NJValente

Just don't call him Carolina!

2011-11-23T04:53:00.000-08:00

Carolina "Rolin" Cobalt.

I just wanted to post the first few pages of a recent pitch project I worked on. I posted the character designs a few posts back so go take a quick little look.

This fun space adventure story was written by my good pal Adam Wollet, check out some of his other stellar work here:

http://kingdombum.blogspot.com/

Adam and I really hit it off creatively and we both hope it shows in the final product. We had a lot of fun bringing Rolin's space adventure to life. There is much more to look out for in the coming weeks, but this is just a teaser of sorts.

Adam and I have some big plans for this project and it will all be coming together very, very soon, so please do watch, follow and friend us, as we continue to tell the story of Carolina Cobalt!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

-N

Well look at that...

2011-11-04T13:24:00.000-07:00

It hasn't been but a few months and already I've fallen behind on these blog posts. Which initially seems like a bad thing, but maybe not so much. Ya see I have been more than busy actually drawing, so the trade off is fair, in my opinion at least. And I'm sure none of you have lost any sleep over it either.

I think I will talk a bit about schedules here for a minute with the undoubtable rambling to come.

See schedules are very important and can be a bit tricky to hammer down especially working from home with all the distractions, let's just say it can be pretty hard to pass up the couch for a midday nap. So here are a few things I do during the day to keep my motivation high and keep on trucking.

First things first, get up when the alarm goes off the first time, no snooze button bullshit, ya hear me? Sure at first your going to be dog ass tired and probably wondering why the hell your up. Seeing as how your freelance you can technically work when you please, but I have found the later the start I get, usually the less productive I end up being. I'm a night owl so early mornings and me don't get along too well, but you have to do what you have to do, right? I find waking up right away, making a cup a joe and starting on my morning practices, helps me accomplish something right outta the gate.

I also don't allow myself to pussyfoot around on the internet after some practice or emails, I head right over to my drawing board and tackle the easiest task of the day. Now that can be various things, for instance I will sometimes leave a panel unfinished from the day before (given there is no immediate deadline), that way I can finish it off quickly. Again another accomplishment.

Then the rest of the morning and beginning of the afternoon I will focus on my main task of the day. Which I typically delegate on the Sunday night before my week starts. I will write out my entire week of work and change as I cross off certain tasks during the week. Sometimes and most often, completing more, and other times not so much. Regardless it helps me to see my goals written out in front of me. I will also go over my next day's planned work before I go to sleep every night, so I wake up compelled to draw.

Those are just a few things I like to incorporate into my daily routine to keep me motivated and moving forward. I will go into a bit more about scheduling and my work flow at a later time, but for now I will leave you be to start and enjoy your weekend. And besides I just ran out of beer.....

-N

New Project, New Characters

2011-10-04T10:48:00.000-07:00

So here we are again, and I must apologize for being absent the past couple of weeks. Things have been quite hectic, as I wrapped up a few things and began to dive into some new work.

Today I want to talk a little bit about character creation. I am by no means an expert, but feel capable of imparting some sort of advice. The characters in question today belong to a new project I am thrilled to be apart of, Carolina Cobalt. It is an exciting, yet quirky space adventure story. So for all you Sci-Fi lovers out there, this will be right up your alley!

It is written by the ever talented Adam Wollet. You can find some of his work at the link listed, and if you subscribe you will be able to keep up with Cobalt as well, as Adam will be chronicling the entire creation process from the beginning, so check it out here.

http://kingdombum.blogspot.com/

So there was quite a bit of back and forth on the main character's design, Carolina "Rolin" Cobalt. Herein referred to as just Rolin. Since Adam and I live in the same city, it's great getting together to hash out some of the finer details of design, mood, tone, and various storytelling elements. We discussed and covered nearly every base imaginable in order to create an effective design. We really wanted his personality to come through both in his actual attire and (which you'll see soon enough) his ship design. We also need to take into account not only his current adventure we're working on but future possibilities as well, making sure his attire was diverse enough to handle different situations he may run into down the road. So after much talk and some doodling we ended up here. We are both very proud of what we accomplished with the design and now look forward to putting it into action.

Now, Squidface went a bit quicker, with some rough direction from Adam I was left to fiddle and toy around a bit. He is a rough and tumble space gangster and we needed his costume to show that. It's great working on characters like this that offer so much freedom of creativity, it's where I get my kicks and feel I come through best as a storyteller. Because story needs to be reflected even in the designs. And that is the most important part here.

You want to imagine this character and they way they act and operate outside of the scenes you are called upon to illustrate. This will help you be able to breathe more life into the design, making it more effective.

It is something that should always be in the back of your mind as you illustrate. Every illustration is more than just a single image, you are trying to capture the essence of the characters. They have a past, present and future and while readers may not know anything outside of a single snapshot it is important to build this in our own mind. It will enrich your work and communicate more effectively to your reader.

And besides it's a lot of fun to lose yourself in your imagination, maybe everything above is just an excuse to be a kid again.

-N

A little bit on process

2011-09-15T08:46:00.000-07:00

Alright this post is for all you process junkies out there. Here is a little insight into the process I take for a page of comic art.

