Rizian Art

Hi guys! It's Monday! For some people the worst day of the week, but for me it's one of the most cool days, so let's get to the business! Today I'm going to write something about a pretty important influence to me and my art, his name is Asada Hiroyuki, a Japanese Manga artist, he's currently working in the manga series Tegami Bachi for Shueshia, Inc.

Hiroyuki Sensei's Desk and Tegami Bachi artwork. Source: www.asadahiroyuki.com

The feeling from the art he does is really amazing when you see his art you can feel a mix of sadness and a deep sense of good energy, his art is incredibly detailed and has a incredible composition on it.

His remarkable art makes him (for me) one of the best Mangakas in Japan, he has been even linked to Takeshi Obata and Death note's artwork. But overall, all his manga series were serialized in the Monthly magazines from Shueshia, inc.

I met his art when I read Tegami Bachi for the first time, I said: "Wow, this guy has a pretty clean art, it is really impressive!" Well, his inking skills were the things that got me in first, but now I look at his coloured artwork and I went really crazy, he has a powerful concept around colour. He usually uses a mix of warm and cold colours, when you see a yellow character or a red painted character from him you could somehow see some cold aura around that character. That's pretty enigmatic and one of the things that captured me from his art.

Boy and a Raccoon by Asada Hiroyuki. Source: http://gallery.minitokyo.net/view/565936

He's got a knife by Asada Hiroyuki. Source: http://gallery.minitokyo.net/view/566052

The respect I got towards him is massive, in some way he made me think "God, I want start my own Manga series", and obviously he has influenced my art. I invite you to see more from his amazing artwork on his Official Website or just read some of his Manga series like Tegami Bachi or I'll. He inspired me to become a better artist each day, when I see his artwork I think a lot about what I'm going to do next to reach somehow his level, that's one of the Manga artists I want to know someday, for sure!

Thank you a lot for reading this article! I hope this have been useful and interesting for you! Remember I'm writing a new each Monday and uploading some cool draws and resources on my Facebook Fan Page. Have a nice day!

Previous Posts:

Tutorial: Draw Women Hair
12 Tips for Webcomic Beginners
Tutorial: Create Scenery/Background
How to get used to your Tablet
Improve your sketch abilities in 10 steps

Hi guys! It's been some few days since the last entry, I know today is not Monday, but I wanted to write this  article about my thoughts on the new Manga Studio 5 from the company Smith Micro, Inc.

The first thing I thought when I opened the program was: "Whoa! It changed a lot from last version, such an amazing change and has a nice and clean interface. It surely looks more friendly". And well to be honest what I thought on the beginning is becoming better and better while I'm testing the tools and the markers.

Most of the content is still being the same, but in the tool bar you can look at the new brushes preview, get more information about the pressure, density, texture and other cool features. The brushes look even better than in last version. It feels more like drawing on a real paper sheet with a real pencil, so that's one of the things that really got me, because I do a lot of sketches, so I need a good pencil tool to doing it, for now I can say the pencil tool in the new Manga Studio 5 is the best one I've ever used!

What I did not like in Manga Studio EX 4.0 was the horrible interface, It looked like some old drawing software, the tool bars were not as clear as the new ones. The program looked more for an engineer rather for an artist.

Here are my pros and cons about the new Manga Studio 5:

Pros:

- The pencil tool has a really good feel, it is like using a real pencil on a real paper.
- The brushes are more organized and have a little preview, so you can compare with others before clicking on one.
- Attractive interface, it looks modern and soft, the program looks less stressing with this new interface.
- For me that I run the program on Windows, it is a really fast program, the older version gave me one or two problems when the screen was frozen, or I couldn't use Photoshop and Manga Studio EX 4.0 at the same time.
- The preview of the tones is really awesome, you can see the tones clearly and separated in themes.
- There are some cool resources, the new poses and beginner's assistant are really good for people to get in touch with the program.

Cons:

- No font preview, that's really a shame, you need to pick and pick a font to get the one you want, not like in programs like word that you can see a little preview.
- It is harder to find the "Panel creator" or the tool to put panels. I had to search for a tutorial on Youtube for this, you can see it here.
- I don't know if it is only me, but the program looks a little like Paint Tool SAI.
- God please, It is really addictive!!

So for now that's my view about the new Manga Studio 5. I hope you liked it, if you have any thoughts about your experience in this new program I'd love to read your comments! So, that's for now! We will see soon on Monday with a new entry! Have a nice Weekend!

I invite you to read my Webcomic Ereggia, I'm doing this Webcomic using Manga Studio!

