Merry Christmas

http://spoon.smackjeeves.com/

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Instead of merging everything together, I removed my most recent SPOON site and am starting from scratch...so please join the site and make it grow!!!!! haha.

January 1st.

YOONICORN.

Christmas break hooray!

Christmas break at my job has FINALLY arrived and I will FINALLY be getting a week long break. So I will be drawing (and coloring) frantically over break getting work done for January's serialization.

I have not fully decided how to post up the pages on SMACKJEEVES..whether through my original site or create an entirely new one...blargh. I also plan to start working on another project called YOKAI, a kids manga idea I have. So I will be quite busy (hopefully).

I have been getting more tips and advice from Miss Christine Chong

http://mayshing.com/

I still have lots to work on such as the fundamentals of drawing (shading, anatomy), so I plan to look into taking classes or practicing sometime in the New Year, so for this edition, I really REALLY want it to be the version that takes off and is finished and I want to grow as an artist.

So please look forward to January 1st!

YOONICORN

SNEAK PEEK

The coverspread for chapter 1...almost done...not..haha

ALSOOOO PROMATEURS is back from its unintential hiatus. Check it out!

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=99009&cmd=tc

YOONICORN

JANUARY

Hola!

I am getting excited for January...why? BECAUSE I WILL BE SERIALIZING SPOON!!!!!!!

I really, really, really, really hope that this is the one, because the ideas I have for it keeps me fired up and excited to draw. I am debating on whether I should make another site or to use the old spoon website and archive ALL the editions together, so I am thinking about it.....

So I plan to update on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, three days a week. That will be the pace until things in the story can pick up.

Also my podcast with Contreras, author of BLADE OF THE FREAK, has been rebooted and we are coming out with another episode this Friday, and hope to keep on having more guests, so please stay tuned!

EXCITEMENTTTTTTTTTT

-YOONICORN-

So much to doooooooooo

Hello!

So I have become fickle once again and decided to make ANOTHER chapter to become chapter 1, so what does that mean for all of the stuff I've drawn up to this point?

They become chapterS! So in reality, I have A LOT of buffer pages when I start posting up stuff again, but for now, I will have to start drawing ferociously this new chapter...T___T

Also I have to make a new banner and redo the YOONICORN logo since it looks kinda scribblish...ok, well more updates soon!

YOONICORN

GOALS FOR 2012-FUTURE

-reserialize spoon by January 2012.
-make a new banner.
-learn some javascript to set up a website .
-get popular enough to make a living and make some books

-finish the story to its completion.

Old Habits die Hard.

Hola,

So awhile ago, I said I would enter for the MORNING contest, but once again, I have backed out, but hear me out first before calling me a giver-upper.

Recently, I went to comicon in nyc (see previous post) and like I said, I felt like a piece of shrimp in a vast ocean, better than last year when I felt like a piece of plankton shit, but anyways....

I recently met up with an artist I met at comicon who goes by the pen name of Mayshing, you can check out her works here:

http://mayshing.com/

Overall, it seems the problems in my art always center around one thing: patience.

So the badnews is that I will not submit what I have to the contest (maybe next year), but I will continue with SPOON and continue what I am drawing since I am having lots of fun with it. The art I plan to put up will be cleaner and better, I promise!

YOONICORN

NYC COMIC CON 2011

This years comic con was somewhat of a disappointement, mostly because I only got to go on a Sunday rather than on a Saturday...=/.

I wanted to AT LEAST get my BONE book signed by Jeff Smith, but he left early and was not there on Sunday...and Hiro Mashima, creator of FAIRY TAIL left already...even though I am not too happy with his manga, he is still leagues above me.

Speaking of leagues, I went to the anime fest artist alley and met the creator of FLIPSIDE and got my art critiqued...let me put it this way.

Last year, I felt like a plankton in a huge ocean, this year...a shrimp. A LITTLE better.

One huge discouraging feedback I got was that getting my own table next year with the level I am at would be an utter waste of money...haha. But luckily I did create some contacts and tomorrow, I hope to meet with an artist I met to critique the shit out of my art...hahaha... So maybe..MAYBE I will have to delay serialization for another year...we shall see.

YOONICORN

NYC COMIC CON!

That time of the year has rolled around again and I will be attending this years comic con as a regualr person lol. I am planning to be there all day Sunday, so if you want to meet up, just shoot me an e-mail and hopefully we can hang out! This year, I planned to show some of my drawings to more people hoping to get a better reaction this year than last year.

