kulimar

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.

( See More Picts... )


IPD Map

June IPD Map


-Kaz  

 

Finished up that header image from before using Copics.

Working on this just made me realize how long it's been since I've attempted to color anything by hand. Boy do I have so much practicing to do :p

-Kaz

April's over and a full 1/3rd of the year is gone. Looking back, I feel like it's been a lot longer than 4 months. I guess that means I'm thinking too much about the future :p 

Color Creed

I've had a good focus on inking this last month and it has developed my line work quite a bit, so now I'm eager to move on to the next phase and get back into coloring. 

This month I will be revisiting color theory and refreshing my memory with a few good books on the topic. I will also be pumping out more fanwork and colored drawings using Copic Markers and the Cintiq (yes!).  Finally, I've sought out a local mentor with amazing digital painting skills to aid me in my color drills. He has already started to show me how I can take my coloring work to the next level. I look forward to working with him a lot more during my art development as he has a lot of experience and knowledge to offer in general.

So in short, MORE ART COMING SOON!

Manga IP Development

I've overcome the biggest research and story world hurdle this past week in the new manga IP I've been working on. That opens the door to doing a solid second pass on the plot outline for the story. Aside from the plot outline, I'll also be diving into the key characters to flesh them out in more detail, focusing on:

• Giving them more believable and interesting personalities;

• Playing with the dynamics of various relationships (i.e. thinking of them in terms of solos, duos, trios, quartets, and quintets, etc.);

• Considering the various "character movements" and how they might relate to one another (i.e. one character rises as another falls, fast paced character rhythms contrasted with slow paced character rhythms, open characters vs. closed characters, twist character developments vs. expected character developments, etc.) 

If I manage to get through all of that in a month, then I'll circle back and move on to defining the locations, groups, and organizations that occupy the world in another layer of detail.

• Reading Lots of Manga: I've basically been off the manga scene for a few years due to work, but recently I've just been catching up with all of my favorite series and trying out a few new ones.

• 3 weeks in on teaching manga to kids at Place des Arts. I've gone over the basics of anatomy, storytelling, character concepting and design, and panel design. The kids will be starting their first 2-page manga project next week.

•  Played and beat Portal. Best ending credits ever!

• Still running the Vancouver Manga Artist Meet-Up. We are working on a very promising manga IP there which you can read all about on our message board forums.

I'm totally supposed to be focusing on inking right now, but the Cintiq distracted me. Bad Cintiq! Bad!


-Kaz

I managed to finish 3 inked works over the long weekend:

Relm and Strago

Here is an exciting scene featuring two of the most boring characters from the game. I really liked the idea of Relm’s ability to bring paintings to life, but it wasn’t as awesome an ability in practice... Old man Strago’s Lore techniques allowed him to steal (weak) magic from enemies, but in the end it was hardly any different than Gau’s Leap.

While these two characters were the most disappointing from a gameplay standpoint, after playing through the second time I DID enjoy the little plot twist about Relm being the daughter of Shadow. I totally wasn’t expecting it.

Gau and Gogo

 Here are the last two from FF6’s expansive cast of playable characters. The Mimic Gogo and the wild child Gau.

Gau was the most useless character in the game and offered little or nothing to the story. Gogo on the other hand was quite awesome if you knew how to use him. His ability to mimic anyone came in handy when equipped with 2 Ultima weapons and a Genji Glove :p He didn’t play into the plot any though seeing as he was an optional character. But man, he was a freaking sweet secret and the way you got him (by being sucked into the mouth of a giant, Tremor-looking worm) was pretty neat too.

Other

This is a header image I’m working on for my new website. I originally drew it on the Cintiq and then printed it out and inked over it to give it a more personal touch. I’ll be coloring it with Copics at some point and will post the link to the final image when it’s up on my site.

Next Steps

Man I finished soooo much stuff this long weekend. Aside from art, I’ve also pushed through tons of research for my upcoming manga proposals. Doing so has given me enough information to continue on with the story world development, which in turn will allow me to start finalizing the plot outline. I’m shooting to have all that done by the end of the month.

