I’ve just watched the first two episodes of what it’s likely to be the cheesiest TV drama I’ve ever seen!

Imagine a guy with a fake mustache who doesn’t say a single word (not even when he answers the phone) for the most part of the episodes, but suddenly becomes talkative, loses his mustache, takes off part of his clothes and starts running as The Flash (literally as The Flash, since they used a poorly done fast motion effect).

From what I could get by watching the first episodes, all this guy wants is people to appreciate his – as he calls it – tasty coffee and drink while it’s hot. He then takes out an hourglass to count down the minutes for people to drink his coffee and he always makes stupid promises such as “If he/she doesn’t drink the coffee within five minutes, I’ll deliver something a client asked me”. Also, we can’t forget the countless cups of coffee he breaks throughout the drama when he gets pissed at something.

What’s that taxi cab flying completely out of nowhere? Seriously, I just can’t take it. 

And what do you say of gay dancer who makes anyone feel ashamed for him? I have nothing against gays, but the way this guy plays the role of his character makes me shiver. He sometimes dances in public places in a very ridiculous way that there’s nothing to do other than laughing my ass off.

As if it weren’t enough, he uses to leave shops jumping like a gazelle. 

And the number of weird things only increase with a TV scene of a big and ugly guy turning around the corner to “attack” a woman, several clones of the gay’s beloved one (which also made me shiver) and a bicycle getting out of an elevator (?).

Take a look at the picture off to the left side. This is how the main character looks like after suddenly becoming stupid or what my friend Moto uses to call as “neko wo kaburu” (in a literal translation it’d be wear the cat or to make it simple, pretending you’re cute, kind of a fever among girls and women in Japan) due to falling in love with the gay dancer.

The greatest point that deserves being mentioned is how natural the characters act and change their personality in a complete sudden, going from tough to stupid characters in a blink.

I think I’m going till the end of this drama to see what awaits me.

Hi guys! It’s been months since I last posted something here. LOTS of things happened, most of them are good, fortunately. I’m going to talk about the news on the next posts. By now, here is a sample panel I’ve done for a South Africa based company a few days ago, as an attempt to get a new job from them. I got the job and as soon as I have permission, I’ll post it over here.

Hi guys! Here’s a work-in-progress of the first collab I ever made with my girlfriend. I really enjoyed doing this one and I like the way it turned out.

The first pic shows my girlfriend’s original sketch, done in SAI 1.0.1. Then I took her sketch, made a few adjustments and then I made the pencils in Adobe Photoshop CS4 using a custom brush I created. The third pic shows the color separation, also known as flats. I do this to isolate the areas, mainly the character from the background, so it’s much easier and faster for coloring later.

The fourth pic shows the actual coloring. Note that I’ve added a background for composition purposes using the lasso tool to create the shapes and then adding the shading.

Check the finished illustration at http://leonardomlk.deviantart.com

That’s it!

I’ve received my so dreamed Sabian cymbals set as a gift from my girlfriend. When I got them in my hands, I could barely believe it! The color, the texture and mainly the sound are so different from the ones I had before! It’s really a great cymbals brand, like I always believed it is. A few days after she had bought my Sabian B8 cymbals, she also ordered a Sabian B8 18’’ China and a Sabian AAX 18’’ Dark Crash. Man, while B8 cymbals make many other cymbals brands feel shy, AAX series make B8 shy of their existence! The sound is really brilliant and sharp! When I have to exchange my cymbals, I’ll definitely buy AAX or HHX series.

 
Hey guys! Long time no see! I’ve got many, I mean MANY news! The first and most important one is that I’ve already moved out to my new apartment with my girlfriend. We’re really happy to be living together and also happy to be living in this apartment. It is well-placed, near from two shopping malls, banks, post office, movie theater and one block away from the beach!

It took us around a week to get everything in its place and organized. I want to share with you some pictures of my new apartment.

We’ve got such a nice view from our bedroom windows. It’s great to see the sun coming in the room in the morning and it’s also great to see the sunset.

Looking this way we can see some travel ships passing by the sea. It’s nice to look at them at night, when it has all its lights on. I think it’ll be great to see the fireworks in the New Year’s eve from here.

Obviously, if you walk straight ahead, you will end up in the beach which is nice to see, not nice to walk, since there are many robbers wandering around waiting for the perfect chance to rob someone

If we look through the other window, we see this street. Down there there is a “pastelaria” (it’s a food shop where it sells kind of a sandwich called “pastel”, but not exactly a sandwich, though). If you walk up one block to the left, there is the studio where I rehearse with my band almost weekly and also the studio where I always record songs with my band.

Below are a few more pictures:

Bedroom pictures:

Kitchen and laundry room:

Bathroom:    

That’s it! I’ll post the rest of the news in separate posts, so I can keep it more organized.

