Eddy´s Sketchbook

[Cyprinus]

It's great to see you posting often again! I also love your anatomy studies and construction a lot, also the application. It seems you are really grasping it! It's nice to see people posting their studies daily. I thought about daily update so often...in the end I sit and think and do nothing, neither studies nor posting orz

Anyway, keep it up!!!!! (:

[EduardoGaray]

foxfire1345: haha dont worry buddy, i'm happy to help. :) I'm pretty chaotic so, some days i dont even draw anything at all, others i'm literally all day. But most days no less than 4 or 5 hours.
About the comic pages, they are time consuming. Even without backgrounds and complex poses etc, the drawing, inking, toning, lettering... it can take at least 3 hours. (But thats mostly because i'm not experienced enough to be faster lol)

About tutorials and reads, you can read the book Framed ink, that is about storytelling. Also, studying the mangas/comics/graphic novels you like is an awesome way to get better.
Thats for the storytelling part, the writing part is a completely different game that requires the same (if not more!) time than the graphic part, i dont know if you are interested in that too, let me know if yes and i will post some good info.

And good mangas? i think that depends on your personal tastes more than anything but i can still recommend you a few:

-Berserk
-Vagabond
-Hajime no Ippo
-Claymore
-Blame! Biomega, Knights of Sidonia (anything by Tsutomu Nihei, really haha)
-Yotsuba!
-Beck
-Eureka Seven (the anime is better, though)
-Full metal alchemist
-Gantz
-Bakuman

I'm missing lots, but its too late and i'm sleepy. xD

Cyprinus: Hey there! yes i'm back haha yeah i can totally understand, thats how has been for me this last months, i think the best way to get your stuff done is to stop thinking about it.
Just open photoshop/grab a pencil and paper, whatever, just do it. Its like when you have to go running, dont think about it, just put the trainers on and go outside. :)
Here is hoping you start posting daily again, you already do awesome stuff i cant wait to see you improving even more.

Aaaand page 23 today, i will admit i drew less today, because i was at the end of Suikoden 2 and...

ahem, Rainfall page 23 of 26. I can finally say that inking is starting to be fun!

[Samszym]

duude, nice stuff! figure studies have tons of good construction going on.
I think some more clothing studies would help you out, with a focus on different types of fabrics. Right now all your drapery looks sort of like starchy linen with stiff, sharp folds that don't care too much about gravity and only change shape when the body moves and they need to.
Other materials will care more about gravity and the forms they're wrapping around and will be willing to change shape more readily, some will have way more folds that other materials would because they're softer. See if you can draw a few figures wearing the same kind of shirt or dress but make one look like it's cotton and one look like it's silk and one look like it's linen

I think the expressions in your rainfall stuff could be more fun and expressive, it seems like you're too worried about getting the construction and anatomy right and not letting the emotion shine through. Have you ever seen any of Mamoru Hosoda's movies? I think his characters emote really well, and they make that nervous, freaking-out-on-the-inside face your main character does a lot. Maybe watch Summer Wars and do some studies from it, if you think it'd be worth it XD
or kill la kill or anything hiroyuki imaishi has done

cool stuff bro, keep killing it!

[Lyraina]

Nice to see lots of updates and studies again! :D Your anatomy is so nice, you're so good at conveying the volume and form <3

And it's good to see that Lou can smile, too :D

[crackedskull]

At the start I expected a more stoic character and serious storyline, that emphasises heavily on poorness. Also for some reason(im just that way I guess) I expected more action. For example Lou hasnt paid his bills and the landowner sends a few guys over. Also when he got the first look at the girl on the street I expected some thugs to attack them or something.
Keep postin' more man :)

[EduardoGaray]

Samszym: hey man! :D thanks as always for your critique and feedback, i will admit i'm kinda obsessed with anatomy and stuff and i've been neglecting other areas. Gotta change that, starting with clothing, folds etc.
Oh and thanks for the recommendation, now that Gundam Unicorn is finished i will take a look at Summer wars. :)

Lyraina: hey there, thanks! :D i'm kinda busy this last days but i will start posting daily again really soon.

crackedskull: thanks mate! :) its interesting, because there is a bit of drama mixed with some humor to keep things lighthearted, thats until certain point in the story when i start exploring darker themes...
As for the action, well, there is going to be boxing! :)

I'm working on something and learning how to play the harmonica, thats mainly the reason i'm so silent these days.
In other news, i also completed Suikoden I, the first game that lets me rebel against an evil regime with an awesome harem, i mean, army of redheaded heroines.
So i did a little fanart to also apply some of the last studies.

