Jesse Acosta's Blog

Asthma attacks + sleep = weird dreams

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 21:03:00 +0000

So I've been having trouble with my asthma the last week, maybe change of weather, probably because my dog insists on sleeping on my bed when I'm at work. Either way, I've been waking up several times at night, needing my inhaler. Well, last night, I ended up with some bizarre dreams, mainly because I probably felt really uncomfortable not being able to breathe during the night.

I just can't understand people who deliberately ruin their lungs, being able to not breathe is a nightmare. It's like wearing a plastic bag on your head some days.

Thrifty

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:36:00 +0000

A friend at work collects old lunch boxes, everyday he has a different lunch box. The lunch box thing got me thinking, I should buy a couple old lunch boxes and repaint them! So I started the hunt today at the Christian Thrift store by my home. I did not see any lunch boxes unfortunately, but I did find something! Super Mario All Stars for Super Nintendo! The game generally goes for $20.00 on Ebay, and I picked it up for $3.00. I was pretty stoked, this has four Super Mario games on one cartridge.
Looking around the thrift shop made me think about how easily we toss things out, and buy new junk, just to toss that out as well. There were many nice and functional things there. I saw a French Press for $3.00! It looked brand new, and those generally go for $20.00 at Target or other stores. I may go back and pick it up for a friend. They had many bags as well. I'm thinking of going on a trip this summer or spring, I'll definitely be heading to a thrift store for a bag to pack my stuff, why pay $50.00+ for something new in a chain store, when I can spend a quarter of that in a charity based store.

I think a lot about how much I spend, and how in the past I burned through cash on ridiculous things. Nowadays, I buy my books either used, marked down, or with a coupon from Borders. I buy my graphic novels either used from The Comic Shop, or I buy several at a time through instocktrades.com, which has free shipping on $50.00+ purchases, no tax, and generally a markdown of 30%. I rarely eat at fast food these days, preferring to buy from the grocery store and spend a couple extra minutes to prepare something.

I'm sure others are feeling the effects of our current economy, the dollar really doesn't go as far as we'd like these days. I'm not trying to be preachy or anything, I'm just trying to share the ways I am being frugal.

CLOUD NINE!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 05:08:00 +0000

So last week I mailed out a bunch of copies of my 24 hour comic (printed, folded, stapled, cropped, it looks nice all together) to a bunch of mini comic/zine distros, people into mini comics, and I even sent it to the Isotope Mini Comics Annual Competition. I actually found out about this competition a couple days late for the event, but I decided to send it in anyway, just to see what they thought. Here's the email:

Jesse,

I just received and gave a read on your SOLAR FLARES book. It's a nice looking book thanks for sending it!

This year's Isotope Award competition was pretty fierce, I saw more amazing books from first-time comic creators than ever before, and I think Jonas Madden-Connor's OCHRE ELLIPSE (our 2008 winner) is definitely something really special. You can check out more about his work here:

http://www.family-style.com/mumblingmynah/
http://thedailycrosshatch.com/2008/10/17/ochre-ellipse-2-by-jonas-madden-connon/

We give out this award annually, I'm proud to say that the attention has helped get each of our five previous years winners picked up by pretty major indy publishers. We definitely do everything we can to make this award more than just a nifty trophy, I always consider my
winner a little like Ms America, and make sure every reviewer, news source, and publisher I know of gets their hands on a copy and gets a chance to talk to the winner if they want to. It definitely makes me happy to see both Joshua Cotter (2004 winner) and Danica Novgorodoff
(2006 winner) have gone on to get Eisner nominations for their next projects. So yeah, pretty cool!

But I digress. Here's really what I'm writing you to say:

#1. You've got a pretty sharp looking book despite cranking it out in just 24 hours. Very impressive!

#2. If you put some time into your submission for next year (and submit the book on time - laugh!) I wouldn't be surprised to see you ending up as a finalist.

#3. And seriously... keep up the excellent work, man!

- James
http://isotopecomics.com

Yeah, so I am pretty excited about this!!! :)

Daily Sketch Catchup!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 03:43:00 +0000

First off, I'm writing a bunch of ideas I've had for comics down into some books, and breaking them down into lengths to see what would be a quick one shot comic, or a short run, or something ongoing to kind of guage what I should be doing. I kind of want to print a book similar to my last comic, but with 48 pages or so, with a couple stories in it... I'll be working on that for the time being.