Here goes. I typically read through the script several times until I start getting some strong visuals, sometimes this happens sooner than later and that's when I know I'm working from a strong script. Once I get to that point however, I will start making small thumbnails of the panels which consist of mainly just scribbles, only legible to me.

From here, I will work on a larger (close to 8x10) layout, which is when I start thinking about shapes and focusing more on the flow of story and other various storytelling elements. Which I will go more in-depth on in another post, because trust me there is a lot to be said.

And once the layout is approved and I have taken care of any changes the writer may want I jump into the pencil stage of the game. Now for this project in particular we were originally going to shoot straight from the pencils to colors, but the decision was made as a creative team, inks would be a better suit. So here you have a fully pencilled page, which if I knew I would be inking the project would be much, much looser at this stage.

Now onto the inks, here I went over the original pencils with a about 98% brush work, with some tech pens and crow quill for some of the finer details. Like I said if I was working from looser pencils I would have let the ink do all of the heavy lifting (shadow placement, line weights, cross hatching, etc.). But at this point I wanted to stay true to what I had already laid down. I also took this opportunity to make any changes or small adjustments to the pencils I wasn't quite happy with after letting it sit for a while.

So there you have it, a little bit on process, and the way I typically approach my work. Now this is the way I do things and it may not necessarily be the way you want to work, which is fine. Part of the fun of art is finding out methods for completing illustrations that best suits you. So I encourage you to try new things and find methods that will work for you.

For some more info on this project, check out my Deviant Art page here: http://njvalente.deviantart.com/

Thanks for looking.

-N

A few faces and more rambling

2011-09-09T10:16:00.000-07:00

And here we are again. I figured I would leave you with some artwork before the weekend. It's not much but will hopefully tide you over, seeing as your probably here for an art blog not ramblings from a mad man.

Anyway I digress, the art here is from my morning practice work, which I make sure to do everyday. But like I had mentioned a post or so back I have been trying to hone my faces. Which brings me to why I'm really posting today. You didn't really think you were only going to get some art, now did you?

A technique I have used over the years and constantly preach to my students, is to sometimes go to the extreme in order to find your way back to a happy medium. This will ultimately do a couple of things for you, strengthen your various styles of work and help you gauge what you want out of your own personal style.

If you are striving for a more realistic look for your work you can benefit by doing some cartooning. That will in turn help you understand and better use exaggeration in your work to strengthen the gestures and movements of your characters. Whenever studying figure drawing and more importantly gestures, there is a phrase that is used a lot.

"If you see something is curved, make it more curved than it is, or if it's relatively straight, make it straighter." Robert Barret from his book, Life Drawing.

Many times we can be too conservative with our lines

even in a more realistic illustration, rendering it stiff, boring and just plain lifeless. And isn't the goal of good illustration to breathe life onto a flat plane?

And the opposite works to great effect as well, if your a cartoonist make sure you practice your life drawing and how to realistically render form on objects. This will allow your cartoons to come to life. Too often you can become so concerned with shape that you forget about form. And I think that is a crucial ingredient to good cartooning.

Keep practicing and most importantly just have fun with what your doing, that's when you'll produce your best work, I promise.

-N

Where's the art?!

2011-08-31T17:01:00.001-07:00

So some of you maybe wondering (or demanding) where is the art?

Well folks, sometimes in the world of freelance and comics in general clients don't necessarily want you showing off their goods before they have had the chance to do so themselves. So, no art for you!! (Anyone catch the Seinfeld reference? Heheh.)

But in the meantime I can perhaps give you a few nuggets of freelance wisdom...here goes.

When it comes to looking for more work the most important thing is to put yourself out there, and I mean EVERYWHERE. Post on Facebook, Twitter, Deviant Art, forums, pretty much anywhere you can possibly display your talents, do so. Now the next very important step is to concentrate on improving at your craft. Whatever gig you maybe currently working on no matter how big or small, give it your all. Ha damn that rhymes...anyway back to the point. You can't sit around looking at your computer screen wondering why no one is contacting you for work, you have to be at your desk, easel, tablet, whatever you use, you need to be working. You need to be pushing yourself to try new things and focus on your weak points and inevitably when you do so, the work will come.

Basically, if you want your particular craft to generate income for you, it only makes sense to focus on just that, your craft. The better you get, the better the jobs you get will be. So focus on your art and clear all that stress and clutter from your mind, that will free up all that energy you have been spending on worrying, and you will now be able to put that towards your artwork. Good things come from a clear mind.

Like I said this blog will be a collection of things, from comic art, tutorials, and some of what I have learned so far as a freelance comic artist. But mainly, maybe more than anything, a way to keep myself sane as I continue deeper and deeper into the world of comic freelancing.

Keep on working, that new gig is right around the corner.

-N

Ah, storytelling!

2011-08-26T14:00:00.001-07:00

The art of storytelling is the main and probably only reason I love to draw so much. Having the ability to lead the reader through a imaginative world, while breathing life into such fantastical characters. The artist has the ability to set the mood and tone of the story. To design the characters, backgrounds and props, all the while leading the reader on a roller coaster of emotions.