To see more drawings from Manga Studio 5 or other related artwork from Rizian Larc you can take a look to the Facebook Fan Page or Twitter Account!

Previous Posts:

Tutorial: Draw Women Hair
12 Tips for Webcomic Beginners
Tutorial: Create Scenery/Background
How to get used to your Tablet
Improve your sketch abilities in 10 steps

Hey guys! It's been a week since the last entry! Now this one will be a Tutorial about Drawing Women hair! I'm going to show you some basic shapes, where to put the hair, how hair works and how to sketch in a easy way the movement of hair. Let's do this!

For first step in this tutorial we will need to draw some faces, so we can start to work on this:

OK, there are our faces, front view and side view, now in the second part we can see in blue lines the marked area of hair source. This is a guide about from where the hair comes from. so let´s continue with this:

So now in the Third step we have to make some lines outside the head to mark where will be the limits of the hair (Points 1, 2 and 3). Now in point number 4 look at the arrow, this will be the source point of your hair, from this you can start drawing the limits of the hair as seen on the Fourth Step. Always try to add lines starting from point number 4, always depending on the place you've drawn it, it can give more realism to the hair, so we can start to add more lines and detail the front part of the hair:

Now at the Fifth step we must add a line where the front hair will be (point 1) and like I said before, adding more lines in the hair direction (point 2) will give more realism to it. In the Sixth step we must add the lines to detail more the hair, always remember to guide yourself by the source point. The number of lines is always up to you, but remember to detail the hair as most as you can to give it more realism.

And for finishing, let's take a look at some Hair movement.

Always try to remember the direction and the forces of the wind, that's one of the things that affects the most when drawing hair comes out, it takes some practice to understand some movements and adding dynamism to the hair you're drawing. Always take some references about hair, if you want to try something weird, do it but... it can sound a little bit boring, but try to learn the most normal hair styles first, so you can use that to create your own and add more personality to your characters.

I hope you liked this tutorial! I'll be back with a new article the next week, so I'll be on Social Media adding some cool things and some process about my related work! See you soon!

Previous Posts:

Composition and Dynamism in Scenery/Backgrounds
Tutorial: Create Scenery/Background
How I've improved in 8 months
How to get used to your Tablet
Improve your sketch abilities in 10 steps

Hi guys! It's been a long time since I wrote here in the Blog! Now with the new changes the new era of the Blog will begin with this new entry. Today I'm going to give you some advices if you want to start your own Webcomic or you actually have one but it needs some kind of boost to become better. Here we go!

1) It's your story, your drawings, take it very serious! It can be the internet, and most of the people become famous in internet doing some stupid and weird things, this is not the same. Even if you're working on a parody you must take the job real serious like a published comic too.Your watchers will appreciate it and they will respect you and your work.

2) Copying is the worst thing you can do, it can ruin your name, even if it is only in internet, as I mentioned in the previous post, you can do parodies, but you can't copy a previous one, that's really boring, redundant and come on, if you want to do Webcomics what you need first is CREATIVITY. Remember that Google is not stupid, original artwork always comes up first in Web searches.

3) Make the webpage of the comic really simple, do not add all the buttons and gadgets you found on the internet, the less elements you have, the most audience you will capture. PLEASE, for god please, try not to add music to your Webcomic, for most of the people it can be really annoying, usually readers love to read comics by listening their own music or concentrate in silence.

4) If you're taking a break make sure you're telling to your subscribers or followers about it, it's your responsibility to look after those people who are waiting week after week for reading your comic. In the worst of the cases you will get a lot of angry people spamming your e-mail and losing a lot of readers.

5) Make clear the rules since the beginning, if you're saying you will post one page a week that's what you're going to do until the end of the story, do not start to act like "oh... I'm bored, I think I'm ditching the Webcomic this week so the next week I'll do it, they won't notice" You're wrong dude, they actually will notice. Follow your own rules, make a contract with yourself.

6) Use Social Media to get in touch with the people who are reading your Webcomic, they will receive the news and updates and you can get some cool feedback, even a "hey bro, your comic is really cool I LOVE IT!" that's the most cool thing to read, believe in me. Do a Facebook fan page, a Twitter or Deviantart account, so you can be in touch with people in different ways.

7) You must have a special communication with people who are the followers of your Webcomic series, try to start a conversation trough Facebook like "Hey guys, what do you think about the new character in the new arc?" or something like "Hey guys, here's a sketch from the main character". You can always use promotional images for Halloween, Christmas or San Valentine. Always try to make a good interaction!