Pencils: RB Silva
Colors: Me

Done in Adobe Photoshop CS4
7 hours

This is just a progress screenshot of what I’m currently coloring.

 
Just made this one before going to bed. I guess you’ve already realized how much I love drawing faces hahaha. Anyway, I tried a new coloring style. I’m still on my way to find a coloring style for myself, so experimenting is the only way to reach where I wanna get. I like the thin lines in this one. It brings more softness to the drawing, which is a thing that doesn’t happen when I pencil it using thicker lines. Even though I enjoy more using thicker lines when pencilling, the final result is better with thinner lines. I need to get used to the idea of using what suits better my style and also what looks better.

And I’m relieved. My girlfriend and I have finally found an apartment! The place is good, near of two shopping malls, movie theater, supermarket, shops, post office, bank and it’s one block away from the beach. What else would I ask for?

We’re currently ongoing with all the papers that should be done. We might get the keys of our apartment within the next week, as soon as Carnaval (which is a crap) is over.

BoA’s new single called Eien is out (or at least it leaked on the internet as usual) and I’m completely addicted to it! I’ve suddenly become a fan of BoA. She has a lot of catchy songs which are pleasant to my ears. I can’t wait for her new double feature DVD to come out next month.

Now I’m going to sleep. I’m dead, really tired. I’ve been walking literally for the whole day, every single day since the beginning of the past week with my girlfriend, all for an apartment.

Oh, and before I forget, this piece was entirely done on Adobe Photoshop CS4.

See ya and have a g’night!

 
Just made this one. It started out as a face only but it’s grown up and it has turned into something “bigger”, to tell so. Anyway, I’m sleepy and I need to wake up early ‘cause tomorrow is gonna happen another episode of the “in the seek of an apartment” quest with my girlfriend.

Have a good night!

I completely lost my day. What a great birthday gift… anyway, here are a few faces I just made before going to sleep.

I’m really happy to announce that after a year working as a translator for Glass House Graphics through my great friend and boss (though he doesn’t like I call him like this) Vitor Ishimura, I was promoted to his new assistant manager.

It’s been two weeks since I started working as an assistant manager and it’s been pretty busy since then, having to reply to dozens of e-mails every single day and coordinating a few projects. I think it’s amazing to see how the comic book industry works from this new point of view. It’s great to see the backstage, how a work comes to life from the prelims to the final pencils. It’s been really nice to be part of it.

Also, it’s been amazing to be in touch with David Campiti, a guy I hear about for years, since I was much younger, while I was taking comic book drawing classes, though I didn’t know who he was, nor what he did at the time.

I’m sure this is going to be really good for my career as an artist and I couldn’t thank Vitor Ishimura enough for this.

After months waiting for the preview, it's finally out! Havoc Brigade, the four issues mini-series I've been doing for Studio 407 is gonna be released on March 25th (according to the release date on their website).

Also, just to make it clear, I just colored the last half of the first issue (the one on the previews). By now, you can check the cover I colored.

Here it goes the link: http://studio-407.com/havoc/preview.html

2008 was the year of events and I can pretty much tell that 90% of them were really good events.

Starting off this year with the right foot, my great friend Alice came to Brazil, after a long time awaiting for her coming. We had been talking for one year and a half over the internet before she eventually comes here. The great friend has turned into my girlfriend since then. Her stay would last three months and then she would, unfortunatelly, go back to Japan. And so she did. I was trying not to get my hopes high, since she's much older than me (she's 31 and I'm 21), so I wasn't expecting that she'd get so into me. To my surprise, she did and we planned to keep the relationship going despite the distance. She was supposed to stay in Japan for one year and a half and then she would come back to Brazil definitely. Fortunally, she couldn't stand the distance (yes, I'm selfish) and so did I and one of the happiest moments of this year was when she said "You know what? I'm gonna leave everything behind and I'm going to get back to Brazil to stay with you". One month and a half later she came back to Brazil.

While she was still in Japan, my great friend Moto, from Japan, came to Brazil to meet me personally. I was so amazed with the idea of someone coming from so far just to know me, that I couldn't believe it until she put her feet in the airport. She stayed here in my city just for a week, but we had a really nice time. Even though I'm sorry for not have had enough money for taking her to the places I wanted to, I really enjoyed it.

Also, this year was the year which I started working for Glass House Graphics as a translator, thanks to Vitor Ishimura. And he's a guy who really deserves a special mention in this post. Much of what I've achieved in my career this year, I owe to him. And I know I'll have much more to thank him for the next years. He's got my admiration as a person and as a professional, so here it goes a HUGE thank you, Ishimura!

I also would like to thank Rubens for having recommended me to be a colorist on a mini-series that's going to be released by Studio 407 somewhere in the next year. If it wasn't for him, I think I'd take longer to make at least a work in this area. Thank you Rubens!