This page is a piece I entered into the Haunt Fan Art contest for Image Comics, so all rights reserved, and copyrights of Image Comics, yada, yada. You know the drill. While I wasn't one of the 10 or so contestants chosen for their Facebook voting, there is still a chance that Todd McFarlane, Joe Casey and Nathan Fox, the creative team and other judges, might still see something in it. Fingers crossed. One way or the other I learned a tremendous amount from this page, I really pushed the boundaries of my storytelling, and hope I have reached a new level.

The piece is called "Haunt's City", which I wanted to show the reader a more in-depth view of the city Haunt runs around in. So my main focus was for every panel to tell it's own separate story, to then combine into the bigger picture of the page, and Haunt's big reveal in the last panel. Not only did I want to reflect Haunt in his city but also the human side of his character, Daniel Kilgore.

By playing with the angles, I tried to emerse the reader into this dark, and dingy world, to make them feel as if they were actually there. And while Haunt is such a fantastical character, it's important to try and ground him in reality. So his environment must feel real to the reader, and that's where reference comes in. Which we will talk about in more detail another time.

But for now, I hope you enjoy and have a great weekend. As for me I'm going to eat and relax a bit, it's been a long and busy day.

-N

Drawing on your weak points

2011-08-25T13:35:00.000-07:00

I have had the privilege of teaching comic book illustration workshops for about a year and a half now. And something I have always tried to do and always impart on my students is to draw what you suck at. You can't draw hands? Draw hands! Can't draw faces? Draw faces! Can't draw anatomy? Well, you get the point.

So today's post will focus on some of my weaker points. After receiving some much needed feedback on some older work of mine, I noticed a consistent critique. And that was my faces needed some work. Then taking a closer look at some of my faces it all became very clear. I wasn't creating enough form and depth within the faces I was drawing. I needed to focus more on the planes of the face and how to utilize light and shadow to do so.

And without hesitation I ran to my bookcase full of anatomy books, and grabbed the one I knew would be the answer to all my facial problems, in my drawings that is, nothings helping my actual looks. Oh well. That book is, "Drawing the Human Head", by Burne Hogarth. Now don't get me wrong I have a ton of others including "The Complete Guide to Figure Drawing" by George Bridgeman, almost all of Burne Hogarth's other publications, and a stack of random anatomy books that I have picked up over the recent years.

But this one in particular focused only on the human head. So in conjunction with that book I searched the internet high and low for stock photos of people's faces. And proceeded to draw as many heads as possible, now granted this is still one of my main concerns and I am still practicing away. A matter of fact here are a few from this morning.

I'm definitely not where I want to be and have a lot more practice to be doing but the point is, in order to truly grow as an artist you have to continually push yourself. And that can be accomplished by being honest with yourself and striving to do better what you suck at. So I will continue to draw faces and to be honest will never stop, but that's the fun of being an artist isn't it?

What I do like to do is focus on a couple of my major weak points at a time, that way I can kind of go back and forth. So with a new project lined up, I am already starting to do my research. There will be quite a few cars involved and if you know anything about me, which you don't. So I'll fill you in, I hate drawing cars! But no worries because in order to fix that I NEED to draw cars. One of my goals as an artist (impossible or not) is too have no weak points. Or at least be able to have the means necessary to figure it out.

So over the coming weeks I will be focusing a lot of my attention on the human head and cars. Now that's not to say I won't be working on my anatomy, gestures, perspective, and even storytelling. But my main focus will be heads and cars.

So I challenge you to focus on your weak points, not only in your art but in your life as well. Try it. Trust me, it helps.

-N

Hmmmm....

2011-08-24T14:47:00.000-07:00

Alright welcome to my new blog!

So you may be asking yourself what can I expect of this? Will there be cool art and comics? Undoubtedly. Will I learn anything here? Hopefully. And most importantly is, "Who the hell is this Nick Valente guy anyway?". Well I know I can help you with that last one and will attempt to answer the others as well.

As I sit here with a cold one after a long day of miscellaneous freelance duties and some more than relaxing drawing time, I find myself searching for...well something more. I have been a freelance comic artist for almost 2 years now and if I were to say it's been nothing but fun, I'd be lying right to your face, er...screen. It has had its high points but more then that it's had its low points. But that's only if you let it!

The one thing I always seem to lose sight of when it comes time to pay those bills or I have to give up working time to run some mundane errand, is that ultimately I am my own boss. So as hard as it can be, I always try and remind myself, "It's a whole lot better than retail!". You see I worked in retail for 7 years, then painted houses for a bit, so to be able to wake up and head upstairs to my studio loft , and have the chance to do what I love, is amazing! To say the least.

So I guess more than anything this blog will chronicle my journey as a freelance comic artist. It will include all the glamour, and all the down and dirty details it takes to survive one more month. And hopefully I can provide some helpful insight on what it takes to handle the freelance world, as I fumble my way through the dense jungle of landscape that is the freelance lifestyle.

But for now please excuse me , it's time for a another beer.

-N