of New York City, specifically the Astoria/LIC area of Queens.  I’m possibly best known for two reasons:

1. I wrote an issue of Superman (676).

2. I’m the store manager at Jim Hanley’s Universe.

I’ve been concentrating on a lot of creator owned work this year, and one of the things I’ve been doing is creating a Wiki for my characters…to be sort of a living, breathing, online story bible.  I self published my book, FCHS, this year, so I feel like I’m going in the right direction.  Doing the 30 Characters Challenge is, more or less, forcing me to expand this universe, which, in time, will be the focus of my career (I’m hoping).  Keep in mind, I’m a writer, so there won’t be much in the way of artwork with my posts, but there may be a surprise or two.  I’m not adept with pencils, but I’ve been known to sketch here and there.

Other details…I’m married to a wonderful woman (ie, she loves comics too), named Michelle.  I have two dogs, Kasey and Kirby.

Thanks, and see you in the funny pages.

EDIT:  I should have followed Joey’s lead initially and added my Twitter info…here it is.  Please follow me!  (10/30/10)

30 Characters Challenger: Perry Watson

Avete, artifices colega! My name is Perry Hamner Watson. I am a 19 year old white male and resident of South Georgia. I am presently a college student enrolled in Valdosta State University on the pre-engineering program, training to be an electrical engineer. Also, brownie points to whoever can translate my salutation and tell me its language.

Having settled on a technical career, art is purely a hobby for me. I consider myself an intellectual and strive for expansion of the mind through artistic expression. I am a writer, having written half a dozen short stories and am currently working on a novel, and I have some degree of profficiency with traditional drawing media, as evident by my deviantART page (http://stoneman123.deviantart.com/).

The one quality that I always pursue in my artwork is the fabrication of new or at least unanticipated ideas. When ideas are used and re-used over and over again, they start to grow stale and boring, to me at least. The ur-example, I would say, would be the tropes of the Tolkienesque fantasy, having been rehashed countlessly over the years. I want ideas that are original, or at least haven’t been done to death.

As for inspiration, I’ve been consuming video games and cartoons all my life, and will continue to do so. I’m also a fan of Dungeons and Dragons and other such role-playing games and an avid reader of novels. My current favorite cartoon is Adventure Time with Finn and Jake, due mostly to the vibrant originality of its setting, not to mention the humor, the characters, and a score of other things that make it awesome. My favorite books are the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman and A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay, just to name a couple. My favorite video games are No More Heroes and the Monster Hunter games, again, to barely scratch the surface. All of them have inspired me in one way or another. Indeed, so has everything I’ve ever experienced.

My hope is that with this challenge I will be able to grow as an artist, to generate an array of interesting and unique characters for later use, and, perhaps, to inspire other artists.

30 Characters Challenger: Luke Burchfield

Hello, Internets! I’m Luke Burchfield, a sixteen year old writer from Texas and quite possibly the youngest challenger so far. I enjoy Italian food and long walks on the beach…

Heh. I’m actually just a budding sci-fi/fantasy nerd who found this challenge exciting. I usually have troubles with just character creation, because my writing style focuses more on plots and ideas than people. I hope to use this challenge to break out of that habit and grow as a writer.
Anyway, once the Challenge gets into full swing, I’ll be putting up short vignettes and a crappily hand-drawn, crappily scanned doodle of what I used to help form the character in my head. I apologize in advance for whatever harm I may cause to your brain cells in doing so, as I am a terrible drawer.

Some more personal info: I’m both an actor and a techie for my high school’s theatre troupe, and just got casted as the lead in a small play that goes on in February. I’m learning how to play guitar, and have been for about six months. If I’m not acting, playing guitar, or working on homework, I’m reading. I absolutely love to read, and will read just about anything. I have a strong preference for fantasy, with most of my influences and most favorite authors being Stephen King, Darren Shan, JK Rowling, JRR Tolkein, and Jenny Nimmo. Sci-fi is also one of my loves, with Frank Herbert and Isaac Asimov being the forerunners. Anyway, that’s me. I look forward to seeing what awaits me in November! 🙂

You can find me here on Facebook. Just tell me that you saw me on the Challenge site and I’ll accept your request. 🙂 My Twitter is GotItAllWrong. I’ll be posting updates on those two sites whenever I post up a new character.

30 Characters Challenger: Martha Schwartz

Hey, I am finding this a very fascinating thing to do and hope to meet and understand all you out there and why we are doing this.  Me?  I love the idea.  I feel that art should be about fun.  Many of us are trying too much to make an impression out there, and I am sure that you are taking the opportunity to do so as much as anyone else.. but I am solely

doing it for the fun.  I love this because we can share ideas and get them out there as well as see what others can do and put up to the challenge.  I feel that I can learn a lot about this for myself and for others.  I want to do this to see if I can not only do the art once a day, but to come up with something that says or screams.. me, the creative.  I hope that we all get more out of this, but I want to thank the time to do such a thing.

