Demitasse-lover

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Tell me a little bit about yourself. Where did you go to school, and what extra-curricular activities did you take up? What helped prepare you to become the artist that you are today?

Hello! I'm Demitasse-lover. Born on September 28 *winkwink* 1990. Since we moved a lot when I was a kid, I've been to three different schools until I graduated from high school. Now I'm studying in UP Diliman. You're probably guessing that my course is FA.. well it's NOT. Strangely enough, I'm a BA European Languages student majoring in German minoring in French and would prolly like to learn Italian too.. heck, I want to learn everything.

Extracurricular... my previous school hates art so I ended up just being part of the school paper (as the cartoonist) I was also a member of the student council (but as the one who does odd jobs >.>; I also served as a back-up player (aka lucky charm) for several math competitions. Yes. I'm pretty useless. XD lol

Well.. I guess it's deviantArt that got me into this whole mess. I used to be the type who just ogles at fanart in Japanese fansites. Of course, I drew too but it never really occurred to me to post them in public. When I joined, I learned stuff, improved and so on.

What inspired or convinced you to become an artist?

I’ve always loved drawing ever since I learned how to hold a pen. When I drew, people would always give me compliments and I really took them to heart (and I still do). Also, my older sister used to love drawing and she always taught me how to draw this and that. So I guess those two were my driving forces.

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

A typical day for me is most probably like a typical day for everybody. I wake up, go to school, go home, eat, draw some rough sketches, do my homework, study, then go to sleep. Well, I’ve never worked with anyone before. It would be nice though. I like drawing with other people.

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

I’m working on my first ever webcomic, Death Brigade. Like I said, it’s my first ever webcomic so it’s not really that polished. But, hey, I’m learning. :)

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

It really depends. Sometimes I just draw without thinking. Pretty bad though, not advisable. I end up either not finishing them or actually finishing them but not posting them ‘cause it looks…I dunno.. uncreative? But when I can imagine a vivid picture to draw, I try hard to stick with it. Which never really happens but as long as it looks okay enough then, good.

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?

Well, it’s pretty basic that I believe I don’t even have to explain to anyone. One tip though: As often as possible, do NOT use dodge/burn tool. There are lots of colors in the palette that are just waiting to be exploi—I mean used. Try to experiment with them. :)
My usual media are Adobe Photoshop CS2 and pencil. But I also try out other stuff.

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

Pretty much just live. You can find lots of inspiration from everyday life. You just have to notice them. Besides that, thinking helps too. I’m always in a train of thought, sometimes even when I’m doing something. I’d end up thinking of random situations and imagining how my characters would react were they placed in such situations. That’s pretty much how I think up my short comics.

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

The combinations of the themes Horror, Cutesy, Action, and Fantasy intrigue me very much.

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

I idolize quite a lot of illustrators (be it anime, realistic or something in between) but for now, all I could think of are Sachsen and Obata Takeshi. I like them, they’re very cool.

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

Well, pretty much most of the things I can draw now, I guess.

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

deviantArt, mangabullet, youtube, and drunkduck. Plus, quite a few Japanese fansites of my favorite fandoms.

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

Wisdom eh? Um.. Practice. Don’t give up. Keep an open mind and learn from other forms of art as well. When you’re in a slump, don’t think of something negative like, “Oh no! I’m never gonna be a better artist!” I like to believe that slumps are just things in your head that tell you, “Hey, you’re in a transition stage to improvement so if you want to get through this phase, you better create something better than this.” Heheh I’m optimistic like that.

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

You can e-mail me at purplehalfcup[at]yahoo[dot]com I can’t guarantee a reply though. I’m not very diligent at checking my mail. If you have a dA account, you can just note me. I reply more frequently there since I go to dA almost daily. Or if you have a Mangabullet account, then PM me there, my account is demi-luv.

Do you have any of your art work for sale (comics, prints, or anything)?

If so, for fans of your work can know where and when to buy it? Hmm. I don’t have anything for sale (at the moment). But maybe when I become more used to drawing comics, I might want to sell one. :)

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Is there a character from a book or comic who you wish was a real person, and who you would want to chat with over coffee (or tea of you prefer)?

The thing with my characters is that almost all of them are the type you wouldn’t want to be chatting with over coffee.. Except for one. Maybe I’d like to have coffee with Capu. At least he’s nice. XD

Melvin Calingo aka Tagailog

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Tell me a little bit about yourself. Where did you go to school, and what extra-curricular activities did you take up? What helped prepare you to become the artist that you are today?

I spent my elementary and high school days in Pasig Catholic College (even got a loyalty medal for that haha.) I'm not really big on extra-curricular activities, but I think I remember joining the science club... and oh yeah, I was the artist for our school org in high school.