I've been drawing almost every evening, but I don't keep up with scanning as often as I should. Here's a few:

Francisco Valerio, from my 24 Hour Comic... I might actually finish a couple comics with him, people seem to respond to it.

Francisco is a little to strong, beefy, gallant, and confident here. It reminds me of Flash Gordon, and I want Francisco to be a little more lost and apprehensive.

Francisco Valerio running from a moon Zombie.

sketch from last night...

Doctor with a reanimator lab coat...

Spreading my comic to friends and strangers alike

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 09:42:00 +0000

So, I've been reading about zines for quite some time, but as far as I can tell, they are near impossible to find around town. The reason I got onto a zine kick was because of last year's 24 Hour Comic Day. I wanted to print my comic, and then I started reading online about mini comics and the zine subculture. I want to get into that, and share my comics on a more peer to peer basis.

I personally believe my printed 24hr comic looks really cool. Yes, some of the art is cheesy, but that's due to time constraints. I'm talking about the overall package. Its manga sized, 5"x7.5", full bleed, and strict black and white. The cover is #90 cardstock, and the inside pages are 24# paper (a little thicker than generic printer paper), double sided, and saddlestitched. I figure if my rush job 24 hour comic looks this nice, imagine actually spending the time to make a nice comic, utilizing screentones and grayscale effects, more time on the layout and design, everything!

This idea is really kickstarting my engines on getting comics out there. It wasn't expensive either. Honestly, if I buy the cardstock and heavier paper and have a print shop print on that, I think I could get even a better deal.

So, getting back to spreading my comics. With my 24hr comic, I have sent it to friends all over the world (seriously), and even to some zine places, and zine fans, in hopes of catching someone's eye. Some strangers out there will be getting a random mini comic in the mail, and I hope they enjoy this random surprise.

I'm thinking if I pursue this, I'd like to offer these comics on my website for sale via paypal. I have tons of ideas, and now I have proof that a nice looking comic can be made from home, so there is nothing stopping me from making my art. NOTHING! :D

I have several one shot stories that I'd like to render into a mini comic, as well as several longer stories. This practice could also help me build a portfolio to attract the eye of a real publisher... Hmm.. This also means that I'll have some comics to hustle at next years Spokane ComiCon.

24 Hour Comic en Español

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:06:00 +0000

This was my 24 Hour Comic submission for this year. For those that don't know, 24hr Comic Day is a worldwide event where people have 24 hours to try to make a 24 page comic. Its quite difficult, and you can't refine your work, so you just make do and move on...

24 Hour Comic in English

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:04:00 +0000

Woes of Lettering Comics

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 07:59:00 +0000

Right now I am lettering my 24hr Comic I did last week in both English and Spanish. The English is done and up here if anyone is interested, and now I'm working on the Spanish translations. Main problem, most fonts don't carry the following characters: á é í ó ú ¿ ¡ ü ñ

So, my tedious task is to now manually go through each page and insert my ~ and ' over characters, and flip my ? and !... Its a major pain in the butt.

Has anyone else gone through any similar issues? Any better solutions?

Batgirl and Robin

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 04:55:00 +0000

Work and school is a volatile combination. For the first week of school I was very stressed out about my astronomy, health, and working full time. Finally, I moved into a pattern and I think it won't be as bad as first feared. But my art has really been slipping because of my studying. I've been working on this on and off for about a week:

Its drawn on 6.625"x10.25", so its actual comic size. I used a Pentel Brush Pen to do this whole thing. I'm really trying to learn how to ink and utilize more black areas. I'll be getting back to The Joker soon, its just such a pain to setup and photograph each step. With illustration, I can just start drawing on paper anywhere at anytime without having to setup to draw.

School Daze

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 06:02:00 +0000

First, my daily art:

On break at work I cleaned up the page, spotted some more black onto Robin's coat which I think really helped. Then I did my usual fun coloring out of boredom. Its nice to have colored pages in a sketchbook, its more striking, even if my coloring is pretty flat. It has been a while since I used colored pencils, I need to get into a rhythm before I start getting too creative.