As for art, I’m still focusing on improving with inks, but since I’m done with FF6 fanart (until next month when I do a colored pict of Kefka's final form) I need to figure out what to draw…  

-Kaz

I've spent the first two weeks of April doing line practice. I'm just now starting to actually ink stuff. The drawing above was a sketch I did back in February that I decided to ink today (It was the only thing I had sitting around that I could ink right away).  I noticed that I'm much faster at inking than I remember. Now I just need to pump out lots of drawings to practice inking. More FF6 Fanart coming up!

Japan to up manga and anime culture exports to boost economy

Here's an interesting article I found this morning:

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/10/japan-manga-anime-recession

-Kaz

Light On

I spent most of this month studying lighting. I started with books that covered general lighting styles and theory (such as the Hogarth book), and then went on to find articles and more detailed information about the physics of light and how lighting is used in film and 3D animation.

The subject is quite vast and it's not something that a month's worth of exploration will give absolute clarity on, but I feel I have a much better understanding of what "lighting" is now and how it can be used in enhance or detract from an image.

I had trouble coming up with a good way to practice lighting other than doing studies and just starting to use it in my own work (i.e. that's why my fanart has been getting more and more elaborate :)  I haven't advanced as far as I'd like to in this subject yet and so I will continue to practice studying and deliberately experimenting with lighting over the next few months as I move back into inking. In the meantime, here's a look at just a few of the lighting studies I did this month:



Mostly looking at lighting styles and conventions used by some of my favorite artists. I've also been paying more attention to lighting as I do life drawing, but I honestly haven't had as much time to get LD sessions in this month.

April's Inking

As mentioned, this next month will be all about inking. I'll be getting back into inking something everyday, studying how manga artist use inking to create texture and control lighting, and generally trying stuff that I've never tried or have always been weak at. I'm really looking forward to this study!

Project Updates

Aside from my general studies, I'm still working on all my side projects. Here's what I have going on now:

• Still continuing to working with Bryce on a Manga IP (same one I spoke of last month). This is going really well. We're meeting twice a week and really coming up with some compelling stuff. The plot is almost fleshed out and we have a good grasp on the characters and their motivations, goals, and interrelationships, most of the conflicts and how they are going to evolve and climax, and the world in which it takes place, including many of the laws, organizations and technologies that make this story unique and interesting.  Can't wait to share it once it is all together.

• Working on a proposal for Tokyopop's Pilot Program. I figured that while I'm focusing on leveling up in art, I can still be getting a head start on the proposals that I want to put together for Tokyopop. To that end I've been using all my free time to work on a concept that I want to get together as a proposal before the end of the summer. I've gotten the core story, feeling, and characters down so far, but I still have quite a bit of research to do before I can progress further on the storyworld and plot due to the nature of the IP I am creating. This topic and tone (comedy) is another change of pace for me and another challenge to overcome creatively.

• Not so much a project as it is news, but I'll also be teaching manga and cartooning classes at Place des Arts again. This time I'll be teaching every  Saturday morning for 12 weeks. This is a lot longer than the 1-week class that I did last year, but I'm stoked about it all the same.   

March IPD Map

Lots of progress in the projects and manga skills sections: March IPD Map (excel file)

-Kaz

Two of the more sideline characters in FF6. I always thought Mog and the moggles were awesome, but I never really connected with Umaro. He was the strongest physical fighter in the game, but he could have been cut from the cast and it wouldn't have had much, if any, impact to the experience. That being said, I did feel somewhat sorry for tha big guy. He had no friends : (

-Kaz

Ah the tragedy of Cyan... He was one of the best fighters in the group and had one of the saddest tales in the story. Looking back at his profile, I was surprised to find that he was pushing 50. Here I think I made him look a bit too much like Solid Snake (unintentionally of course). I hope it isn't too distracting heh.

SNNAAAAKKKKKKE!!!!!!


-Kaz

*Edits: After waking up this morning and seeing all the perspective and lighting mistakes I made in my haste to finish this piece, I was somewhat disappointed with the work and so I spent today reworking the background, fixing the perspective, clarifying the lighting, and cleaning up the composition to make it more readable. I'm much happier with this new version. You can see the old one here (just for comparison sake).

Finally got a Cintiq!!



Been waiting to get one of these for a while now. I was going to get the 21UX, but I decided to wait until later to upgrade. For now, this one is cheaper and works fine for what I need it for. I won't be using it too much until I start studying color and painting this May.

