Big Lens Fast Shutter Icon

A buddy of mine from High School was setting up a podcast and called me up asking for some help designing an icon for it. Thinking it couldn't be THAT hard to design an icon, I said "I'll do it"! Famous last words right?

The podcast was going to be called "Big Lens Fast Shutter" and focused on giving expert advice to normal joes on how to take great sports pictures. His main art direction for the icon was that they were going for a look that had a propaganda-ish look, and also had a 'viva la revolucion' kinda feel to it.

Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to work on the icons, since he needed a really quick turnaround for it. I was also working on some other things as well at the same time (I'll post that up at a later date!). I came up with two designs for him to pick and to speed up the process I worked completely digital.

This first design, was pretty straightforward, I took a reference picture and worked off of that. I'm not very good at vector art so I decided to draw the icon huge then shrink it down; sharpening up the line work.

The next one was a little more involved, and to get the right angle I took a photo of myself and just exaggerated the size of the lens.

 I also did a vertical composition of the icon just for kicks.

My friend  and his co-host picked the second one, because they liked the thought of this tiny guy impossibly holding up this ridiculously large lens. Check out the icon in action here and listen to their podcasts. They're pretty entertaining and chock-full of great information! Also, check out their website for a sampling of some of their great photography too!

That's it for tonight! Good night, God Bless and let the Neverending battle... er... never end!

My Cityville Work

I've been working at Zynga as a 2D/3D artist for almost 10 months now, and it's been pretty busy! Being part of the launch team for Cityville would do that! The thing I enjoy the most about being there, is the opportunity to be able to draw again for a living. When video games started shifting heavily to 3D artwork, I had to adapt and learn 3D programs and a majority of my work relied less on my drawing skills. But with social games, there's still a large need for art to actually be drawn! On Cityville, I get to utilize both my 3D skills with animation and from time to time, I pinch hit to help out the 2D staff.

If you're familiar with Facebook social games, you'll know the games rely on spamming your friends' walls to get them to keep playing, get rewards and advertise the game. Well, I get to make that spam! The character designs for the game aren't mine so it's a style that I had (and still continue to) wrestle with and try to get down. Also, a lot of these assets have to get pumped out quick, so you'll see me struggle through some of these; there's quite a few mistakes in there that make me cringe now that I see them again. 

Here's a few examples of my process. Not very different for how I draw my comic book! The art on the far right is the final version seen in the game.

I usually work at around 4 times the size of the actual icon, and I use Photoshop, because I'm not that savvy with Flash (yet!). I shrank down some of the preliminary stages just to keep everything uniform. 

Above are some icons for materials that you'd collect in the game. I found these to be a lot of fun (in the problem solving kind of way) to do. You might notice, with these icons I start going nutty on making things shiny! It was kinda neat to play around with effects so forgive me if I went overboard!

Below, I tried to organize the icons in chronological order from my earliest work to the latest ones. It's really interesting to see my progress and what I have problems with or what colors I tend to go with. There's a LOT of iteration that goes into these icons, sometimes even a complete re-do after it's colored in and finalized. And with tight deadlines it can be very stressful and nerve-wracking!  But all in all it's done for the good of the game. 

I sneaked myself into the second icon. I just couldn't resist! Here's a hint: I'm not the lumberjack.

By pumping out so much of these and with so many iterations and corrections, I've been able to learn quite alot and I feel get better at drawing and drawing for a deadline. I have a lot of issues with perspective still, and have learned how to cut corners but still provide an interesting image. And, of course, composition plays such a giant factor. These icons are such a great exercise, requiring me to find new solutions for storytelling, color theory, clarity and hitting deadlines! Some of these lessons I can see are already seeping their way into my comic!

And that's it for tonight. Good night and God bless you as much as He has me! Heck, more!

Sad Days for Comic books... the battle continues!

So, I was looking around for a birthday card for my brother in-law this past weekend and I stumbled onto a card that was a sad indication of what my favorite medium's status is nowadays.

Here's a little lead-in to the card: It recounts the glory days, and waxes nostalgic, building up to the happy birthday and what a great life you've been living punchline... blah, blah, blah. Suffice to say, It's not the card I bought, but I took a pic of something in it that bugged me:

Apparently, reading a ton of comic books is now considered nostalgia... (okay, granted the context of the card is talking about childhood as well, but lumping it with penny candy and fountains in drugstores? Dem's foitin' woids!)

Meh. Rant over. Bomb squad #2 will soon be entering the battlefield!

