3D is the craze.. ugh..

Sorry about the long post time but you guys know how things go.

Here are some quick studies I been working on teaching myself the basics of the insane world of 3D modeling. Long way to go with this stuff, its another world to learn from.

I like keeping the little black dots for Spiro. Some things belong simple, like Tintin.. More Rocketo stuff coming soon.

Best to you all.

MORE STUFF

Onward.. onward.. moving through book 2.. Last night I hit a snag and the page I was preparing just did not go well.. Basically I was stretching the paper and it sort of fell apart! I had finished the page before this one and thought I could squeeze in another, just goes to show you a clear head saves paper..

So today I gave it another try, like I have any other choice.

This afternoon I started painting the page, and took a couple of snapshots of some of the process.

The scene..

Lunaripal, the empty city of the Solarium Men..

Doc Blast's brother shows him the wonders of living inside the Universe of energy.. he asks Doc to join him and the rest of his family..

Doc considers it but turns him down.. The Brother telling Doc how much he loves him, begs him to reconsider..

Then a telepathic transmission from Rocketo summons Doc Blast to an emergency meeting..

Doc tells his brother he can't join him, while brother disappears into the eternity of space time..

And now to lay out tomorrows page and start the process again.

Best to all!

Frank

A quick sketch

Still on book 2, and had to design some aero gunner that play an important role in keeping Rocketo and his men on their feet. In the Lucernian navy there is this insane pilot that for some reason wants to fly in something as crazy as that, I guess he keeps himself happy by blasting away anything that moves. The thinking was to make it look like some horrific giant fly, the type that hang around in NYC in the summer time.

Back to work. The great little thing about quick little doodles like this is that it frees you up before you work on the page, I liked doing the background for it with a piece of paper towel dipped into the paint and just rubbed in. Quick and dirty but it gets the feeling down and softens up the background.

Best to all.

Tune in later in the week for more stuff.

BOOK 2 panels

So we are into Book 2 now, moving right along as they say. Had a bit of a snag these last couple of days. I ran out of paper and so did the art store, and the online store all at the same time. The perfect storm of paper loss. Left me no choice but to buy a Bristol pad and cut it down to size, while I wait for the paper to come in later this week.

The good news is that I got some nice watercolor paper that will be fun to paint on, for a nice cover or a double page spread.

I been experimenting with tearing up rice paper and painting it into the pages, to give it some textures here and there, here is one of the panels I worked it in.

Funny the panel is a recreation of a scene that happened in Book 1, and it was fun to see it in full color as the scene in the book is all in one color. Naturally Rocketo is having a flash back to that important scene with the Ull.

Hope everyone has a great week.

Back to work.

BOOK 2 panels

ROCKETO TRIPTYCH

The first book of the New World was finished on Weds so before I start on book 2 on Monday, I am taking a bit of time to do a little play project I had in my head for a while. I been meaning to do a series of Rocketo Triptychs, and here is the first one.

The plan is to do a Triptych or a poster every time I finish a book, so there should be twelve in all with the New World story as a glue that will hold them together. It should be fun and they will all be original pieces one of a kind to sell.

The Triptych is all hand made, the wood is cut by hand, prepared for painting and then the fun begins.

The piece is on wood and is 25 by 5.

Day by day..

So here I am again, three hundred pages to go, not counting covers and a couple of posters here and there for promotions... one day at a time. Reminds me of running a blasted marathon. Its important for artist to keep themselves healthy at some level, we get so used to sitting around for hours, painting, sculpting, drawing, composing, that we do not see our weight slowly creeping up on us.. the heart machine slowly about to go kaput.

I always been a bit of a runner, and these days I run just to keep the mind from going insane from the thought of having a couple of hundred pages, to ink, paint, color, and write. The run does me good, it reminds me that one step at a time and it all adds up. It's the same with animation, and I mean animation from the old school days, when one had to draw one frame at a time.

Marathon running.

That is all it is. Storytelling and art is Marathon running.. exhausting down the prey, so that it can be consumed for others. Not that I am any hunter mind you I just thought the metaphor was fun.

Anyway, I just wanted to keep you all posted a bit every day, little journal as pages are made, all three hundred of them.

Some pages have very tight story structure to them, others just pop up. its part of the fun of having your own project.

Here from rough storyboard, you can see the ideas being put down, no editing at this point, just pure idea work letting it all come out from the mind to the page.

The next step is to try to get it down in some sort of manner relating to time, rhythm,emotion, or action.. This part is the part that is going to show.. You can see I went off in many directions here, and one can get lost forever. But its called editing. So its good to stop at some point. You can see it was all a bunch of little panels before it opened up to a double page spread.