From the happiest place on earth, well to some people, I just think that life is fun but when it comes to art, it can be the best.  I want to take the time to show others what I have to offer.  Art should be fun, and that’s what I am about.  I hope that it will all go great and to share with many of you guys.

30 Characters Challenger: Amy “Of Many Faces” Heisei

Well met, everyone. I’m Amy of Many Faces: she who spontaneously breaks into song, and she who makes strange noises while talking to herself when she’s bored. I tend to do a lot of things at once or nothing at all. For example, I recently finished shooting a feature-length movie (my first) as a production designer while simultaneously playing a small part in a musical, putting me at sometimes 15-hour workdays not getting paid. But so are the labors of love. Now with those projects over I’ve been lamely lethargic. Through this 30 challenge, it is my hope that I see this thing to completion and get back into the swing of art and drawing and design.

On top of doing movie-making and theater-doing, I write and perform music with my sister, here in Northeast Ohio. We do songs that are both silly and serious, haunting and taunting. I play piano and sing. She does guitar/bass and sings. We’re still figuring out a name for ourselves, but what’s in a name?

I love graphic novels and surreal art. Some of my biggest influences and looked-up-to names include Brian Froud, Alan Lee, Dave McKean, HR Geiger, Beloved Creature, Salvador Dali, and… there’s more, I just can’t think of any at the moment… Inspiration also comes from weird bugs, animals, people, places, animation and puppetry. Among my favorite directors/storytellers are Hayao Miyazaki (I spent two years teaching English in Japan and was surrounded by Miyazaki films’ characters in some form or other, and during my learning of Japanese I was bent on watching the movies in their original language with English subs in order to get a feel for the myth and culture and history surrounding each story and appreciate it in a way that would be missed in English dubbing: the artwork reflects the natural beauty of the Japanese rural countryside and is breathtaking to watch– I feel like I’m back in the small town I was living in where there are rice fields in every direction and a big mother mountain watching over everyone), Don Bluth, Tim Burton, Christopher Nolan, Henry, Selick, Charlie Kaufman, Guy Ritchie, and Neil Gaiman. Nearly every film/television series/etc. involving Jim Henson’s Creature Shop inspires me. Some miscellaneous titles or particularly influential films: The Animatrix, The Neverending Story, The Dark Crystal, Mirrormask, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and many more. I also used to watch Disney/Buena Vista’s “Gargoyles” obsessively for a while. The bug still bites me time and again.

Oh! I have the most splendid birth date: 7/11/1984. It is both lucky and ominous. Made for great things that I must put into action before it’s too late… (duhn duhn DUHN…!)

Good luck, everyone! I’m excited to see the process in all of us. Creativity is what brings us together today. May it do its part.

I need to get my scanner fixed, and soon!

宜しくお願いします。
Mucho gusto.
Pleased to make your acquaintance.

30 Characters Challenger: Fes Works

HELLO! This is Fes, and I have a hard time ignoring new creative ideas and projects! Aside from the standard high school art classes, I’m a self-taught cartoonist. I’ve not read much of any print comics aside from the Sunday funnies, but I got into reading webcomics in 2005. By 2006 I thought “I can do that! That’s EASY!” Well, no… It’s hard work, and takes a lot of dedication. So with a newfound respect, I’ve been plugging away at my comic P.S.I.: A Pessimistic Sense of Inadequacy, a training ground for improving my story-writing, drawing and character narrative.

In 2007, I created a weeekly, topical podcast called The Webcomic Beacon, which is one of the longest-running, continually-updating, webcomic podcasts online and still updating regularly. A labor of love with a focus on helping amateurs getting started in creating webcomics. Heavily advocating webcomics as a hobby and as artistic expression.

I’ve also participated in The Crossover Wars, the biggest webcomic crossover even in history TO THIS DAY! Crossover in the sense of ACTUAL crossing over of comics, not merely cameos as some certain comics have claimed. The Crossover Wars involved over 50 comics in assorted, direct crossovers, across at least 10 different storylines. All involved in trying to prevent a hostile takeover of the Webcomic Multiverse.

It was during this time, that I discovered Jenny Everywhere (a.k.a. “The Shifter”). Jenny Everywhere is a purposefully open source, comic heroine created in 2003. Around this time, the original website had gone done, but I brought her back with The Shifter Archive Project, where I catalog comics, cameos, artwork, articles, and writings on this character. With the help of several enthusiasts, it is the most compressive archive of the most notable open source character online, to date. I’ve seen and helped promote Jenny Everywhere as a character in many projects.

These days I’m trying to keep my head above water, with all the projects I’m engaged in; and I could talk for hours about all of it. While I’ve not giving into Art Memes so much, it’s hard to let a Comic CHALLENGE go by, once I find out about it. 30 Characters will certainly be a challenge for me, given my schedule, but I have to try. I hope to get at least 15, if not the full 30. I hope to utilize these new characters in my main comic as background characters, and see how things go from there.

Well, it’s time I signed off. You can check out my Fesworks Hub site for links to all I am involved with.