A few things that inspire my work. Hope you guys enjoy the clips and get a glimps into what makes me tick :D Peace :)-Gio

Ps. This is open for discussion. :) If anyone has any suggestions to some movies or anime I'd love to hear em :) Oh I should've put Rhaxephon! lol Great movie :) Very deep and complex :)

Matrix ( amazing fight scenes that I've only seen in animes. This movie is incredible becuase it made the impossible possible on screen :))

The Maxx ( for depth, dark style and psychological depth)

Fearless ( amazing action pulled off by normal man that seem almost superhuman :))

Rumble In The Bronx (Jackie Chan's use of environment)

Trigun (stylized action, extreme facial expressions. For Example KNives twisted smile and wide one eye)

Sin City's mood and amazing use of blacks and whites ( Plus I really identify with Marv. :))

Ghost In a shell ( clever complex storylines. This is a scene from one of my favorite episode of Standalone Complex, Don't know the name of it, but the Major pulls off a really great bluff and puts on the most amazing poker face I've ever seen lol Brilliant :))

The Protector ( more great action :) And he really loved those elephants so that made it an even better movie. When someone has a good reason to fight against overwelming odds. It makes for greater entertainment. This movie proved that :))

Spiderman 2 ( this movie taught me that making the audience feel attached to the villian in some way, makes for a greater impact to the audience. Hence my character, CHester Cheshir Ramin :))

Akira ( Akira is what inspires me to try to put as much detail into Eternal as I can. Akira was the type of manga that was a manga but treaded on the realm of reality. This is the type of manga I hope to achieve :))

Pulp Fiction ( and other Quinton Tarentino movies. I get alot of inspiration for dialogue and humor for Eternal from them. Making the characters engage in normal casual everyday conversations and humorous situations helps establish character and also helps involve the audience more. It helps the feel for each charaacter as well. It can make a character likeable or very UNlikeable lol)

The Departed by Martin Scorsese ( Scorese is an incredible film maker and amazing storyteller. The ending to The Departed was very unpredictable. And the whole movie had a great gritty realistic feel to it. Defenitly not for kids lol But if you're looking for an incredible story this is the movie to watch. Goodfellas was great too :))

Romeo And Juliet ( This movie showed me that involving the audiences more basic emotions Love, Vengeance, Hatred and others will make the story even more engrossing. Conflict is key. Overcoming overwelming odds makes a great story. And also, ending with a twist is a way to shock your audience. Done well that is. Killing off the main characters without letting the audience feel for them will make them feel more cheated than sad.)

Bleach ( I believe BLeach is a great achievement in anime. It could have just been a strictly Japanese culture influenced manga and anime. How did Bleach stand out from the rest? If involved a different culture in the art direction and story elements. More specifically Mexican culture. Dia Del Muerto anyone? lol Hueco Mundo (Hollow World) Arrancar ( To Rip) A perfect mixture of Spanish and Japanese elements. And plus Ichigo is going through what we all go through. An inner conflict to control his dark side. We all go through it, and that is why we feel more attached to him. Also, Bleach's Manga ink style are an influence to me as well. Oh and also Kenpachi Zerachhi is an influence to me. His detail facial expressions have showed me manga can be very detailed as well as twisted to show a sense of bloodlust and insanity.)

Session 4, one month and 2 weeks worth of work, is finally done. ( yeah I had to say how long it took becuase this Session drove me to the brink of insanity and back lol) It's done and ready to read. Remember, Eternal reads from Right to left.