Hopefully by next year, I will have my own table with serialization coming...so if I meet you there, I can show you a sneak peek of what I have drawn so far!

So hopefully I will see you there.

YOONICORN

Younger kids are more talented than Me.

A self portrait one of my students drew of me....


a modified Charles by a student named FFFFFFFFRANKY!

So as you can see, my job is quite fun...at times lol. i have met two students today who are around the 8th grade with some scary drawing talent!

Anyways, I have decided to abandon working on the current chapter I am working on and continue with the chapter I was working on before since the deadline is pretty close and finishing this new chapter will take a long....very long..time. Due to complicated angles and sceneries I have in my mind, lol. But do not worry, all of these chapters, I plan to release in 2012!

And if you have not already, check out our podcast with the author of PARADIGM SHIFT, Dirk Tiede:
http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=99009&cmd=tc

You can check out his awesome webmanga here:
http://www.paradigmshiftmanga.com/

Ok, until next time!

YOONICORN

BEING PRODUCTIVE...SORT OF

TOTALLY AWESOME.


My bros playing SMASH




Me working while reading PARADIGM SHIFT and smoking hookah lol




On weekends, I usually spend a lot of my time with the bros...sometimes doing nothing lol. So with my busy schedule, I try to fit in drawing whenever I can. I also finally managed to get around to reading SCOTT PILGRIM (I know...I'm behind) and finished it and it is epically epic. I could never get into it originally due to the art, but once I got past it, it's pretty epic. Even my girlfriend got into it...even though she said she liked it more than SPOON...-__-;

So as some of you may know, we have a pretty cool guest for out next podcast:

http://www.paradigmshiftmanga.com/

So look forward to it!

YOONICORN

Where am I?

Hello!

So I have moved out of my parents home and am living on my own...kind of. I am living in another college house with two other roommates, which all seems weird since I feel like I am moving back to college, rather than moving out to become a working person in society.

I took a job at a prviate school teaching fulltime, the pay is not amazing, but I can definitely suffice. Along side that, I have obtained another part time job as an after school tutor, so hooray for me!

As for SPOON, I am still working on chapter 1 on super awesome paper and am trying to draw as much as I can in one day, so I will keep you all updated with cool pics of my new room!

YOONICORN

Preview of 2012

Start of the real chapter 1 and hopefully the one I will submit to MORNING....get hyped!

Thank god for delays

Hello!

So as some of you may have seen on my fanpage, the deadline for the morning contest has been moved to OCTOBER 31ST! w00t! Good thing since the chapter I am working on is still 20 pages away from completion...XD.

But I have decided to do a DIFFERENT oneshot for SPOON since I feel the chapter I am working on now is more suitable as a chapter 3 than a chapter 1. So it is back to the drawing board for me and hopefully I will have it finished by October 31st! Good thing I roughdrafted it out already :)

As for our PROMATEURS, we will be having our first live call in THIS THURSDAY AT 9PM. This is how it works:

1)friend me on skype at neostar8710
2)at 9pm, call me and I will add you to our chat.

It's that simple! So please call in to showcase your opinions about the world of webcomics today!

See you Thursday!

YOONICORN

Future Plans (Tentative)

Hola everyone, it has been awhile!

So my life has been rather busy and I feel like I have not updated here in quite a bit! Last week, I started working at my summer school job at a church, so at least I am making some $$$.

As for my artistic side of life, me and Mr. Contreras have been continuing with our podcasts releasing episodes BI-weekly and if you missed out, you can listen to them here while doodling or some other sort of work:

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=99009&cmd=tc

and our twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/promateurs

In the future, we plan to expand by releasing a youtube account, but that is in the works for now. The next episode will be released THIS friday, so stay tuned.

***ALSO the next episode, we will be calls! The topic will be once again about the state of comics in the world and since most of you know where we stand, we would like to hear YOUR opinions! Time and date and the number to call will be provided as it gets closer! ***


NOW FOR SPOON.....

I am planning to COMPLETELY draw out 4 chapters of SPOON, which is basically the first volume and submit them to some companies hoping for some sort of feedback. I definitely have to finish chapter 1 by the end of this month to submit it to the MORNING contest which I most likely won't win since it seems they only seem to accept more seinen oriented mangas, but whatever! haha.

