HYDRA MANILA PREVIEW PAGES

Yes, this is what I've been cooking up for quite a long time. This is supposedly for my DGMED class that's going to be for MAPROD which is the thesis of our course. It's supposed to be a graphic novel about 100+ pages long in full color and in Filipino. I'll be posting it periodically online at a much more official site dedicated for it. Coming soon!

Quick Synopsis:

"It's almost 2073. Lunod na sa baha ang Metro Manila dulot ng sunod sunod na pag-bagyo simula ng 2023. Ngunit hindi magpapatibag ang mga Pilipino. This corrupt nation has united to save themselves. Man and Government for a better Philippines. Hydra Manila. Isang matatag na rehiyon sa puso ng bansa. Dahil dito namuhay tayo ng matiwasay at maunlad sa loob ng halos limang dekada. Ngunit sa isang bagong bagyong parating, mas malakas pa sa kahit anong bagyong naranasan natin, masusubukan ang tatag na ito. Will chaos prevail? Will the government return to their old ways? This typhoon will affect the lives of a group of strangers from all different walks of life who soon realizes they are no different from each other at all."

I'm sorry if the coloring techniques are shifting. It was only until page 4 when I got the final coloring style I wanted. But anyway, here it is. Hope this gets you excited. :)

"SISIG ROYALE" Process

I submitted a pin-up for our school's paper RAMpage. It's entitled Sisig Royale, a parodical reference to Battle Royale, a very famous Japanese movie/manga for its violent themes.

Here's a breakdown of the process:

I always start with a rough sketch of the scene.

Then I proceed to the detailed rough of the scene.

Inking process

I add some flat colors.

Add some effects to suggest perspective and foreshortening.

Add shadows and shading to add to the foreshortening effects.

I add highlights to support the shadings. Without the highlight the colors will still look flat.

I add the original logo of Battle Royale to which the pin-up is a reference of.

I alter the logo to suggest the punchline as a parody.

I add a red overlay to give it a violent vibe and mood.

I add the final touches to complete the piece.

More Concept Art For Hydra Manila

Concept Art + How DiCi does stuff

So how do I do things anyway? It's quite simple really. With just a graphics tablet and a computer with photoshop in it I'm good.

I start with the composition of the whole piece, imagining how
elements will be placed in the canvas.

I do a rough sketch of the ideal composition, giving things more detail.

We add the final line art, a cleaner and more solid rendition of the previous stage.

I start adding shadings.

I give the figure the flat colors. Sometimes this step goes first before the shadings, depending on my mood.

I add the ambient gradient and primary effect.

I add the highlights, put additional ambient effects and particles to give it an underwater effect.

Concept Art

For my school's MAPROD (this is like the thesis of our course), I've always wanted to do a graphic novel. And since I will do it this year, I will do everything in my power to get my idea approved. I'm already even cooking up some concept art.

Something

Tabi Po

Recently "Tabi Po" Book 1 was printed by Visprint.

"Tabi Po" is about Elias and a whole new concept on aswangs, a famous mythological creature in Philippine folklore. Read all about it at: http://www.tabi-po.com/

I did a solo fanart for Sabel, a character in the story.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was days ago. I actually made this on the day itself and posted it on the net minutes before midnight on Facebook.

I didn't know I can make two full colored pages in a single day. If I can have that much drive into myself I can make a monthly comic. But being DiCi sucks so yeah.

Simon

Most people see Ice King/Simon Petrikov as a joke despite of him being a villain because he's in a cartoon show, but he has a backstory that's better than any Marvel or DC villain.

Revocatas.

This was a poster I made for our indie film for our Video Production class. We will make it available online in a few weeks. The musical score sucks because I made it.

Kind of Hawkeye Aja-ish right? Well, that comic series was a huge inspiration
for me. I love the style so much.

Semi-Unproductive Summer

So my summer is not really going as I want it to. Guess I've been playing Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag too much. I'm going to pass from the DLC to have time for my other projects.

Well, I managed to make a piece for a friend of mine for an art trade though.

Untitled Short Comic. Yet.

