Brazilian awards yesterday.

So, yesterday we received four awards at the brazilian equivalent of the Eisners, the HQ Mix. It was a very nice ceremony, with live band performing while the recipients went onstage. It was a nice break from the intensive working routine we're having in order to finish all comics we're currently doing.

Also, yesterday was a good thermometer of the success our new comic 5 will make among the readers and, let me tell you, the book is even better when you hold it in your hands. It's flat out beautiful.

I have 16 pages to do before I get on the airplane. Bá has 9. It's going to be a very busy week and a half, so let's get back to work. On the meantime, track down FLIGHT 4, which has a short story from me, and has a lot of great stories from other remarkable artists.

New 24Seven Preview!!

24Seven is in the spotlight at MySpace and, as an exclusive preview of this year's anthology, they have a complete story up there. Which one did editor in chief Ivan Brandon choose?

Mine.

Go there and check it out.

Talking about MySpace, we're there too. Click here and find us. I don't do much, it's mostly Bá's playground as we try to divide this whole internet thing (I got the Engine and the Forums).

But hey, the robot story. Check it out.

It's one of my favorites.

Meet Kaito.

5 part 1: we love comics.

5 is our cool new comic. We did it with our friends because we all love doing comics, and we wanted to do something together for those who love comics as well.

Grampá, who loves comics, did this cover.

We loved it.

More to come, and expect a lot of love when this baby hits at the San Diego Comicon.

EW 100 list

We made it into the EW 100 list, the ultimate must list. And we got a FULL PAGE!. Go find the magazine and check it out (I will). After that, go find our books fast! Eisner nominated De:TALES and the up-coming Umbrella Academy by Dark Horse, Casanova by Image, URSULA by AiT/Planet Lar and much, much more.



And check for our MEGA-SUPER-COOLEST-COMIC-EVER, 5, made specially for the San Diego Comic Con alongside amazing and beautiful Becky Cloonan, mysterious and talented Vasilis Lolos and exotic 10th wonder of the world Grampá.

Only at our booth on the 2007 SDCC!

Another award for De:TALES.

Foreword Magazine has a list of their "Book of the year" award winners for 2006, and De:Tales got a silver medal on the Graphic Novel category. Click on the link to see the list (and go to page 9 to see the graphic novel winners).

Here's what the Foreword site says about the award:

If your books expand a reader's world, introduce a voice society needs to hear, offer practical knowledge where none existed before or simply entertain so compellingly that all distractions fall away as the reader turns the next page, they should be submitted for the Book of the Year Award.
ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year Awards were established to bring increased attention from librarians and booksellers to the literary achievements of independent publishers and their authors. Our awards process is unique because we ask a jury of our readers, librarians and booksellers, to select their top categories as well as choose the winning titles. Their decisions take into consideration editorial excellence, professional production, originality of the narrative, author credentials relative to the book and the value the book adds to its genre.
ForeWord is the only review trade journal devoted exclusively to covering books from independent houses -- ranging in size from university presses publishing hundreds of titles per year to micro, POD and eBook publishers who may publish one title in a lifetime.

The Umbrella preview on EW.

Have you seen the Entertainment Weekly preview of the first issue of The Umbrella Academy, as well as a big interview with writer Gerard Way about the comic? If you haven't, and you want to, click here.

Masquerade.

The idea of doing a cover so far in advance in order to put on previews is sometimes strange. This is the first Casanova cover Bá did on my run that he finished before I even started working on the pages of issue 10.

Likewise, James Jean is doing the cover for the third issue of the Umbrella Academy, and Bá's yet to start that issue.

lolos.

Next week: the whys and becauses of new projects to come. Guest staring: comics!

Let's start talking about it.

Becky Cloonan has the first image from our special comic book together at her blog. Entitled 5, the comic will have short stories by all the artists involved, which are: Becky, Vasilis Lolos, Gabriel Bá, Rafael Grampá and myself.

During her interview on Newsarama, she talks a little about our new comic too, and what it is about.

We are on the final steps of completing the work for this book, and it's funny to think that something that I did after I finished my two first issues of Casanova will be published (self published) before any of the issues see print. I guess that's one of the best things about doing it all yourself. If you want, you can have it ready really fast.

5 will be ready to go in July at the San Diego Comicon.

Running, nominating, voting and winning.