In other news, I also got threatened today by some crazy guy on Craig's List, so that was interesting as well...

Busy day.

-Kaz

Drawing Celes has been a bit tricky. First off, I had trouble deciding which moment would best capture her story, the suicide scene (pictured here) or the opera scene, both powerful events in the game. Secondly, the concept art for Celes is VERY different from the sprite art so as I tried to merge the two I think I ended up with someone who isn't immediately recognizable as Celes. Lastly, I drew this across two sheets of paper and the angle I chose to draw it at made it a real pain to scan and piece together. You may notice some Photoshop glitchiness in the image, my apologies.

The one thing I do like about the picture is the flow of the body. I've been trying to draw my figures with more dynamic, arcing spines and at least a bit of foreshortening. I'll keep at it, still 7 more characters to go ^_^

-Kaz

Another cool character that helped to round out the game's extensive cast. I found Setzer's story interesting, but I honestly never relied on him much in battle. The slot machine mechanics he brought to the table were powerful and unique, but risky and a bit too variable for my tastes (just like real slot machines). Anyway, definitely loved drawing him and the airship :D

Celes is next!

-Kaz 

Ah yes...Shadow and Interceptor. They are definitely my favorite characters from the game (if I had to pick), but ironically the ones I know the least about. Theirs was the only storyline in the original English translation of the game that I didn't quite understand. Thankfully, it was somewhat rectified in the most recent GBA port (I can't believe he's her father!!!!).

A classic character with a considerable cool factor. Nuff said.

-Kaz


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These two were among my favorite characters in the game and second only to Shadow and Cyan IMHO.

Working on this piece made me realize that I need to spend more time studying and drawing standing poses at different angles and with foreshortened forms. I've only been doing that kind of thing for action poses (with some Manga exceptions).

Anyway, it's the end of February and I'm more comfortable with drawing clothing and such now, so I'm going to move on to study lighting, yet another subject I know almost nothing about. Hopefully that means I have lots of room for improvement there :)

IPD Map

Here's this month's IPD Map.

-Kaz


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More FF6 fan art, this time of Locke with the Phoenix Magicite (that he used to revive Rachel in the game).

More on the way...

-Kaz

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Since I'll be spending the rest of the month sketching to explore clothing more, I've decided to do fan art of all my favorite RPGs so that my art will be motivated and have some personality. Here's the first one for all you Final Fantasy 6 fans out there:



My girlfriend just recently finished FF6 for the DS and I got to relive one of the best stories every told on a gaming system. FF6 was the game that , for me, took pixel graphics and MIDI music and made them high art. It was also the game that made me start writing, drawing, designing, etc. Consider this (and any future FF6 sketches) a tribute to an old friend and inspirational mentor.

-Kaz

So far I've spent the month studying clothing wrinkles and drapery based on some theory from this Burne Hogarth book (which doesn't have very clear or easy to understand explanations mind you).



The one good thing it does is give you a basic understanding of how body movements and kinetic forces affect clothing. It also creates a vocabulary for all the different kinds of wrinkles that you're likely to see in clothing. This has helped me consciously recognize and think about them when I'm drawing, so going through the book has definitely been valuable.

With my first real study of clothing complete, I'm now sketching daily to exercise and explore that knowledge in more depth. I'll be working on this for the rest of the month. Here are a few sketches I've done so far:


Sketch of a new design concept for Kash from my manga story "Seda: Thief of Nothing"


Character design exploration of Math, the main character in my seminal game IP "Seda: Heir of Lies" (Formally Seda:X²).

Story Writing and IPD

My friend Bryce and I are working on a new IP to turn into a script pilot for a manga. So far it's been really productive. The core concept, story world, plot, and theme are all solid and genuinely feel exciting and fresh. Now we just have to maintain that level of quality as we move into fleshing out the characters and story details more.

Other cool things that have been going on this month:

• I've been working on finaling the story outline for my next short-story manga: "Panacea". This has been an engaging challenge as the plot is more character driven and emotional than any of the epic, action-adventure pieces I've written up till now.  With this story, I'm learning how to best get across the meaning and emotion of characters in scenes, primarily using subtext (Juxtaposition, emotional baggage, painful secrets, unconscious behavior, innuendo, etc.) I think a good foundation is in place for this, it will just take quite a few rounds of iteration and feedback to get it all feeling "amazing".

