2008/04/26 Border sketches

Sometimes when I am bored in class I draw in the borders of my papers or in my notebook. People who sit behind me always say how they like to see me draw. The more boring the class the more I draw (I am sorry to my professors and classmates). On days when I'm really tired I totally blank out and enter a dream world while pretending to listen. I'm sorry again.

Sketching in class is fun I guess, but I always feel like I can't draw what I REALLY WANT TO DRAW, because people are watching me. I can't draw what I want unless I am alone in the evening. That is the best time to draw! Best to draw is also when I have lots of work to do but I don't want to do it. It's when I'm the most creative. orz

Borgia in swimsuit. If I had more space I would of course draw more of it. Only Borgia would wear a hairbow out to the beach. Somehow it looks like there is some kind of materiality to this. Like you could hold her. Does this make any sense?

Our regular gang here. What is Viv holding?!

And OMG, I haven't drawn 70s style in so long. Years ago I drew a comic all in this kind of style. It was pretty messed up since I had to try so hard to draw that style for the long comic (about 25+ pages)? But... I used to draw in this way all the time. I think my art is kind of 70s and 80s huh?

2008/03/28 Why hello Sylvie!

It's been a while, but here they are again- the two fashionable twins. Gilles is wearing a T-shirt inspired by a MILKBOY t-shirt from this season. ... I really want it. D:


Alex likes Sylvie too, but don't we all? This scene can never happen in the story for various reasons. It's a secret why though!!

I made a slice of felt cake yesterday! Photos tomorrow-!

2008/03/28+30 Getting caught in the moment.

This is the first time I drew Alex and Vivien. I drew the girl with her hands in a weird way first- it came about from listening to some inspiring music and from it flowed more and more chaotic sketches. I spent several hours drawing and drawing more than just people's heads like I usually do (since I like to draw expressions and such). It was a really good feeling! BTW, I drew Vivien before for a comic called Finland Sardines I did years ago but I think I gave her a different name (but I can't remember what) and she was much kinder then. I don't know if you can consider it the same person but well... I suppose you can just say that she is taking a different role to perform this time.


Another early sketch of the pair. Alex is supposed to have a sword, but I don't know how to draw these well so I need to study more about it. I guess they are about the same height though Alex is a bit taller. He's expression is really playful. What has caught his eye I wonder?


And now this is probably how the character design will stay like for a while until I finally write the story and start drawing the comic. I haven't had a lot of time to draw since I have been working so hard but I try to draw Alex and Vivien once a day so that I do not lose touch with them. They are constantly evolving. Anyway, I really like this drawing.

Here I am embarking on a new project. I guess the end of the school year is really coming isn't it? Today I got some wonderful things in the mail and now I will start to make things from felt as well!

2007 Saltine Crackers

Mmmmm, yummmy saltine crackers and 7-Up when you have the flu.  Not that I have the flu right now mind you, but somehow this reminds me of this.  Saltine crackers remind me of sickness.

Poor Gilles having to follow his sister's whim.  Why doesn't he try to cook himself?  He can't really, and Sylvie had declared it her job to buy the groceries and though she holds the cash to do so, she ends up spending it on something else.... to be revealed later!

I had so many plans for these past weeks, but I haven't gotten anything creative done.  It's so sad since once September rolls in, I won't have any time for any of these endeavors. :-(

2007/05/16 Good ol' Lou

I'm trying to draw Louise so that she looks like an actual person, but I'm not sure if I'm doing it right or not.

You would be scared too if you saw a rat asking you for some marmalade and biscuits!

After a few attempts, she looks more like a 10 year old than a young teenage girl. (^^;;

Well... she is short and little round after all. Hmm.

2007 Sylvie and Gilles and Louise

A test comic I drew a couple of weeks ago featuring Louise and her friend Sylvie who knows exactly how to un-nerve Louise.  Sylvie is evil in that way.  A test comic.  I might take this idea and redraw it someday.  It's kind of terrible though.  Reminds me of the comics I drew in high school.  I suppose not much has changed anyhow.

I am trying to develop Louise in terms of her design so that I might have something more consistent.  Louise doesn't think much of herself, but she fails to realize how cute she really is. Ha ha.  I'll show you some of the sketches I have been developing regarding Louise tomorrow followed the next day by another test comic.

2006/12/13 Sweet birds and strawberries

Sorry, I have just not been really wanting to update recently.  So tired all the time.  Anyway, here is one of my favorite sketches that I drew last year featuring Gilles and Sylvie again.  Sylvie's outifit was inspired from Jane Marple's designs from the early to mid-1990s especially the blouse which I drew while thinking of a folk blouse the label released a long time ago.  I always envision Sylvie as a very fashionable girl that likes to wear clothes from Jane Marple and MILK as well as vintage and cool outfits.  Gilles usually opt for the more simple black since, unlike Sylvie, he is a less complicated person. (^^;

Can you tell that I like birds a lot?  I often draw them when I don't have anything to draw or run out of ideas.  Looking at birds eat is, well... I find it really funny actually. LOL  Since they seem to work so hard yet can only eat a little bit at a time.  There is a phrase in Vietnamese that goes, "Eating like a bird."