I think it's very simple the way awards work. First you make something and you're automatically running for an award on a specific category. Once people see your work, then you can be nominated for that award. Then there's the part when you have to vote. Once everyone have voted, they count the votes and, if you get more votes, you win that award.

Very simple.

And the most important and difficult part of all the process is the first one. MAKING YOUR COMIC.

We're making lots of comics nowadays. And we have been nominated for awards for works we already did. Some we will win, some we might lose.

Today we sent our Eisner Awards ballots. If you vote for it, you have until friday to send yours. I did my part, now it's time for you to do yours.

Happy Birthday!

fabio-portrait
Originally uploaded by 10paezinhos

Today it is Fábio's birthday. He's old.

Face to face.

Another shot on our working arrengement. We work face to face and, as my table acumulates ink pots, Bá's table acumulates tecnical pens.

Back to work, and good week.

Talking out loud.

You've seen our artwork in many places. You've read our stories (maybe) and loved it. Now, it's time to hear what we have to say.

There's an podcast interviw with us over at the Bullpen Bulletins. To listen to it, you can clic here or here.

Now, who can tell who is saying what?

Back to crazy workload, now.

Drawing and Writing

The work never ends, but it's not supposed to. I'm halfway done with my second issue of Casanova, and now I feel I'm completely confortable with the book. Of course, all of this will change as I start my third issue, 'cause it feels like every chapter is the first, but that's not the big picture.

That's my table as it stood today at late afternoon, by the way.

Bá's also done with his issue of Umbrella Academy, and a new issue awaits. When you look at his pages, you realize he's yet to reach his full potential, and every new page is a expectacle. I know I sound like the proudest of the brothers, but wait until you see the pages.

We've been reading all these scripts, but it's hard to say they're changing the way we write our scripts, mostly because we write almost only dialogues and captions, with barely any panel description. One thing I know does happen is that we're constantly increasing our visual vocabulary as we draw other people's stories, and that vocabulary stays with us when we're writing our own.

Writing helps us draw, and the other way around as well.



The first Casanova trade is out today! Go get it!

Thinking.

High goes the passing cloud.
High goes my thought
Slave of your graces
Like clouds the wind paces.

poem by Fernando Pessoa

Casanova cover 9

I'm almost halfway through this issue and, after Bá finished the cover, I saw I had to change something on my pages to match the coolness of the image.

May.

I have this recurrent impression that May is always a super busy month. It's when we really start to accumulate various projects, and work on them simultaneously, in order to finish everything in time for the events of the coming months. In Brazil, it's always at the end of June, or begin of July, that we make something to sell at the HQ Mix, the brazilian comics award ceremony. In the States, we prepare for the San Diego Comicon, which happens at the end of July.

We are hard at work here. Each one of us is drawing two stories, and writing another two (together). It's all worth it. but it takes a lot of our time, and sometimes more than we would want.

The good thing about having a lot of work is that you really learn how to focus. I had a real problem focusing in front of the computer, spending hour surfing the internet, going from one forum to the next, reading the news about comics I never read, and not doing the comics I want people to read. Now, I barely check my e-mails (sorry if I take some time to answer it), and I spend a lot more time at the drawing board, drawing.

It's busy, it's fast, it's hard.

But life is good.

PHINEAS POE!

Santa Barbara-based indie comics publisher Terra Major is set to release its first monthly serialized comic, PHINEAS POE, a graphic adaptation of KISS ME, JUDAS, the first book of the critically acclaimed noir trilogy PHINEAS POE, by author Will Christopher Baer. PHINEAS POE will be illustrated by award-winning MTV Brazil animator Jefferson Costa, making PHINEAS POE the eighth Terra Major title illustrated by an up-and-coming Brazilian artist.

Order now! You won't regret it.



PHINEAS POE #1 debuts JUNE 2007.
Diamond Order Code: APR07 3955, Page 342.
Writer: Will Christopher Baer
Artist: Jefferson Costa
Format: 32pp Standard Size Comic / B&W / $5
For Mature Readers



PHINEAS POE #2 due to JULY 2007.
Diamond Order Code: MAY07 3719, Page 345.
Writer: Will Christopher Baer
Artist: Jefferson Costa
Format: 32pp Standard Size Comic / B&W / $5
For Mature Readers

Step by Step - the art of Umbrella Academy

The Free Comic Book Day was yesterday and I hope lots of people have got their copies of the Umbrella Academy comic. I know I still don't have mine. Anyway, I hope people like it, because I'm really having a great time working on that book.

