I guess its not that I can't draw cities, its that I can't get it to match my character's style. Look here:



This is my rough, but I don't really dig the top panel because its such a contrast to the characters. I need to animate the city a little more to give it a feeling that matches these guys. Back to the drawing board.

Any suggestions for drawing alleys, cities, etc?


BTW, I finished watching Enter The Dragon last night. Its so classic! I haven't seen it in years, eventually bought it for $6.00 on sale.

So while I work on Little Red Riding Hood now that school's out for summer, I'm also thinking of doing a "no-brainer" brawler comic. Its supposed to pay homage to games like Double Dragon, Streets of Rage, Final Fight, and Street Fighter 2.

Here's the logo:

Streets of Blood. I think that totally echoes '80s - '90s action flicks, particularly bad martial arts movies and Van Damme stuff.

My idea is to have health bars at the bottom of each page, similar to the bottom of the screen in a beat-em-up and fighter. I want to have stuff like picking up garbage cans to look for items such as weapons or random food for health. Mainly though, I don't want to put much thought into it, just thinking maybe a couple pages ahead and drawing for the fun of it, kind of a sequential art exercise.

So, I figured out the first page, its a top shot of an alley (I'm using the photo below as reference), and two close ups of the fighters doing classic fighter poses:


Now I'm running into the problem that I've never really choreographed a fight before. I think I'll have to pop in some Van Damme movies, and look at some Street Fighter comics or something for inspiration.

I'll start drawing tomorrow after work, right now its time for bed.

I just finished my final project for my Anthropology class! Woo hoo! I just turned it in, its a Virtual Museum starring the Codex Borgia as its major exhibit. If you're interested in Aztec Culture, check it out:
http://www.jesseacosta.net/aztec
It was a rush design job, which is why it isn't super fancy at all. But I think it works well enough for delivery purposes.

All I have left now is a final exam for the class, and an impromptu speech in my Communications class. I can see the light, and I'm almost there. I can't wait to get back to my art and projects without having homework and other things piling up on me.

As a side note, I'll be on the radio tomorrow (Monday June 16th) at 10:00am on 92.3fm. I did a project for my Communications course on Immigration, and during the project I had to contact several people to interview. One of these people happened to be Olgalucia, the host of Latitud, the only Spanish speaking radio program in Spokane, WA. Well, she wants me to present what I found out on the air. I'm pretty scared, but excited at the same time.
I'm also planning on doing some flyers, web design, and some other stuff for her program as well as a few other radio programs on KYRS 92.3fm. I'm trying to pick up some volunteer work so I have some interesting stuff to write about when I apply for Eastern Washington University. I only have a couple quarters left at the Falls, and I can transfer over.

Alright, so I'm going to kick back for a few. It feels good to finally finish my exhibit project.

College has been seriously kicking me in the rear, I've been pretty busy this year. I haven't been in school in quite a few years, and this round the courses aren't graphic/web design related, so I've dived right into Astronomy, English, Communications, Sociology, Anthropology, Film, etc. While its been interesting, even enjoyable at times, its been taxing on my free time for art. My recent deviations have been sporadic, usually in relation to upcoming events (for example the convention). But in a couple weeks, I get summer off. I was planning on taking a class, but it was full by the time I tried registering. Honestly, its fine by me. I need a breather. So, in about 2 weeks, expect a bunch of new updates and art. So stay tuned friends, more is coming.

Last note, I just received a set of 12 cool grays from Prismacolor, and the flesh tone set from Prismacolor. I'm very excited to use these. Also, with the shipment from dickblick.com, they sent a catalog. To my surprise, Blick Studios has a marker line of their own, supposedly comparable to Prismacolors. The most intriguing part is that they are much cheaper! I've been doing some research, most people have given them near comparable ratings. I'll keep poking around, trying to find out some more info on these markers. I'm pretty sure I'll lay down the money and buy the 96 color set in a month or so.

Time to get back to homework.

I had so much fun at the con this year. Time went by fast. It seriously felt like 3 hours went by when actually the whole day zipped by. It was so fun to talk to people, get photos, draw sketches, and sell my work. I learned a lot from this, and I'm excited for next year.

I was really amazed that people wanted my prints and wanted sketches. One girl came by three times for a Robin print, a Beast Boy sketch (check the photo in my recent uploads), and a Raven sketch. People really dug the Teen Titans stuff. Next year I'll have prints of all the Titans, and maybe some other characters as well.