[Blewzen]

Great stuff man, never had the chance to play suikoden but maybe I will someday, heard good stuff about it.

[aks9]

hey man!
inspirational stuff with your comic, seeing all the effort you put into it. you can get a real strong sense of the guy's character, the story. i found myself curious to know more while i was reading it, which is the main thing i think. you've managed to build a story out of this guy in his dinky little flat and his thoughts.
nice work on that last group pic too man!

[EduardoGaray]

Blewzen: you will probably love it man, Suikoden II is soo much better though, and the best part is that you dont really need to spend more than 20-30 hours to complete it (and that for a jrpg is really rare) the game itself is pretty fast paced, no hours of tedious grind required to advance.

aks9: thanks a lot mate! :) yes, i have to say making this comic has helped me a lot (and is still helping me) both in a personal and artistic way. I'm also learning a lot of cool things in the process, i couldnt possibly ask for more.
And i'm glad you like it! :D yes, i though that maybe people wont like it because there is almost no action. xD Thats gonna change, i think i've mentioned it but there is going to be boxing in there...

I'm almost freeee, so i will be posting more in the coming days.
I've been working traditionally lately, and i honestly admit that i dont want to scan all the stuff so i will only post what i've done in digital.






And the last 3 pages of Rainfall episode 1.
Many thanks for reading this silly little story of mine, when i started i never though i would do more than 6 pages. I ended up doing 26 and 3 covers.
It was super fun and i learned a lot, so thats why i want to say. If you are reading this and doubting if you should start working on your personal project, go for it! seriously, you wont regret it.
PD: i also promise that the comic will get more interesting from now on haha.

[aks9]

That's great to hear man :) and seriously, I don't really read comics (no particular reason, I just havn't been exposed to them) but I'm really intrigued to see where its going. Nice ending with this one, lol. Pretty funny, and, nice closure..

Just a minor thing, the onomatopoeia for a heart beating in english is usually "thump", not "thumb" (which just makes us think of the hand). Thumping is also another way to say beating, when talking about the heart

[Eve]

Woow you make manga, really impressive you can stay to your project for so long! What I notice mostly about the comic is you use left aligned text, where as usually you use center aligned, because it is visually more pleasing as it compliments the shape of text balloons. Other than that, I really like your anatomy stuff, the hands in the last post are great! I think you will profit greatly if you focus on practicing face and jawline contours regarding anatomy, since that seems to be your weakest point.

Other than that, good luck, I believe that if you keep this up it will teach you a lot :D

[Samszym]

duude, cool stuff! The battle nun character's a lot of fun, silhouette would be clearer of the sword wasn't within the outline of the body and I think she might look more battle-ready if her legs were bent.
Congrats on finishing the first part of your manga! You've definitely inspired me to push to make my own IPs, great stuff.
Have you done any studies of the way manga-ka you like use screentones and effects? I feel like panels that use both tones and speedlines are a bit cluttered, you might want to try being a bit more economical with them.

[EduardoGaray]

aks9: lol another embarrasing mistake to my collection haha, i really need a translator! and glad you liked the ending, i felt like any more text or inner dialogue was unnecessary. (And i'm a personal fan of decompressed storytelling myself!) About comics, if you ever feel like reading some give me a shout, i can recommend you a few. Except super hero comics, i dont like super heroes. xD

Eve: thanks a lot for your critiques Eve! :) please, keep them coming. I've already started to make character sheets with heads and expressions so i can maintain an uniform look when i start with episode 2. Also, to get accustomed to drawing these characters and speed up the process.
And i never though about using center aligned text, i will try using it definitely!

Samszym: thats so great to hear mate! :D i'm really glad, have you posted anything yet? let me know if you start posting anything original IP related dude, i would love to see it.
About screentones, i was actually imitating Tsutomu Nihei's work in his debut (and best imo) manga: BLAME! but in the end i stopped, i dont have enough level to pull something like that haha i will concentrate on linework from the time beign and stop relying so much on tones.
Maybe i will stop using toning at all and just make it grayscale or muted color palette, so many options!

And now the update, i really want to start with episode 2 already, but there is still a lot of things to practice and prepare!
Here some of the stuff i've been practicing, mainly clothing and character related practice.
I noticed that i'm really slow :P i would love to be able to pump tens of pages like these each day haha, one day...










More tomorrow!