I decided to show some steps of the production of the pages here, now that I can actually show the pages.



1- Layouts. This is what I do to show to editor Scott Allie and writer Gerard Way. The approve or ask for changes, make suggestions, then I can show them only the final inked version of the page. I make the layouts very small and I don't enlarge and print them like some people do. When I go to pencil the page, I keep the layout next to me and do everything again. A lot of times it is very hard to get the same emotion, movement and expression I got on the layouts when I'm translating it to the big page, but I always end up getting it.



2- Inking. After I pencil everything, sometimes with more or less detail, depending on lighting, planes, whatever, I ink the page. BLACK AND WHITE RULES!



3- Colors. When I'm done, I send the pages to Dark Horse and they send it to Dave Stewart, who does MAGIC on them with colors. People know me for not being happy with color jobs over my pages, but I'm so glad with Dave's work. I could not imagine someone better for the task.

So, let's go back to the drawing board, because lots of Umbrella pages still await me.

De:TALES SALE!

There's a big De:Tales sale at Khepri, as well as other Eisner notinated titles, so if you haven't read our book yet (or any other of the many on sale at Khepri this month), this is your chance. Don't miss out, and hurry, there's a lot to read if you want to catch up o all these books.

I'm in the mood for comics.

So, I finished my first issue of Casanova and currently I'm thumbnailing the next. This is, like I already said, different from what I expected, and I'm learning as I go. I still feel like a reader to this book, just now learning what happens when I get the script, instead of once I got the comic.

And I get to draw the book now, but I'm still getting used to that part, and I guess everybody will also have to get used to that as well.

I'm having fun with the spot color. Not always I go as heavy on the black as Bá, so to be able to have another color to add shadows and mood is good, and I think I did a very good job on my first issue. You can check the image on our left to be the judge if you don't trust me. And, yes, now we're going blue, as long as the second album lasts (second album = Fábio). We almost chose blue for the first arc, but Bá, the genious that he is, chose that weird green, and that was awesome. Now, however, we're doing blue. Blue is the new green.

I gave an idea for the cover of issue 9 for Bá, and he might do the cover this weekend. As for me, it's all about interiors. I'm not doing covers for Casanova, I'm not doing the cover for our special San Diego comic, and I'm not doing the cover for... well, that was it so far.

You know, Matt only writes the back matter after the pages are done, and since now all the pages are done, I wonder what he's going to write about. That's probably the part I'm still a reader of, since I'll only know when the book comes out. In August (the wait is the worst!). Until then, I'll already have three more issues ready and I won't even care anymore. I'll be already waiting for more scripts, and more pages, and more backmatter. I won't even remember I wrote this then, and I'll probably write something similar when issue 8 hits the stands.

Right now, all I can think of is that tomorrow is FREE COMIC BOOK DAY and the first Umbrella Academy story will appear. Bá did a terrific pages on this book, and you'll see that he's keeping busy as well since he stopped drawing the sexy spy book I took over. Gehard Way is turning out to be a great writer, and we laugh out loud and cheer when we read his scripts, so Bá is really enjoying drawing this book. Tomorrow, you'll see just that. And remember, tomorrow is FREE!

I'm going back to the drawing board now, to finish some brain illustrations I have to do, and then I have to draw Ahmed Ertegun. I'll check back once all this overflow of work passes and I'm back into being just a comic book creator.

Good crazy.

I can start by saying it has been interesting. This whole monthly gig thing. Entirely different than working on a Graphic Novel, sometimes easier, sometimes harder. Knowing you have less pages than days in one month isn't always a good thing when you're used to squeeze pages to fit the workload and meet the deadline. Free time is addictive, and it leads to no good.

One thing we're doing here on our free time is write a lot. More than sketching (which we're coming back into doing), we talked a lot about ideas and stories this month, and we're putting it down on paper. Hopefully, new stories will come to life before the end of the year, and then we'll schedule the whole thing to release it as soon as possible.

May will be a funny month. Both Bá and I will be working in more than one project at the same time to finish our special San Diego comic (which we have to coordinate with the other equally busy artists), and we'll likely come up with some other stuff just because we can't sit still for too long. May is going to be crazy, but good crazy.

Back to work now, and here's to the good crazy.

Morning fiction.