• Even though I said I wouldn't, I've gone back and worked on Seda Universe stuff :p I've effectively re-structured and themed my most well known IP, Seda: X² and turned it from an 'OK' fantasy adventure story, into a 'Pretty Cool' fantasy adventure story with a hook that's easier to understand than the previous one. The new title is: Seda: Heir of Lies. I'll probably be drawing lots of sketches related to it, but other than that, this is probably the last you'll hear about it for some time.

• I essentially did the same for another Seda IP titled "Thief of Nothing". No huge updates there though, just kind of tightened it all up.

Well that's all for now. Back to work I go.

Cheers!

-Kaz

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IPD Map

IPD map for January

Peace!

-Kaz

As part of my art crunch I’ve been getting back into the habit of sketching on a daily basis. I swear it’s the one part of the visual development process that I’ve been slacking off on for years and I can finally understand why it’s so important. The speed and ease with which I can produce a drawing now compared to just 1 week ago is surprising and reassuring; sketching is the drawing equivalent to Hannon’s Piano Drills. I will surly be keeping this up   

 Anyway, here’s some random sketches from this past week or so:

 






Peace!

-Kaz

Ha, I was working so much I didn't even realize what year it was. Two weeks off from work and it's like I fall into an artistic abyss. Well I'm back and here's what I brought with me:

 Art

I’m in art crunch mode at the moment in an attempt to raise my drawing skills up a few notches. I’ve been focusing on drawing a variety of characters with different: Facial Proportions, Age, Weights, and Stylizations. I’m also starting to study anatomy in more detail than I have before. You can see some of my sketch work here:

 

 

( See more sketches... )

Things are going good so far. I can see the difference in my work only a month after starting the study. I’m going to continue this drive well into the new year as I want to be capable of doing publishable work by next year.

Manga

On the manga front, I’ve been working with my friend Bryce on a bunch of random short story ideas that we have developed into one-shot mangas (each between 2 and 10 pages at the moment). Since neither one of us actually has the time to pen and ink these manga ourselves, we just focus on the planning ( write the script, draw the storyboards, shot compositions, and panel layouts) and then hand the stories off to more talented artists to draw.

Currently, we are doing this “for fun” just to get more experience developing manga shorts and working as “directors” with other artists.  So far we’ve finished 1 project and have 2 more coming down the pipe.

Here are some recent pencil sketches I did for one project we’re working on now (pardon the quality, my scanner sucks at picking up pencils:

 

( See All Manga Pages... )

Also, here’s the first finished 2-pager we worked on in November. The story and direction was done by Bryce and myself. The art was done by Cassandra Jean:

( View Concept Art... )

So as you can see, even when I don’t have time to do manga myself, that doesn’t seem to stop me from producing new works ;)

Music

I’ve been deep into Music Theory and History lately and my knowledge of how music works (especially Harmony and how many of my favorite songs are constructed) has risen quite a bit. The theory is deep though and it seems like it will take me a while to fully grasp it all. This year I’ll just be pushing through all those music drills and exercises until the theory becomes second nature.

Life

• Work: As fun and as stressful as ever. I really hope this year isn’t a series of death marches. Here are some picts from the Radical Christmas Party where they transformed a part of the studio into a Casino for a night:

 

I have no idea what to do so I just randomly place chips on the table until I win more than I had, then I stop playing  :)


Radical Transformed

• Food: More of Hiromi’s creations:

 

Something called Doria. All I know is that it has rice, cheese, tomato sauce, and multiple layers of “ohh so good”!

( View All Dishes... )

2008 Resolution Review

Well since I totally missed this opportunity 2 days ago, I guess I should take the time to do it now. Here’s a look at how I did last year based on the goals and resolutions I set: 

• Finish at least 3 original short story manga.  
  

• Win!: Yep, if I count the manga I passed off to other artist to finish then this goal has been met . 

• Develop my music composition skills to the point where I can breakdown and understand all of the great songs that I have taken the time to learn.
  

