Goals for the New Year

Just finished this today during art class. :)
I hope to continue taking classes, but considering where my life is right now, we'll see.

Starting for the New Year, I hope to get back into drawing. My plan is dedicate each month to drawing a certain category such as animals, buildings, people, hands, cars, etc.

So in January, I will probably dedicate it to anatomy and spend a whole month working on that and try to do a sketch every day. Then in Februrary, I'll do buildings and perspective, and etc etc.

I hope to do this for the next 3 years or so until I feel like I am good enough. I was talking to my art teacher today about my slump and she said that I was growing. So perhaps all my doubt will be erased with time...of course, I must be training, lol. I also hope to start visiting my local comic book store more often and start reading some graphic novels and widen my horizon, visually.

I also hope to develop a lot of disicpline and gain a lot of skill during this time, so we will see where 2011 will lead me...

happy holidays everyone.

=)

Doubt

I posted in my last entry that I would be doing a oneshot, but this is no longer the case since my personal life has gotten a bit rocky again and none of my drawings or ideas seem to be flowing.

This has happened once before and I always seem to stop at a certain point making me even doubt if I can do a full serialization, a 10 year one for that matter, which is probably how long Spoon will be.

During my student teaching internship, I started to realize how much of a lazy human being I am and how hard my cooperating teacher works. Teaching was never my dream goal, but I do not even work diligently on drawing. Always at a certain point, I get lazy and just doodle away...or drop a project simply because "I do not feel like it".

The more I think about it, the more I realize I cannot accomplish my dreams and it terrifies me.

I've been reading about self publishing comic artists like Terry Moore (Echo, Strangers in Paradise) and Jeff Smith (Bone) and they have been drawing a series for 10 years...how do they do it????

I feel as the older I get, the more I do not believe in myself simply because perhaps I am seeing the reality of things and how the world is changing. I have posted about this before where I see so many people with dreams trying to achieve their goals and yet nothing happens. Nothing.

We only hear about those who succeed, yet we never hear about the millions who do not, or more like we do NOT want to hear about them. I am so afraid that will happen to me.

Yet I spend most of my nights with friends or drinking. And I have read so many stories that this is NOT the life of a true artists or mangaka for that matter. I know I am a naturally social being who loves being with friends and enjoying the good life talking about my dreams and aspirations, yet here I am not going anywhere....fast.

Already I am 23 and before you know it, I'll be 30 and I'll say, "Wow..I never even published Spoon yet..have I?"

I know I will have to make sacrifices, but I'm really afraid of WHAT sacrifices I will make...

Frogilic Chronicles

Frogilic Chronicles:
"A young man named Katsuyo was once a frog and was kissed by a beautiful queen, but an evil sorceror interfered, so the spell was only half complete. Now Katsuyo is on a quest to find the queen and either become a full frog or a full human...what will he choose?"


This is the the title of my oneshot for the Yenpress contest and I have penciled in about half of it, so I hope to pencil in the rest by the end of the week...

I've shown this design to various people and they have all said the same thing:
"It looks like Naruto". LOL.

I am determined to finish it though and submit and get some sort of reaction, but in the meantime, I am still diligently training...wish me luck.

:)

Progress

This is an attempt at a self protrait of me and my girlfriend, Betty. :)

As you can tell , my skills still need a lot of work, but I am practicing, so this is proof, lol.

On the other hand though...

I finished drawing my basic shapes (well my instructer helped me a lot, but I am getting there by understanding how to shade), so I will continue to take classes and hopefully get tons better with time....In other news...

I will not be doing Spoon for the Yen Press contest, but rather a different one shot.. I will unveil it soon, so I hope I can manage to finish it admist how busy I have gotten with student teaching..and as for Spoon, I might do it in monthly releases rather than biweekly, so we will see what happens.

:)

23

I know, I know.

