Trent Kaniuga Art Blog: 2010

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Twilight Monk desktop wallpaper in the works, new page!

Day 7 of trying to cut out soda completely. Im trying to re-adjust my palette down to the unsweetened tea level, after reading some horrible stuff about aspartame in diet soda. These are things that Id suspected and read little things about here and there for years, but decided that it was finally time now that Im on my holiday break from work.
While visiting Angelas family, I got down to working on that desktop wallpaper Ive been wanting to do as well. Above you can see a rough sketch. Although tonight I finished inks, and ill start painting it tomorrow.
Im also taking on another World of Warcraft card as a freelancing project. So Ill be posting the progress on that as well.
Hope you all had a good xmas!
-Trent

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

power poof.

Finally! Jeez. Sorry I forgot to post last weeks page on this blog. Lots of new stuff over at twilightmonk.com (which has NEVER been late btw) including small rewrites, and a couple of panel fixes. Im on vacation! So Im writing a lot and putting together new pages. Weve got new characters coming up, and we finally get to see whats in the pillar. And its not a severed hand, OR a 2000 year old sandwich. Good guess tho.
-Trent

Monday, December 6, 2010

Twilightmonk page 14

Busy week! Ive added a "linkage" section with banners to twilightmonk.com and roughed out a few more pages ahead of the story. Also Finished inking 2 pages this week. But I scheduled and posted page 14!
Traffic is blowing up over there! Im averaging about 400-500 views a day right now on the site, with 30% return viewers! This is a tremendous growth for the site, and Ive been busy trying to respond to every comment.
Someone asked if I would add a fan art section. What do you guys think?
-Trent

Monday, November 29, 2010

Twilight-acular monk-days page.

Had a couple of days off from work last week, so I scripted out and penciled a new sequence of pages. It was pretty nice to just focus on the monk for a few days!
Also Mondays page is up at Twilightmonk.com today as promised! Its been 2 months now, and I couldnt be happier with the reception that the book is receiving. Ive gotten a LOT of letters, and good suggestions from various people that took the time to write to me. Im really pushing to improve the quality AND put out more pages, but right now Im just focusing on getting ahead, and ensuring that the next part of the story comes out as good as I want it to.
-Trent

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Twilight monk book 1 page 12

How much money would it actually cost to blow up the moon? Apparently Nasa has been bombing the hell out of it to squeeze out some water. But how many earth dollars would buy a gun big enough to shatter the whole thing?

Monday, November 15, 2010

Twilight Monk page 11

I spent the weekend scripting out a new sequence, and fixing a lot of punctuation problems with the existing 10 pages. These are subtle fixes, but everything should be much better now. That tree in the background of the last panel is going to bug me for all eternity.
-Trent

Monday, November 8, 2010

New Monk cover, and page

This week, I did a little "getting ahead" on the book. I started roughing out the next sequence of pages, and double checked some script stuff. I fixed some dialogue from page 7, and overall just subtle little tweaks here and there.
It was nice to have a weekend with no responsibility. For the last few weeks, Id been really squeezing every last minute out of every day for conventions and comissions and overall just being way too busy drawing. I finally just took almost all of saturday off to play Dead Rising 2. Its a fantastic, and yet dreadfully cheesy game. Only thing that really bugs me... and it REALLY bugs me, is the control scheme. Its impossible to pick up the item you want if youre standing over multiple items. And sometimes after a weapon breaks, itll USE the next item in your inventory. So in the midst of a zombie mob, your bat breaks... and you stop to eat a pizza and get killed. This is retarded. Also the vehicles all handle like an RC car.
Overall tho, its a keeper. Every now and then I play a game that I decide while playing... that I HAVE to keep it. Castlevania Lords of Shadow didnt make the cut. Primarily because the design in that game is WAY more broken. That thing plays like Jimmy's first God of War clone. Dont get me wrong, the art was beautiful. But what good is that if you die constantly because of a stupid camera, or because you were supposed to hit a button at a precise moment, but you dont know what you were supposed to do till after youve died? Worthless.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Long Beach Comic Con. New page for the monk

LBCC has come and gone. I met so many great people at this show! I did several commissioned artworks, which Ill post throughout the week here starting today. I was shocked to see old friends like Ruben Martinez who I worked with at JNCO, and Danny Miki, who I worked with on Ghost Rider. How cool is that, that they are still drawing, and doing so well! I met a lot of other artists, and traded books… it was nice to be remembered for my work on CreeD, considering how antisocial I was back in my convention days in the 90s. It was truly a highlight to meet Cheeks (Sean Galloway)… that dood shook my hand 13 times (I counted.) And its no surprise why he is so successful. Hes just the friendliest guy on the planet. Angela dressed up as a ninja on Saturday, and a lot of photographers came by to take pics. I think shes more popular than me now.