I am currently 35 pages in with chapter 1, which is about 70% complete, yikes!

Now as for reserialization, I really want to show my new stuff, but as all of you know, I have a bad habit of losing steam and quitting, so that is my reason for holding off. After submitting my stuff, if I do not hear back, I might just say "screw it" and start reserialization and just have SPOON as a webcomic like BLADE OF THE FREAK and FLIPSIDE.

So IF I do reserialize, do not expect anything until September or even January of 2012 since on top of drawing, I need to focus on finding a real job, lol. So wish me luck and hopefully I will talk to some of you on our next episode of PROMATEURS!

-YOONICORN-

Looking into my crystal ball....

More and more recently, I have been looking into what I want to do with SPOON, whether to publish it into book format or just have it as a webcomic. I have always had it as a webcomic in hopes of it becoming a book but with the paper industry becoming more and more obsolete, it seems making SPOON a webcomic seems more beneficial and publishing it in volumes.

This post is not about me being depressed like I was a couple of months ago, but rather thinking of different ways to make my dream become a reality. :)

But before making any final decisions, I will still finish chapter 0 and submit it to various companies and see if i recieve, if any feedback.

In other news, me and my rival, Mr. Contreras have created a PROMATEURS twitter account:
http://twitter.com/#!/promateurs

So for those of you who missed it, catch the first episode here:
http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=99009&cmd=tc

We have decided to release episodes in a biweekly format so the next episode will be out next Friday! If any of you have any interesting topics for us to discuss, let us know!

-YOONICORN-

ON AIR

I am rolling along with SPOON finally and calling it chapter 0. After it's completion, I will submit it to other companies hoping for SOME kind of feedback, since I am getting back into my groove. Whether I will serialize this edition is still up in the air since I do have a really good story in mind (well I think it is). Also....

The PROMATEURS podcast has finally hit the air!...on the internet that is!

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=99009&cmd=tc

Me and my rival/friend Contreras (author of BLADE OF THE FREAK) will be doing a weekly podcast every Friday discussing various topics in the world of manga/comics/webcomics. If anyone has any interesting topics for us to talk about, feel free to comment on this blog or my fanpage or Contrera's fanpage. We would love to hear what everyone thinks!

YOONICORN

PROMATEUR

Hello!

So I have finally graduated from college and now looking for jobs...hooray?

Anyways, me and my rival, Contreras have long last met...computer to computer through skype! And with this technology, we have decided to do a weekly podcast called PROMATEUR.

what is promateur?

It is a name I came up with in one of my discussions with Contreras about a possible magazine title and I came up with Promateur which was the inbetween of going pro but yet still amateurs in technique. So it is an inbetween, but we have decided to name our podcast this instead. So with this podcast, we will be discussing various topics such as the state of manga today to various penciling techniques. If you have any topics or questions for us to address in the podcast, just write on my SPOON page or Contrera's fan page:

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/pages/Blade-of-the-Freak/125511932636

So tell all your friends! A post about when and where to hear these podcasts will be arriving soon!

YOONICORN

Been awhile

As you can see, I have completed the cover to a new edition of SPOON! The character on the cover may seem familiar :)

I actually did draw 2 pages but I have become fickle and decided to scrap the two pages, which I might post up later as reject specials. I plan to get my drawing groove back and start applying for jobs as well to get my life together. The deadline for the contest is July 31st and as to whether I continue reserialization with SPOON is 50/50.

Me and my rival, Contreras have been discussing more and more about our online manga/comic idea and there seems to be other sites that have already started this, but that is not to say him and I will not do it. So now that college is over, I now have no more excuses to pursue my dreams and I hope to keep up this enthusiam! I will keep whoever reads this blog updated on how I plan to go about the future of SPOON, but first things first! Finishing this oneshot! :)

YOONICORN

The Dawn of a New Age

Today, I have read an interview between two mangakas: Ken Akamatsu and Kentaro Takekuma.

http://2chan.us/wordpress/2011/04/17/article-translation-the-exhaustive-debate-between-kentaro-takekuma-x-ken-akamatsu-%e2%80%9cthe-role-manga-editors-should-take-in-the-e-publishing-era%e2%80%9d-part-1/

It is divided into 5 parts and it is a conversation about the future of the manga industry, well comics in general with the coming of the technological age. This is much like conversations I have had with my rival, Contreras, creator of BLADE OF THE FREAK.

