I teamed up with my long time buddy Rachel Smythe to co-ordinate our printing and exhibiting efforts. It was a super help to have her on hand to bounce ideas off and keep me on track with getting organised.

Most of the work I was exhibiting is pretty old, only one piece was made this year. This makes me pretty anxious when I print and sell work. My goal for next Chromacon is to have all new artwork.

Obligatory sky tower photo. We stayed at a hostel right on Queen Street.

Signs!

Our booth at Chromacon. Check out all that wall space!

The one thing I wish I’d done more of was engage with the other artists there. There were so many amazing talented people there and I feel I only briefly got to chat with a few people. Still, a bunch of folks live in Wellington, so hopefully we can catch up for drawing things.

The most surprising thing was that Sunshine won the Chromacon comic contest!

I won a new tablet, replacing my 8-year-old Intuos2.

So, overall a very productive and rewarding weekend. Now to stop being lazy and go make some art.

Finally something’s started demanding to be made, and it feels awesome.

I’m in the feverish love honeymoon phase of things, still pulling all the strands together and devoting every spare ounce of brain space to this thing. I only have time within reason, I still have work and freelance commitments and I have to prepare for Chromacon. I can’t let this feeling go though, so I’m snatching hours and days and minutes as I can to pull it together.

Here’s what I know so far.

It’s called Time Switch, or at least that’s what I’m calling it at the moment. There’s a switch and if you flick it, you end up somewhere(when?) you weren’t before. Flick the switch again and you return home. What could possibly go wrong?

The main character is a girl. Partly because I still struggle with drawing men but mostly because girls don’t get to be the stars of enough adventures. I can’t be the only girl who dreams about adventures through time.

The time travel will be represented very abstractly. I am excited about how this will work, but this is still a half idea I haven’t begun getting down on paper yet. Safe to say I want it to feel different to the Doctor Who style ‘open the front door and it’s the 1920′s’. Doctor Who does that so well, I want to do something else.

The story is going to be interactive. As I tell it, you’ll have the opportunity to influence what happens and how and when in certain ways. There will be a few options of ways to follow and engage with the story. I played with these kinds of interactions on group projects a couple of years ago (I really need to do proper summaries of them), so I’ve got a pretty good idea of how the structure of it will work. It won’t be necessary to be involved to experience the story, though. You can engage with it while I make it or wait until it’s finished to read it. I’m thinking it will make a nice book.

There will be elements of public domain and creative commons work used. A time travel story is the perfect excuse to get to use some of these awesome resources. This part is still a bit of a mystery as to how they’ll come into play, but they’ll be there and they’ll be awesome.

Sweet, that’s the shape of it so far, onto the pretty pictures!

I’ve begun designing the main character! She doesn’t have a name yet, but she has started to make her personality known to me. I’ve written a small amount of script and spent today doing sketches to try and find her visual style. These are still very early concepts, she’s likely going to change a lot over the next while. You can get a bit of a sense of who she is though.

I was going to give her the name Olive, but she’s shaken that off and is demanding I find her something better suited. Nothing’s come together yet, names are hard. I’m not sure one’s completely necessary, but I like to name my characters even if their names don’t show up, so I’m not constantly referring to her as ‘the girl from Time Switch’ It seems a bit disrespectful.

If you have any name suggestions or cool Public Domain resources, I’m interested in hearing about them. Meanwhile I’m just really exited to have something solid again. I feel like all this time germinating since the end of Sunshine has really paid off, I can’t wait to keep digging into this.

They’ve now all been sent to their respective homes, and I’m very happy with how well they were received by everyone. Thanks so much to the awesome people who ordered, you really do help me out in more ways than I can say. You guys know who you are!

Now, I said I might not do another print run, but after meeting these prints in person I feel very bad not making more of them. I won’t be offering them often though, maybe just a couple of times a year. It’ll run in a very similar way to this last round, and I will only take orders for a limited amount of time. I’ll tweet/facebook/blog when prints are open again, so keep an eye out for stuff happening.

I will be exhibiting at Chromacon in Auckland on May 12. I am undecided whether I will take high quality prints with me, but I will have (significantly cheaper) laser prints and a few other bits and pieces. Greeting cards and the like. If there’s anything I make that you think would sell well, or that you’d personally like to buy from me, please let me know! Either in the comments here, on twitter or by emailing me at jem.yoshioka@gmail.com

I’ve gotten a new guitar.

