So, are you just making sketches or what?

File under: "I absolutely don't have time and will to study the horses that must appear"

Producing a comic really is a long job. In the last two months I've been working mostly on the EKOenergy project, but I've also been doing some shorter stuff. Either way, I hadn't anything completed until last week. On top, two sample pages for a possible upcoming project. Please cross your fingers for me, for if they choose me I won't be starving until Christmas.

The EKOenergy short comics now has a real title, so please welcome the first two (almost) completed pages of EKOsofia! The comic will soon be available on ekoenergy.org; my EVS ends at the end of september, and you'd be surprised by how many translators are working to make it available in various languages.

And last but not least, the graphic novel for FASTBACK Pictures is also on the way to be finished. These guys are amazing. The graphic novel will be part of the fundraising campaign for their upcoming movie. Post-apocalyptic bikers, sexy women, action. Basically what I always wanted to draw. I really hope they can make it, both because I want to see the movie, and because it would be a blast if I was able to continue drawing this.

As usual, keep reading Bilateral Comics! Our last episode, CODE 991 is getting some amazing reviews all over the web...and I'm sure you don't want to miss the third episode of Valley-01, now work in progress.

Sketchcrawling in Finland

Is it weird that I am in one of the most praised places in Europe for the beauty of its nature, and I'm barely sketchcrawling?

It's probably because I'm not on vacations, and so it feels really different to just stroll around and draw. I do it rarely at home because it feel like "yeah, I'm already bored by this place, I don't find anything interesting to draw", and waaay more while on holidays - you know, new places, everything exciting as a tourist, etc.

It is also because I don't find northener countries visually interesting. It happened even before on vacations: the city is wonderful to live in, new buildings, well kept streets, a lot of parks and green...but every place looks the same. I mean: yeah, trees. Yeah, new, clean, squared buildings with squared windows and plain walls - everywhere. Could this be due to growing up in a place like Venice? I don't know, but I know for sure it is hard to explain to the family that I like the city, but that there's no particular reason for it.

I've started drawing the next Valley-01 issue. Guess who's back?

Dealing with the text walls

The infamous text wall, alias: when you have so much text in one page, that you struggle to actually put drawings in it. If you read the second episode of Valley-01 you know what I mean. I felt like the writers should learn to contain themselves and leave something up to the drawings, then I fell in the same problem myself with the EKOenergy script.

The main problem with this script is that is an informative comic. We had to put a lot of informations in it, as well as some developing of a story, and common dialogue scenes. It has been indeed a challenge: I'm still cutting some words here and there to make the text fit the actual space in the page, and we agreed on adding an information page at the end, because we felt we haven't expressed everything we needed to in 30 pages of comic. All of this, in english, that has some of the shorter ways to express a sentence. 

It's harder than I thought to keep a reading flow that is not too boring for the reader. I'm learning to get creative on where to place text, and which angles to use to leave as much space as possible without cutting too much on the drawings. I've had similar issues in some of the Bilateral Comics pages before, but in this case I don't have the easy escape

The ups-and-downs of this job? Valley-01 #3, online from mid-october, is action full. I'm sure I'll miss the text walls as soon as I have to handle full art pages with multiple people fighting.

Speaking of Bilateral Comics, our new short story CODE 991 is launching this week and already got a very nice review - so keep tuned, read it, and let us know your thoughts!

CODE 991 review - Curiosity of a social misfit

Warming up & exercises

While I wait to have the approval on showing off some work in progresses (aside the EKOenergy comic, I'm still working on a graphic novel that has to be kept private until release, sadly), I can still entertain you with my daily sketching!

My sanity is going down the sink while watching Battlestar Galactica, and its characters have become a regular presence in my drawings.

In a similar way, some of Stephen King's characters are popping out again due to "The eyes of the dragon"

And last but not least, I'm still studying on coloring and inking, looking for the best way to improve my drawings. Everytime I start to think that I'm getting closer it ends up in nothing: I gave up on the brush for now, moving on to pens. I don't know if I just get excited by the new look or if I'm actually improving.

As usual, my comic pages effort are always up and readable for free at Bilateral Comics. Second issue of Valley-01 is almost over, be prepared to the next short story CODE 991