On Sunday I was at AWA. I saw Fred Perry for the second time. Last year Fred didn't take me seriously at all when he saw Session 2 of Eternal. This year, he actually spent a few minutes look at each page of Session 4! lol Even gave me some actual advice this time! lol ( Sorry but telling me to explain things with pictures isn't really advice to me lol) This year he told me a really good anatomy book to use for the fight scene that's gonna happen in Session 5 ( 3 way battle comin soon ladies and gents! Boning up on alittle Bourne Ultimatum, Fearless, Forbidden Kingdom, Ong Bak you name it I'm usin it! lol Should be crazy and overthetop! :)) Fred told me he uses this Burne Hogarth Dynamic Anatomy book for his own work. So yeah, I got the book and I'm practicing from it as we speak to get some very stylized poses for Session 5 :) (not that there isn't any in Session 4 mind you :))

Steven Cumming was at AWA too, and he looked through Session 4. He told me I didn't overdo it with the tone. Which has always been a problem with me. He even told me I need to add a little tone on the background on this one page to guide the eye downwars easier. So yeah. there's a few fixes to be made, but nothing too major. Oh and there's a few typos, but nothing horendous. I'll be making the fixes as soon as I get through designed the environments and character designs for the new characters that will be showing up in Session 5. Banta Hue, a pivotal character in Eternal will make his first appearance. As soon as I finish mapping things out for Sesson 5, I'll make the fixes.

Well here's session 4 I just completed. Hope ya'll dig it. Peace :)-Gio
[url]http://www.drunkduck.com/Eternal_Session_3/index.php?p=438438[/url]

PS. Here's a sample page to let you know what level of Detail I'm going for:

Well I was on Haitus for 2 weeks. I told myself I'd rest for two weeks. But I didn't get much rest lol First I got a request to do a CG for someone. He wasn't payin me for it. He said he had no money he could give me. So I made a deal with him. I'd do the CG for him is he put 2 banners of mines on his Myspace. He did one better and told me he'd try to get them on his friend's Myspace pages too. So I figured I'd give it to him. Just becuase it was for no money, I still did my best on it. If it's my work and my name is attached, it has to be my best. So here it is :)



Also, my cousin Danny heard I did art and stuff. So he wanted me to do a logo for his Paintball Team. His team's name is Team Splat. He sent me some reference material to work with. He told me to get creative. So I figured I'd go all out with it. Especially the paintball gun design. I wanted to give it a Trigun look. Here's what the finished product looks like:



I drew alot of influence for Cheshir's background, story, and also design from different places. His smile is from one of my favorite cartoons and 1989 movie Batman and Batman: The Animated Series. His screwed up hair style ( notice on the upper right hand side, there's kind of a chunk of hair missing) is from the Samuel L. Jackson character Mister Glass in the M. Night Shamalan movie "Unbreakable". And his plot twist is from the a movie as well. I don't want to say which movie, becuase then I'd give away his REALLY screwed up plot twist I have comin up lol I'll just say it was a Russel Crowe movie. Really sad movie.

So yeah, I've been really busy. The reason I was on haitus was becuase I didn't really have a clue what to draw. Also, I had no drive to draw at all. I guess every artist needs alittle time off. I still don't know what to really do for my next CG. I have somethin sketched up, but I have no clue if the composition is right. I really need to sit down and read alittle more Andrew Loomis books. It'd be nice if someone was here to explain it to me. Oh well, I'll figure it out like I'm figuring everything else out.



Also, after two weeks, this past weekend I've started workin on Chapter 4 again. So far I have 4 pages completed and 11 sketched out. I'm going to keep sketching till I finish the entire story for Chapter 4 I've typed out. I haven't scripted Chapter 4 like I did for Chapter's 1,2 and 3, so unlike those Chapters, I don't know how many pages there will end up being for it. So far, it looks like it's gonna be between 24 to 30 pages. I'm to the point where the battle between Dora and Wilks' henchmen is just beginning. On the 11th page I have sketched out, Wilks just gave the command to kill Dora after revealing who she is, Ramone is pulling his switchblade out, and on the four panel Chino comes up from behind Dora and gets her in a headlock so Ramone can stab her. So far I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out. Here's a few sketches I have so far, including a look at the Vault Satellite activating:






So much for haitus lol I guess I can take a short rest after Chapter 4 is finally done. My real goal is to get the first book done. I'm not too sure if I want to try to submit anything to any company. Right now I really suck at staying on schedule with this. Maybe it's becuase I'm doin all the work right now. I don't really wanna ask anyone else to help with this, becuase I'm afraid it'll loose it's look somehow. Eh, I don't know. Right now it's slow and steady wins the race for me. And right now I not so much worried about quantity of pages, as much as quality of pages. It may take me longer. But at least it'll be worth the wait. I don't know when Chapter 4 will be finished. But I know one thing. I can't WAIT to be done lol Oh here's an ink I did while on Haitus for CHeshir, one of my characters that shows up later on in my series. I got the idea for inkstyle from Sin City. Very Noirish :)



Special note: I just wrote another paragraph of stuff and this stupid LiveJournal deleted because I pressed a random button combination. Screw it lol I'm done! Not writin no more right now. I'm gonna end this entry and end my day watchin SOUTH PARK AND FUTURAMA! lol Tomorrow I'll get up early and get back to work till 5 oclock, right on schedule. Or until I finish sketchin 3 more pages. Whichever comes first. Peace!-GIO aka Ma Wan Li

Finally got my new site up. Not ONLY do I have my new site up, I made a presentation video of all the content for my site! :) I think the music makes the video cooler, I don't know. Maybe it's just my taste in music lol Somethin for everybody. For the hiphop lovers and the anime and manga lovers. Even if your just an art afficianado ( I'm not even sure I spelled that right, is it afficiado? Eh. That's gonna bug me all night now lol) I WAS gonna use the intro song from Deathnote. The intro with Mello in it and the guy screamin his guts out in the song. I'm not really a big metal head, but that song made ME wanna scream MY guts out too! lol Very cool song :) But Talib Kweli is just as good :) Very Epic song. It's got a message to it, great instrumentals. The way hiphop should be :)( No LIL WAYNE or 50 CENT will EVER be accompanied with anything I do. I believe in music that takes skill to do. Have you ever tried to Freestyle? Not as easy as they make it look. Trust me :)) I guess that's why I dig Samurai Champloo so much :) I loved how they mixed on hiphop culture with Japanese culture. That's two very great cultures in one show! lol :)
Why am I talkin to much? Well I'm feelin very talkative tonight. Actually I'm talkative anytime I type on LiveJournal. It's like a journal right? lol You're SUPPOSED to type stuff like this lol

Anywaayyyss, enjoy the vid and my site! Peeeaacceee :)-GIO





Content Preview Video For 1000 Degrees website

Got a page done for Session 4 of Eternal. Inked, lettered, toned everything. Took me forever to pencil this page. Mainly becuase I actually handmade the background and the characters in this page. Of course I always handmade the characters, it was the backgrounds I did in 3d. Ugh, workin with rulers is sooo SLOW! lol Man. I started one afternoon refining the rough sketch page's background and finished the next day at noon. And this page was just 3 panels ( 4 not counting the title panel. Here's the page:



Later on tonight I'm gonna work on the next page. At least get the first panel done. Should be pretty simple, it's only a isometric establishing shot of the limo outside Wilks' mansion and the Cul De Sac where it's parked outside ( I think that's how you spell Cul De Sac lol)

Right now I'm watchin that movie Anger Management with two of my favorite actors, Adam Sandler Jack Nicholson ( both these guys are hilarious. And Jack Nicholson is just so versatile in his roles in all his movies. Don't believe me? Watch The Departed and see for yourself. :) He makes a really badss badguy. Was pretty good in the '89 Batman movie as the Joker too :)

If I don't work on this page tonight, I might just stay up awhile to watch Aqua Teen Hunger Force. They always show it twice on Fridays :) But I gotta get up early tomorrow to get ready for my date with Kelli.