For everyone that came by to see me, I am eternally grateful that you stopped by, shared your stories, and picked up some books. Its the first of the month again, and the Topwebcomics rankings have started over. Please vote for me every day! lol. Okay once is nice enough. Thanks! Its the numbered button on the left.

This was my version of Poison Ivy from the show.

-Trent

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Blizzcon original art scan and new Twilight Monk page

Oh Master Yubei... where are you when we need you?

Im dealing with some pretty lame bandwidth issues from my current host. So next week, Ill be getting everything from Trentkaniuga.com, and Novacolony.com moved to a more reliable host. Ive been pretty happy with Bluehost which is where I have twilightmonk.com at. So Im just going to use them for everything from now on.

At Blizzcon 2010, I performed a live drawing session with fellow Blizzard artists on a stage event each day. My contribution was to create this pencil and ink Witch Doctor. The piece took a total of about 3 hours, and the original was auctioned off to the Childs Play charity during the event. But I thought Id post a nice clean scan of the artwork here for those of you that could not attend the show. The whole show was awesome. I believe that this was our biggest year yet. The main hall was so packed that I wasnt even sure if we'd get in to see the tenacious D show... but it all worked out pretty good. As the standing crowd ended up getting shoved directly in front of the stage. Best rock show Ive ever seen... and Ive been to a lot.

-Trent

Monday, October 18, 2010

Twilight Monk page 7

Spent the weekend cleaning up the garage and prepping for the live drawing at Blizzcon this weekend, and selecting original art and books to bring to Long Beach Comic Con the following weekend. I hope to meet many new people, and see some old familiar friends.
-Trent

Monday, October 11, 2010

Twilightmonk page 6 is up

added a cover and new page #6 to www.twilightmonk.com. will continue to post updates on all projects here as well. Prepped final print file for Twilight Monk Postcard for Long Beach comic con as well. Ive been pulled between many projects lately so... short post. As I get back to work at 1:30 in the morning.
-Trent
-Trent

Monday, October 4, 2010

Nova Colony at Long Beach Comic Con and new Twilight Monk Page 5

Check out www.twilightmonk.com!!! Ive been building a new site just for twilight monk.

I havent been able to get ahead on the pages this week because of the sweet new site. So far Im digging comicpress. There are so many plugins and add ons to make the site better that Ive become a bit obsessed with optimizing and adding new features. Currently I need to figure out why its adding an archive to the side of the blog section. I have no idea where this code is right now. Also, Im trying to figure out how to get a realtime connection to my ebay store so I can post originals and have all of the inventory showing in a little sidebar widget. Just have to figure it all out.

Today I finished a nova colony comic strip for Long Beach Comic Con pamphlet. I have a feeling that this will be the best con yet for me! Mike S. from the show has been incredibly supportive in getting passes for Jimm and Angela to be there, and the last LBCC that I went to was awesome! I did a lot of sketches for people and sold a large amount of CreeD imaginary books. I would venture to say that it was the best show id had since the 90s. Cant wait see how the October show goes!

-Trent

Monday, September 27, 2010

Twilight Monk page 4

The power went out from 6 p.m. yesterday till 5 this morning. Because all of my work is on my laptop, connecting to a wireless router... I was unable to upload todays page until now. Its only an hour delay, so I hope that you will forgive me.
I scripted up a few more pages this week with a few layouts. Im trying to keep 5 pages ahead of each pages release just to ensure no delays. Hm... perhaps I need a little gas powered generator too? Well I suppose then I could continue posting pages well after the 2012 catastrophe.
I really wish that I was going faster with this book. Its a constant battle to make time for everything that needs to get done. Im doing a lot of marketing research right now, and started advertising Nova Colony on topwebcomics.com, and Twilight Monk on project wonderful. So we'll see how that turns out. I took out the ad for nova colony a long time ago though (1.5 Months), and it still hasnt gone up. Im guessing they are quite backlogged with ads.
Im sort of learning all about how to do this stuff right now, as I only ever did print comics in the past.
-Trent

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

My earliest influences

Kenneth Pargeon asked me a very good question in an email, and I thought it would be nice to post it here too. He asked...

"I have always admired your style. when you began work on creed you seemed to "create" a style that wasn't the norm at the time (jim lee, mcfarlane, etc.) i was wondering if i could ask you where that style came from, who influenced you as a young artist, and what comic books did you read as a child/teenager?"

Hey Kenneth.
As for my influences and where that style came from... I guess it was a blend of Kevin Eastman, Mcfarlane, Sam Kieth and Disney animation. I had a really hard time getting work anywhere in the industry because my art style back then was so different from mainstream guys. I suppose its become a much more open world in comics these days, because I see so many different distinct styles that would have had trouble getting a chance at mainstream books in the 90s.