I love to sing. It’s my second favourite thing after drawing, and sometimes by not a huge margin. Now I have an instrument that fits me well and sounds amazing I am in love all over again. Few things make me as happy as singing with my guitar. Getting my voice all warmed up and strong again, I can’t really put into words what it means to me.

Which is good, because at the moment drawing is a total bust. I started work on Dark Forest, but didn’t get much further than a couple of sketches and a few test treatments of panels. It didn’t feel right, so it’s been shelved. I might come back to it later.

Then I had a comic idea based on how much fun it is to be in the rain. It’s a one-pager, so I thought it’d be a fun quick project I’d do in a day or two. It’s been halway inked and waiting for me to fix the perspective in the last couple of panels for months. I do really want to get back to it, but something’s putting me off.

Here’s the illustration that goes with the comic idea. Possibly one of my favourite standalone pieces this year.

I’ve played a bit with watercolours too.

White caps/white cats in a windy Wellington harbour.

I guess my thing is that I don’t have any direction at the moment. I don’t have a project I love as much as I loved Sunshine, something that needs me to make it right now. I don’t really know where to focus, or what to focus on. Everything I make I can only feel the flaws in. I get up to the hard parts and feel like there’s to much wrong with it to bother with. This makes it hard for me to think about what I need to do in order to get past this block.

As an illustrator you need a lot of things. Technical skill, ability to think of and execute interesting and unique concepts, and the stamina to be able to pull through and create a finished thing. If you’re missing even one of those things it’s going to be tough going. At the moment I don’t have a good grasp on any of them. My drawing stamina’s completely shot and I can barely convince myself to set aside 20 minutes a day to sketch. If I do, I don’t enjoy it, and I certainly don’t like anything I produce.

I am lucky that at the moment I have a lot of other things going on that are helping keep me as a person motivated. For once my happiness doesn’t seem intrinsically linked to how happy I am with my drawing. I have started exercising (kickboxing class), and I’ve always got some knitting or other on at the moment. It’s good, but I do miss drawing and having a plan making-wise. Or even if it wasn’t a plan, the belief.

I’m not looking for art block tips or suggestions on how to get over it. The only way over is through, just like everything hard that you have to do. I’ve already had to re-teach myself to draw when I was recovering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and this shouldn’t be as hard. I still know how to draw from a technical standpoint at least. A bit of discipline and some hard work should do it.

Back to the drawing board. I have a new comic idea I really like. I have a new main character and so far she’s pretty fun to draw. I think this could be something really cool. As long as I can stick with it and make it happen.

My yet un-named main character (Name suggestions welcome).

The story’s called Time Switch. At the moment there are too many awesome places I want to take the plot, so I have to pick one and then decide that’s where I’m going with it. There will be adventures. and flappers. And maybe dinosaurs. And some guys in dark glasses and suits. And a switch that transports you through time and quite possibly space. It’s a short comic, perhaps a bit longer than Sunshine (not sure yet). If I can pull it off how it looks in my head it’s going to be very super cool and lots of fun.

First pass at thumbnails

I’m hanging in there. Not ready to quit forever just yet, although a couple of times I’ve come pretty close. Of course, I actually can’t quit. My thought process went something like this:
“Hmmm, maybe I should just give up on all this drawing stuff. It’s obviously not going to go anywhere, really.”
“Yeah, I should really do that, then I’ll have so much more time for drawing!”

Yep, gonna have so much more time for drawing!

It’s been a process, I can tell you that. And you can read all about it. From first draft to final. Process blog one two three four.

I’m so happy to be at this point, I don’t really know what to do next. Wait, no, yes I do. There’s so much to do.

Plans in the pipeline include:

• Print versions of Sunshine and Opal Dream Cave
• Another short comic yet to be determined but most definitely in development
• Freelance work doing illustrations for Mohawk Media
• Setting up a felt store so you folks from other places can buy prints and things
• Focusing on developing a business plan for myself (exciting/important)

I’m getting serious about creating proper business plans for myself. Up until now my work’s been driven pretty much entirely by love and passion and shaped by sheer luck as much as direction from me. Which has been an awesome thing mostly (especially because I’ve been incredibly lucky), but doesn’t always shape things the best and isn’t very efficient. Working full time in a job I am not passionate about has actually helped me to view my illustration business plans in a more critical light. I feel like I am finally in the space to create the kind of structure I need to make a proper go of things.

Exciting times indeed.

If you haven’t read it yet, you can here.