My father always asks me what i want to do with my future and I always reply, make manga and then he asks, "how?"

My plan was to keep practicing and coming up with a good story that I enjoy and one day start serializing it on paper while being a teacher (unless I start making more money making manga, lol). But with the internet becoming more of a resource, especially for comics, with people reading manga online instead of buying it, which I also guilty of, lol.

As of now, my plan in a couple of years is to start serializing SPOON online and have people pay a dollar a month and then publish chapters into volumes and perhaps collaborate with other mangakas on the site. Me and Contreras both are on board with this idea and will start having a podcast, lol. So this is my idea for the future and I hope all of you will support me, especially since I feel the power! haha.

-YOONICORN-

BREAKTHROUGH

Hola, Haven't posted in awhile and I just want to say that I have been having huge leaps of progress in my thouht process, meaning I think I got through my writers block! Of course some may argue such a thing may not exist, but my definition of it is even though you are coming up with ideas, they just are not good enough, nothing that makes you all excited to draw and I have been struggling for a long time trying to come up with a main backstory for SPOON. Like what are his goals and how people can connect to him. I juggled with a lot of ideas and talked with a lot of friends to figure it all out but I think I finally know what to do. I finally feel the creativity and feel like the story is all coming together! I feel that I have been going through periods of high amoutns of creativity and this is something every artist struggles with. I always read interviews by Terry Moore and he explains that he loves drawing with ideas that make him so excited and he wants to see it happen. I finally understand what he means. So what is the new idea? I'll explain: "Because of a curse, Charles has become a spoon and is on quest to find a spell to revert him back to his human form. " That is the main concept and I will not go into detail, lol. It may sound cliche, but I know with my ideas, I can make it a fun ride! To be honest, I read a manga called "Oumadogaki", which I highly recommend and it helped me...well believe in myself a little more. Oh and on top of that, I plan to enter this contest where I have to come up with a drawing showing all the characters of BAKUMAN. Here is the link for those of you interested: http://shonenjump.viz.com/bakumanfanartcontest I've reread all the chapters yesterday and have a decent idea, lol. The deadline is at the end of April and I do plan on submitting and we'll go from there. =)

Instead of doing homework....

Instead of doing homework that is due tomorrow, I ended up making this piece, lol.

Some of you may notice I have tweaked Charles' design a bit, haha. It is not 100%, but I like it more than before, I hope you all agree as well, haha.

Since the tsunami, I have wanted to make a drawing showing my support for Japan and inspiration finally hit me while I was at my friend, Oscar's place. I started to think of some decent thumbnails for the chapter I want to submit for the contest.

So yeah, JAPAN!

=)

Getting the engine started

Hola,

As of now, I have a crap load of schoolwork to finish, but in between all that, I am getting my ideas together...finally! I have most of the layout and characters for the first chapter set and hope to start drawing hopefully sometime by the end of this week!

I have been going around looking at a ton of art books and buying a few here and there dealing with perspective and anatomy. I find that everytime I look at manga, I pay attention to how every little thing is drawn and when I am walkign on the streets, studying perspective by seeing where the buildings are converging at what horizontal point, haha.

My spring break is coming up and I hope to get a plethora of issues taken care of, including my health, which has not been the best, lol. So please keep in tuned for more updates!

-Yoonicorn-

FUN

So good news.

These past few weeks, I have been feelign creative and been coming out with some crazy ass ideas (ones that I like too!). Of course, I am afraid I will look back and find them not so hot later on and go into doubt. But I am starting to see myself getting better and am getting out of this rut. I think I forgot what it is like to have fun....which is very important!

So I have been coming up with character designs and landscapes of the story before I start drawing...I actually got some nice paper to draw on as well! So I must start that all soon....

More updates soon.

Contest

Hola,

Schoolwork has been piling me up leaving me little or no time to draw of course...haha.

But awhile ago, me and a my rival were talking about this contest:

http://morningmanga.com/micc/

Since I wussed out of the last contest, I believe it is time to try again..and hopefully succeed. Whether I win or not is not the matter at hand, but whether I can finish it. The due date is July 7th giving me PLENTY of time to draw.

I plan to use SPOON, except a little different, hehe. The original chapter 1 I used I felt was a bit too much and for this oneshot, it will serve more as a prequel to the original version where it focuses on Charles being a vagabond. I plan to do everything differently where I ink with a nib and use better paper, so as of now, I feel excited and am still gathering ideas and we will see where this goes!