8) You can use ads and some other ways to earn money with your Webcomic, but remember always not to have a website packed in ads or some weird promotions, that's incredible annoying, do it simple, put like one or two ads, do not disturb people when they're reading your comic, if they want to support you I promise, they will do, so be patient, you can earn money if you do things properly. Some people use donation buttons, sell official merchandise and things like this, be really creative about this, but do not spam people.

9) PLEASE, I mean, REALLY PLEASE, do not use Comic Sans when making the dialogues for your comic, It is a really ugly font! Come on, you must have some sense of taste, try to imagine this: You bought your favourite Comic in a local store, so you open it and you find it all in Comic Sans. If you can, try to delete that stupid font from your computer right now!

10) Experiment and try new things, that's one of the things I love the most in Webcomics, there's people using animated gifs or a incredible interaction between the Webcomic and the website, it looks really incredible and motivates a lot when it comes to read it, it is a different experience, try to imagine what do you want to do and get some help from a website designer or search on the internet for some cool resources for your Webcomic page.

11) Write the information about your comic, a description, a genre, a introduction to the main characters, the concept and if you can, try to link your work, if you have a Blog link it too! People usually loves to know a little things from the person and from the art of the person who writes the Webcomic they like.

12) Get some allies! Do you have some friends who have a Webcomic too? Link them to your page and tell them to link you too in return, you can get some extra visits, you both are winning audience trough this alliance.

Well, this has been all for now, I hope this was useful for you guys, remember that I'll be writting a new entry each Monday, so please stay in touch! Have a great day!

Previous Posts:

Composition and Dynamism in Scenery/Backgrounds
Tutorial: Create Scenery/Background
How I've improved in 8 months
How to get used to your Tablet
Improve your sketch abilities in 10 steps

Hey guys! It's been a long time since I wrote in the Blog, that's because I was working in some changes and trying to add some organization to this website, but do not worry, everything's for improve the site and make this Blog a better place for all of us.

Some Changes:

Actually the Blog is currently written in English, but you can use the Translate button that is located in the lateral bar if you want to change the current language to yours. I must say is not a perfect translator, it is a Google Gadget, so do not blame me, oh well, you can, hehe.

Posts in this Blog will be done 1 time a Week, that means In a week you will have a new post, maybe a tutorial, maybe something about inspiration, some process about writing or coming up with some good characters or a good story, I don't know, you can always use the Contact section if you want to ask for an specific topic, or want me to extend a topic in the Blog.

I've added some cool pages to the section "Utility Links", so you can check the pages that are included there, those helped me a lot and I think can help you too!

I've been sharing some cool things to the Facebook fan page, like Sketches, process of my work, some cool videos and tutorials I find on Youtube or other pages, manga recommendations, news and other things! So you can stay tuned to get all the action!

Future Changes:

I'll be adding a section about commissions, if you're interested in one, you can see there the prices or maybe some sales I will do sometimes, but for now this is in Stand by because I'm working very hard on the first chapter of my Webcomic series.

If it is requested I would think about creating a Shout box or something to chat directly without leaving the Blog.

I'll be adding a link (soon) for my Webcomic Béance, It will be located in the lateral bar, the site is still under construction but when it comes out I'll be adding the direct link so you can read the Webcomic with no problem!

So, that's for now, there will be some other changes, it will depend on the things that happens from now on, you're owners of this site too! So let me know if you have something to spare with me to make this a better site! Thanks a lot for reading and supporting Rizian Larc.

Hello! Today I come to talk about "how to create a good composition of a scene", rather than a technical process I will tell you some little tricks and tactics to use when creating a scene and make it look more natural and dynamic. At the end of this short article you will have some basic tools to highlight items and make a difference when making the final art.

Let's get started!

To start I should mention the importance of the composition in each scenario, it is always important to see and bring out the elements in the image that we are developing, the aim of our drawings are not to simply illustrate with a good finishing touch, you have to know that a good image or piece of art always communicates something, and have a way to read it. Images are like books, have a beginning and an end, a walk on one side and the other salts, it is important to know which are the elements we want to highlight, the other elements that simply appear to narrate the scene and one that without them the scene just will lose personality and grace.

In the picture I posted at the top of this article we highlight as important elements to the two characters who appear in it, as they have a coloured subtly highlighting over the background, they have a completely different texture to that used in most elements that make up the image, it is also the place, the trees, the river and the sunset that through the colours and shapes show in the background where they are located these two people, and Finally there are the rocks, twigs, leaves and small lumps on earth because without these small elements that harmonize and give life to the image, this would not have the same impact.