There was suppose to be a new chapter and there isn't. I do not know when the next chapter will be out or I will even continue. I briefly went over reasons why last post, but more details:

I made a promise to myself a year ago saying how when I turn 23, I would dedicate my next 3 years to drawing and learning techniques so I can publish Spoon for real by the time I turn 26. Which means going back to the basics and learning how to draw from scratch, basically.

When I went to comicon earlier in October, I saw how small I was. It felt like how anime characters feel when they feel stronger and then they get completely owned. They all told me the same thing, I need to learn from the basics. I told myself that I would not go back to another convention until I got much better.

This is a story that I have redone numerous times and there are a few fans who have read everyone, which I am thankful for, but it seems somehow, I always run into a wall, not a roadblock where I wrote myself into a corner, because I can definitely finish the story I have now until completion, but I feel like I made a mistake with the way I executed the earlier chapters.

I do want Spoon to be perfect and to last for years, but as of right now, I realized I have A LOT of training to do and am also in the middle of grad school, which requires a HUGE amount of time from me, and I will need to have a fulltime job, so this poses numerous obstacles for me until I can get myself into that world, so for now, I will train.

I have started to take classes at a place near for an hour a week, which isn ot nearly enough, but it is better than nothing and I will also be doing my own training. But this blog and the facebook page will not be deactivated, as I still plan to draw and will post up my progress. i will also start become more active with my deviant art account. In fact right now, I am in the middle of redrawing Spoon chapter 1 to submit to Yen Press. So I will definitely post that once i finish it, expect it sometime in January.

Til next time.

:)

News

long time no talk, haha.

So I know for chapter 15, I am suppose to have 16 out by November 23rd, but I have come to a wall, meaning as of now, I am losing steam and simply cannot produce.

there are things I am unsatisfied with in the story right now (which will be fixed for the final final version, lol). As of right now, I don't plan to quit, but take a break until I get some kind of fire back and ONTOP OF THAT , I do plan on entering a contest for yen press, which I probably will not win...

http://www.yenpress.com/new-talent-search/

I'm sorry for people who are waiting, but remember, I want to perfect this story and as of now, I actually am able to take art classes 10 minutes away from me and am working towards drawing better...and I am caught up in student teaching, so I will call this a hiatus.

Please bear with me. I will update however I can though.

The aftermath...

So let's start off with the bad news...NOTHING HAPPENED! =)

I met up with my friend, Huxley at Penn Station and we got in line for comicon, which was very long. As soon as we entered, we sat down and stapled my business cards to the flyers. I saw 3 editors, one of them, Interverse Comics, gave me praise. So that was off to a good start and said he would keep in touch (which he has not, lol). The others, not so well. I was able to meet Terry Moore, the author of "Strangers in Paradise" and "Echo". I asked him about his whole process and he told me how he did everything from beginning to end without ANY use of computers. I always thought people used computers to fill in the black parts....O__O

I went onto the anime floor and there, I started to pass out flyers to cosplayers and random people.

As expected, I passed out a lot of flyers and my fan count did NOT go up, but that is ok.

The rest of the day, I explored and tried to go to more portfolio reviews, such as ONIPRESS (publishers of Scott Pilgrim). A lot of them, I simply dropped off my stuff.

I was able to meet the creator of "Paradigm Shift", Dirk L. Tiede. He gave me a lot of pointers on where to go from my level. He was a very nice guy. He told me what all the other editors told me..that my basics needed work, meaning I should take some life skills. With a class and another year, I would level up...

Then the rest of the day, I went to the artist's alley and saw some AMAZING art...very amazing. Now I finally know it feels like when an anime character thinks he's become strong and than gets his ass KICKED by another character...

It really made me know where I was...now onto the GOOD NEWS!

While touring the anime part of comicon, I saw a man passing out flyers and low and behold they were for an art school! I asked my dad if I could take these classes since they would be every Sunday and would be $250 for 10 classes! AND HE AGREED! =DDD

So after my birthday extravaganza, my awesome friends drove me there for me to have an appointment and they offered me a deal where I would spend half the time in a fine arts class and the other half working on manga! I checked out their stuff..and WOW!
http://nillia.deviantart.com/gallery/

This is the chance I have been waiting for and am VERY VERY excited...I will be working with not one...but TWO teachers....so essentially I will be going back to the basics and relearning how to draw from scratch.