The other day I gave my first art lesson to my young friend Kirsten. It was my first time teaching anything. I was teachin her how to use her pencil to measure the human figure and get the proportions correct. First we drew a static pose of a guy with his hands by his sides at 7 and a half heads tall. After she got that, we switched it up, and drew a guy with one arm over his head and the other making a gun pointing pose with his hand with his legs spread alittle bit. One hip was higher than the other so one leg was spread more than the other. I told her to follow what I drew and measure with her pencil. After measuring it out with my pencil I found her version of my pic to be very accurate and proportionate! :) That made me feel soooo good! Feel good teachin people stuff :) She said she'd tell her friends about me, and her grandma asked how much I charge. I had no idea what to charge. If anyone here has any ideas on how much to charge let me know. Well. I'm out for now. Have a great weekend everybody. Peace :)-GIO

Well. I finally finished the 3rd chapter of my manga Eternal. I've made HUGE improvements over the first two chapters that I've spent the ENTIRE past year on. So what's the problem. Well, here's my problem. Right now, I'm not gettin as big a turnout on this as I had hoped. I know what my close friends think. They think it's my best. And that's great. I really am happy that they've noticed my growth. But, I don't know, it's like 2 months of work and it's invisible to everyone on Myspace. It's invisible to everyone on Comicspace. It's like ABSOLUTELY NOBODY cares. I really hate talkin like this. It makes me feel like I'm a bigass whiner. But hey, this is a journal. This is me. Right here. How I'm feeling RIGHT NOW. Like the past 2 months of slaving over my laptop, paying attention to my anatomy and etching 2 LAYERS of TONE, making those 3D BACKGROUNDS in 3d Studio Max, 2 FUCKIN MONTHS FOR NOTHING. And you know what? I doubt ANYONE ON HERE WILL EVER READ THIS EITHER. And I guess that's why I'm writing this. I need to let out my frustration.

But you know what? I can't even give up. It's not in me to give up. I've NEVER given up on a damned thing in my entire LIFE. This storyline is WORTH working on. I think the problem is I was trying to do this for Me and for the people that like my work. I did it for them too. And I think that's why I feel like I feel now. Becuase alot of the people on Myspace, that have sent me friend requests with letters like, Dude! Your work ROCKS! Keep it up! You see THOSE people, I partly did this chapter for them. I wanted Chapter 3 to be infinitly BETTER than my last two chapters. I made all 24 pages to IMPRESS them all. I'm not getting paid, the only reward I get from this, the ONLY thing that keeps me going, is everone's encouragement. And that's the wrong way to be. This may sound selfish, but it's the only way to go about doing this without going INSANE WITH FRUSTRATION. So here's my new approach to this. Are you ready? Here goes:

I'm gonna do it for me.

That's it. Nobody else. If other people dig it. Great, buy a copy and nice to meetcha. That's ALL. And if ANYONE reads this ( which I seriously doubt ANYONE is) I'm gonna put this link to my manga Eternal. Then I'm gonna put a link to my OLD Chapter 1. Maybe you can see what I mean by me putting my ALL into Chapter 3. Also. I'm gonna take another route. A route I absolutley DIDNT wanna take. I'm gonna put all three manga chapters on Tokyopop. I may not like how Tokyopop does business, or how they deal with their artists, but the sad fact is, THERE IS NO BETTER SITE TO PUT A MANGA ON. That site is SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED FOR MANGA. Myspace? Not for manga. It's for hookin up with Myspace chicks. Comicspace? Well, let's face it, NOBODY'S THERE! I put up a bulletin today on Comicspace and I WAS THE ONLY PERSON ON THE ENTIRE SITE ONLINE! THAT was rediculous. So yeah. I got no choice. It's Tokyopop for me. For NOW. At least until I get my official site up. I guess even then I'll keep it at Tokyopop. Put a link to my site on my profile there. Anyways, I've talked enough. Tired of talking. Or typin in this case. And for anyone that's readin this. I am in no way a whiney person. I'm not emo. I don't want to kill myself. Aight? lol Just alittle frustrated right now. I'm a human being. I'm gonna get down about shit. Anyways, I'll be cool tomorrow. Maybe after a few hours of playin Castlevania on my PS2 I'll be back to my old self, and ready to continue writing my script for CHapter 4. Then model some more 3d backgrounds, and get my ass back to work. With a fresh new outlook and approach to the way I see this. Anywho. Have a great week whoever's readin this. Don't worry bout me. Life doesn't stay shitty for long. What goes down must come up :) I'm out peace.-GIO