Suddenly, it's like we've woken up in the middle of the winter. It's cold and it's grey, and my bones feel like staying in bed. My mind goes through the workload of the weekend to determine how much time left I have, which is never enough, and I decide it's time to get up and take a shower.

Mind made, it's just a matter of turning to the other side of the bed to find the door to the bathroom. That much I do, still under the blanket. I then fall back asleep and continue the dream I was just having, hoping to find another girl to talk to.

Maybe when I wake up it will feel like summer again.

Sit.

My lesson for today.

I gave a lecture at the university this week. The same college I graduated in fine arts ten years ago. There I was, talking about comics to people studying architecture, fine arts and graphic design, and fashion and cinema. After the strangeness of being the teacher instead of the student was gone, I realized how much work I have done all these years, and how much I had to change and grow up since my college days.

Isn't it nice to see that you've actually learned something? And, better, that what you have done can teach others, and they can learn from you?

As I returned to the studio, I was, just as my brother, filled with ideas, with experiences we collected from all those eyes and from all those questions. And the smiles.

I love teaching and this feeling that we're telling our own stories and we're all learning what happens next as we go.

Thinking, drawing, choosing.

I'm always thinking about the stories I've told and the ones I'm yet to tell. I'm always thinking about how much time I spend on the drawing board, and how much time must I spend outside, talking, interacting, living, in order to fuel my next stories. I think a lot about which stories I'm willing to draw, and that counts most when I'm drawing something I'm not writing. The answer isn't always the same. It shouldn't be, really. There're a million reasons to choose one story, to choose one character, to choose one writer. We're always choosing how we're going to spend the next year's worth of work, so we better think a lot before choosing.

This weekend, besides drawing Casanova pages, I came up with my pages for the super comic book we're doing for San Diego. Bá already thought of his story two weeks ago, so I had this feeling I was dragging my feet for the last two weeks. I did the thumbnails and I'm happy about them. They make me want to draw this story, so they did their job well. Now it's time to do mine.

De:TALES - Eisner nominee!

The list of nominations for the 2007 Eisner Awards is out and we have been nominated in the category Best U.S. Edition of International Material with our De:TALES.

Nice.

short stories.

The image above comes from yet another story about dance I just finished. I do one of those once a month, for a dance magazine. As I love dancing, and as I find it is easy to talk about almost everything in life using dancing as a metaphor, I really enjoy creating these stories. It's an exercise which reminds me of my early fanzine days.

Today, I'm drawing the longest page in the history of Casanova. It also might be the fastest page to draw. We'll see. Well, I'll see, you'll just have to take my word for it until the new series kicks off in August (yes, I'm also in pain knowing what I'm doing today won't be in the hands of all my three fans - hi, Becky! - until August).

Bá's hard at work on the Umbrella Academy. As we look at each other's drawing board, we can assure we're drawing two completely different books, but both are fun to draw.

They'll be fun to read as well.

Fabio's monthly book.

I'm completely out of time. I'm working like a dog, sick like a pig. Good times. Between writing and drawing my own stories, I decided to take a new side job, one that scares the shit out of me for several reasons, the least of it because it's a monthly book. But it's monthly, after all, and that should be interesting in itself.

You all know this book. If you don't, you should. It has everything from guns, action, romance, SEX, naked people all around and a monstrous lady sidekick. Lucky for you, I hear the first trade is out any minute now, and my first issue is a great starting point as well.

My brother is doing the covers for my book, which is more than natural, since he did all the covers of the series so far.

Here's the one he just did:

New Terra Major comic!

Phineas Poe #1
writer Will Christopher Baer
artist Jefferson Costa
publisher Terra Major
32pp / No Ads / BW / $5 US
DCD Code: APR07 3955 / Page 342

We started our international career in comics with Shane Amaya's Terra Major comics. He wrote Roland - days of wrath and we did the artwork. We got a Xeric Foundation Grant for it back in 1999. After that, Shane continued producing more historical fiction books with other brazilian artists like Bruno D'Angelo and Kako, until finally in 2005 we released the big book of brazilians doing westerns: Gunned Down (okay, there were two or three americans involved on that book).

Now, Terra Major is back, publishing their first mini series. Adapted from the best seller Kiss me Judas, Phineas Poe has the outstanding artwork of fellow brazilian Jefferson Costa.