Speaking of which, I have 19 pages done and wanted to post up a few pages, but I didn't want to ruin the 'ending' of book 2 either, so my posts on the final pages might be few and far in between. Not to worry, you may not see all of it, but I'm still working on it.

I'll try to post some more other art on this blog though. Here's a little hint at what it could be:

Anyways, good night and God Bless! The Neverending Battle continues!  

My talented family

Just thought to share a few cool things I've been seeing from my nephews and my wife this past month or so. Basically, my nephews are awesome. My sister's been sending me a few drawings they've been doing lately of superheroes and they're great! They've really been a great inspiration and a good way to keep progress on my own comic book in check! Though I have to admit I'm having a real hard time keeping up!

My nephew Joaquin, pumps out most of these images, but my other nephew, Ramon, also likes to keep up with big brother.

Painted Wolverine! (by Joaquin)

Hulk Smash!! (by Joaquin)

Mighty Thor! (by Joaquin)

And not to be outdone by his Brother, Ramon has his version too!

The world's finest! Definitely my favorite of the bunch! (by Joaquin)

And last but definitely not the least, since we came back from Wondercon, my wife has gotten into felting. We had passed by this "Wool Buddies" booth at the con and she bought a kit. And after that she can't stop making her own. And more recently: making 'our' own. She's currently making the giant octopus creature from our proposal comic:

How cool is that octopus head, huh? That white figure on the side is my first attempt at this felting thing. It's fun but very time consuming! I'll finish that little project, but I'm going to have to postpone felting so I can get back to finishing my comic! One project at a time, right? Okay, 'til next time! 

Barda

For this post, I'm still trying to get back in the drawing groove of things. This one's of Big Barda. She's definitely one of my favorites from Kirby's creations while he was at DC. I'm a big Kirby fan much like a lot of people on the planet, but with this sketch, I stumbled onto something firsthand that everybody pretty much already knows: Kirby was a really great designer.

While I was coloring in my Barda pin-up, I realized she looked just fine with just flat colors (last drawing above). Kirby's use of solid blacks and pattern are so well controlled they act like a form of 'shading' that makes his characters so strong even with just simple flat colors applied to them. So the scales in her uniform act as a gray and her gloves stand out because they're the brightest 'shade' even though they're really just the same color.

Personally, I kinda liked the flat colors that were used on Kirby's characters back inna day more than today's gradients/'modern' colors. I guess I kinda understand why now! I think a lot of his DC work has the flat color process more in mind than his Marvel ones. Or possibly his later designs just leaned more towards that style (like his eternals designs)? Or maybe I'm just reading into it too much?

Anyway, my Barda Pin-up isn't the best. It's kinda wonky in parts, but I think for the amount of time I spent and the fun I had in doing it, I'm satisfied. Pretty much the opposite of my last post; that Superman Pin-up was kinda depressing! Well that's it, until next time good night and God Bless!

Superman

Strangely enough, for a guy whose favorite character is Superman, and whose blog is even named after one of his memorable intro lines... I don't have any drawings of Superman. So, just to kinda get me slowly back into the groove of drawing again and finishing my book, I set off trying to draw him up.

Look out, here comes a rant.

You know I really do like the Man of Steel. I'm a fan of Batman, and I LOVE Batman year one, and sure I was into Wolverine too, but I think the older I get, I realize I get really sick of all the dark and brooding heroes nowadays.

The comic book industry set off to make comic books so mature back inna day, that in my opinion it alienated newer generations to enjoy them. Comic books are mainly geared for older comic book nerds like me. Not really for kids, and not really bringing new readers in.

Plus, I think where I am now, with what I'm trying to do with my comic book, I want to reach out to younger comic book readers. Not to say Superman is just for kids (Geoff Johns and Grant Morrisson's recent takes on him have been great super hero reading), but his appeal is just more bright, universal. He's a hero's hero. Anyway, that's me ranting... let's get back to drawing...

As I was drawing I came to realize three things.

One: I can't draw Superman.

Two: My anatomy is horrible.

Three: I can't draw.

Here's the proof:

Yeah, pretty sad huh (shudder)? It was a lot of starts and stops, and a lot of disappointment because I couldn't get what is in my head out onto paper. On top of that, I saw Superman only as how he was drawn by other artists. Joe Shuster, Neal Adams, Kurt Swan, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, Jerry Ordway, John Byrne... great stuff right? But what was mine? With a lot of struggling I got a rough sketch done:

And with still a lot of messing around and sloppy trial and error, I brought it to finish:

To be honest I still don't know what MY Superman looks like. The drawing that I ended up with was kind of what I settled with and deemed passable. I guess it'll have to do as my representation for now, I'll have to work on the Big red 'S' a little bit more...

