Dawn of the D(e)ad - pages!

Ahahahahah! First couple of pages colored (yeah, they'll probably need to be fixed, but I'm overall satisfied). Enjoy!

I also had the chance to make a test page for Scattered Studio, that will hopefully open some new opportunities. I can't wait to meet the artist that is in charge of coloring it, it would be the first time actually sharing an image with someone

Recent favourites: pages

Some of my favourite results from the last episodes I had to draw.

Chaos Campus, page 3. Alex Thompson gave me just one simple rule to follow when drawing his pages: insert as much cheesy ass and boobs as possible, without having them naked. It's a really fun to draw comic and I did my best on that point. I like the storyboard of panels 3 and 4.

Valley-01, third episode, page 13

This is my absolute favourite of the last months. I couldn't wait for it to be online to share it, as it's a massive turning point in the episode. I had a lot of fun with the storyboard for this part; I'm still learning how to handle fight and action scenes, and episode #3 has been mindblowing. Check out the colored version and the rest of the episode at bilateralcomics.com!

I'm still questioning my ability to color, and I plan to start studying it again from the basics. I kind of like the inking lately, but I still strongly prefer the pencils, and I feel it's worth publishing both the stages right now.

So, are you just making sketches or what?

File under: "I absolutely don't have time and will to study the horses that must appear"

Producing a comic really is a long job. In the last two months I've been working mostly on the EKOenergy project, but I've also been doing some shorter stuff. Either way, I hadn't anything completed until last week. On top, two sample pages for a possible upcoming project. Please cross your fingers for me, for if they choose me I won't be starving until Christmas.

The EKOenergy short comics now has a real title, so please welcome the first two (almost) completed pages of EKOsofia! The comic will soon be available on ekoenergy.org; my EVS ends at the end of september, and you'd be surprised by how many translators are working to make it available in various languages.

And last but not least, the graphic novel for FASTBACK Pictures is also on the way to be finished. These guys are amazing. The graphic novel will be part of the fundraising campaign for their upcoming movie. Post-apocalyptic bikers, sexy women, action. Basically what I always wanted to draw. I really hope they can make it, both because I want to see the movie, and because it would be a blast if I was able to continue drawing this.

As usual, keep reading Bilateral Comics! Our last episode, CODE 991 is getting some amazing reviews all over the web...and I'm sure you don't want to miss the third episode of Valley-01, now work in progress.

Dealing with the text walls

The infamous text wall, alias: when you have so much text in one page, that you struggle to actually put drawings in it. If you read the second episode of Valley-01 you know what I mean. I felt like the writers should learn to contain themselves and leave something up to the drawings, then I fell in the same problem myself with the EKOenergy script.

The main problem with this script is that is an informative comic. We had to put a lot of informations in it, as well as some developing of a story, and common dialogue scenes. It has been indeed a challenge: I'm still cutting some words here and there to make the text fit the actual space in the page, and we agreed on adding an information page at the end, because we felt we haven't expressed everything we needed to in 30 pages of comic. All of this, in english, that has some of the shorter ways to express a sentence. 

It's harder than I thought to keep a reading flow that is not too boring for the reader. I'm learning to get creative on where to place text, and which angles to use to leave as much space as possible without cutting too much on the drawings. I've had similar issues in some of the Bilateral Comics pages before, but in this case I don't have the easy escape

The ups-and-downs of this job? Valley-01 #3, online from mid-october, is action full. I'm sure I'll miss the text walls as soon as I have to handle full art pages with multiple people fighting.

Speaking of Bilateral Comics, our new short story CODE 991 is launching this week and already got a very nice review - so keep tuned, read it, and let us know your thoughts!

CODE 991 review - Curiosity of a social misfit

EKOenergy - European Volunteer Service

The big project for this summer brought me all the way to Finland, thanks to the European Volunteer Service, to work on a one-shot comic for EKOenergy. It's an Helsinki-based organization working with European electricity supplier to improve the green energy market. 

I couldn't image to build a project so close to my studies and interests, when I applied for the EVS some months ago. I've spent the last month writing the script for the story, teaming with the other volunteers and members and let me tell you: I thought it could go worse. I've never had to write such a long story, neither to write alongside with other people. It's been interesting, but not a thing I'll do again. I've been longing to draw, and finally I've started the pencils!

The pages are meant to be black and white, both because I feel more comfortable and because I don't have that much time to color, too. The project lasts only three months, mostly due to school that starts in october already. I'm trying to focus on perspective more than I've done in the recent other stories, and it already feels different. Life is better when perspective works.

Once the comic is done, other volunteers will translate it in various languages, as it's going to be readable for free on their website. 

School's out!

I study in the best school ever. This is the final project for this year (for those who can't read italian...well, look at the drawings ._.)

But HOW did we get here? This school year was full of new things to learn from the begininning. I felt like a newbie again, and it wasn't bad, but I think I need a lot of practice to actually learn what we've been taught.
First of all, inking.  I switched from various tecniques (nib, brush, brushpen, pen, digital...), and I'm still looking for the most suitable for my drawings. Anyway, I definately did a lot of progresses: one of the best of 2013 done with nibs, and one of the best of 2014 in brushpen.

Most of all, I think I'm starting to balance the ink with the color, that was one of the most difficult part for me. Color is still a bitch, but I've managed to make some progesses too (spoiler page from Valley-01 #2!):

There's definately a lot of work and exercise to do, as well as in every other aspect of the page (I'm still struggling with backgrounds, and I probably always will), but I got the principles and I think the result is waaay better in just a couple of months.

The most difficult part of this year's studies is that there are a lot of possibilities, both with ink and color, all of them equally useful. I mean, faces and hands and bodies and backgrounds have basic rules to follow, and I'm pretty sure about how I want them to turn out. This doesn't apply to ink, mostly because I'm not sure about the result I want. I like most of the results I can get, and I haven't even started to go into details as mostly of the scenes I draw are actually pretty plain (dialogues, mostly inside, with a few characters). I don't even start to talk about color, you can imagine how many differences there can be in coloring pages. As for now, I want to find at least one satisfying way to have a solid page, and avoid the messy look of my older pages.

Oltre il bosco

Short story done at school as exercise. Story by one of the teacher, Matteuzzi. ...still needs some details to be refined, but I'm too lazy to scan them again today.

Oltre il bosco

Some quick characters design for a short story I'm working on at school

Old characters

So, some older characters came by to say Hi. They were kinda stuck in the pencil. I'm glad to see they're doing fine; I'm considering getting them back on paper for a short story. Some preview

Fit Quest

Some of the illustrations I've done for Fit Quest card game. Check out the coloured versions on their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/FITQuestGame?fref=ts

Perspective practice and character design

Spaghetti Western

It seems I'm almots done with Spaghetti Western, the short story I planned to draw this summer. The last page is still in need of a clean up, but I'm confident I'll have the inks done in a day or two. Spare time has been missing thi summer (yay!)

Seems like august is distracting me. I'm actually drawing a lot, but I keep getting distracted by the outside world and don't blog enough. Anyway: some random drawings, fan art, and sample pages (fingers crossed on this)

Bremen!

I've been in Bremen to visit a close friend last week. I was mostly relaxing, so the sketchbook has been used very little, but I've got some good sketches to share. Enjoy!

Practice makes perfect