Anyway, I drew this on the day that I first ate Beard Papa cream puffs while on vacance.  They were the best!  I wish I could have some again.  But unfortunately Beard Papa has not come this way yet!  Sylvie and Gilles were originally looking at a "Best till" sticker that came with the cream puff.  You have to eat them the day you buy them or else the cream will go bad so the date on the sticker said 2006/12/13.

2007/01/17 Boys & Girls

Here is Gilles and his friends.  The guy on the right wants to be Ziggy Stardust.

And Sylvie is looking particularly evil today with Borgia who also looks like she's up to no good (quite typical really...).

I am not quite sure why it is that I quite often create characters that are so full of themselves, arrogant, and vain when I'm quite sure these aren't my own personal qualities.  Very curious indeed!

2007 Failed Twilight (3)

This is going to be a long post so remember to scroll to see everything!

Sylvie isn't very popular at her school, but her twin brother Gilles is.  Here the girl in the glasses tries to get Sylvie to give a birthday party invitation to her brother.  Of course, she isn't very happy about it.  I think in all the pages I drew of this terrible mess, this was the only page in which Sylvie was really Sylvie.

From the outset, Gilles doesn't really look like Gilles at all.  He is somewhat popular or rather well-liked is probably the better word.  He plays the violin or some instrument in the orchestra or something and probably spends a lot of his time after school practicing.  Yeah, this page sucks.

Gilles ask if Sylvie is okay, and she thinks for a minute before telling him that he worries too much.  On the way home they encounter the stray cat that Sylvie likes to feed whenever she sees it.  

She is actually quite friendly with it and likes to hold and pet it.  I suppose it's her only friend in this particular comic.

Well, that's all the pages here.

I think it's truly horrible because this isn't Sylvie and Gilles at all!  Not at all!!!  It's someone else pretending to be like them, or Sylvie and Gilles hired as actors and doing poorly as other characters that don't really fit the kind of people they are.  This was the reason I had to give up.  Sylvie looked too normal and normal-cute.  And Gilles was much too friendly (though he's still the more approachable of the too), and most of all there seemed to be a rift between them.  I think that there still is when they are in the right character, but the most important thing about Sylvie and Gilles was missing from this comic.  That is- the fact that two are basically in their own world- Sylvie more than Gilles, and act and think differently from most normal people.

Anyway, just yesterday I was drawing, and I think I finally have a comic for Gilles and Sylvie.  I had to create a new character, Louise, who introduces herself as, "I'm not very pretty, in fact, I'm a little plump.  And round.  And short."  Louise is incredibly normal, but it's because this that makes a story with Gilles and Sylvie possible in the first place.  So- I think this is what I will be trying to do once I finish my spring cleaning! (Which is extreme, EXTREME spring cleaning).  Maybe I'll post the sketches someday.  I think this story that I have in store has that sort of... well... the feeling is different from my other comics.  Maybe someone can help explain to me how it's different...?

2007 Failed Twilight (2)

More character sketches.  I think my favourite part of this silly sketch is the woman who makes that guy eat something asking him, "Yummy?" with him saying "Ye- yeah" but really thinking "NO."  That's really the only reason I scanned this thing in the first place. (^^;

It was supposed to be an awesome comic with a klutzy train conductor, a cat-human, and talking fish that walked on their fins out of the water.

But it failed because the characters failed me.  My drawing skills were not up to the task as well.

Tomorrow's entry will feature the pages I drew for the comic in pencil.  I never got a chance to ink them before I failed.  After I finally get those up, maybe I'll scan some of my other failed comics that I had to drop because of problems with pacing and long-winded story lines that were utterly boring and nonsensical.

2007 - Failed Twilight (1)

I decided this week to introduce some sketches I made for a failed attempt at a comic about a month or two ago featuring Gilles and Sylvie.  I scraped the project because I felt I couldn't draw.  But most of all I felt that both Gilles and Sylvie were terribly out of character.  Anyway, here were some character sketches I did.  I have some comic panels I'll put up in the next few days as well.  It was... truly horrible.  I'll try again someday.  I think the problem is that they are both too beautiful.  It's hard to give them much expression.  I could make them evil, but actually, I have a very hard time thinking of evil things much less silly mischief!  I honestly... don't have much experience in that realm.  I suppose I'm not much of a story teller in this respect.

2006/11/05

This is the first appearance of Gilles and Sylvie. I had met them the night before. They were sitting in an airport waiting to board an airplane with their parents. They sat together near the large windows typical to airports, but they both were looking straight ahead, their eyes burning.