Order this book from the Diamond catalog and wait for it in June. Or click here to know more.

Eagle Awards nominee

FLIGHT preview.

Newsarama has a very nice gallery preview of the next issue of FLIGHT. Lots of pages from, I guess, almost all the artists involved. If I was already excited about FLIGHT before contributing to it, I'm even more excited now that I have done something for the book. All the serious talks about the process of making comics, all the time showing previews, all the sketches and the different styles, all that "behind the scenes" part of making FLIGHT just made the book better to me. It's hard to make an anthology with so many artists involved, and I really admire Kazu for making it so well.

FLIGHT volume 4 will be released on July 10th.

Click on the images below to see bigger versions of two of my pages for this album.

Eagle Awards

Casanova has been nominated for the Eagle Awards on the Favourite Black and White Comic - American.

The winners are to be announced at the Bristol International Comic Expo on May 12th.

Ivan.

I have no idea how exactly we met Ivan Brandon. He contacted us to do a story for the first 24Seven anthology, but I'm not sure if it was because he saw our ROCK'n'ROLL, or if he saw Smoke and Guns, or even if he saw that Casanova teaser image that ran on the back cover of Fell 1.

Turns out Ivan is a really nice guy, loves comics, and has this unique way to make you want to work with him. Money is never an issue with Ivan, we're never getting rich working together, but we're not losing any money either.

Today is Ivan's birthday.

He likes robots.

Happy birthday, man.

Today's sketch.

Sketches are done either to warm up or to cool down. Usually, you end up drawing what you see, or what you know. You look for the familiar face.

I looked on my brother's table. I've been doing that for a long time.

Our first award!

We just received news that our De:TALES made it into the top 10 Graphic Novels of 2007 list from Booklist Magazine, which of course makes us very happy.

I don't know if this is an award or not, but it fells good all the same, feel like we're doing something right, or at least people seem to like it.

We are producing stories for a second De:TALES, or something on the same vein, and let's hope it's finished soon.

Q: What is Booklist?
A: Booklist is a 100-year-old journal, published by the American Library Association, whose core mission is to provide public and school librarians with reviews that help them decide what to buy. In recent years, Booklist has also become a valuable tool that helps librarians make reading recommendations.

To dance.

Dancing came to be the same way drawing did. We are here, and we need to express ourselves. We need to communicate. We need to say something.

Dancers, just like comic book artists, are storytellers.

2007 list

There are lot's of times when we have the impression we have nothing to do and feel very useless or unproductive. These gaps between craziness of insane work usually kill me of boredom. I prefer being up to my neck with work, always in a rush.



It is good to know the things you're gonna do before you do them, just so you can better plan the journey. Also, you don't feel this emptiness, this gap, this void. So Here it comes our 2007 list of things to fill up the void:

- CASANOVA volume 1 TP - LUXURIA
- CASANOVA #8-14 (also known as second volume)
- Fábio's story on FLIGHT
- Fábio story on 24 Seven volume 2
- Umbrella Academy FCBD edition
- Umbrella Academy 6 part mini-series
- SDCC special BEST-COMIC-EVER with Becky Cloonan, Vasilis Lolos and Grampá

Well. It seems like a good year. Let's get busy.

The look

The comic book artist should always be looking at the world. Suspicious, if possible, searching what's behind the things we see. When we see a sad person, a building in ruins, a sick dog, those are the facts, the images, but beyond that there are reasons, unreasons and, above all, stories. The comic book artist watches the world looking for stories.

The artist should watch with his hands as often as possible. Have a notebook, a sketchbook, a bunch of small papers you keep in your pocket, anything to, at any given time, register your vision of the world, with the style of your hand. Nowadays, I take a lot of pictures, but it's not the same. I'm registering the image, but not my impression of said image. It's the camera's filter, not mine.



I'm getting to the end of the robot story, and already I like it. I finish one page and want to know what happens next, awakening in myself the reader of the story. This is the last week I'll have to work on it, and if I have only that to do the entire week, all will be fine. I'm always waiting bombs to fall off the sky delivering last minute jobs, so I never count on an entire free week to do comics.

Not yet, at least.

Soon.

Momentum.