After that a value study, or a small color rough will get me on my way not to tight I want to figure some stuff out while working on the page, it helps.. so I don't get bored.

Then the final page.

One page a day and in this case a double page spread, but a couple of hundred more to go.

Hope you enjoy the journey.

Frank.

some NEW WORLD PAGES

Excuse the long delay been busy these days. Here are some pages from the New World. In the coming days I will be posting a couple of more. The painting has officially started and now I am trying to paint one page or more a day for a while until at least four or five books are finished, and then off they go to the publisher.

Its about time right.

Enjoy and best to all of you.

OUT OF THE WAY!!

For those who miss Rocketo here is a sketch that I had fun with, Mutants jumping around about to squash you is great subject matter.

Enjoy and best to all of you.

Frank

helps to get out and paint a bit

Here are some quick sketches from a falling apart sketchbook. I love getting my old bag ready to paint outdoors, limiting my colors, picking my brushes, filling my water bottles and then sitting and waiting for something to hit me and say, " Paint me!"

So many lovely moments out there to capture, not enough time in the day.

The little sketches of people I did while waiting for a friend at a 23st. park during lunch time. Everybody was eating, and talking, moving, walking dogs, reading papers, or just sitting staring their past, present or future. Its a nice time to try to capture people usually they are so busy devouring that burger that they forget that someone is sitting around sketching them. I did not have a lot of time and basically just threw some quick gestures down, not really looking at my paper as much as my subject, I find that doing that teaches me so much.

Later in the week I painted one of my favorite bridges around my neighborhood, the cross bronx bridge, I wanted to capture some of that crazy hectic, energy with blocky clouds and little toy cars, everyone is always rushing somewhere in NYC.

Enjoy and all my best

Frank

rice paper drawings

Digging around the studio, I came across a bunch of rice paper that I loved to play around with a long time ago. One can go their entire life just playing with ink and wash on rice paper, it seems that the paper picks up every single stroke of your brush before you bring it down. Anyway, its a bit busy today, but I wanted to just put up some quick playful snaps with the brush on that wonderful surface. Its nice to change up the materials we use as artist, it pushes our minds and talent outward. As soon as it clears up a bit, there is this certain pipe smoking sailor that I have to paint.

Enjoy the day.

Best to all

F.

the Ghost who walks.

For my friend in Italy, the Phantom.

Lee Falk, created two great heroes, the Phantom and Mandrake the magician. When I was growing up in Cuba, there was no such thing as Marvel comics and DC comics, but I did read Popeye, the Phantom, Superman and Mandrake in the papers. So for me those characters have a special place, I thought about traveling to the Skull cave, looking at the great book that held the stories of the past Phantoms, and riding off to fight the pirates that threaten the security of my jungle... well lots of things have changed since those days, the land I used to know is gone in many ways, but the memories that those characters gave me, the ability to open up my imagination and take me to a new world, well that is something that can't be put into words.

I would rediscover the Phantom like a lost friend, or rather he would discover me, his strange eyes would be looking at me while I walked through a newspaper store looking for comics. This was before the day of the speciality comic book store, and comics shared their space with magazines and newspapers which made the store smell great. And it gave the act of buying a comics the gentle feel of an adult nature to a young kid.

So there he was, looking at me.. no eyeballs.. no white.. just flesh.. flesh through the mask.. The Ghost who walks...The Phantom.

I brought the comic book and me without even knowing how to read English at the time. It did not matter the images of the Skull cave were a familiar home to a boy in a strange land.

Excuse the scans, I went and varnish the paintings in the sketch book, forgetting that I should scan them first. So they reflect a bit more light than they should..

Best to all of you and as always thank you.

F.

have brush will travel.

Happy Friday everybody!

One of the ways of relaxing the small marble inside my head is to just take that brush and move it around and see what comes out of it. Free the mind, no references, clip files, just let the colors fall where they will and let the brush and hand do their work. It always surprises me what comes out of it, and what goes in the trash.

The other day I took a walk in the Cloisters a park that is close to where I live and a great place to go sketching and painting on weds afternoons. The flowers have come in strong this year, one walks and the ground explodes with color, a stretch of blue flowers resembles a field of stars. I wish I had the time and the talent to catch that light.

I sat down and painted for a bit, afterwards late at night at home, I painted from memory some of the images from that long walk. Funny how the memory is sometimes more alive than the real thing. I tried to get some of that light in the Rocketo sketches I did later on Thursday.

So here are some ramblings from the mind.

Have a great weekend all of you and thank you for your comments.

F.