A major turning point in my comics life would be that time my friends and I decided to draw comics. I was in the sixth grade and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was the hottest cartoon around, so, being fans of the series, we decided to draw that. It was crudely made, folded oslo paper, cut in two, then drawn on with pencil. Each of us made his own comic, then we would swap comics until everyone has read each other's.

What inspired or convinced you to become an artist?

The satisfaction I get from seeing people's faces light up when they see my work is my driving force I guess. Back in high school, I made a crappy "sentai" comic which I drew 1 page a day. I had a classmate who was a big fan of the comic, who kept pushing me to draw more and more pages. It was tough, but rewarding nonetheless.

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

I go to work around 9:30 in Digital Art Chefs in Marikina. We do concept design works, mostly for animation and stuff. It's fun since most of the people I'm currently working with were also involved with Culture Crash comics. It's like working at CCCom again. Everyone in the office is in the same wavelength, so nobody's out of place.

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

I drew Pasig and the fish/squidballs in Kubori Kikiam for Culture Crash Comics, Modus3, an independent comic book, various comic segments for Komiks Atbp, Destiny's Hand 1-3 a manga for Seven Seas Entertainment, Ragnarok comic strips which appeared in the Philippine Daily Inquirer... and others I forgot.

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

When I'm drawing, I always criticize my work as I go along. If you see a flaw in your drawing, then most likely, others will see it too. If an illustration works, it works... if not, scrap it, or shelf it and fix it some other day.

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?

Way back in college, I used to color using watercolor, oil, acrylics, poster colors and markers... nowadays, I color almost exclusively using digital media. I use Photoshop and Painter with the aid of a wacom tablet to color my artworks. I tend to experiment a lot on coloring so if you will notice, most of my old works are colored differently from my newer ones.

Right now, I'm trying to emulate the classic coloring style of the old masters. Basically, I flesh out the tonal values first in black and white then add colors later on. I use a lot of brushes in Painter (too many to mention) but I usually start off with the Graphic Paintbrush and Smudge tool.

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

I try to read more comics and watch films. I barely get to read books nowadays though. I play games a lot... I guess that helps too.

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

Nothing in particular, basically anything that tickles my fancy. A bulk of my work on deviant art are mostly fanart and original works. All if not most of them are manga or anime inspired.

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

Locally, the best illustrators in the field for me would be Elmer Damaso, Kriss Sison and Jhomar Soriano. There are also a lot of illustrators making a name for themselves here and abroad... Gilbert Monsanto, Leinil Yu, Arnold Arre, Gerry Alanguilan and Carlo Vergara to name a few.

My all-time favorite illustrators abroad would have to be Jim Lee (X-men), Hiroaki Samura (Blade of the Immortal),and Masamune Shirow (Ghost in the Shell) among others.

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

I've learned a lot from Elmer and Jio from way back when we were just starting out in Culture Crash. Photoshop and Painter basics, comic panelling, pacing etc... Of course we have our own influences, but we also learn from each other's techniques.

I guess the major breakthrough we thought of collectively in Culture Crash was the blue printout technique in drawing comics. Its just a fancy way of doing the trace over of a rough sketch in a lightbox. In this case, instead of inking over a line drawing, we scan and print out the pencilled lineart in blue ink. There are a lot of advantages in doing this, one, we preserve the original line art pencil when doing the inking, two, we skip the cleanup (erasing) part, since there is no pencil involved, and three, since we scan the page digitally, we can make alterations on the fly in Photoshop, adding or removing elements as we please.

I've worked with a lot of artists and I can say that you always have to keep an open mind when you're around them. A lot of them have brilliant ideas that they are always willing to share.

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

Deviantart[dot]com and Conceptart[dot]org would be the top art sites in my list

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

Keep an open mind and take criticisms in stride. Don't be dissuaded by negative comments, instead, take it as a challenge to make your skill better. Critics know what they are talking about, no matter how stupid some of them may seem to be. The worst thing you could do as an artist (or as a human being for that matter) is think that you are better than everyone else. Strive to be better, and always be humble. You'll end up looking like an ass if you think you are the best out there. Always keep in mind that there is always someone better than you.

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

You can contact me through my DA account at tagailog[dot]deviantart[dot]com or through my email tagailog@gmail[dot]com.

Do you have any of your art work for sale (comics, prints, or anything)? If so, for fans of your work can know where and when to buy it?

You can buy our comics (Pasig 16 and Fresh!) at the Komikon or in Comic Odyssey at Robinsons Galleria

Thanks!

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If it's possible that anything around you could be doodled and painted on, what object or surface (the road, a certain building, etc) would you wish to doodle/paint on and why?

Hmm... If I could draw on anything, I'd do a gigantic comic page on a city, that you can only see on a satellite photo or google earth haha