Now a more imperative topic. School started today... Oh the horror. I could not fall asleep for the life of me last night. If something important is happening the next day, I can't sleep. Anyway, I woke up and got online to check out my online courses. Health and Astronomy. My Health class doesn't seem too bad, but my Astronomy seems to be a nightmare. I will have to be extra organized and assertive to accomplish my classes, art, and everything else I want to happen this quarter.
My Astronomy teacher wrote a novella worth of information. The syllabus, an intro letter, discussion questions, a lecture, this week's agenda. It was a lot. I just read through it and my eyes are bugging out. I had to write notes on just what he expects each week from me! Tomorrow I have to get up early to pick up my books, my financial aid check, and a parking pass just in case I need to do something on campus. I'm frightened by the amount of work this teacher is demanding. I am very interested in Astronomy, but I am hokey pokey about my pace. Maybe I need a fire under my ass to jump start my mindset back into a school sort of pace.

In other news, I totally forgot my Spanish Instructor's birthday party. We are good friends, and hang out a bit outside of classes. I have been so bogged down getting over being sick, kind of feeling in a rut, trying to get art ready for a few events, and mentally preparing/fearing school. My mind was elsewhere all weekend, I totally forgot it and I feel horrible. After I am done posting this entry, I will be drawing her a birthday card. It will be personal and it will mean a lot to her. I also packed up my guitar and a folding music stand. For her belated present, I am going to play a couple classical songs. I was also wanting to paint a sign for her class as a surprise. She just got a new office for her school, and needs to decorate. I am going to hand paint her Spanish class sign, I think she will like it. Unfortunately, do to time constraints, it won't be in her hands until probably next week.

Last bit of info. Last night, during my insomnia, I watched the very tail end of a PBS program. There is a black scientist guy I see all the time on tv. I've seen him on Conan O'brien talking about astronomy, he gets so excited about it. I've seen him interviewed on news networks, he's somehow some kind of big science geek. Anyway, he had some show on, and he was talking about the evolution of writing. I would have LOVED to watch the whole program, history is awesome, especially about things I am interested in. Anyway, he started talking about his crow quill pen (basically the same thing I use to ink, but I use steel nibs rather than an actual cut feather tip). He said that if he is going to write something important like an article or a speach, he uses a crow quill pen. Each time he dips for new ink, he gets about six or seven words before redipping. He states that this process gives the piece a cadence feel to his writing, he thinks a lot more, and there is a unique thoughtful flow that is lost in the 'now now now' technology of a keyboard.
I really think he stumbled onto something so true. Even when I use a brush to ink, I am so much more thoughtful with each stroke. It is so different, and has a more organic flow than any pen.

Okay, enough yammering. Time to draw a Birthday Card.

Doodling and La Bamba

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 05:18:00 +0000

I think I mentioned this before, but I bought a new sketchbook. This book is just for me to practice 100% comic stuff. I want to have nice complete work in it, inking, colors, panel layouts, whatever.
So, while watching La Bamba, I drew up this:

All using the pentel brush pen. I haven't erased pencil marks yet because its still too wet to brush an eraser over. Approximately 45 minutes all together. Another thing I am trying to do is loosen up and have fun, when I participate in the 24 hour comic day, I don't want to stall and just stare at a blank page. I did a lot of that last year. I notice if I start doing something, anything, it makes it easier to keep going.

Daily Work Doodles

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:51:00 +0000

I've been drawing a lot of Batman and Robin at work lately. Trying to not worry so much about being perfect, and just having fun. This is actually the first Batman I have drawn that I actually like.

If I ever worked for Marvel or DC, I'd love to do one of their kid's comics. Teen Titans or something. Anyway, I need to clean up and get painting again. I've been painting on Joker, but I haven't been able to photograph much.

