Itsura Manga: Pat Aguasin

Tell me a little bit about yourself, about your life? Where did you go to school, and what classes did you study? What helped prepare you to become the artist that you are today?

Hmmm... about myself... errrr... I think the word " Otaku " would sum everthing up on that section. As for my life... it's probably the same as most artists... I Started drawing robots ( transformers G1 and Voltes most of the time ) and cars as a hobby, when I was a kid until I graduated grade school, with the help of my uncle.

At highschool I joined a Drawing club which introduced me to manga and anime ( at that time I didn't know what the style was called ). I took up Fine Arts in college but later decided to drop it because of the slow pace of teaching.

A few months after... I decided to enroll myself in an Animation class at Asia Pacific and landed a job as an
inbetweener in an animation studio. A couple of years later... I got my first HTDM ( how to draw manga ) book and
was starting to feel that animation was not my thing and decided to leave the animation world and pursue being a "Mangaka" instead.

It's probably the HTDM book I got a few years ago which led me to the artist I am today.

What inspired or convinced you to become an Artist?

I think "who" would better fit my answer. My uncle when I was a kid, clubmates and "Fujishima Kousuke" at high school and, "what", the HTDM book I got.

What is a typical day for you, and who are the people you work with?

It's more of a daily routine for me... wake up, do my early day routines ( eat, poop and batch etc. ), Stare at the computer monitor ( takes quite a long time ) while deciding on what artworks to do for the day, work on arworks, mid day routines ( eat, watch a movie/play videogames, or sleep ), work on arworks again, evening routine ( eat, go out for a while ), work on arworks again, stare at the monitor again before finally deciding to go to sleep.

There's a couple of cigarette, chat and coffee breaks along that routine.

I work alone... though when there's a close deadline to meet, I call my assistant.

What are some of the things that you have worked on?

I worked on an indie a couple of years back along with my friends called "Chips" which and other works I dare not talk about anymore.

How do you go about illustration, what goes through your mind, from start to end?

I start out visualizing most basic look of the illustration on my head and construct/draft/sketch it on paper/workspace. Then I do leave it behind for a while and work on another artwork. When I get back to the sketch I start fixing any errors and visualize the final look of the illustration ( ink, fills, tones, colors etc. ) before I ink it. Most of the time it's smooth sailing from this point but sometimes it doesn't go as planned and I start fixing errors as a go along.

From start to finish the thing that goes through my mind is the deadline, if there is one, or "I have to finish this".

Could you talk about your process in coloring your art (if at all), as well as the types of tools or media that you use?

I rarely color since I'm not good at color combinations. But if you're interested in toning here's a link on how I
do them :
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/37433079/
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/33824115/

What are some of the things that you do to keep yourself creative?

Go out on weekends and observe people. Play video games and chat.

What is your most favorite subject to draw, And why?

That would probably be Girls. I just find it harder to draw guys. ( not the girlie looking ones )

Who are the top illustrators whose works excite you the most?

Oh!Great!/Ogure and Satoshi Urushihara "Hot and cute girls galore."

What are some of the neat things you have learned from other artists that you have worked with or seen?

Most of the things I learned are self taught though the best thing that an artist told me was "Draw what you want to Draw".

What are some of your favorite websites that you go to?

Errrrmmm..... most of them are not for general viewing...

What wisdom could you give us, about being an Artist? Do you have any tips you could give?

Just as an artist told me... "Draw what you want to Draw."

If people would like to contact you, how would you like to be contacted?

Through a note in DA or my E-mail maki_offline[at]yahoo[dot]com

Finally, do you have any of your art work for sale (sketchbook, prints, or anything) for fans of your work can know where and when to buy it?

There's an artbook I'll be guesting in, here's a link to the details:

http://anystar.deviantart.com/journal/13457748/#comments.

And a couple of stories for:

http://mangaholix.deviantart.com/ http://groundbreaker.deviantart.com/ which are still in production.

Thanks!

Thanks for the feature too.