There is a small visual theory which have guided me a lot since my college years, is on the visual weights and is called the Gestalt theory. To understand how it works I invite you to see the graph below:




The theory shows the trend of what is more harmonious to our eye and in which space you can put more or less weight, in fact if we put too many elements in the left up corner our image can become unstable and cause a nuisance eye of the viewer. A simple way to check that our image is well balanced is reversing the mirror image as to find possible errors:


There are some drawing software that have this option already built, it is actually very useful on the subject of the composition, because when you invert the image it will light some occasional little mistakes that can end up ruining our image and we never will realize. It is always important to also look at the elements within the crosses, this gives a complete view of the intervention of the elements and the dynamism, a part of which play with the weights always good but following the basic rules above all, you must first know them, understand them and end after break the rules.

I have prepared a video in which I made a quick sketch of a scenario in which I draw enough lines to give my shadows and highlight small features as I go along, I invite you to know my process:

Hello! I feel I have been years since I wrote a new entry on the Blog, but since we have spent the holidays back to work and make our own, hehe. How have you spent in the new year? I hope this year 2013 are the best for you and all your wishes and expectations come true. Well, because we made a small wave can get into the issue, the issue today is not a tutorial, nor any classification of characters or drawing lessons, today I come to tell you about a personal experience in the field of drawing.

"Carlos, how ~ # @ # & * you did to improve so fast in 8 months? I've been drawing since two years ago and I do not see any improvement."

This question came from more than one person personally when I uploaded the image you see above to my Deviantart, my response was simply: "I do not know, maybe I was doing what I liked to do." But beyond that simple and easy answer, the question of "why some have such a drastic change in his drawings in such a short time and others not?" And the research I could find a better answer to the question that I have made some close friends. I will tell you:

I've always wanted to do a manga, but I was not drawing very well, in fact one of the things I did is what many who want to learn how to draw manga do, I sat at the computer, open the browser, and type "course to learn how to draw manga on-line", at first I will not deny, I kept drawing Naruto, Ichigo from Bleach or some characters from my favourite series, I enjoyed it very much, and I will not deny that I was feeling like "Damn, I'm a @#~^* god". Gradually I realized that this was not going to lead me anywhere and that if I wanted to draw my own manga I should make my own characters, and in fact I set the task to do, holy @#$~* that were horrible, I look and gives me a bit of nostalgia but also some laughter, I will not deny it, but I had the motivation to someday make my own history and I did not give up, so I thought and thought through my inspiration and things I could create from my mind after taking some spare time.

When it came time to do my first story I self demanded enough, but at the end I did not like what I wrote and it was archived as a reference, however this was not the first "slip" I had, I filed approximately four stories and more than 20 characters next to them, for some it is a very small number, but for me it is something that fills me with pride. But there is something that I always key feature quite the time to talk about "how to improve" or "create a unique style" ... those are the references.




Do you have an account on Deviantart? Well, actually there are many similar sites, I have a Deviantart account because I think it is a very complete Web with a large audience and also has so many artists that have helped me in different ways to become better each day. The importance of joining a social network is that you have the capability of upload your pictures, perhaps receive criticism, get some motivation behind a simple "Like" or "Favourite", also make references to artists you admire, meet new artists and techniques that can surely improve the one you're currently using, find another good tutorial and especially to define your style through everything you've seen.

When I took some references I found on Deviantart artists gradually felt the confidence to come up with something more, so I took a pencil and began to create, when I had realized I had my first "20 Watchers" in Deviantart then 100 and so on, regardless what to draw, I always tried to do better than before I did wrong line in a drawing, now was a perfect line, but can not draw scenarios were drawn today, could not draw women, also I can do, I have even learned a thing or two about colour, but none of these things are the work of one or two nights, it's hard work and perseverance, everything is learned in time, the style of each artist develops knowledge process itself, not knowing the other process.

When I made up my mind that I must enhance my own process, my own methods, that's when everything became easier and stronger, I held a more obsessive drawing, then I could say "This is what I always do" From there it was just self growth that took me some way to where I am now standing. Everyone has a different process, many take longer than others to adjust to his style, others take less time, and not bad either case, we are all different people and have different objectives, it is more than normal for these things to happen, especially on something as subjective as it is art.

"Patience, patience, patience ... know yourself, study your processes, close the book for a second and try to accomplish things through your own understanding, is my advice."

I hope you have enjoyed this post, I also like to know your experiences on this topic, do you have any skill to improve your next picture? Guides you any special technique? Any artists to share? Come on, do not be shy! With that I say goodbye, but not before to tell you I've been very active on my Facebook page, or Twitter, so I recommend you stop by there as I will also be sharing interesting things I usually find on the network, Greetings! Happy new year!