May-June Updates
These past two months have been the busiest out of my year so far. Lots of events and projects going on at work and at home. Fortunately they have also brought me a great deal of progress towards my goals as some of my big projects for the year were finally completed.
Kulimar.com Version 3!
Probably the biggest and most time consuming project that came to a close last month was the launch of my new website, which you can see here. It took a lot more work to get it up than I expected, but I think it came together pretty well in the end. Now it’s just a matter of pumping out more content to fill up all the blank space :p
Art Studies: Color Theory 2.0
I spent all of May and June focused on Color Theory and composition. I practiced exercises from the Betty Edwards Book about how to identify color, value, and saturation and mix paints from scratch. This is something I remember doing in school a little, but it seems I never really picked up on it (or forgot the details :p) so I’m glad that I took the time to revisit it. Going through the effort of mixing paints to get the colors I “see” has substantially raised my confidence and capabilities with color.
Truth be told, I’m not quite finished with my exploration into color yet, as I’m still working on one of the more advanced projects in the book that teaches how to harmonize colors in a composition. I could have just done like the book told me and found a pattern somewhere, but I just couldn’t help but want to do something a little more…elaborate:
I’ll be using this piece for the color harmonizing exercises in the book. This is also the piece that I’ll be working with my mentor on as he teaches me more about specific digital painting techniques.
After finishing up this color piece, I’ll be turning my attention to my July and August art studies, which will be back to something more manga relevant: Visual Story Telling and Dynamic Panel Design. I plan on pushing myself really hard in these areas trying to improve on how I go about communicating information visually.
I want to be able to deliver a great emotional experience using shot types, shot transitions, and page composition before I’ve even added the words to the page (though word balloon design and placement will also play into supporting the emotional experience). Aside from reading a few books on cinematography and directing, I’m not sure yet about what exercises I will be doing to help me improve in this area.
Anyone have any good ideas or experience here? I was thinking of studying some of my favorite work and breaking it down to see how they are doing it.
Manga
I've gotten a lot done on my manga pilot in the past two months and so next month I’m shooting to finish a first pass of the proposal that I will send out to Tokyopop at the end of August. It’s my first time doing a proposal in this format. I guess we’ll see how that goes…
Life
One of the other big events that took place last month was the wedding of my friend Bryce. I was honored to be the best man at his amazing wedding and want to wish him and Theresa all the best in their adventures on the road ahead.
Another big accomplishment was finishing up my 12-week manga art teaching gig at Place Des Art. I had 4 classes this time from all age ranges (5-to-17 years old). They also gave me an even nicer space to teach in. It was quite fun and I learned how to handle teaching different age groups the same concepts.
They are interested in having me back again for the summer and fall, but unfortunately I’m just too busy at the moment and need to finish up my other projects. It was a fantastic experience nonetheless and something I could see doing more often if I find myself working full-time as a Manga Artist.
Hiromi and Me in Elizabeth Park
A delicious Bavarian Cream dish Hiromi made recently. So good!
IPD Map
June IPD Map
-Kaz