Okay until next time! Up, Up and AWAY!

Super Delicious Space Cowboys

Well, let's see... where to start? A lot of things have happened since my last post!

I'm happily married now, I quit my old job and have a brand-spanking new one, and Wondercon is right around the corner and my 2nd book is not even close to being finished! Okay, that should get us all caught up.

I'm trying to get back into the groove of things and get back to the comic. Planning a wedding and Honeymoon and all that can be quite a schedule changer! For the meanwhile, I'm going to throw up some freelance work I did a couple years back. This work was for a facebook app called Super Delicious Space Cowboys done by Ohai. I was hired to do some character designs and assets for the game.

It's interesting to dig up these because they really do show the process of designing. From my initial concepts all the way to the final product, you can see all the back and forth that goes on between me and the client. I thought it might be a kick to share that here.

Though... I have to admit there are QUITE few drawings in there that make me cringe looking at them! Warts and all on this blog right? Anyway...

This first guy was a monk character. It was kinda hard to pin down what the client had wanted for this character so you can see the look and the attitude for him is always changing. I'm not too keen on the final pose or design of the character I ended up with, but as long as the client is happy, then so am I!

This next one, was for a hacker-type character. I liked the second pose I drew and brought that through to the final. As far as design goes I think I'm more biased toward the third green sketch I did with the hood.

This guy was the first one I designed from the bunch and I think this nailed the look and attitude for the client. We got rid of the mecha arm and kept it closer to a real cowboy design.

I remember this last character was a tough one as well; a diplomatic like character I believe was the description. The initial direction was to make her regal, like Cate Blanchett-y type (we can all see that I cannot draw likenesses too well from that second sketch, huh?). But we took her to a different direction later, owing a lot more to Inara of Firefly for inspiration.

Anyway, I need to go to sleep! Check out Super Delicious Space Cowboys on Facebook here if you want to see the final product. Good night and God Bless!

The Proposal: Part 7 - Final colors

Whew! So...

It's been quite sometime since my last post and a lot of things have happened since then! I actually finished coloring and printed my book out just in the nick of time! I did stay up until 6 AM the night before she came back to town, but I got it done. I was messed up, but I got it done!

I proposed on 11/1/10, the night the Giants won the world series. It took some prompting to get her to read the comic without saying it was my proposal (she isn't a comic book geek at all!). At first she didn't really know what the thing was, but after flipping to the front page and figuring out it out it was us... she loved the book! And surprisingly even after presenting her with the oh so shiny ring, she still kept flipping through the comic, and laughing at the little gags! Her favorite panel? The sushi slice panel. Oh and yeah, the "will you marry me?" of course.

Anyway, let's get on to the final pages shall we?

I bought all sorts of different kinds of paper to print the book out, but it came down to good ol' cardstock since it just absorbed the ink better and looked the best. Anyway, that's it for tonight! Good night and God Bless you as He has me!

And by the by, she said "yes"!

The Proposal: Part 6

I am beat.

Got a half day of work tomorrow (yeah I know: lame!). Coloring tomorrow. Maybe paper shopping...

The Proposal: Part 5

Got piled on with work last minute last night... not much progress I'm afraid... and I'm late for work!

The Proposal: Part 4

Whew! I am trying to crank this stuff as fast as I can out, and still I'm behind! Anyway, I got pages 2 and 3 further along today.

I also picked up the ring today!

And even though I kinda knew this in the back of my head, seeing it just proved my thought; she's not even gonna see the comic book once that shiny bauble gets in front of her! Hahah! Heck, I couldn't stop being mesmerised by the ring myself!

Still this is worth it! It cannot get more personal for me than to give her a piece of art that I made. Strangely enough this is me at my sincerest! I hope she likes it! I'm itchin' to propose already and see the look on her face! Stay Frosty Bautzman, stay frosty!

The Proposal: Part 3

"I'm going to surprise my girlfriend and make a comic book as my proposal!"

Man, what was I thinking! Making a comic book is a lot of work! Anyway, as usual, I am behind schedule.

Work has been requiring us to come in on Saturdays an stay late nights, so it's been really draining on me to work on the book. The layouts were giving me a headache as there was so much I wanted to do but no time.

Anyway, the total page count should be 5 pages. I THINK I can do it. I had met up with my friend Roque at church today and he help me get over a layout problem I was stuck on. My brain is so friend, so it was good that I had his help to get me back on track. (Though his solution to my problem was to make a double page spread. Could be trouble...!)