Now, Onto the next one.

I’ve had a new short comic in mind for the last couple of months. The concept hasn’t completely crystalised yet, but I’m beginning to explore some of the imagery for it now. It’s called “Dark Forest” and so far it’s been an interesting idea to flesh out. It’s going to come together much faster than Sunshine. Partly because of what I learned on Sunshine, and partly because in some ways it’s a simpler concept to realise.

I’m wondering whether the story will even need a protagonist. It could be interesting to explore telling a story without featuring any characters. At the same time, the idea of overlaying a person in these scenes is what originally started me on this project. I’m just at the beginning phase, so it could go in any direction. Exciting!

I’m not sure whether this image belongs with the comic or not, but it was interesting to me, so I drew it out. A ribbon-twig ball. A good exercise in detail, texture and shape, if nothing else.

Back to drawing trees for the rest of the evening! Turns out trees are really fun to draw.

There are still a few more changes and tweaks that will happen as I get time to work on them. I’m planning to go through and tidy up my flickr to make it easier to find the juicy art parts and not just the messy Jem lifevomit parts.

But now for the exciting news. Sunshine finally has a release date. Yup, I’ve actually made a decision and I’m sticking to it.

Sunshine will be released on June 30th, 2012.

(Sunshine’s the comic I’ve been working on for the last millionty months, if you hadn’t noticed)

I will be at Craft 2.0 for the day, selling prints and postcards with other crafty lovelies, so you’ll be able to pop down and say hello and get a treat for you trouble.

I’m really excited to share Sunshine with you all. It’s been a long journey, but I’m glad that I’ve been able to take my time and release it in a way that I’ll be 100% happy with (well, as close as I’ll ever get). Thanks for waiting patiently and listening to me harp on about the process for months on end. Especially thanks to the people who’ve commented, left feedback and shared my ramblings around. You guys are all the best.

So, onwards with my preparation for Sunshine’s online release, and for Craft 2.0 as well. Awesome!

As the year’s ticked on, my concept of what Sunshine is has become more ambitious. It’s crept up from being one small project of many I was planning this year to being a big freaking deal, most likely the main thing I will make all year. The bar’s gotten much higher. I’m now going back and perfecting imperfections I would have previously let slide. Overall it’s a pretty good thing because it’s meant I’m much happier with the quality of the illustrations. Every fixed line and adjusted colour has me feeling better about the work, like I’m actually getting to voice the story in the way it deserves to be told.

Thumbnails of all 12 pages of Sunshine, as it looks as of this moment.

The problem with raising the bar is knowing when to stop. After six months of working on this comic I should be well and truly ready to share it. If I average it out, each page has taken over two weeks to finish. Pages of The Otherwalls used to average between one and three days, which still felt like ages. Sure, I’ve had other commitments this year (Full time work, that manga class I ran, knitting, re-discovering how great books are), but that doesn’t change the fact I can’t perfect pages forever and soon I’ll have to get ready to let them go. Really soon. This is starting to get a bit silly.

Short format comics are very different to the longer webcomic epics I’ve written (and abandoned) before. With the long format it’s all about building the story, and the exact quality of a page is perhaps a little lower to compensate for the speed at which the work is produced. It’s also finished one page after the other, as it needs to be updated chronologically. With short format I’ll be releasing it all at once. I have time to sit and think about my technique across the whole comic and make sure it feels cohesive from start to finish. This is great, because it’s an area I’ve previously been quite weak in.

Even though It’s taking forever, I’ve learnt so much. Next time will definitely be faster. I’m completely sold on short format, it’s deliciously addictive. I’m finishing my final pass correcting the last niggly bits of the lines and colours. Then all I have to do is put the words on and get it ready for the internet. Undoubtedly they’ll both have their own delightful series of tears and steep learning curves.

I can’t wait!

The first couple happened pretty easily and effortlessly. I put the word out, and folks turned up with drawing and stories and nibbles. All I had to do was provide the tea.

Since then it’s become difficult to keep in touch with everyone at once. We’re all busy folks with lots on, so coordinating a time that suits is tricky. So far the thing that’s working the best is having a Facebook group to post to and set up events through. It’s not perfect, but at least it’s a way for us to stay connected.

I’m hoping once we get into the habit that things will get easier. It’s difficult being an illustrator sometimes, because it’s quite often a lonely job. Having a space to sit, draw, and share with other people going through the same artistic toils is something I’m really enjoying. I’m hoping soon we’ll even be able to contribute to a collaborative project together. I’m all about the collaborations.