All Spanish Today

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:56:00 +0000

He estado trabajando en varias pinturas en los ultimos meses. Quiero tener otra exhibición de arte pronto. Invitaré a todos mis amigos y familia de nuevo. Se siente bien tener amigos cercanos que vengan a apoyar mis intereses.
Hablé con el dueño de "The Missing Piece Tatto" y le gustaría llevar algunas de mis pinturas. Su taller tiene muchas pinturas, muchas de éstas vendidas. Me gustaría vender algunos de mi trabajos y posiblemente conseguir algún reconocimiento.
Este año venderé libros de dibujos, pinturas y dibujos de comisión en la Segunda Convencion Anual de cómics. Algunas de mis amistades han conseguido beneficiarse de ello y han hecho conecciones. Con mis nuevas pinturas, y un portafolio mas grande, me gustaría ver si puedo encontrar trabajo pintando portadas para compañías de cómics independientes. Oni Press y Blue Water Productions son bastante grandes y no lejos de Spokane.

Just practing my Spanish for a change.

Robin in the style of Damion Scott

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 09:34:00 +0000

Sorry I've been so sluggish with the Joker tutorial. I was sick last week, and this week catching up on bills, just lots of stuff going on so I haven't been able to photograph anything new.

I just realized I have been rusty at drawing since Ive been painting Joker for so long. So, to prepare for the 24 Hour Comic Day I will be participating in again, I am filling a sketch book with tons of fun gestures. I want to really make something cool this time.

I've been liking Damion Scott's art a lot, especially his work in Robin: To Kill A Bird. So to try to learn some techniques from him, I drew the same Robin he did as a cover in the back, but with a bit of my style to it. I like his animated feel to it, he's not worrying about rendering everything to infinity like Jim Lee.

The sketch was probably 15 minutes at the most.

Joker Painting Tutorial Pt 7

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 23:42:00 +0000

Sorry it has been a while since the last update. I never realized how draining it is for me to try to think of painting in steps, it really slows me down and makes me not want to paint! Step by step is hard, because I generally don't work in one fashion. I like to fool around a lot with the paint, sometimes I work on more interesting parts when I get bored with the monotony of some parts of the painting.

Okay, so now I'm going to introduce a new acrylic additive, a retarder:

This stuff is really nice, it thins the paint a bit, and it lets it sit longer before drying. This will be useful for wet on wet blending action.

This is where I left off last. I was fooling around with water and darker greyish blues to make shadows on the bottom of the strait jacket. I didn't like the outcome so much, so I went out and bought the retarder since I knew it would be easier for this effect.

Here's I've mixed my Payne's Grey (the darkest background color) with Azrilian Crimson to make a purple. I mixed about a dime size amount of the color, and added about four drops of the retarder to it and mixed it in. Then I painted the upper portion of the face with it. After that, I used some titanium white and the purple together to make a lavender middle tone:

This is where the excitement begins! I can now use that retarder to make my paint take longer to dry. I can have a wet dark purple, and a lavender, then blend them together on canvas using a swirl motion with the brush. I try to keep a lot of strokes in the look to give a real painterly look. I'm heavily influenced by the old pulp covers and movie posters of the 40s, they really had a cool painted look to them.

After a good transition of purples, I add on top of it a small amount of titanium white and retarder to get some bright white on the forehead, and cheek. This is really my favorite part of painting, its about building volume. I add dark colors, medium colors, then lighter colors, then I can darken it if need be, or brighten it more, until I am satisfied.

Here's the whole thing at the moment. Yes, Joker's face is very purple at the moment, but I'll be lightening it up a bit later on, after I get the face and everything else finished.

That's pretty much it for now. I'll probably be finishing the face, then going back to the strait jacket again. After that, I'll be working on the pants, then I'm going to have the pants fade back into the background by adding some more Payne's Grey and impasto. From there, it will be about tweaking little things and making minor adjustments.

Joker Painting Tutorial Pt 6?

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 08:57:00 +0000

I can't remember what part I am up to now in my painting process of The Joker, but here's another update. Also, a side now, this is my 50th blog post! Yay! Now if somebody actually read all this, it would be worth celebrating :D

I finally picked up a light, but I'm unsure if I like it yet. My lighting is still uneven, but its at least better than before. I'm about to put 5000watt daylight bulbs in the whole basement just to work properly. I'd imagine the police would be stopping by though, expecting a grow house. The den is pretty poor to work in though, its the worst lighting in the house, but its the only room with enough space to work in. Here's my new setup:

You can also see the easel I built.

