Well, this is a rather particular subject. It’s a rather niche medium in a sense that I’ve trained to paint like an actual painter for a few years before going into drawing and coloring with Ink and Watercolors again. Before Gouache were pencil sketches that spanned from late 2000s to late 2015. It all started of as an event where I thought of doing a more involved form of painting, something less washed out and not so direct like watercolor. After hitting up a local store(no longer around after a year). The Staff gave me a recommendation, Gouache. Since then, the idea of using this medium for most of 2015-well into the 2017s was the beginning of my short but, something to be remembered(hopefully) phase.

To describe Gouache. It’s like, watercolor. But not quite the exact. It does indeed have properties of being activated by water like the former, but the notable thing about the said medium, is that it’s direct, you don’t stain the paper or tinge them, you paint it. But, unlike acrylic, you simply have to use water to reactivate it too. It’s like oil, but easier and less toxic.

In my case, I used a technique of using watercolor to “zone” out the areas that get shades and lights. That way I get a rough idea of how they tile up. Some ways i tried to work my layers up are using the darkest watercolors to shade it, and build up the more solid mid ranges, and eventually the highlights. But, it was a rather time and resources consuming process, along with my inability to understand painting like a proper technician. As a result, the years spent on the medium with rather…sour results in both the visuals and reception forced me to give up on the medium more or so, not to mention the limitations th medium gave me in the ability to pump out more works like my brush pen works. We are talking like, 10 times more effectiveness and efficiently level here.

However, they were indeed important to teach me the concepts of planning ahead, understanding layering, and patience too.

Subjects that were notable during these periods.

well, let’s start from the beginning. Started off with things like, the gouache concepts were I use the 11×14 inches papers to make a character concepts sheets of the original ideas I had during the 2014-2016 phase. They were rather…crude by my standards now in hindsight.

 

Character and Machine Designs, those days…not my most proud works looking back. It’s almost like as if, they were all a, wasted effort. got me nowhere. people hated or don’t care.

Tough times. and crying about it won’t help either, coming from my former background, being a crying victim is a good way to rouse the predators of the area…

It was not until, my post Gouache works that my works can actually be seemingly productive.

During these periods of the early and late stage of Gouache, it was only two different IPS, or Fanworks I was working on that made gouache seemingly notable.

There will be a link or two in regards to these two IPs I’ve worked on complete with Galleries and Blog Articles around them.

Stay Tuned.

well, this year, the comics project was rather more prolific, but always, it seems to fall short.

I did try to get into comics early 2018, but found out how difficult it is to make. It was a series of small short comics with no dialogue, it was a silent comic series really. Not much to say. and may well have paved the way for things yet to come. fast forward to a few months later, the comics projects was transferred into fanworks, covering other existing IPs and my alternate take on them. Fun they maybe, but ultimately the idea was scrapped due to the time and resources they would chew up, getting me ultimately nowhere….

Some notable things I did try to do for the comics project during 2018

• tried to do a few cyberpunk one-offs
• tried Bloodborne again, thus adding to how that much more costly the whole fanworks was
• doujin wasn’t for me(legit, it’s a thing I have thought of but realized it’s a different field and not suited for the demographic in mind.)

Overall, the series was a disaster.

 

2019, finally a new year, a new me, as they all say.

Although by the time this article is read, we are still in the mid 2019 phase.

But, that isn’t the point. What’s more important is that, there has been advancement in making more comics, despite hitting a hard platou again as always. For example, I started to plan things out more, and be that much more prolific, while adding things like, text to add more verbal context to the stories. It’s still simplistic but, they will do. But, as the weeks and months went on, hitting the wall as always a recurring thing in my works. It’s like a cycle of where my works hits a phase of making lots of notable works, only to fall down hard and takes weeks to build up momentum again. It’s agony really, given that consistency is a recurring issue that I have a hard time managing through my life, despite implementing a bunch of systems to keep my personal routines in check.

the reason to why the comics project failed.

• too many things are being managed at the same time, in other words, doing too many things leads to poor results.
• lack of experience in understanding storytelling, I’m not a writer, I’m a technician of sort.
• not as into it, I’m not a nerd actually. a steep farcry if you really saw what I actually am. I like my, outdoors sports and tools.
• I have other higher ROI series to work on, when you’re an entrepreneur, or the like, you have better things to invest in, seriously.

well, guess it’s over. Again. Perhaps one day, I’ll carve out the time and resources to dedicate at least a quarter or so of my life to making comics again…