2020 - 2021

The Bitter Work Breaking Through the Art Block

In due time, I will divulge more detail, but, simply put, I had dropped out of college for a year and a half after my first semester at Spring 2020 at CSULB. What was initially supposed to be quick semester-long academic break turned into a bit of a spiral. Again, will reveal more into an autobiography. Long story short, in July 2021, I decided that the least I should do was finish this chapter of graduating college and achieve the milestone. I originally wanted to enter the Bachelor of Fine Arts program for either pre-production or illustration, but that added another year or so to my CSULB stint. When the time came, I did not believe my portfolio was up to standard and found out I really only had one semester to apply as I would have exceeded my credits.

In the meanwhile, I put pencil to paper whenever I got the spark and made time for it. This page will be pretty unorganized and all over in terms of artwork content and tonality. Pretty fitting for the time if you ask me.

I fucking love Pokémon RAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!! I outlined a full list of a Pokémon I'd have if I was a type specialist, but I had only got as far as the Normal type out of a 18 (apparently Scarlet/Violet's terasteralization counts as a new 19th type called Stellar, like ain't no fucking way dawg). For Normal, I had chosen (in clockwise order from top right) Drampa, Exploud, Toucannon, Staraptor, Zangoose, and Snorlax.

Then, I decided to draw myself a team of Pokémon I'd have if it past the six Pokémon limit and had one of each region. Scarlet/Violet (Gen IX) had yet to release so I hadn't chosen a favorite of that region. If I did, I rock Iron Valiant or Tinkaton. In clockwise order from top left: Incineroar (Alola, 7), Electivire (Sinnoh, 4), Golurk (Unova, 5), Snorlax (Kanto, 1), Blaziken (Hoenn, 3), Appletun (Galar, 8), Scizor (Johto, 2), and Greninja (Kalos, 5).

In 2018, I illustrated a dream I had and wrote down. Then, I proceeded to not make any more of those, despite having written down a few more.

Sudden urge to do another and this is what came of it.

This was a drawpile done on July 31st, 2020 I did with a friend of mine, Nol&. He drew his OC up top (I can't seem to find the name of her at the moment) while I used this an opportunity to at least sketch some of the myriad of OC's I had. I told Nol& to give me a number and it correlated with how I listed the "hundreds" I got. Given the year, these designs are definitely subject to change. I made sure to name who's who above each character, but in case, the chicken scratch is too much: (from left ot right) Havok (War Island), Billy Samson (Random Rumble), El Patron Revolucion and Mesteno (MisAdventures of Flare & Star Man), and Osiris (Massive Melee).

Periodically through these two years, I found inspiration through my homies, facets of their being rendered through my artwork.

Some time in early high school (2012-2013), I wrote down the word, "the herd" in lower caps and began spitballing and seeing how much time I was willing to put into this. That initial concept later became incorporated into another, "The MisAdventures of Flare & Astro." Very likely this group will undergo extreme changes. This drawing was done in pencil and sharpie, as to fully realize what was always words on a leaf of printer paper.

The Herd are a group of mercenaries, led by their boss Vergil McGee (in round glasses with scar). To preserve personal identities, they are required to wear animal masks. The anonymity is maintained throughout despite the mixing of their different personalities a powder keg. Virgil employs them to carry out various deeds while encountering a myriad of allies and foes a like, the most prominent is Vergil's own brother, Maxwell McGee (top right with top hat and monocle). I have not ironed out any more of the narrative details other than the apparent colorful cast of characters involved.

The Herd are as follows: Led by Virgil McGee are Horse (de-facto leader), Hyena (The Comic), Rhino (The Muscle), Sloth (The Aloof), Cat (The Cold-Blooded), Viper (The Techie), and Red Panda (The Brains). The rest of the characters are essentially unimportant now, but considering the archive's purposes, I'll note all those who would have been involved in some form.

Allies of The Herd consisted of a Spanish bear named Revolucion, his steed El Mesteno, The Ninja of Many Fighting Styles, Raptor Messiah, Oakley the comedian, and a pet rock.

Their adverseries consisted of Maxwell McGee, the Talos (left of Maxwell), Red/Blue (split down the middle), The Hooded Hood (with umbrella), The Bunny Man, Gragor (with chainsaw), The 8-Ball of Doom, and a tree.

the herd.

As mentioned before, these two years were mostly filled with a certain ideation and circling of the drain. There's comes what I refer to as "stress drawing" as a means to offset any weight I kept bearing upon my shoulders. Some of which tends to reinforce a bit the self-deprecation. After a while, it gets a bit annoying.

This is another piece of "stress art." If I remember correctly, this was done around 1AM in the morning after a shift at VONS, having clocked out at 11:30pm, while listening to Capital STEEZ. I can't remember which song but if I were a guessing man, it was likely either "Doggy Bag" or "Evol Love" off his mixtape AmeriKKKan Korruption. Again, more of offloading a lot of weight on my head, chest, and shoulders.

As you saw in the 2015 - 2019 page, as part of my Illustration section, I had worked on covers for Elias B's Gerald. We had conversed here and there about me coming in as an illustrator, reimagining his work. In the image carousel here, I drawn two panels as proof of concepts for them to show what I had in mind. I wanted to retain the original design of the characters as they were depicted in Limbo while the world around them depicted as more realistic. This approach was inspired by Bones the graphic novel. Funny enough, never read it. I just think it's neat.

Catching Up

Giovanny P was my childhood best friend and basically my brother. He died on Monday, July 13th, 2020. You've read his name here and there in the earlier pages. We worked on Massive Melee together. When life pulled us in different directions, Gio still wanted me to push myself in my artistic endeavors, often saying how happy he was that I had made it to CSULB after LBCC and consistently nagged me about continuing to draw. When he left, a part of me found it difficult to continue. I didn't have the creative drive for the next month until in August 2020, I felt it important to immortalize that era of my upbringing. That creative pool and bouncing back and forth with Gio and others lit a spark in me I've been struggling to keep alight for over a decade. It's why I created this digital archive. Chronicle my roots and see how far I've grown.

I wrote and illustrated this comic and meant for it to be completed and posted on the year anniversary of Gio's passing. I couldn't finish in time. I received more tragic news ten days later on July 23rd. It spurned me to call off work and finally finish this -- the first personal project I've complete since Gio died. It's rough, but better done. I tend to consider this my magnum opus.

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