So now, I've decided to start on his straight jacket. I used some naples yellow, neutral grey, and payne's grey to make a slightly yellowed greyish tone. I'll probably have to play with this color a bit before I'm sure I'll be satisfied with the color. I originally wanted an off-white / cream color for the straight jacket, but it was a little too bright when I tried it.

Oh yeah, I also was playing a bit and colored his mouth for the heck of it. Cadmium Deep Red with a little black for the tongue. The mouth is ivory black with some payne's grey.

So, that's it for today. I'll be working on the rest of his top, adding some highlights and shadows next. Not too much after that, his pants, his face, and a lot of finishing touches to round it all off.

Joker Pt. Part 5

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 04:43:00 +0000

Continuing the Joker's hair! This time I want to add some darker and lighter tones of hair to give a sense of volume.

There is about four different variations of green for his hair, some lighter with olive green, burnt umber, hooker's green, and naples yellow. I just keep adding strands of hair, until its like this:

I may add more hair later on, depending on what I feel about the piece when its closer to completion.

That's about it today, sorry its so short. I need to stop at a store tomorrow to pick up a better lamp for painting. I had some people make several suggestions, I'll see what I can find.

Joker Painting Tutorial part 4

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 07:15:00 +0000

Now its time to start the hair. I'm using a Hooker's Green for the base coat, and I fill the whole block of hair:

Now I'm going to use a smaller brush, like one I might ink with. Whenever my brush strokes have to be smaller and more precise, I make sure my small brush is pretty damp feeling before dipping into the paint. I think it helps the bristles move and flow better when I make my strokes. I'm just starting by adding some locks of hair with a mix of Hooker's Green and Naples Yellow. I like using this in the mix for a lighter green instead of using titanium white because it looks a much more vibrant:

Now that my layer of light hair is done, I'm going to mix less yellow into my hooker green and make slightly different shaded locks. I'll make about three layers eventually with different shades of green to make up The Joker's wild hair:

That's about it for today. Its been pretty difficult for me to paint recently because the sun is setting sooner and I work late in the evening. I have a few lamps at the easel, but its not enough quality for me to work with. Regular bulbs give an ugly tone to most of my colors. I also have a day lamp which is good, but its a reading lamp, so I'm not getting enough light over my whole canvas. I just need to buy a good lamp for painting with, if you have one you use for painting, let me know!

Joker Tutorial part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 05:08:00 +0000

Continuing with my tutorial on painting, I'm going to start talking about dry-brushing. Dry brushing is a technique where you load the brush with just a little amount of paint, and even brush it until its 'dry', meaning there is almost no paint coming off the brush. Once you get the brush ready, you lightly brush your painting, and only the impasto part of the painting that sticks out will get painted on. This will give the piece an even more raised effect.

I mixed my Payne's Gray with just a little zinc white, and prepared my brush for drybrushing. I painted around, and I especially painted around the Joker to give him a sort of haloed glow around him. After I highlighted with the drybrush, I mixed more zinc white to make a whiter light blue, and continued the process. I did this about three times to give a nice gradient of brightness.

This is the first drybrushing layer. You can see that there isn't too much of a difference between the original Payne's gray background and the lighter blue. I want each layer to be a subtle change.

This is about three or four coats of drybrushing , each getting brighter and brighter.

Now that I'm done, I peeled away the frisket of The Joker, leaving his silhouette. See how the frisket protected the Joker illustration below? Actually, if you look closely, you can see I had only one spot of bleeding, and that was a small spot on The Joker's nose, but I can paint over that just fine. Now its time to paint The Joker!

That's it for tonight, I hope someone out there is learning something from this tutorial!

Painting Tutorial Continued

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 22:10:00 +0000

I worked a bit more on my Joker painting and took some more photos. Remember, this is all my rough thoughts, I'll be much more thorough when I actually compile it into a proper tutorial. I believe I'm going to make this into a website and a DeviantArt tutorial.

This segment of the tutorial will be on my impasto technique, its nothing fancy, but good to use. If you look at my Grim painting or my Automaton of Mars painting, you can see the impasto technique being used. I got the idea originally from Brom, no secrets there. My first painting I actually ever completed was Grim, and it is deeply rooted in Brom's work. I think I have separated myself from that quite a bit though. That's what I believe artists do, they see something they like, they imitate it for study, take what they want from it, and build their personal style.

