Textmark 500

Using it somewhat

Ohto kneeling

Leonard Nimoy

Was drawing this when i got the sad news. Rest in peace.

From an unfinished book

Just found this pretty OK page from a book I decided not to finish...4 years back. I think I had 15 pgs or so, but then it all started to feel like repetition of the same old thing.

Heil Hydra

I'm lazy

and I work too slow

#23

5 to 7 actual pages undone. Sometimes it's hard to say whether a panel is done or not since i'm going for this half finished half not thing. Anyways, end of next week most of the pages if not all should (really) be finished. Then there still remain...hmmm...4 or 5 pgs to fill with club related matters and some advertisment or I don't know.

Issue 23 horizontal

Crowning of Mika Skygazer

Aslok on dead bed

Getting there with #23

That kind of day

The day couldve gone better and it couldve gone worse. Still i managed to finish a couple of panels and the issue should be done in 8 days or so. Sometimes all you have to do is to spend a lot of time with a drawing and eventually you turn it your way. Sometimes you just end up spending an hour or two and all you have is mess.

Winter holiday

Starting now. Work proceeded nicely but could've proceeded nicer. At this stage (30 panels undone) the issue starts to feel not that good. But there are pages that are quite nice and some that are going to be nice. Time will tell. Now 7 days holiday ahead, maybe I manage to read some Pynchon. Cheers.

Today

I have an evening class on comics expression. Just finished my second panel for today. Should do 2 more to make my quota. So why am i writing this instead of working.

Tracing is really bad for you

I recently had an illustration class where I noticed that several of the students felt that tracing is ok. Well it's not. At least not unless you are going for that certain traced effect. But for a student of art, no. Many of the old masters like Alex Raymond used live models for reference. Now this is not possible for most of us, but with the smart phones that most of us have and with a little help from a friend you are able to do most of the anatomically correct drawings you need. And then there's the wide choice of reference pictures you can locate from various sources. Like the internet. With this current project I've used reference pictures in several ways, sometimes some direct copying (the back covers for instance) or then looking for some hard to draw posture from the net or from my source books or then drawing from live or photo i've taken myself or asked someone to take.
Ok so maybe tracing is not so bad if you're not a student anymore. But why do it when there are ways that are MUCH MORE FUN. And then you might learn something in the process too.

Desperation

Just wrote a sort of a synopsis for issues 24 and 25, both kind of important issues, and looks like I will have to do some squeezing to get everything in. Or then make one additional issue. Today I wound up adding 3 pages to issue 23 which will now have to become 32 pger. Oy vey!
This thing is spreading like cancer. Every time i think I have it under control, something new pops up. The end is moving further away. But hey, this is the nature of the beast and I have to accept it.

Issue 23

Should be done in 15 days or so...

disappointed

Ohto

Ohto Äijönpoika returning home

Computers

I've been thinking of computers way too much past few days. I really hate to work with a computer and I try to avoid it as much I can. Looking at a screen is something I'm not able to enjoy. Maybe when computers become like paper that acts like paper. My main problem with computers pretty much boils down to the question of material. And for me the question of material is one of the most fundamental in art.  Most of the art done by a computer seems to imitate some classic material like pencil, ink, aquarelle etc. Sometimes better sometimes worse. But what is the material of the computer? I have some ideas, but it'll be a while before I find time to look into that.

Ohto returns home

Smooth

Issue 23 is going smoothly. More or less a page in a day. It's a fun issue to draw, but there's not too much of a plot. And who needs plot! So why does this drag on? This is why: I have an issue outlined telling the prehistory of saamo people. Would really like to do that one but it has absolutely nothing to do with the main story.

Experiences

After 22 issues I can say this from certain experience:
Starting an issue is always hard. Every single time I have to figure out how this thing was supposed to be drawn. First I cut the pieces of scraperboard (essdee, white) in a haphazard manner. Then I draw the outline of the pages with a textmark marker. Then the panels, four each page, sometimes two. Then draw the boxes for the narrative 29 mm high. Then the guidelines for the lettering. After this preliminery work I write a final script and letter it to its place, making some changes while doing it. At this stage I should reread the thing, but sometimes I don't. Now I pick a panel I would like to do first, very often something quite abstract or then something drawn from a source. I don't trace, but use various photos and drawings for reference. I don't draw the panels in any specific order but start with those that I either feel are easy to do or fun to do or that i have a specific clear idea for. I don't do pencils and I seldom sketch, unless  the picture is especially hard to do for whatever reason, then I sketch. After all the panels are drawn, I read the story and make corrections to the text. If the corrections require a lot of scraping away, I make a separate piece of the correction and scotch it to the side of the page. When all is done I send it to my publisher for scanning and lay-out. After reading the story from pdf.s I make corrections if necessary. Then I start a new issue.
Nuff said

Latest information

Do you like me?

yes, no...?

Suomaa people in their glory

Ohto in much trouble

Planning ahead

This one goes to 48

Unfortunate

A Yes -cd has warped the cardboard cover of coltrane's stellar regions

Photoshopping

Dislike

Sketches for 22

A new tail

A little further

Page 1 or so

S.Regina

Yes sir, all the elements of the front cover are done. Now I need to find their rightful places and then I can send it all to L'association, my excellent French publisher.

Ihmislakki

Working on this

Taivaan Pappa

Issue 23

is now written and I can start to draw it.

Silvia Regina

My 2010 book is coming out in French in June, or so it seems. Next week I need to draw a new cover. Might be a bit hard since I should do it in my old scraperboard technique. I will be posting some sketches, but you have to buy the book to see how it came out.