A recap, in pictures.

A snapshot of a couple of sketched pages

All twelve pages sketched out and ready for inking.

Detail of the inked lineart

A moment from page three

A challenging fork. That fork was so difficult to draw. All the angles and things. Not for the faint of heart.

Finished pencils/inks for page two! One of my favourite pages to work on.

After I scanned in all the pages and was preparing them for colour, there was one page in particular that stood out as being screeds crappier than the others. Page Seven, the turning point in the story. It should be a strong example of good storytelling, as the mood changes here and things begin to get darker. I was getting absolutely none of those feelings from this page. I decided to re-draw it entirely with the help of my good friend, Creative Commons.

Page Seven. In all its uninspired glory. In my initial thumbnails this was stretched over two pages, but I felt that condensing it to one improved the flow of the story. I neglected to adjust the composition effectively to match, so it ended up feeling cramped and rushed. The top illustration is also the only outdoor one not drawn from reference, so it doesn’t match the illustration style of the rest of the comic.

New Page Seven. With improved design and a picture drawn from reference. All the other Wellington locations have been referenced from photos I have taken. I knew the shot I wanted for this illustration for quite some time, but I haven’t had the time to get the photo myself. I used a photo by Virginia McMillan as reference. Yay, Creative Commons!

Sunshine will be licensed CC-BY-SA when it’s finished, just like the rest of my illustration work is.

I’ve given myself a deadline of three weeks to have Sunshine finished and ready to share with the internet. I’ve got the colours, lettering, and design of the final web layout still to do. Three weeks should work out fine. Yep.

In the weekend I went on a wander up Mount Cook to search for inspiration. I saw Wellington from angles I’d never seen before. It’s amazing how so close to town we have all of these amazing parks, hills, and forests. Walking through them feels like being in another world (I took photos, but they weren’t that great, so you just get words). I could write a whole blog about how great it is up there, but that’s possibly for another time, or for some love letter to Wellington.

I came home and dug out my old nib pens. Here’s a small segment of my practice.

This pretty much decided that Sunshine needed to be more analogue and less digital than I was originally anticipating. I haven’t been happy with any of the colours I’ve been working with so far, so now I’m re-thinking things, with emphasis leaning towards linework and away from colouring.

This was done with india ink and nib pens with a yellow marker to add a bit of colour. This is closer, but the harsh white of the paper isn’t working for me. I’ve since bought some creamy watercolour paper which should do nicely.

I’ve been working on thumbnailing out the pages, too. I’ve had two drafts so far and will be launching into full-size pages tomorrow.

I know I’ve JUST finished saying the comic won’t be in full colour, but this illustration is a bit separate from all that. This was a sketch that decided it wanted to be a finished illustration. It’s going to work as a good character reference, as I feel like they both finally look like themselves.

I had a quick read over my last blog post, which was about how things were feeling hard. Things still feel hard, but as I’ve had a lot more drawing time this week, they’re starting to already smooth out. This habit shall now be stuck with me until this comic is over, which is only 12 or so pages away. It’s a mountain, but I’m sure I can do it. Then I just have to think of the best way to share it. (suggestions are welcome)

In past years I would send hundreds of pictures down the path every day. It stayed smooth and wide and meant that the actual effort of drawing something was very minimal. I would just think it and it would be there. As long as I could make a good picture in my head, I could make the picture happen on paper in a close-enough kind of a way. It meant that I didn’t have to think about the act of drawing and could focus on thinking of more challenging things to draw (Not that I did much of that. The same girlface forever!).

Last year I got a job. I didn’t get a dream job, just a regular job. Somewhere to be 5-6 days a week and get paid for it. This has meant a great deal to me, much more than I can sum up in words. I am a stronger, healthier and happier person because of it. I have learned so much and beaten demons I never thought I’d conquer. It’s difficult to explain how different things are for me from year from a year ago, sometimes I don’t think I’m even the same person.

Unfortunately jobs take time and energy. When I get home all I feel like doing is curling up with something comfortable – like a book or knitting – and not doing much else. This has meant that I’m not drawing hundreds of pictures a day anymore. It’s a struggle to even draw every day. And after each long stretch it is so hard when I pick up the pencil again.