Okay, first up is the Impasto medium. Actually the brand I use is called Molding Paste from Golden's gel mediums. The photo I found here says Light Molding Paste, but I prefer the regular molding paste, its a bit heavier, more sculpting, and feels a bit tougher and longer lasting. I think it takes longer to dry as well, which in my book can be both a plus and minus.

This stuff is kind of like mud. I use a palette knife and just go wild, making marks, slashes, splatters, whatever. I'll impress the knife into a bunch of medium on the canvas then pull up and down a few times to get a real textured look.

I'm applying amounts of the paste all over the areas of the background for this piece. I want the background to look something like a stone wall, lots of texture. Once i get the paste where I want, then I start messing it up.

This is where I press down with the knife and lift repeatedly to make a messy texture.

I'm trying to get it everywhere except on The Joker. I want it to look like a maniacal prison cell in the end.

Okay, I have the paste how I like it for right now. One note, I used to paint flat on a table when I started painting a few years ago, before I built my easel. Yes, I said I built my easel. I like to build whatever I can, so its to my specifications, and generally much cheaper. I also built my light box for transferring sketches onto bristol board. Anyway, when I painted flat on a table, the impasto technique would actually start going slightly flat as it dried due to gravity! Now that my canvas is standing straight up, depending on how thick it is, it has the potential to run down. I'm going to let this dry, its not too thick for me to worry too much. But when its dry, I'll take another photo, and then possibly add some more paste if need be.

That's all I have for now, hopefully tonight I'll get some more work done, which means more photos and blogging. Tonight I am going to see the new Star Wars movie with an old high school buddy whom I haven't seen in almost ten years.

*Update** 9:35pm

Okay, so I'm back from the movie and I worked some more on the painting. BTW, the Star Wars movie was pretty good. I didn't like that the droids were really stupid though.

Okay, one of my tools I use is frisket. Frisket is generally an airbrush artist's tool, that's actually where I learned to use this first. Frisket is like a giant clear sticker than you can put over your painting, then cut out shapes with an exacto blade and paint over it. Once you're done, you can peel it back up and the covered area is protected from your paint job.
I'm going to use the frisket to protect The Joker, while I get wild and paint the background. I want the background to have some gradients and drybrushing effects, so as I wildly paint, The Joker will be safe behind the frisket.

I don't know if you can see it in the photo, but I cut a square piece of frisket around The Joker. Now its time to use the exacto blade to carefully cut the silhouette of The Joker.

Here, I have The Joker cut out, and ready to paint.

I am using Paynes Gray here to start a base coat of the background. I want the background to be a very dark blue with lighter blue highlights. Paynes Gray works well for this because its almost black. One thing I'll have to remember is that when this dries, I'll have to rotate it and be sure to get the bottom of the canvas completely covered with paint as well.
A note about painting over frisket. Always try to paint going away from the frisket, not towards the frisket. If you paint towards the frisket, you potentially can lift up the frisket and accidentally paint into your covered area. If you paint going away from your frisket, you'll keep pressing the edge of the frisket down, ensuring a safe bond to the canvas.

How I paint, the beginning of a tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 07:37:00 +0000

I think Im going to make a tutorial. I'm taking photos and scans of each step so far with my Joker illustration. I haven't seen too many traditional acrylic painting tutorials here, or anywhere, perhaps it will be useful for someone.

I kind of made a quick rundown so far:

My first sketch of what I wanted Joker to look like

First sketches to figure out the pose. didnt like this, because it was
to directly forward, very boring and undynamic. I drew a little sketch
below to figure it out.

Another idea, this is going into a better direction.

My first sketch.. its okay, but it needs more arch in his back and a
bit more madness.

This is now really getting somewhere. but its drawn in my pocket
sketchbook, and needs to be redrawn much larger to make better
details.

Larger paper, very early stage

Final sketch, ready to project with my opaque projector, onto a canvas.

This is my opaque projector. It takes 4"x4" illustrations, so I scan
my final illustration, and reprint it at a size that will fit. Then I
fit it inside and project it.