FUTURE OF SPOON:

I will keep on drawing Spoon and continue to get better, but releases may become slower since I have a lot on my plate, but along with this, my drawings might get EXPONENTIALLY BETTER! =D

We will see...as of now...things are looking up! (knock on wood)

EXPECT CHAPTER 14 TOMORROW!!!

COMICON!

hi everyone!

so tomorrow is finally the day (well comicon started today but I had work, lol).

The two images above are the pictures I will be showing to the editors...so I hope they will AT LEAST notice me, haha.

I'm almost certain nothing great will happen, but it's the effort that counts, right?

So wish me luck! Maybe I'll see some of you readers there??? haha.

COMICON news and reasons for delayed release of next chapter

Hi!

As some of you may have noticed, I will be releasing chapter 14 on the 20th of October (which also happens to be the day after my birthday =D). I usually would release every other week, hence biweekly, but this next week, I will be dedicating my heart and soul for comicon. But do not worry, I will be posting up some pics to show to editors and I hope to hear everyone's heartfelt opinions! So for that reason, I will not be spending this next week inking chapter 14.

And for those of you coming out to comicon...LOOK FOR ME! I enjoy all the support I can get (not that I will make it this year or anything..but just getting my name out there..ya know?)

So if any of you want to meet up, my e-mail is neostar8710@msn.com

So stay tuned and I hope you all will enjoy chapter 13!

=)

Comic Con

Hello!

As promised, I will give some information about comicon, which is OCTOBER 8TH-10TH.

I am planning to buy the 3 day pass which is 50 bucks as opposed to a one day pass, which is only 20 bucks.

It's only about a month away!

I plan to go there and meet some editors and other aspiring artists, networking basically.

So between now and then, my goals are:

-Make business cards
-design shirts (maybe???)
-Make some sample booklets for editors to see

For the booklets, I plan to redraw some pages of chapter 1 or just show some original pages..we will see...

Also for those who read SPOON and want to come out to show support or just to meet me, here is my e-mail:

neostar8710@msn.com

e-mail me for info or just to talk! All opinions are welcome.

I am a little behind on drawing the next chapter btw, but I will try my best to finish it by the next set release.

More updates to come!

=)

START OF NEW SEMESTER!

Hello!

To start off school the first day of school (for most), is a new chapter of SPOON! =D

This summer went by pretty fast and I was able to finish 5 chapters...haha...

Well I have been doing a lot of thinking for what to do with Spoon especially since I have an end point in mind (for this edition before I go professional).

But since school is starting again and especially since this is my last year of school, and ontop of that, I got a job afterschool teaching kids how to draw manga!..well cartoons, haha.

So my day will be divided into 2 parts, 8-2:30 student teaching and 4-7 either teaching or going to class, then eating dinner, exercising, talking to my girlfriend..haha

As you can see, my schedule will be pretty packed leaving me little time for Spoon, but I will definitely try to keep up with Spoon since I am finally starting to get into the meat of the story!

So I might just release shorter chapters (14 pagers) or release monthly..so we'll see how this schedule works out.

Plus I do want to draw another one shot to submit to this contest:
http://morningmanga.com/micc/

Also I do realize that in between chapters, the site is kind of dulled with no progress, so I was thinking of posting little strips of what each character would be up to (character development) in between the chapter breaks, or simply just update the blog more. I will keep thinking about this idea and please give me feedback on it.

Next update will be about comicon in October!!!

Bone

During the one year hiatus I went on for Spoon (the edition before this one), I started to hear a lot of buzz about a comic (NOT manga) called "Bone" by Jeff Smith. And during that time, he compiled all 55 issues into one huge ginormous book.

