Alec is one of those characters who always manages to get into trouble. When I sketch him, I try to capture him in many expressions for the many situations he’ll find himself in. Funny thing is that while I’m working on these designs, I tend to forget how to get back in to BlueStreak-mode. My mind just freezes for a moment and I have to remind myself to simplify my art style when I work on that. But while working on Alec I have to remember that details are ok. Working on many styles at once can be confusing sometimes.

So I was cleaning out my computer, dumping files onto old hard drives, and every time I go through an old hard drive I feel the need to browse through it. I found lots of drawings and sketches I don’t even remember ever having done. I also found lots of in-progress art I seem to have never gotten around to finishing. And I realized, hey! I’ve got a sketchblog! Here I go dumping some art over here. I mean, what else is this blog for, anyway?
The image above is from my realistic coloring phase. Then I learned that I much rather do cartoons than realism, so I never did finish that piece. I honestly have no idea how old that is. And below, some sketches from Winter ‘10. I was simultaneously planning BlueStreak and Bounty Hunted, so I did lots of concept art for both. More sketches like these will be available on the BlueStreak CD which I will talk more about next month!

Man, summer went by fast, didn’t it? I was going through some of my sketchbooks and found sketches I did throughout the summer, mostly drawn during plane and car rides while I traveled. And while there isn’t much left to my comic Majesty, I’ve been scripting a new fantasy/romance comic. The sketches of the man with the goatee is Alec, who plays an important role in the story…which doesn’t have a title…yet. But I’m hoping I can make this one all color. I’ve always wanted to do a color comic.

As you BlueStreak readers already know, Inverted Axis is the famous, traitorous celebrity who just appeared in the comic. I wanted to draw him in another style, as I did with Stephanie. I just might have started a series of characters here, but it’s fun to do the “villains” of the comic first.

Stephanie Hill is one of those characters I actually look forward to drawing. My favorite part is the hair. She’s a quirky character, and often moves swiftly, and it’s a lot of fun making her hair flow with her actions. In the next few pages Steph makes a comeback in BlueStreak, so I was in the Stephanie-spirit. Especially because a lot of you readers seem to like her despite her attitude problem. I wondered what she’d look like in my other, less simplistic style. I’m still in the middle of coloring it, but here’s a sneak peek!

Before I say anything, I want to leave a HUGE thanks here to celebrity bodyguard Lee Weaver for the wonderful day at Universal Studios Hollywood a couple of weeks ago. Thank you Lee and Lisa! Please check out Lee’s site…click here!
Well, I’ve been MIA for a while and now you know why. I was long overdue for a Universal and Disney trip (hey, 1 month is a long time to go without Disney!), so I took a little break and cleared my mind a bit. Now I’m back with new ideas, including a new comic…but it’ll be a while until I talk about that.

Anyway, here are some colored sketches drawn on OpenCanvas.

What’s everyone else been doing to celebrate summer?

I’ve been feeling a need to discuss my sudden art style change this past year, because a lot of readers of my comics have been wondering about it. While a lot of you have embraced it, and have supported this “simplified” style, I still occasionally get comments from people who are not thrilled with the new look. Specifically with BlueStreak. This is very understandable. I started out as an “anime-inspired” artist, and people followed me for that reason. Anime is not just an art style, but a trend people are drawn to. And if your comics follow the conventional anime and manga style, manga readers will read it. Makes sense. But I felt like I had no identity as an artist. If my work was posted amongst hundreds of other manga pages, nothing about my comic art would have screamed, “Made by enchantma.” And then I thought if I don’t stand out, what’s the point in all this? If I have no identity as an artist, I can’t feel like an artist.
So something had to change. I had to create a trademark style to separate me from everyone else.
To me, cartoons as an art form is all about style. If you have style, you have successfully drawn yourself away from the pack of standard “cartoons” and you’ve become something more specific. You’re “Hannah Barbera,” or “Chuck Jones,” or “Disney,” or “Shinichiro Watanabe.” You become a separate entity, recognizable, and noticed. That was my goal.
You readers are now passengers in my ride toward finding that style that makes me “enchantma.” I hope I’m on the right track. And I appreciate that many of you have stuck with me regardless of my crazy decisions.
So now to answer all the frustrated questions of why BlueStreak looks the way it does…When I initially starting planning BlueStreak in 2007 I planned to make it a standard manga. But BlueStreak needed more than common art. It’s a project I’ve put my sweat and tears into to create something no one has ever seen before. A comic musical like that never would have worked in my standardized typical cliched manga style. If this comic was going to be different than other comics, it had to be different in all aspects. That’s when I made my decision to create a new drawing style. And that’s when I learned that BlueStreak never would have worked in any style but the one it’s in now. The musical comic also begs the question of whether or not it’s considered “manga.” I don’t have an answer for that. It is what it is, and I hope it’s “enchantma.”
I hope this post clarifies some things. I’m not suddenly “anti-anime.” On the contrary, there are still many hints of it in my art. But I hope those of you who are turned off by BlueStreak’s style solely because it’s NOT anime/manga can forgive me, and perhaps give the comic a chance.

I spent July 4th weekend playing Tales of Symphonia on Wii, and I’m getting quite a kick out of Emil and his dual personalities. I shouldn’t be allowed to be play serious RPGs…I find myself laughing inside a lot when I shouldn’t be. Anyway, I wanted to try PaintTool Sai a little more, and this was another attempt. I hope I get time off again so I can play around with the program more. It’s so rad.

Everyone has been talking about Paint Tool Sai, so I wanted to get in on the action. This little doodle is something I whipped up within a few minutes of installing the program. It’s so fun! I love the watercolor brushes! I think I made a new friend. Well, gonna go back to doodling–*cough*…um, I mean, work. Right. I’m gonna go do work now. Really.

I’ve wanted to do a BlueStreak wallpaper for some time now, but I have so many ideas, it’s hard to just stick to one. I spent some time today trying to come up with some layouts, and next I knew I wasn’t drawing BlueStreak things anymore…So, here are some doodles…which somehow included Lucille Ball…?