Visual Storytelling Class

Tools and Techniques Class. Inking

Getting an MFA in Comics

At the beginning of July (2017) I started my low-residency mfa program in comics at the California College of the Arts. For the next three July's (the current one included) will be a month long intensive workshop. Classes begin at 9 in the morning and end around 7:30 at night.

The first week of my first summer was all about comics theory and craft. We looked at some strange and unconventional comic artists like Dash Shaw and Chris Ware. Focus was on creating thumbnails, studying the visual relationships of panels and the space on the page and how they're used to evoke various sensations of time. Comics are about visual relationship. Text, Composition, Panel size and shape; How they're placed in relation to each other is important in how you want to tell your story. We did some crazy exercises in class but I didn't take any pictures of those.

I forgot to snap some shots of our first homework assignment, an exercise in time. We did 3 six panel one page comics for something that happens in One Second, One Hour, and One Day. It was a great exercise that limited how many drawings we could use to portray three very different lengths of time.

 Our second homework assignment required the use of the following: A child, A red balloon, A park, And the balloon has to come to life. And it had to be 8 to 10 pages. This exercise was about creating a short narrative and playing with panel layout.

Our Third and final homework assignment was a two nighter. We had to pick a song and use it as inspiration to come up with a 8-12 page comic. The first night we do a rough thumbnail, critique it and the second night we do it better. The Song I picked was All along the Watchtower, the Hendrix version.

And the Second Version

Law of the Nomad - the comic

I've begun my journey into comic books, and my first big step is the Law of the Nomad. The Law of the Nomad is an original story created by myself and my brother Lucas Soto. It follows the journey of Makya, a Nomad, which in this world is a wandering law enforcer; he is on a mission to track down and capture a rogue Nomad by the name of Nashoba, whose intentions threaten to upset the current order laid out by the government.

The first chapter/issue is complete. However as I am trying to get it off the ground and hopefully make some money, I don't want to post the whole thing to the internet quite yet. So here are the first few pages, as a taste.

The bird's hair is the wrong color, I just haven't corrected it yet.

Art of Red Scanlon

Red Scanlon is our arcade bullet hell shooter that we made for the GiantROM game jam. It's up and playable here. The current build was made in 9 days by Myself and my brother Lucas who did the coding. Music by TheHamsterAlliance.

Here's some of the art for the game.

The Title Screen

The Main Menu

Episode Selection Screen

Playscreen UI

The Red Scanlon

Bomber

Cannoneer

Chopter

Fighter

Laser Barge

Missile Raider

Sentry Turret

Spearhead

Zepelin

Fantasy Weapon Concepts

I realized that my portfolio was lacking any sort of prop/weapon design stuff so I decided to create some. These are fantasy weapons possibly for my Papercraft game. I wasn't sure which background popped the designs best, so I included two of them.

Portfolio Revamp and some new stuff

Please go check out my new Portfolio. I cleaned up some stuff, trimmed the fat, and organized it so it's a bit more presentable. I've also added some new stuff that I forgot or was too busy to make a post for. I recently moved up to Seattle and that kept me kinda busy for a week or two.

Down below is some new stuff I've been working on. I think I'm really starting to hit my stride with this art style. At the very least I'm really having fun with it.

This is an overworld map that is post-inspired by a project my brother worked on for his class. I wasn't a part of the project at all, but I really liked the idea and felt compelled to express my own vision of what it could have been.

Down here are some of the character/unit types that would be in the game. The Runts are the slinger units, or salesman. They stand on corners and sell the candy. The Nerds would invent new more valuable candy to sell. The DumDums/Bullies are used to take over enemy territory, you send them to corners or streets you don't control to conquer them. Lastly the Peeps are used to boost sales numbers; send them to a territory you control and the value of the candy being sold will double.

Still working on my Papercraft idea, these are some of the bigger monster types you might fight. Silhouette art is some of my favorite stuff to do, so these are very enjoyable to make. This is more focused on creature rather than character.

Papercraft Fantasy Creatures

There be dragons