"Bone" is about three bone cousins who got kicked out of their hometown, Boneville, and become entangled in a crazy fantasy adventure when entering the valley.


I went to Barnes and Noble and gave it a read and was stuck there all day. The art is very cutesy, but seeing the art outside of the bone characters proves his art is no joke (My girlfriend says Charles is cuter than Bone, but I believe she is just saying that..haha)Because of Bone, I was able to find a different way of telling Spoon. People who have read my manga before will notice huge changes in the way I started out the story, which is very inspired from Bone.

Once I finished Bone, I started to research how the author went about with drawing the story and selling it, thus becoming very successful.

Low and behold, the DVD called "The Cartoonist" came out, which documents the history of Bone. I asked my girlfriend to order it on netflix, but it had an extremely long wait. I waited a couple of months and just lost my patience and finally ordered it. Watching it was one of the most inspiring things in my life, simply because this man is doing what I want to do in the future, the only difference is that my field is with manga.

Another fascinating feature about Jeff Smith is that he draws the comic from start to finish, meaning he does not use the computer in any way. He does the lettering, inking, EVERYTHING all by himself. I on the other hand use the computer to ink and letter. The art is just fantastic and the way he inks everything with a stroke of his brush is just dazzling. The link below will show you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0FC9hmBm08

After seeing how Jeff Smith does things, it makes me realize how much more I need to develop....

I hope one day, I will get good enough to be able to do what Jeff Smith did, meaning self publish Spoon and become successful....it took him 10 years to complete his story...mine will probably take 30! hahaha

So for those of you who haven't read it or watched the documentary....what are you waiting for!?

p.s. If you are reading this Mr. Smith, I hope to meet you one day and collaborate? hahah :)

So much to do, so much time

So

Ever since I have RETURNS...I have been working diligently on chapter 9 which is about 80% done. It's quite a bastard to draw, haha.

And I am almost completely done penciling chapter 10, so Spoon is moving along quite nicely.

Other list of things I have to do are...

-Compile a portfolio for submission AND comicon in October
-Pencil/ink/color volume 1 cover

You have not read wrong..I will be attending comicon in October! So for any of you fans, who are not my friends in real life, can attend and we can all meet up!! I will hopefully have business cards and little booklets so I can start networking Spoon!

And for those of you who are reading Spoon, I realize it's been a little dull since the first chapter, but the story will begin to take a more serious turn...so watch out!

=)

RETURNS

ok.

My friend seems to be doing a lot better and is in the recovery process. And I have decided to resume my daily life.

I hope to put up chapter 9 by next week.

So thank you for all those readers who have given me support.

FULL STEAM AHEAD!

=)

Temporary Hiatus

Hi,

I'm sorry to say this, but as of right now, I need to go on a temporary hiatus with SPOON. A lot has been happening recently in my life that I haven't been able to keep up with drawing.

I just recently been very busy studying for an important test and ontop of that, one of my friends got into a serious car accident, he's okay, thank god. But this was kind of a wakeup call for me and all of my friends.

I guess this is one of those "re-evaulate how you live" kind of stuff. And I have been filled with a lot of hatred and anger as of late, and I am trying to figure out a way to deal with it and trying not to indulge in alcohol so much.

So basically, I just need to re-adjust myself a bit

This hiatus will not be very long, since I am still very motivated to draw Spoon.

Once things in my life reach equilibrium again, I will be able to draw full steam ahead.

So please understand and if anything, the new chapter should be out in another week or less.

More updates to follow.

:)

Fear

This past weekend, me and my girlfriend went with my friend, Ryan to his place in Flushing. After an intense night of drinking, lol, we went to the bookstore the next day. As usual, I picked out some manga that could help me with refine my drawing techniques. I looked to see what Ryan was reading, and it was a book of secrets.

Postsecret.com

Frank Warren started this site with the intention of people sending their secrets to him written on a postcard. So far, 5 books have been compiled and I read through 2 of them instead of reading manga, lol.

Some of the secrets were very funny, stupid, shocking, but most of all, relatable.