So we had this finals in one of our subjects that gave us the freedom to do any art project we liked. Provided that we include the philosophy teachings in the subject (Philosophy of Man).

I cooked something up about existentialism. But unfortunately I wasn't able to finish it on time, and for the first time it's not because of my laziness. It's just that we had a crazy set of weeks these finals and I had my mind on other more important subjects such as Video Production and 3D Animation.

But of course I won't let this story go to waste. So here are the first three pages (out of ten).

1
NOPE THAT IS NOT MERIDA.

2

3

Instead of pushing the story through (that might bring a horrible storytelling) I passed this instead,
still connected to the comic.

Tomorrow I will work on the remaining pages. This will be my warm-up for my MAPROD next school-year. Which is like, the thesis of our course. I'm planning on working on a whole graphic novel. I'm having a story in my mind already so good luck to me I guess.

Auditions

So Whilce Portacio has been looking for comic book artists to work for him for a comic book team here in the Philippines. Well, Whilce Portacio has made quite a name in the comics industry (even internationally) aside from Leinil Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, Steven Segovia, and more.

Basically he's like making a talent search. Like an American Idol for comic artists. Sure it's not the bigtime comic companies but it's a good way to start up.

I went for the positions of Penciller and Inker with these pieces. Actually, that's not really inking anymore. I've moved on to digital inking. But a lot of professional comic artist do that now so it's not a crime. Plus I'm a sloppy traditional inker so this really helps.

Unfortunately I haven't received a reply yet from them. Maybe I wasn't good enough. No biggie though, I'll find myself on the right track sooner or later.

Yeah and I've been thinking of using my CSS and web design skills to revamp this blog. If I ever find the courage to eliminate my summer laziness. Damn it's too hot.

Stuff_1

Yes, I am a Marvel buff. I read a lot of Marvel comics rather than DC comics (kind of ironic huh) maybe because of the story. I heard there are better artists at DC but I guess Marvel just grew on me.

Now this how I draw things now. I used to draw traditionally (as seen in Buckshot #1) but now I draw a pencil sketch and then ink and color them digitally.

Cap'n 'Murica.

But of all Marvel things right now I totally dig The Superior Spider-Man series. I dunno why people hate it so much. Otto Octavius kinda grew on me. I actually felt bad when Peter Parker got his body back but it's all cool.

The Superior Spider-Man

BUCKSHOT

So yeah, I'm most known for my arts and stuff. I do all kinds of art but I favor comics more.

There's me if you see this somewhere.

You can check out my whole art stuff before I made this blog here:
https://www.facebook.com/therealdici/media_set?set=a.660813610598821.1073741827.100000105657664&type=3

I'm well known for my comic "Buckshot" that was supposed to be a comic series but only got to issue one only. But it was a first step for my reputation as a comic creator. The story, script and art may be crappy back then (this was from 2012 I think) but I am very proud of it.

You can read the whole story at: http://buckshotcomics.blogspot.com/

Buckshot #1 cover by DiCi

Buckshot #1 Variant by Trina Laya

I did try to remake Buckshot #2 several times. This was my recent attempt a few months ago.

Hi. Again.

Hi. I'm DiCi. I'm an artist of some sort. I do art in a comic style illustration primarily because I love comics but I do other forms of art as well such as digital art, logo design, typography, brand identity, illustration, painting, street art, etc. Heck, I even do music. I like electronic music and rock, so I love electronic rock. I'm still a student at Asia Pacific College as a Multimedia Arts student so I'm basically in a society full of artists.

This whole thing telling stuff about myself is tiring. This is like, my 4th or 5th art blog.

I've had my deviantart and even behance but I'm too lazy to maintain all of those. Mostly I show myself off at my Facebook account (in which you can add me by the way) or my Twitter (rarely but you can follow me too)

So why create another blog?

Well, aside from wasting space in the internet, I believe as an official artist I should have something to put my shit in. All bigtime comic artists have their blogs, and even indie comic artists too. In short this will be a bias to my comic life (but with some of my other art too because they may have feelings too be offended). Not that I will be a bigtime artist, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared right? lol

So have some unicorn fart, weird art and my comic fanboy nonsense.