I was talking with Grampá over the weekend and we made some very important decisions concerning the special comic book we're planning for San Diego this year. I still have to check all this out with Becky and Vasilis, but I guess they'll be just as excited as we are. I'm very happy to see Grampá's enthusiasm over doing comics at last, and that's the kind of people you should have at your side if you can when you're going after your dreams. Likewise, Becky and Vasilis share this kinetic energy on their personal projects, one that sometimes gets lost on other endeavors, and one that should be nurtured and watched closely. I know a lot of people who want to do comics, but just a few that really love to create them. Becky was one of the first I met, and she introduced me to Vasilis. And, once Bá and I met Grampá, all fell into place and it was just a matter of time until we decided to do something together. Here we are, trying to capture this momentum, this time in all our lives where we simply love what we do, and we do it the best we can.

Before all that, I have to finish my robot story.

I've been drawing at a much slower pace than usual, and that's not what I originally planned, but at the same time that got me much more time to think about my future projects - or the ideas I have and the hope they'll become future projects. Risking to spend more time on the future than o the present, I can't help but to feel happy that I'm doing comics, I'm creating stories and I have friends to do all these things with.

And I work everyday with my brother. That alone is a priceless experience, one that I can't describe and that you wouldn't believe me if I did.

Umbrella factor.

Gerard Way and Scott Allie talk about the first Umbrella Academy comic, debuting on FCBD, showing some of Bá's artwork. Since big publishers try to save their news to "break" them at conventions, I already expected NYCC to have this one. Here's one sentence I liked, from Scott:

"The way we generate pages has been that Gerard and I work out the script with a certain amount of back and forth and discussion, then that goes on to Bá, and he does real rough layouts. We give him feedback on that, some notes, maybe ask for some layouts to be redone but not much, then he goes straight to inks. With other artists, I'd want to see pencils before inks, but Bá's process is so organic, it only makes sense for him to go straight to inks… he gets this stuff intuitively, and brings so much style and character to it."

Ballet.

Drawing is like dancing, an art, and, like dancing, everybody can do it.

To dance well, just like drawing well, comes from practicing, but there's also those who have that something else already on them, those who catch faster. Art is in each one's point of view, in what we bring and carry, in what we show, be it your "point of view", your "opinion", your "something extra". Call it talent if you will.

Comics are more than just drawing. It's more than just dancing, it's like an performance, where there's an structure, a choreography that leads the eye and goes through the music, the story, and various elements must be combined to build the picture you want during the performance.

You'll learn, during the music of your story, the steps of this choreography, you'll improvise along the way, you'll come to trust your partner (your art), your colleagues, yourself. Once you trust yourself, you stop worrying about what you're capable and then the challenge of what's the next step begins.

There's a new music beginning, and I wonder who are we going to dance with next.

Carnaval

Did you ever wondered "what does it look like at the twins studio"? Wait no more and check it out. Even if all those pictures are two weeks old and now the studio looks completely different (messier) and so do we (we look prettier, if that's at all possible).

And while I'm still in storyboard hell, my robot story is waiting. Looks like I'll have work to do during Carnaval, all of that so I'm fresh and free to begin my project with Matt Fraction after that. Good thing I have a drawing board at the beach.

Set up after a set back.

Looking through some old stuff, I found the thumbnail sketches from another story I haven't done yet. It's was very inspirational to look at those thumbnails and realize I wanted to know what happened next on every turn of the page. That story wasn't abandoned at the time (it was, but not on purpose, as I got another project that had to be done right away and took me six months of last year) and I realized it's still the kind of story I want to tell. If I can handle that story as well as my next project, I might be able to finish it before my next birthday. We'll see about that as the days go by. Right now, it's all about robots.

Except that, right RIGHT now, the robots are waiting. I got an advertising agency call yesterday and had to do something for today, but it's done already, but in the middle of yesterday's new job, I got another call from a big brazilian magazine asking for another job for wednesday, so that's what I'll do now. I expect to at least ink the page I did yesterday today, to keep things moving - and because I just want to do a little comics every day that I can, even if it's just inking one panel.

Today's robot.

In order to draw robots, I had to create them. I realized that once I finished the thumbnails and the pages stood there, blank, looking at me. It's not going to be the same as drawing people. It's not something I do all the time. Every time you have to do something new, you should prepare, study, get comfortable with what you're going to do. When you get confident, you'll transport this confidence to the page, and say it like you mean it.

This robot, I created right after breakfast. I hope it was the coffee running through my veins that helped me, for I drank a lot of coffee this morning and I'll sure need it today.