My path between my head and my hand has become overgrown and is covered in brambles. Ideas still get sent down, but some seem to be getting stuck. The movements that get to the other end are stunted and unsure, and it is the most frustrating feeling in the world, to have the pictures in your head remain stuck there. Especially when they used to flow so effortlessly.

A part of me just wants to curl up and give up, but then the other, bigger part of me knows that’s actually impossible. It doesn’t matter how hard it gets, I will come back fighting. The path may be brambley now, but I won’t let it stay that way. I will take all of the learning I’ve done in the last year and combine it with regular drawing. And all of it, even these artblock angsts, will make the pictures that get down the path even better than ever.

I’m tired, but I’ve been tired before. This is a shadow of what tired used to mean to me. It’s time for me to stop resting and start making. 2012 is the year of making things.

I am going to be tutoring a manga and comic illustration class this year. I shall be co-running it with Su Mon, and it will be based at Hutt Minoh Friendship House. Classes start on 29th of February and will run from 7-9pm. We’ll be covering lots of cool stuff like character design, panel flow, scriptwriting and composition

It’s $150 for the 8 week course, and is aimed at an audience aged 12 and over.

We only have 15 spots in the class, so if you’re interested, register your place now by emailing minohmanga@gmail.com, or contacting Su on 021-264-7274.

I think I’m starting to get the hang of him here. Although I’m still struggling to draw him the same way across multiple sketch sessions.

I feel that it’s very important for this story that it has a setting. It needs to be based somewhere real. Partly because the dialogue is so poetic, but also because I feel that backgrounds will help me to tell a better story and will help me say more about the characters. When I’ve limited myself to so few words and only two characters, something else needs to step up and fill the space. Finally, finally, it’s time for scenery.

I started a couple of small paintings of Tenki and Oliver on different parts of Wellington’s waterfront. If I was unsure before, I definitely know that the story is set here now. I’ve been working my illustrations from photographs of locations. This technique does mean I’ve got a bit of legwork in my future to collect some more backgrounds, but that’s all a part of the fun.

One of the important locations in the book is Oliver’s flat. I’m playing around with how it might work at the moment, but I expect it to evolve quite a bit as I do some more research into it. I can’t base his flat off my own, because I don’t think this is somewhere my characters would inhabit.

I’ve been playing with watercolour, and while I love it I am still not sure it’s the right feel for the project. I haven’t found my colours yet, but I’m having a lot of fun trying to find out.

I want to share the draft script, but to be honest it sounds better when it’s read aloud than when it’s written down. I am partway tempted to read it and record it for youtube or similar. I’ll decide by the next post…

I’ve had this short comic idea in my head for a good while now, but it’s only begun to materialise in the last few weeks. Essentially it’s a little mermaid story about a girl who travels the world in search of sunshine, and always leaves when it gets cold. Until one sunny day she falls in love with a boy, and so she decides to stay and see what winter is like. In my original idea she was more of a magical sprite, but recently I’m more drawn to the idea of her being a real girl that just feels magical to the narrator.

The script happened pretty much instantly, and in one go (I love when that happens, that pretty much never happens). Here it is handwritten on two pages of sketchbook. I think this shorter format really suits my writing style, I’m keen to stick with it for a while. I’ll share the draft in the next post.

This picture slightly predates me beginning to work on the comic. I like to do small speedpaints in photoshop occasionally, to play with colour and stay sharp with the program. It was only once I started working on the comic and planning her design that I clicked that that was who my Yellow Ukulele girl was. At the moment her working name is “Tenki”, but that might change.

I pretty much instantly know what I want her to look like. She is small, yellow and has hair made of circles. I want her to have a vintage feel, but to not harken too strongly from any particular era.

Her dresses are 40′s-50′s influenced, and her hair is supposed to look like exaggerated 20′s hair. The exact details are still in development, but you can get a pretty clear idea already who she is from these sketches.

If you’ve followed my art for any length of time you’ll notice I don’t often draw boys. I find their proportions awkward and alien and I feel like my attempts always end up feeling clumsy and stiff. It’s incredibly important that I get over this for this comic, as my male character narrates the entire thing. It’s important he is expressive and easy to relate to, and matches the female lead.

Meh.

Nyeh.

There, he’s starting to look more how I want now. Originally I thought he should be more angular to offset Tenki’s circles and curves, but I think that being oval and elongated gives the kind of feel I’m after much clearer. Also I think I’ll be able to have a lot of fun putting expressions on his face.

There’s still an awful lot of work ahead, but I am enjoying the direction these sketches are going in.

More soon!