This is in the process of the projection. Note, I didn't take a photo
of my Joker painting while I was transferring it with my opaque
projector, so that's why the two other photos don't match. I was going
to do this some time ago with my St Jerome painting, but then set it
aside to work one some more imperative things.

Now that it is aligned to the correct size and focused, I can sketch it over. The reason I do this process, rather than just freehanding onto the canvas is because I get very nervous with a giant blank canvas and lose direction, a sort of artist block. I feel I can be much more creative and loose onto sketchpaper without worrying about screwing up a big canvas.

Now its on the canvas, ready to paint. The canvas I believe is 18"x24"

I'll keep taking photos, and writing. I want it to be pretty thorough so people can maybe learn something, or even teach me a few tricks to my process of painting.

Joker continued

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 05:56:00 +0000

Ive been drawing, but mostly things I don't really care to share yet... I've been trying to draw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but they are kind of hard to draw, the shell makes it hard for me to pose them in a dynamic way. I'll keep going at it, been wanting to draw a Ninja Turtle for some time. But I have drawn more to the Joker illustration. I actually just redrew it on canvas to prepare to paint.

Castro Monday?!

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 03:36:00 +0000

So, today I drew Fidel Castro... No idea why, but I did. So that's him below. By the way, my personal opinion is that he's dead, and the Cuban Government is covering it up. Dude has to be dead, he's been sick and old for so long.

Don't know what else to say, so this is a short blog today?

Joker, possibly a painting?

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 02:45:00 +0000

First up, daily sketch. I've actually been drawing and redrawing this. I think I have three tiny sketches of this in my little sketchbook for work, if you look at the previous posts, then you can see an older rough of this:

So what do you think? Is the pose decent? Face decent? different angle? bigger teeth? smaller head? anything? I really want this to look nice, I've never really drawn or painted fanart before, so its important to me to have this look good. Joker has always been laughable to me because I never read how macabre and sadistic he is. To be honest I haven't read much Batman until a month back when I read Gotham by Gaslight and The Killing Joke. The new film really opened my eyes to appreciating Joker so much more. Cesar Romero and Jack Nicholson just don't have the screen presence like Heath Ledger.

So, my brother is better. Thanks all of your for your kind words, they meant a lot to me. I guess his heart naturally went back into normal rhythm, it was the surgery that threw it into a-fib for awhile.
Let's see. I've been thinking about things to write about, and now I'm drawing a blank. Oh yes, I wanted to mention that I noticed a trend in my favorite comics. Some examples off the top of my head that I have been currently reading: New X-men, Young Avengers, Runaways, Blue Beetle, New Avengers, Scott Pilgrim. What's the thread between these? A: Children. I love it when young kids get super powers and have to deal with extreme situations. It was my dream to have a super power a kid, and I suppose I'm living that dream through these comics. B: I love team books. It's more bang for your buck. New Avengers made me want to have an comicgasm because it has Spider-man, Iron Fist, Wolverine, Luke Cage, Dr. Strange, Hawkeye, plus more. Holy shit what a line up, favorite characters all around, in one comic.

So, that's about it for the moment. I've been terribly busy and frustrated, so my daily sketching has minimalized for a little bit, but honestly I am trying to keep a decent update.

New Painting

noreply@blogger.com (Jesse Acosta) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 05:44:00 +0000

I've been wanting to get back into my painting, so here's what I'm working on at the moment. I haven't done a traditional portrait in some time, we'll have to see how that works out:

Besides the painting, I've been pretty lazy this weekend. I wanted to work more on my comic, but I just can't get in the mood to do serious work.
This week I also have to see a financial aid adviser, to see if I can take Spanish. I'd love to take it from the college on top of what I am doing, but they might not let me because I already fulfilled my language requirements. We will see, once I know that, I can plan out my schedule a bit easier. I'd like to take Spanish and Health this quarter. Something interesting and something necessary. Taking a daily Spanish class would really help my learning curve, self study and once to twice a week private lessons isn't enough in my opinion. I'd like to accelerate at a faster rate, which means daily doses of Español. I never hear enough Spanish in the day. I watch Telemundo when I can, and I listen to a few Spanish radio shows, but that's just little bits, interaction would be preferred.