• Win!: You know, I haven’t had time to breakdown the songs I was talking about, but I certainly can understand them at a rudimentary level now. I can see their structure and understand some of the techniques used in their creation. The next step is to expand on this insight and start using some of the techniques in my own works. 

• Revise and record 3 of my old songs using the new composition principles I've learned.
  

• Win!: Yep: Opus number 6, 7, and 8 from my original compositions are all based on some of my older songs.
  

• Design Version 3 of my Website: Kulimar.com.
  

• Win!: I have indeed “Designed” it, but as I have had no time of my own to implement it, I’ve hired a very talented web developer to work with me in putting it together. This will be the first time I’ve outsourced the implementation of my personal website. I look forward to seeing the results. 

• Study for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level 3 ( Requirements: 1500 Vocabulary and 300 Kanji).
  

• Epic Fail!!  With everything else on the go, my Japanese studies have taken a backseat. I’ll put this down on the list again for this year (although by now I might have to go back to level 4 as I’m constantly forgetting stuff T_T)
  

• Start on the first arc of my long form manga, "Seda: Thief of Nothing".
  

• Epic Fail!!: Hahahaha NO!! I won’t be working on Thief of Nothing or any other Seda Epic until I’ve satisfactorily dealt with all the small stories I currently have in my project folder.
  

• Buy at least 6 Units of Time this year.
  

• Disqualified: I’m done with the whole units of time thing. I’ll just be saving money, period.
  

• If there is sufficient time and money, GO TO JAPAN!
  

• Minor Fail: Well there wasn’t…But Hiromi came back from Japan, so that’s basically like having Japan come to me instead :p
  

• Pay off my Computer (haha, for real this time).
  

• Win!: Yes!! And I did too!!
  

• At least get all of the information and details I need in order to establish credit in Canada
  

• Win!: Even better, I got that freaking credit card and after using it all year I paid it off and haven’t touched it since :p
  

• Focus most of my research and studies on History, Philosophy, and Psychology.
  

• Draw: Half and Half: I did do a big history crunch and learned all about the ancient world up to modern Europe. I didn’t get around to Philosophy and Psychology as much and I don’t see it on the agenda for this year really. I’ve got to focus more on my art and story writing skills now.
  

•  U nexpected Bonus Goals I Accomplished:
  

• Taught Manga at a school to kids!
  

• Started a Manga meet-up Group (18 meeting and 5-star ratings so far)
  

• Studied Film Directing, Story Writing, and Manga Creation intensely (as a result of starting the meet-up group.)
  

• Got 2 raises and 1 promotion at work (yes, yes, I know :)
  

• Ate some of the most delicious food that I’ve ever tasted (My regards to the up and coming chef in my kitchen, she’s a marvel really…)
  

• Got major studio upgrades. I’m basically fully stocked and can just focus on working now.
  

2009 Resolutions 

Great, so now that all that stuff is over I can leave 2008 behind. It was a great year, perhaps the most productive yet. Here are my goals and resolutions for this next cycle: 

• Finish my Short Story manga “Panacea”: I’m going for quality over quantity this year. If I only get one 24-36 page manga done, I’ll be happy. 

• Revise and finalize all short story manga scripts currently in the queue (I believe there are about 6 now). 

• Develop the IP foundation for at least one of my 1-to-5-volume Manga stories (This is what I will shoot for after finishing off all smaller projects.) 

• Significantly improve in art: I’ve never been as serious or as pumped as I am now about improving in my fundamental art skills. My goal is to have publishable artwork by next year. 

• Launch Kulimar Version 3: The Opus Era:  Everything is on track for this to happen.
  

• Take care of the rest of my dental work: After last year I’m down to the final two wisdom teeth and then it’s all braces and teeth straightening from there. 

• Compose at least 5 new songs: This should be pretty easy, but again, I’m going to focus on quality over quantity. I’ll keep iterating on the same songs in order to make them better and better. 

• Buy a Cintiq: It must be done. It’s the only way I can stand to color on the computer ever again (my job has spoiled me rotten with theirs).
  

• Get another raise / promotion (Hey, might as well if I'm going to buy that Cintiq)
  

IPD MAP

Here are my IPD maps for the months of November and December:

• December IPD Map

• November IPD Map
  

Until next month, Love and Peace!!

-~-