One may not have called them secrets, but the individuals shared their fear of not succeeding, feeling emptiness, heartbreak, or being suicial. The way these topics were portrayed as a secret was very moving, simply, because it was represented in a different perspective and it got me thinking...

What if I don't succeed with Spoon?

As children, we are filled with dreams and when we talk about accomplishing them, it all seems possible. But the older we get, the farther those dreams seem to go....I am going to be 23 soon and I set my deadline between the age of 26 and 30 to make something of Spoon. I don't know when it hit me, but I began to become very afraid of myself nto succeeding. This has been a story I have been working on for years, and this is the only thing I find myself enjoying and wanting to get better, and I am starting to realize how puny I am to the rest of the world.

My name is David Anthony Yoon.

But so what? I am only known as the asian kid who draws and loves to read manga among a select few, but I still am nothing. As the years pass, I become more and more afraid even with sufficient skill, I still won't make an impact on the world with my work. Some may argue that I don't have to, but I WANT to. I'm still training right now, but after reading those 2 books, it made see even how much more afraid I am of not doing something with my life.

So here is my postsecret to everyone who has read it.

: I am so afraid that I won't make it with Spoon and I will just be some talentless dreamer who keeps talking bullshit. And that I am extremely insecure with who loves me in my circle of friends and I am afraid the wonderful things I have right now won't last forever....:

I highly recommend people to go to a bookstore and read these books by Frank Warren.

On a brighter note..Chapter 9 is in progress! lol.

=)

To do List

I've compiled a list of things I must do for Spoon

-learn to color
-sign up for art classes
-get a portfolio together for comic con in october

Considering how my internship is starting in September and the fact my classes are starting up again next week along with the praxis, fitting this all in will be harder than I thought...

ALSOOOO

I forgot to mention but volume 1 of spoon is complete! I am working on the volume cover and it WILL BE COLORED! =D

Also if you are a fan on facebook, go to the discussion board and participate in the honesty board so I know what you guys think about the manga so far!

CHAPTER 8 IS SOON!

=)

Progress

Hi,

It has been forever, sorry about that.

I have been busy with drawing, classes, work, and my social life.

And just this week, I was on vacation up with my girlfriend and friends in Newark, and now I am back to work with summer classes starting again. :(

and on top of that is the Praxis on July 24th, which will be important for my teaching career, so I am pretty busy.

BUT

I do not intend to slack off on drawing and I am planning on learning how to color better with photoshop. I also am looking into enrolling in some art classes, especially those dealing with anatomy and perspective.

But yeah, that is all for now...more to come soon!

:)

Criticism

As an artist, I will be subjected to many views whether they are good or bad. Recently, I have gotten a lot of positive/negative feedback on both my story and art from various people. Through this process, I have acquired two editors, Zaid and Taylor,each suited for different parts of my manga, which I am grateful for.

Taylor, who I just became friends with recently is able to analyze the character and story flaws in Spoon. When I hear his logic, I am dumbfounded and his way of analyzing my characters really makes me wonder, "wow, why didn't I think of that??" I have a lot of work to do, haha.

Zaid, who saw my works on the facebook page, "Mangaka", is my art editor. He analyzes my art and says how the perspectives are off as well as my feet and hands, haha. He currently attends an art school in India.

I believe accepting criticism is extremely important because it will shake you and help you grow. Those who reject it are only stunting their development, this applies to artists everywhere. The worst is when you think you made the best piece of art and than someone bashes you for it. And you just want to tell the person to fuck off.

But I stop myself and go, "Wait..is this the right way to approach them?"

If I am to grow and become a pro, I will take all the criticism thrown at me because to me, criticism is like my sunlight allowing me to grow (cheesy I know...lol).

So bring it!

Chapter 4 is coming along nicely and almost finished so look forward to that on May 16th!

Been awhile!

Sorry for not posting here for awhile..I have been busy with schoolwork.