This year, I finally learned to believe in destiny thanks to everything that have been happening between my girlfriend and I. I also learned that if I want to get far in my career, I need to focus on this even more. Indeed, I tried hard to draw more than I did in the last year, but I know it's not enough. So, in 2009, I'm gonna try harder to draw even more.

There's more yet to come, but by now, I want to say that I'm happy for this year having been a busy and great year and I'm expecting much more from the next one.

I wish you guys a Happy New Year!

I’m a huge Takehiko Inoue fan and I’m constantly taking a look at what he’s currently doing. The four books pile on the top right corner are the Brazilian editions of Vagabond manga. These ones are pretty expensive over here - R$ 27,90 (around US$ 11) – so I don’t buy it anymore, even though I feel like starting from the point I stopped it (which means, volume 4). Taking into account that this is a bi-monthly publication and it’s currently on volume 14, the only thing I know is that I’m completely f*&¨@$ to buy the ones I missed hahaha.

Anyway, the one in the foreground is the Japanese edition my girlfriend gave me when she got back from Japan and the two artbooks in the background are Sumi and Water, which she gave me while she was still in Japan, and while we were only friends.

I can’t believe that if I had bought these artbooks over here, it’d cost me around US$ 130. She spent around US$30 sending them from Japan. Yes, this country sucks.

Picture taken by my girlfriend (www.flickr.com/photos/cetchan)

These are some of the gifts I’ve been keeping over the months. I really like them ‘cause they all come from Japan (or at least, they’re part of Japanese folk/tradition). The hachi (chopsticks) and fan were given by my friend Moto and all the rest (except for Daruma which I bought myself) were given by my girlfriend. The origamis were made by my girlfriend. She’s really patient for this kind of thing. I would’ve messed up and given up the whole thing before I got it 1/3 done hahaha.

These are things I keep as special things and they’re part of my room, so I thought of showing you all.

Picture taken by my girlfriend (www.flickr.com/photos/cetchan)

This is my most favorite Brazilian magazine about Japan by far . For those who (still) don’t know, I’m a Japan freak. I love and admire everything (or a good part of it at least) that comes from there. Its culture, daily routine, tradition and specially the technology make me feel like a kid wanting that toy.

Going there is one of my biggest dreams and I hope I go there someday with my girlfriend, either for visiting or living (living would be better though haha).

It’s been a while since I last bought an issue of this magazine, but I’m planning to get back to buying it.

Oh, and this magazine has a website. If you wanna check it out, do it so: www.madeinjapan.com.br

Picture taken by my girlfriend (www.flickr.com/photos/cetchan)

Since I don’t have time to draw anything new due to the amount of work and the tight deadlines, I’m gonna start a “behind the scenes” series, ‘cause I really enjoy when artists do that to show what they’ve got in their rooms/studios, what they collect, which tools they use and so on, so I thought to myself “Why not?”.

This picture shows something very special to me. There’s a story behind this Daruma, here it goes:

I bought this Daruma when I was at Liberdade (a Japanese district in São Paulo) with my girlfriend at the Brazilian Valentine's Day. It was two days before she went back to Japan... but fortunatelly she's back to Brazil again.

The wish I made when I painted its first eye was that I could get to see her once again and it came true much earlier than I expected, since she was supposed to get back do Brazil only 1 year and a half later. But she ended up not being able to handle the distance, and so did I, so she decided to give up everything in Japan to come back to stay with me. I feel like I'm dreaming up 'til now. So, when she came back, I painted its other eye.

I'm planning to buy another Daruma to make new wishes, 'cause it seems it works haha.

Picture taken by my girlfriend (www.flickr.com/photos/cetchan)

My so dreamed 8GB iPod Touch arrived today morning. I can barely believe I finally have it. Technology, ah technology… This iPod is amazing and everything is really visual, if you know what I mean, just the way I like it. I had to ask my girlfriend to take pictures with a little of composition for me and that’s what came out of this haha.

I decided to crop the background since I thought the composition was badly planned. I think it turned out quite better this way.

Colors done in Adobe Photoshop CS4

One more screenshot of this illustration I’ve been postponing for a while. I think I’ll finally finish it within this week. At least, that’s what I hope for. I’m really proud of the way the robot turned out. I didn’t know I could metallic effects this way hahaha. Well, for the first time I’m more than satisfied.

Just a few more faces done during the breaks I took while I was working these days. The first one was done digitally in Corel Painter X and the other two were done traditionally using a Staedtler Mars 780 2.0mm with a HB lead.

Colored in Adobe Photoshop CS4.

This is a picture of me working on my brand new Samsung SyncMaster 2232BW, a 22" widescreen monitor. And as you may notice, even with the hot day it was today, I was wearing a t-shirt haha.

More faces to relax from work.