Review: Michael's "L-Block" journal

(Note: This is an old post but still relevant. Had planned to write this in 2011 but haven't got to it until now. Going to do some reviews of tools I use for my creativity. :) Just for my personal progress and for fun. :D )

I wanted to start a journal this year (2011) but didn't realize the types of journals there were or even what made up a "good" journal. I had several journals already stored at home and ready for use but I never had the nerve to use them because I didn't know what to write in them. I'm still rather new to this so please be considerate about the comments to my posts. :)

Michael's "L-Block" journal
Ok, it was cheap, I liked the feel of the paper and the cover. It was sort of rubbery/leathery feeling with thick blank paper. I like smooth thick paper that didn't show any see-through on the writing. I used mainly ballpoints and gel pens which worked. It was also on sale for $1.50. It said it was a journal so I figured that I would start using it for my Morning Journal and it had lots of pages so I thought, "Why not?" Big mistake.

The paper was fine (not fountain pen friendly though), everything was fine until all the pages started falling out. lol This was before I knew about sewn pages and glued pages(for you newbies who were like me: look for sewn notebooks, they hold up better than glued). I was getting frustrated about midway through the journal writing one page sheet a day since March. Now I made a pledge near the beginning of June (4 months later) to skip to a new journal in July since this one was falling apart.

You can see in the images the loose pages about to fall out. Luckily I dated all the pages so was able to put them back in order when they fell out. I ended up saving the rest of the pages to be made into a pocket notebook. Need a new cover and to sew the pages together.

Some decoration drawing I did on the interior. I was going to elaborate on it more but couldn't handle it falling apart anymore so I just left it as that. Overall, this journal is cheap and not worth it if you want a real journal. If you like the paper you can just buy it for the paper and make your own notebooks. lol

Took the rest of the pages and plan on  stapling them together to make pocket notebooks or sketchbooks. These are part of my secret project that if anyone was following me on here and dA would know about. lol I was able to make 31 signature of 5 pages each folded. That's a good amount of books.:D Sorry for the horribly quality and the unevenness of the stack. They kept wanting to slide off.

Sketchbook Project 2012 Art Dump - Pt 4

Continued art dump of my pages of my Sketchbook Project for 2012! The last of the series! :D

 If you guys get a chance to go to the tour cities please check out the actual sketchbook by finding and checking it out at one of their stops! ^_~ Also if you have an account and like what you see, please follow me there, here, at dA, or twitter! I will love you forever if you share this!!! <333 See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Added more shots of the cover to show all the sparkly goodness. XD

As a sort of finale, I added the original look of the sketchbook. Not too important but wanted to show you the before pictures. Yeah the before-I-mangled-and-messed-with-the-pages sketchbook images. lol Should have put this in the first post but forgot....XP Anyways, I rebound the sketchbook and added pages. It came with 32 pages and I think doubled that adding some more pages.

Blindfolded Love Progress

Blindfolded Love continues to be my most completed story with an estimated 100+ pages. The whole story is completed but not the pages. I'm a bit reluctant to continue because I feel like the story isn't as strong as it could be in my mind. I keep holding myself back thinking that it's going to improve but I've already held back on it for several months with little to no major edits. I have it all scripted out but wish that it had more impact...

*big sigh* I have made the heavy decision to just continue it as is even though I don't quite think it's quite ready and may be a bit cliche. I know that I'm my own worst critic, also I'll improve as I go on so I feel like I need to stop holding myself back and just get it out there. Hopefully you all will enjoy the story. I still love it but actually never intended on creating their story. They actually were the product of another story which I thought I should do first before the other. XD So in a sense, the prequel, but felt like they had a story they had to be told so I got to it. lol

Here's the tentative first page but probably will change things around a little. Trying to decide if I should do thumbnails or not. I know the photos of pages above are thumbnailed but it was a basic layout as I was writing the script so it only has some of the main events. I already have the whole first 3 chapters blue penciled on card stock...so I probably won't just because the pages I had already done seem to work. I looked through the pages just the other day after a long break and they still flow ok. I'll probably change some of the panels but most of it is how I had planned in my head. I should just get it out there. XD

Is anyone out there willing to be a proof reader? I could use any critique from fellow creators. Maybe I should ask this when I get the pages up....XD

24 Hour Comic Day Lessons Learned

Haha, I know this is way behind but this is the closest I've been to finishing a comic. :D I know it was supposed to be done in 24 hours but I wanted to complete it anyways even if it's several months later. XD I'm almost done, just need to do a few more pages of backgrounds and cleaning up then tone it. It's a relief to be almost done since I now want to work on other more serious comic stories I wanted to do.

Although the story is a bit random and incomplete I'm still happy to have it almost completed. I think I'm sort of getting the hang of creating comic pages. I think I needed to find my rhythm in creating and once I got used to it; I was able to pump out more pages. :D I'm still experimenting with style and just have the story penciled but I plan on darkening the lines in Photoshop and tone on the computer. Although it's not a serious story, I still wanted to practice it as if it were a serious story. I have improved my art I think from a long time ago. I know I still have lots to learn but I'm happy to be able to see an improvement.



I definitely learned a lot when working on this story. Here's a list for my references and maybe would help some of you:

• Plan ahead - I outlined the story mostly and then winged the rest. For future reference, thumb-nailing pages ahead would be a better idea but for the 24HCD it was acceptable for lack of time.
• Layout - I use a lot of word bubbles and don't leave enough space. I do this a lot, maybe need to work on more showing and less telling
• Simplify - I ended up using my normal style because I like it, maybe for the next story I should simplify the characters and story.
• Time - I kind of had to force myself to get pages done. I had to set aside time to draw but once I started I was on a roll.
• Plan phases - Some people can do one page at a time but for some reason I do better in phases. I first did pencils, then added the word bubbles, refined the pencils while editing, then backgrounds and clean up, lastly toning and finalizing. I did each phase for the 24 pages before moving on to the next phase.

I hope some of this information was practical for you. I'm the type who is a bit of a perfectionist and am afraid of changing my mind during a story. Basically I want to get all the pages done and only when I'm satisfied do I move on. Unfortunately, I get nit-picky and hardly get past the planning stages on some if not most of my comic projects. Trying to get better at this but I like to think I'm improving, even if it's a little at a time. :)

How about you guys? Do you have a specific process of planning your comic or do you just go with the flow and write/draw on the spot? How long does it usually take you to finish a comic?

Sketchbook Project 2012 Art Dump - Pt 3

Continued art dump of my pages of my Sketchbook Project for 2012! If you guys get a chance to go to the tour cities please check out the actual sketchbook by finding and checking it out at one of their stops! ^_~ Also if you have an account and like what you see, please follow me there, here, at dA, or twitter! I will love you forever if you share this!!! <333 See Part 1, Part 2, Part 4