Chapter 3
[url]http://www.comicspace.com/gio/comics.php?action=read&file_id=239866[/url]
Coverart:

Sup everybody. My name's Giovanni. I'm an aspiring Graphic Novelist. My style of choice is Japanese Comic style ( Manga) Am I tryin to jump on the bandwagon by making a manga? lol NO WAY! lol I'm am in NO way about jumping on any bandwagon at ANYTIME in my life about ANYTHING. As far back as I can remember, since I was a 5 YEAR OLD KNUCKLEHEAD SHORTY lol, I remember watchin Robotech. That was my first taste of anime. When I was ten ( btw, this was all before manga and anime took over the US like it has today.) I remember going to a local comic shop and picking up a How To Draw Robotech comic book lol Back then I used to draw. I started drawing ever since I could pick up a pencil and haven't stopped since :) ( and that's probably why I repeated the 9th grade 3 TIMES and was finally kicked out lol) When I got older though, I got my GED! :) And started looking for colleges. Collins Art College was my choice. I enrolled to 2d animation ( Guess why lol I wanted to animate an anime! lol) But due to my medication being unbalanced at the time ( I'm biplar btw oh well, things are better now :) I was kicked out of college. ( and still had to pay for the full 2 years. What a RIPOFF MAN! lol ) But I haven't given up on expressing myself through art. Since 2000 I've been working over the storyline for my current manga project "Eternal" After 7 years of refining my storyline ( that's a LONG time to work on anything lol) and being pointed in the right direction by great artists like Juan Aravelo of Shojin Studios (http://www.comicspace.com/shojinstudios/) and Steven Cumming and Megumi Cumming ( artists for the innovative manga Pantheon High from Tokyopop Here's their site :) http://www.sc-shiki.com/ ) I'm finally getting closer to what I want with my manga Eternal. The last two chapters had a good story, but looking back on them, and looking at what I'm accomplishing now, I'm wishing I could go back and redo them. But I've actually refined those 2 chapters for the past year. And I've been stuck on that same place in storyline for a little over a year now. I was actually doing Chapter 3 in the same fashion as Chapters 1 and 2, but after I met Steven at an anime convention, and he took me to the side and looked over my first attempt at Chapter 3, I decided to scrap my first attempt, and up my game. This was my first attempt at Chapter 3:


And now, here is my more recent attempt at Chapter 3:



For one thing, if you notice I'm going for alot more detail from now on. Tonewise, inkwise as well as character wise. And thanks to Juan recommending me those anatomy books, my anatomy is alot better too :) I don't believe in nonexistent noses in my manga lol If that's what you guys like about manga, well, you'll hate my manga lol I'm going for as much detail as I can in my manga. I love the medium that much that I want to put my everything into it. Now what I'm not too clear on right now is Composition. I'm still kind of feeling my way in the dark abuot composition lol ( I like sayin that phrase alot, becuase it's pretty much what I'm doing, stumbling around with only one clue, the 3rds Rule.) But as I conitinue with Eternal, I'm sure I'll finally figure it out :)

Today I went into overdrive with my manga. I woke up at 6 oclock in the morning, worked on my manga till 7, had some coffee, then got back at it till 6 in the evening. At 6 I guess I finally hit the wall :( I guess toning 4 pages a day is my limit lol But hey, tomorrow's another day! :) Gonna goto sleep early tonight, get up early tomorrow again. And RIP THIS SHIT! lol Get the last 4 pages toned, and maybe even start lettering all 12, completing all 24 pages in this chapter :) Well, that's all for now everyone. Hope everyone's havin a great week so far. Catch ya'll later. Peace :)-GIO