More news to come along the way....

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentines Dat! (or single awareness day..haha)

So I have not really drawn in a couple of weeks and I decided to draw this piece, but of course, once I started to ink and color, I thought it sucked making me go into a slump...again.

So I decided to go to the bookstore and look at manga, this time, the earlier Naruto volumes (because I thought the drawings were best back then...not now) and read Kishimoto's little entries about his childhood. It seemed he ran into the same block I did where he thought everything he drew sucked and said he became "afraid of manga". My girlfriend has finally admitted to me that when reading the previous, she felt that something was lacking and the story simply did not allure her, haha.

Well nonetheless, I hope to keep on producing and we'll see what happens....

=)

Going with the flow

So as expected, my training goes through its ups and downs where one moment, I feel pumped to draw and the next, where I just want to do nothing. I do remember before drawing the most recent SPOON, I went through a year or unproductivity. Recently, I asked Terry Moore on his fanpage:

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Terry-Moore/131940990197610

what to do when an artist gets into a slump and he has been releasing chapters every 6 weeks for the past decade, and he was kind enough to respond to me saying:

" I work through the blocks. If I have to stare at a blank page for days, I do. I don't stop trying, because the dame thing is due in 2-3 weeks. The biggest difference between pros and amateurs is that amateurs work when they want to.

Good news is many creative breakthroughs come when you persist past the easy parts. Also, if stuck, it maybe for an intuitive reason- your "muse" stops because you've taken a wrong turn. If you're suddenly bored or stuck, your reader would be too. What would happen next to get you interested again-so interested that you have to write it because you're dying to read it? Keep your interest at that level and you won't lose your motivation because the mystery of what comes next keeps you, the writer, enthralled".

and today, I came across a video documenting Takehiko Inoue, creator of SLAM DUNK and VAGABOND, both of which I have read.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-4V9AbUu1s&feature=related

Seeing his process and how he too, a pro, gets caught up in blocks and also takes hiatuses started to make me realize that perhaps, right now, at the age of 23, I am still finding out my voice and am growing. But my life as of now, is in a bit of a mess, as always simply because I put myself in these situations, lol, but that's a blog for another time.

I hope you will enjoy the links I put up.

Til next time.

straight inking

I inked this image using a nib and a brush to fill in the black areas, then used photoshop to scan it in and make it look blacker, lol. You can still see pencil lines, so theres only so much the scanner can do. To eliminate this problem, I will get a non photo blue pencil, because they do not show up in the scanner.

Recently, I am getting the itch again to do Spoon, but I know from previous times, if I start, I won't finish, so I will continue on with my training....til next time!

I think I am getting better using nibs and will continue to do so. I

Tool

Above, is a picture of my desk with my inking tools.

So this past month (well the month isn't up yet), I've been focusing on inking and drawing the human body. I realized one of my huge weaknesses were feet, so I have been continuously drawing feet, not perfect, of course. Another huge weakness of mine is drawing women, so i have been focusing on the female anatomy as well...

I also have been looking at youtube videos helping me to learn some techniques...youtube is a wonderful thing :)

I found that using nibs are much...better than using a brush. I am definitely still shaky with it and how much ink to use, but with time, I am sure I will get better.

So for Februrary, I have decided to focus on drawing animals.

You can check out all my drawings on facebook!

:)

January

It has begun!

As I have stated, I have started to draw every single day (well tried to, haha). I decided to dedicate the month of January to drawing the human figure and I am using "DYNAMIC FIGURE GUIDE" by Burne Hogarth from a friend of mine, Zaid Jawad, who is currently attending art school in India.

All my drawings have been posted on my SPOON facebook page titled under "January".

While trying to draw everyday, I have also begun using brushes to try inking in a different fashion. A lot of buzz has been going around saying the Windsor Newyon series brush pens are very good for cartooning, so I will probably invest in those when I get the chance.

I hope to dedicate the first year to lots of drawing which includes perspective, animals, houses, real people, etc etc.

By year 2, I hope to explore color and master inking even more.

Hopefully by year 3, all of this will culminate together so I can restart Spoon...for realz.

But life as we all know, has many, many setbacks. I hope to develop a lot of discipline and continue to do this...so wish me luck!