Hullo, ever'buddy who reads journals!

Just wanted to say a few things since I've been so quiet as of late.

Firstly, I will be getting back into the swang of thangs, yet again, very shortly. I gotta explain what's been up with that tho'...

You see, I recently attended the Stumptown Comics Fest on April 19th - my first comic convention EVER. Jeff Smith, the creator of Bone, Shazam: Monster Society of Evil, and new series RASL, was there, and I attended his presentation as well as getting some books signed! Very cool stuff.
I felt like a little kid at Christmas!

But that's not all.

I also met Brian Churilla [link] an artist who works mostly for Darkhorse but also publishes more personal projects more low-key. Through some weird family-friend-of-a-friend connection, I acquired his e-mail address, and prior to the convention, communicated back and forth a bit.
He checked out my stuff on this site, and said my work was promising. While at the convention, I also showed him my physical portfolio and took a peek at his. He gave me the first issue of his series, "The Engineer," for free...signed...and I felt obligated to buy the second one (also signed). It was pretty good stuff too!
More Christmas.

Next, I talked to Steve Lieber [link] , the co-creator of the comic book, "White-Out," as well as contributor to many other projects.

("White-Out" is soon to be a movie, btw. However, I'm not sure how good it'll be because it sounds like they're straying a bit from the original concept. One problem I have with it already is that the movie poster features Frank Miller's artwork, not Steve's. I love Frank Miller's stuff, don't get me wrong, but it seems as tho' Hollywood is trying to sell this as another Miller film, when he only drew a cover. [link] [link]
Steve should get more credit in my mind.)

Anyways, the reason I decided to talk to Master Lieber is because we met a loooong time ago at an odd library "comic party for teens" event when I was 12ish. Although he didn't remember me, I remembered him, and wanted to show him my new stuff and see what he had to say about it.
Out of everybody at the convention, he gave me the best portfolio review - not because it was the most praise-packed - but because it was very good criticism on MANY things I need to work on in my artwork.

First and foremost:
the underlying structure/anatomy of my characters. A lot of times, that seems to get kind of demented. He recommended a drawing studio with live models near me that I should set up some sessions in.

Another noteworthy crit:
I'm drawing off comics, not real life. I have been told that my drawings contain a "comic" style which isn't how I might actually portray reality. I'm subconsciously plagiarizing the aspects I like in the material I read.
But realism must first be captured.

Materials:
I need to be drawing on 11"x17" bristol board instead of 11"x14", which is what I've been using simply for its availability. but 11"x17" is the desired format for pretty much everything, and all of my drawings would either have to be cropped or have borders if printed on comic paper.
Also got some good advice on brushes that I want to try out.

Anyways, that's the basic gist of it. He said some nice things too, and was happy to hear I was going to SCAD next year. "That is the place to be!"

I also talked to two comic editors: one from Darkhorse, and one from Image. Their criticism was pretty harsh compared to Steve's, but I didn't mind. I need to hear what I'm doing wrong in order to fix it. Basically, however, their message was the same.

I don't think any of my stuff (at least that I've done so far) is going to be publish-worthy yet. I'm getting there slowly. I'm thinking SCAD will help me a lot.

I was slightly discouraged, but thrilled to find out so much I needed to work on. The possibilities of the future excite me.

I'm going to finish the Zoroaster Prophecies issue #0, even if it doesn't get published, because I promised I would and I don't take promises lightly. Besides that, it's good practice, and I truly benefit from trying to draw from somebody else's script. So thank you for giving me this opportunity, Rob. It's a lot of fun.
And who knows? Maybe somebody will like it despite my anatomy issues and page-size problems.

I should really not be up this late - 2:06 am - however, I doubt I could get much sleep anyways.

Latahz, guys!

You will see stuff from me soon.

EDIT!!!

Generally, I don't put personal stuff in my journals, but since this is kind of important to me (and she asked for it...), I might as well say it.

Me and my girlfriend, Jucel, recently had our 6th monthiversary together! She's very nice, and I love her. Probably knows me more than anyone else. We're going to try for a long distance relationship next school year, so wish us luck!