I finished the first page's inks today and here's how it went:

It turned out okay, but I'm having difficulty working on a page that's smaller than what the Bomb Squad pages are at. It makes it hard for me to gauge what line thickness will look good at the printed size. However, this actually helps me as I am forced to simplify the way I draw even more.

Anyhow, I am beat! My hopefully-soon-to-be-fiancee will be back in 7 days time. So I really only have 6 days to work. Actually just 5 so that on the sixth day I can concentrate on the print looking good. And with Work hours going way over the proper work/life balance? This week is gonna be crazy! Okay I gotta crash! Good night and God Bless!

The Proposal: Part 2

I had to work late last night, so unfortunately I didn't get a chance to keep the comic book going. I'm pretty beat tonight, but I just decided to power through to finish this cover so I can move onto the interior layouts.

I have a few things unresolved from this cover though. Such as: "Where will I be able to place the logo? What does the logo look like?" I have no idea. I'll worry about that later!

Hopefully I can get through all the layouts this week! I'm beat. Good night... er... good morning and God Bless!

The Proposal: Part 1

So. I'm going to propose to my girlfriend.

The problem? Well for one the ring isn't here yet, and the other? It's near high impossible to surprise her! She'll pretty much sniff it out when I try to plan something romantic or take her to some nice place, that I'm going to propose. So I thought I could make something for her, and what better thing to make for a question like "will you be my wife" than a superhero comic right?!

Anyway, right now she's on a business trip in Georgia for two weeks. So I have a little time to work on a few pages for a short book. It's perfect timing! Genius I say! I was so pleased with my awesome proposal idea that I completely forgot that making a comic book was hard work!

The things you do for love right?

The book will have to be fairly simple so I can bust it out fast before she comes back (and hopefully the ring wll be here by then).

Step one will be to make character designs. There was a comic book we saw at Wondercon that she liked the art style for, so I'm just gonna base my stuff off of that. Here's what I came up with on the first night:

The second night (tonight) I was a little fried from work and pooped out, but I still tried to plow through. I figured, I could salvage the color sketch I did and turn it into a cover. So here's my rough of that.

The interior layouts are still stewing in my head, as well as the lead-up panels to the punch line, but I'll probably do some thumbs in 2 days time. I'm working on this book kinda seat-of-my-pants, and fast, but also kind of fun!

For now, I'm typing up these posts but not putting them up online (yet) so she can't see what's going on. Hee hee. I'm so sneaky! That's it for tonight! God Bless!

My Comic Book: Page 16

Trucking right along. Finished up page 16, and now I have a total of 17 pages! This one went fast, and kind of brought me back to understanding my initial aesthetic for the Bomb Squad: Simplicity.

I chose a simple style when I started this comic so I could tell the story and draw the pages as quickly as possible. This second issue though, I've definitely been adding in a lot more detail, and kind of reverting back to how I usually draw.

So, while I do like how this issue is turning out, I have to keep that in mind as I go forward. On the positive side of things I'm also starting to loosen up as I draw this book, and not laboring and nit picking every line on the page. Could be good and bad. We'll see at the end of the book!

That's it for today! Good Morning and God Bless.

My Comic Book: Page 15 update

Yay! I'm almost back to the point before my file got corrupted. Also, alot of things that were really hard for me to figure out before are coming out a lot smoother. I'm getting that giddy-ness again when I feel I'm about to finish a page!

Good morning and God Bless!

My Comic Book: Stop whining! Back on Page 15!

Well, God certainly knows how to get me back on the saddle.

On my previous post I was pretty down that my Photoshop file for page 15 got corrupted. I was pretty miffed that I had lost all that work. Later on that day, my girlfriend and I were going to the farmer's market in San Francisco (by the Pier Building) with two of her friends from out of town.

I got there a little early, an lo and behold I got to see an inspirational sight to get my juices flowing again.

This Rocket ship was created by a group called the five ton crane. It's quite a cool site to see and just what I needed to pick myself back up since it looks so similar to the 'plane' I have in my book:

Ain't that a hoot.

I thanked God right there and then for letting me be inspired by others at work, and not to be discouraged. At just the right moment and at the right time He picks me back up and sends me on my way again.

So at the end of that day, I quickly set up page 15 again. Here's my progress from that couple hours of work. Admittedly, I seem to move a little faster and more confident than before. And a few things are turning out a little better already.

And I took this pic for my buddy Shanth, who'd definitely get a kick out of this:

Well that's it for today! Good Morning and God Bless!