From now on, I will be posting chapters on facebook instead of here and will post up my thoughts and various tidbits of information on Spoon.

I hope everyone enjoyed chapter 3 and will keep on reading! Get your friends too!

I will post up another entry soon.

-Dave

Pages 78 to 82

The Future of Spoon

Hi,

I have been uploading pages of chapter 1 individually day by day and now it is almost coming to end (finally! I know!).

From here on out, I plan on ONLY posting full chapters on facebook since most of my readers are situated there (click on the fanpage box to the right hand corner of the site). Full chapters will be released every other week aka biweekly. Following chapters will not be as big as chapter 1, so do not expect every chapter to be over 70 pages. lol.

On other sites, I will post page by page, since that is the best way of getting more readers.

But keep in mind, for my faithful readers, lol, that I am in grad school, so my workload will probably pile up and I might have to push Spoon to the side since drawing is not a guaranteed way of living, at least right now.

FUTURE PLANS:
I plan to keep going at this pace for another 4 years, that is if I don't burn out, because experience has shown me that drawing a lot only makes you better and hopefully in 4 years, I will be 934802650 times better.

And I plan to draw Spoon only til the first story arc is over, since I do want it published....one day. So please give me support and get peopel to read it! (for those who wants to see its completion...lol).

Ok, expect serialization soon!

FULL STEAM AHEAD!

Page 69 to page 77

Back

Hi,

The reason I have not updated for so long is that my computer crashed, so I was in the process of getting a new one and then I realized my scanner was out of date, so I had to purchase a new scanner!

But alas, I am back and we are approaching the end of chapter 1, so expect full chapters soon!

The releases will be biweekly, so expect a new chapter every other week which equals to about 2 to 3 chapters a month!

During this time, I will be probably redrawing old pages of chapter 1 for submission, although I believe it will not succeed since I am still an amateur, lol.

But yes, full speed ahead! Spoooooooooooooooooon power!

Page 68

Page 67

I decided to do the demon's hair a little differently since using the lines seemed a bit sketchy and unprofessional.

I was able to decide on this after reading an old school manga called, "Ghost Sweeper Mikami", which is a great manga btw.

So please tell me what you think!

Page 66

Page 64

Page 63

Page 62

Page 61

Pages 59+60

Training

So on Saturday, my girlfriend, Betty, and I went to Micheals, the art store, for her to buy supplies.



While she was getting her stuff, I saw some inking nibs and decided, "Hey...why not give it a shot?"



I used 20 dollars on a set of nibs and a bottle of ink. First couple of times was pretty difficult, especially figuring out what nibs to use for what kind of lines, but I think I am getting use to it.

So the page above is a sample page of what I am capable of so far with the pens. For now, I will continue to use my micron ink pens until I can further master the use of the ink nibs.

Expect a page tomorrow!

Page 58

Next update Monday!

Pages 56+57

Page 55

Page 54

Pages 52+53

Next update will be Monday.

Have a good weekend!

Page 51

Page 50

Pages 48+49

Sorry for the lack of updates.

Two pages for today and another one should be up tomorrow or Wednesday!

Please comment =)

Progress

Hi,

I realized I have not updated for awhile. This is because I have mainly been up in Newark with my girlfriend resulting in me with no scanner.

I will make an update on Sunday night for you avid readers, lol.

For those of you who are wondering my current progress with my drawings, here:
-I am done penciling chapter 2 and am halfway done inking it.
-I have started penciling chapter 3 and am halfway done.

So yeah, I expect to start releasing fullchapters by March, but yeah.

That's all for now.

Pages 46+47

Page 45

Page 44

Pages 42+43

Cover Spread

I do plan on coloring this eventually, but I figure I finally post this up and see what everyone thinks.

:)

Page 41

Page 39+40

School has started once again, but I am trying to pump out many pages as possible. In fact, I have already started to ink chapter 2!

So if everything goes on schedule, by Feburary, chapter 1 should be finished and serialization will begin in March. =)

Page 38

Pages 33-37