[Samszym]

ohh I see. Thanks for telling me about this dude, his work's pretty awesome! What I notice, from a glance, is he does use a lot of screentones but his figures and focal points are made up of white and black/very dark, while the rest of his panels use tone to throw everything back. This gives his stuff a ton of clarity and the focal points all have more contrast than anything else on the page. I think it would definitely be worth keeping on with this technique, maybe doing a few studies of this dude's pages to be able to emulate his value organization.
Keep going with the clothing studies! If you have a mirror or camera or whatever and a shirt sort of like this material, taking some reference photos of yourself would be a huge help.

[EduardoGaray]

Samszym: thats awesome dude! actually, now that i think about it, i'm not sure if my characters are suited for a style like that. I would have to redesign all of them to make them really black and white, and i'm not sure if it would work. :S Well, i will try!
About the studies, since the protagonist is going to wear just a black t-shirt in the second episode i guess i will take some reference photos of myself to do studies.
But for the rest of characters i will have to keep studying from photos, drawings, tutorials, etc.

This time i worked on the main character for Rainfall, Lou.
I changed his design a bit, i received some comments about how he looked "cute" at some points in the first episode. That was unintended haha, but got me thinking.
So i though about making him look a bit like his sister. That opens a lot of potentially hilarious situations!




And a bit of clothing study before going to bed.
Shirts are awesome to draw (not to wear)

[Samszym]

I think the problem with your expressions is how disconnected the features are form each other. grab some reference for the muscles of the face and maybe look at yourself in a mirror, you'll see that every change of the face causes a change somewhere else in the face.
You can't smile without raising your cheeks and that pushes up your eyes, that's a really important relationship to keep in mind, and also the nose flares out when you get angry and when you make a really sad frown your chin pushes up and when you lower your eyebrows in an angry expression the eyes shrink because they get covered by the orbicularis muscle..a whole lot of stuff, get those relationships down and let's see some believable expressions!

[Triggerpigking]

Nice ending to the first comic, looking forward to seeing what you got planned for two, also you said it's going to explore darker themes and will have boxing at some point so i'm looking forward to seeing how that pans out.

[EduardoGaray]

Samszym: damn dude, i'm sorry for the super late reply, i practiced just what you said in the last month, lets see if i can upload some good expressions in the coming days. :)

Triggerpigking: sup mate! thanks! i'm glad you like it, yeah the boxing part begins in the 3 chapter, and the story itself becomes darker a bit later. Damn i want to start working on it, i really need to make a schedule to make time for everything!

Hi there, its been a looooong time since the last time i updated this.
I'm really sorry for not updating this since the last month or so, i just wanted to say that a lot of stuff has been happening since the start of the year and it really affected me, and my motivation to keep doing this stuff.

As i mentioned some time ago, i was feeling really disconnected towards painting and illustration, art and people in general. But after spending a few weeks out of home doing different stuff, having time to think, etc. I can say that i'm feeling recovered and just as motivated as two years ago! Lets say that i'm now more determined than ever to keep fighting and turn the tables with life. And to do that i need to work my ass off!

I also started a few weeks ago going to the Gym, eating healthy food and of course, no pot! i'm clean. :)

So again, i'm sorry for neglecting this. But this time, i'm here to stay.

And of course, this is going to be one hell of an update. :D

First some sketches i did:

Mostly Fire Emblem inspired characters.










And paintings!

I bet you guys have heard of Gumroad and all those tasty and affordable tutorials, myself, i'm having a good time with all the stuff Dan Luvisi, Maciej Kuciara and many more are putting there. So i'm using them in this studies:










I would really, really love to continue working all day on Rainfall, as doing comics is what i enjoy the most but... if i have to honest. Its not a really good idea for me right now.
They say life is about priorities, and now illustration is the priority.
But its not so bad, i'm just focusing on something i love just a bit less. :)

I hope you all are safe and sound and kicking asses, i will take a good look at all your SB in this coming days. Its good to back daggers! (this time for real, lol!)

[Triggerpigking]

Good to see you back and kickin ass man! :)
the nonon painting is pretty damn cool, you got her personality down well.
Also really like that painting of that guy, you got a some really good contrast going on in the eyes, seems them gumroad tutorials are helping you alot.

[Cyprinus]

Hey great to see you back!!!! I think sometimes it's good to take a break and get a clear mind about stuff. It's really good to help you focus and determine priorities and such (:

Great update, the tutorials really seem to help you. I love the nonon painting, too, especially the folds in her jacket!!! Keep it up, looking forward to your next updates!!