Today: page one. And two, if possible.

You never know.

Casanova News:
Clicking here you'll find a preview of Casanova 7, out this wednesday. We got or copies on friday, and the last chapter of this first album looks beautiful.
Reads beautifully as well.

Also, Christopher Butcher is doing a review (or analisis) of every issue of Casanova this week, so that should be fun.

Looking at today's day.

Here we are, researching robots again. Yesterday, we finished the new script, so it's just a matter of doing it. A hope to finish the artwork at the end of next week - before Carnaval - so don't expect me to be talkative during robot production. These creatures (machines?) demand much more attention than my regular characters, as they're all too unfamiliar.

Our box of Casanova 7 arrived today on the mail. This is a beautiful issue, and a great finish to the first album. As a reader, even if a very close one, I can't wait to the next one. I feel like I know these characters, and I don't want to see them go.

Bá, artist extraordinaire, will finish his first Umbrella Academy adventure today. He's on the last page. It's all very dramatic, dysfunctional and epic. Like Casanova, Bá's work on this is very different, very fresh, and fun.

Oh yes, fun.

Figure Drawing.

For a little more than two months now, Bá started attending live figure drawing sessions, and it's refreshing to be able to exercise this side of the artistic creation. Most poses would be only one minute long, with some three or four minutes exceptions. In this time frame, it's impossible to think too much, to analyze, and it's much more a matter of putting pen to paper and seeing what appears. Even the mistakes have to be incorporated into the drawing, for you have no time to erase, and Bá uses just some pens so he wouldn't erase even if he could.

I'm amazed at the complexity James Jean does his sketches, and at the same time it's fun to watch Bá's pictures, fast and energetic, and both capture the essence of the gesture, all the curves and folds and imperfections. It doesn't really matter your style. Everybody has something to learn and absorb when figure drawing.

What is the most fun in most figure drawings is how much we learn drawing those who will deviate from the current model of beauty or perfection, as they give you much more lines to work with, much more curves, and you realize how how much real all your drawings will get when you start to practice on the full range of the visual spectrum.

It's not necessary to do figure drawing, but it's good to be able to do it. If you have done it, you'll know how much you enjoyed, or how much you suffered, only showing how much you need it. At art school, it was one of my favorite classes (and I always drew an old lady with tits down to her knees - literary!), and I missed it for a long time, and it's good to be able to do it again.

What lies ahead?

This is a detail of an illustration I did last week for a brazilian magazine. And that's pretty much all I drew last week, as most of the other projects included thinking, and I'm always finding myself guilty for spending the entire day thinking. A little writing, to put thoughts to paper, but mostly thinking. Mostly in my head.

The good side of only thinking is that, if you need to have ideas, they'll come. You can have ideas all the time, when you're having fun at night, in the middle of a cold shower, any where, any time. But sometimes you NEED to think of something. If you haven't a drawer with ideas stashed for emergencies, there's nothing better than simply stop everything and think.

And think.

And think.

You'll either have an aneurism, or an idea.

This weekend, I had the idea I spent the entire week after. I had it on the beach, while looking in the distance while floating peacefully in the sea. I had it after an entire week talking with Bá every chance we got about it, throwing ideas back and forth, discussing what was exciting about what we wanted to say, and what did I wanted to draw on that story. We would talk on the car, during lunch, in front of the tv and at the studio. We had several good ideas, but not that one I was looking for.

I had to go swimming to find that one.

At the bottom of the ocean, I found out what do robots look forward when they get old.

Grampa.

Grampá is a friend of ours. We just talked about him a few days ago, as he worked with Bá on that giant wall thing. He did most of that. He's awesome.

The first comic book story he EVER drew was four pages long and it's feature on the Gunned Down anthology book, published in 2005 by Terra Major (get it here). We would never believe it was his first pages ever if we didn't know him. After that, we were constantly asking for more, for the next one, for something bigger, longer, bolder.

It's coming.

This year, as an way of committing to his story (or maybe as an necessary excuse to finish it), he's going with us to the San Diego Comicon, and we all will share a booth with the also awesome Becky Cloonan and Vasilis Lolos. Such an international roaster called for an extra effort, so we are all doing special stuff just for the booth. And Grampá is doing a brand new story, a brand new book.

And he created a blog to talk about it!

And here's the first image:



This post won't allow comments, so you can rightfully go to Grampá's blog to comment there.