My first comics that I ever bought were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles drawn by Eastman. I used to copy that stuff a lot. Then I loved the reaction that I got when I pushed the proportions a lot more. My best ideas come when I first wake up in the morning, or really late at night, when Im in a half dreaming state. I had a dream about some kid with big hair and big feet, and then I woke up and drew him. That was where CreeD came from. I think there was a lot of influence from old 16 bit video game art too. The floating islands came from final fantasy, the frog that turns into a dragon was I guess kind of like "the boy and his blob", the world was a lot like "Zelda, a link to the past". If you look at the booklets that came with games back then, they had more detailed art, and that influenced me a lot. I think i just experimented with a lot of different pens and brushes and techniques until i found one that worked. There were a couple of VHS tapes of guys like Jim Lee and Mcfarlane where they talked about the kinds of tools that they used and their thought process while drawing. Those were inspiring to me at that time.
-Trent

Monday, September 20, 2010

Twilight Monk page 3... and a little color.

Everything seems to be progressing nicely with the book. I was really hoping to have something like maybe a postcard or something for the Long Beach Comic Con, but Im not sure if I can get anything done in time to get it printed. Up to this point, Ive got about 35 pages scripted and roughed out, but I spend about 6-8 hours on each B/W page. Doing a fully painted image would take an additional 15 or so hours. Another reason why I cant do the series in color... I paint and repaint it so much that sometimes I spend 20 hours on a painting.
Currently Im doing 45-50 hours a week at work, and Im doing a facebook game, and Im marketing Nova Colony, and trying to hit the gym 3-4 times a week. WHEW! Youd be amazed at all the little extra stuff that has to get done with a project like this. Making a banner ad for a website can end up taking 3-4 hours. When youve only got 3-4 hours a night of free time... lets just say Im running on very little sleep.
Heres a color version of Page 3 that I did a while back. Ill continue to post these as I have them, but some of these next few pages are being added in, and I dont have time to do them in color. This particular page was one of the first color tests that I did to try and find a style that I liked. In the end, I think it makes the world seem very whimsical... but perhaps tooooo whimsical. The color style will contrast a lot with the violent nature of the book as it progresses.
-Trent

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Get it on the cheap.

Use promotion code "AUTUMN" for a %10 discount on the nova colony book 1 here.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Drawing comics for therapy.

Im nervous man. Its been a long time since Ive really put the pressure on myself like this. Up to this point, Ive written a lot of different scenes for this book, then Ive rewritten them over and over again. But nothing is quite as "concrete" as the moment you put it out there for people to see. Im making decisions on dialogue that Im going to be stuck with. Im making decisions on format that I wont be able to change either... such as the page size, color vs black and white... yeah. Im nervous about committing, but it must be done if any progress is to be made.
The art that I do for my work in games is very different. If I put something together, it can always be reworked. Our deadlines are loose, and someone else makes the final call. But with this comic, Im laying it down, and sticking to it. Call it "drawing comics for therapy"... but I think it will be good for me.
I cant promise 2 pages EVERY week, because we're going into crunch time at work. But Im really making strides with my free time. Im also developing some artwork for a flash game which Ill be posting later on.

I started out thinking that this whole series would be in color but... the problem is that when I start to paint a page, I spend too much time. I think I spent about 15 hours on this page from start to finish. And ultimately I decided that for the future of the book, Id rather post more pages, and tell more story than to release a shorter book. Beyond that, my favorite comics are in black and white. Ill be posting covers, and pin ups as well as poster art and desktops though, so dont worry... there will be some painted stuff coming along for Twilight Monk as well.
-Trent

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Planning for Twilight Monk.

Well, I think Ive mentioned it before, although rather subtle like, but yes... Im planning to start a new series called "Twilight Monk". Im moving ahead pretty smoothly on the actual book, but Ive been torn as to how to release the material.
Originally, I thought Id start a whole new site, and I bought the web domain for TwilightMonk.com. But Ive found that I really like using blogger. The features are really nice, and user friendly, so I can spend less time working on web design, and managing spam comments, and more time working on the actual book.
Ive gone ahead and posted Nova Colony as a web comic on Novacolony.com. You can pick up the first issue, and find cool stuff that is Nova Colony related there. Meanwhile, Im going to begin posting early development sketches and pages for Twilight Monk here starting next Monday.
I hope that you will join me in this journey, as Twilight Monk will be a much longer book than Nova Colony OR the entire CreeD collection if all goes according to plan.
Im sure Ill be fine tuning this development blog as I go, so your feedback is greatly appreciated!
-Trent