Paul Caggegi

Category: Blog

  • Homebased

    Homebased

    After months of planning, I’ve finally released a new project entitled Homebased. This comic is loosely based on my own experiences of being a stay-at-home parent, but has become more about the little absurd moments in a day-to-day home-based life.

    Over the past few years, I’ve collected a few funny anecdotes about my kids, doing chores, things we argue over, and by sharing some of them on social media, I could see if these things resonated with others. Some did, some didn’t; so I picked some of the best, and turned them into short strips for this webcomic.

    Keeping a lid on it was perhaps the hardest thing to do, since I’m so open about my process – and this has been almost a year in the making. So much had to come together for this to work correctly. I decided to go back to basics: keep it simple; be concise; maybe do it in black-and-white; write what I know. Artistically, I wanted it to be of a certain standard, so I did loads of concept sketches and practiced until I got a style I was comfortable with drawing, to the point where I really didn’t have to think about it. I also wanted a decent buffer of work ready to roll out before publishing, and I wanted it to be released on a few choice platforms that bring maximum traffic to the comic.

    My overall goal was to see if there was an audience for this sort of thing. I know a few dads my age going through the same thing – not to mention mums. My generation is one that grew up with comics and pop-culture, and watched the internet give rise to the podcast, the web-comic, and most recently social media. So parents who are obsessed with phones, share stuff about their kids, and are trying to figure out how to be good at this gig – they’re my target.

    Researching everything from which program to use (I’ve settled on Clip Studio Paint) to which platform to release it on (I’ve created a dedicated WordPress blog running Comic Easel, and Jetpack handles the mobile theme, sharing and feedback apps, and I will post updates on Facebook, Reddit and Instagram when appropriate. It’s been a monumental task, but once I got all my ducks in a row, I felt ready.

    The response in this first week has been overwhelmingly positive considering I’ve only released a few strips, and already I’m hearing calls of “When will this be a book?” and “more please!” which is very flattering, but I don’t wish to put the cart before the horse just yet. I have a plan of sorts, and it all depends on a couple of things. Firstly, will this amass an audience that would potentially support the project financially? Secondly, will I generate enough content to create a solid enough book?

    Currently, I have about 30 strips that I feel are solid ideas. In the coming weeks, as these comics are drip-fed to the internet, I’ll be collecting more notes for future strips, and should I hit about 100 good ones, I’ll be considering putting together a book of these.

  • Gwan Anthology is now available

    Gwan Anthology is now available

    It seems like ages since I submitted Dear Giang to Forward Comix for its Gwan Anthology it was putting together. I watched as it hit its Kickstarter goal in record time… then double its target.

    Jerome Walford who runs Forward Comix did an amazing job of promoting the book, and getting it to out to the world in a big way. It is now available through Amazon as well as some major books retailers. Collecting stories and artwork from over 30 artists spanning more than 15 countries, the Gwan Anthology collects stories of the migrant experience in a spectrum of genres and art styles.

    I received my copies recently and had a flick through. It was great to see Dear Giang in there, but I was blown away with much of the other art in there! It truly is an amazing book.

  • Comparing past and present work

    Comparing past and present work

    Working at a skill takes time, and while you’re doing the actual labor, you don’t notice how you’re getting better at things. Some days you draw crap; some days you want to show the world your amazing piece of art because you feel like you’ve finally cracked that artistic nut. Most of the time, you feel like you’re running really fast just to stay in the same spot.

    So when a recent Facebook group (which is sadly shutting its doors after a whopping 250 weekly challenges) announced its final challenge was to redo an old piece, I dug up my first ever submission to the group, and decided it would be the subject of my redraw.

    It happened to be a Chibi Red Sonja, which I hastily sketched on the way to work one morning.

    At the time, it piqued the interest of a friend of mine who happens to be the editor of Lifehacker, Australia. He got me to draw a couple of pieces for an article he was doing, on the subject of female characters in video games: Should Gamers Be Penalised For Choosing Barely-There Outfits? I supplied two pieces for his article, and I was happy enough with my skill at the time. More importantly, so was he.

    I felt proud enough. I used Photoshop, mainly, and was trying out some new coloring techniques, but looking back, the overall line-work was a bit wonky, as were the underlying shapes that made up the characters. The coloring really saved it, so I guess it was functional.

    But then I did this piece just yesterday.

    I used a new tool – Krita – for the first time, although I do not attribute the improvement to the software, rather the skills I have acquired painting on a wacom for the last three years. Not to mention studying various poses, anatomy references, and generally working hard at improving depth, pose, proportion, etc.

    I felt pretty proud of what I’d achieved in a few short hours. I mean, pencilling digitally is a nightmare, but also rewarding, because mistakes are quickly rectified thanks to multiple undos, select and rescale tools, and the one technique I absolutely stand by: horizontal flipping, to check that it still looks good mirrored (you’d be surprised how easy it is to overlook a lopsided face, or a lean that stands out once you flip your image).

    I stuck the new piece on Instagram, and I awoke to a pretty sweet share by a fan site, redsonja_art which has nearly 29,000 followers. Getting a lot of love there in the few hours it’s been up, and it was awesome that they credited me, linking back to my own Instagram account (that’s the way to do it, folks!)

    Putting your current work next to older work is something I highly recommend. Especially if you’re feeling that your art is going nowhere, or you’re just treading water. If you’ve kept at it, if you’ve practiced and tried new things, you’re bound to see how far you’ve come over the years, and it’s guaranteed to boost your mood a bit.

  • Gwan Anthology – Dear Giang

    Gwan Anthology – Dear Giang

    Over the past few months, I’ve been working on a short 8 page submission to an anthology all about the migrant experience. I asked my wife if I could adapt her family’s story about escaping Vietnam in 1981 for my comic. She enthusiastically said yes, and so after getting a few details, I created a sci-fi story about a family who boarded a space tug to escape their home asteroid in the hope of reaching asylum.

    It was perhaps the most involved piece I have worked on. I used Blender to create the sets and props,and imported hand-drawn images into the 3D environments so that I could use the in-built compositor to create the unique look of the comic.

    The overall process utilized sketches done on paper, digital inks, exported PNG files mapped on planes in Blender, then final renders re-imported into panels laid out in Photoshop.

    I am pleased with the final results. If I have any regrets, it’s that I couldn’t create a larger story or about 16 pages to let some of the more intense moments breathe a little. As it is, 8 pages packs a daring escape from the asteroid, a bumpy ride through a rock storm, and a tussle with scrappers – it’s a lot to try and pack in, but ultimately I wanted to show that the heart of the story was this one family battling all odds to remain together.

    You can pick up a copy from the FORWARD COMIX store

  • Processdiary RETIRED

    Processdiary RETIRED

    Over the years, I’ve tried my hand at various media, and by far the biggest solo thing I did was The Process Diary. It was a podcast, a tutorial site, a base from which to conduct interviews with other artists, talk about current projects, and connect with other creatives from around the world.

    But the time has come when it has faded into a hosted sub-domain on my main site, waiting to be retired. It’s sad in a way, but cancelling the domain is somewhat liberating. I’ve been slowly turning all my efforts in promoting myself as a motion graphics designer and illustrator, and that’s best done with a page dedicated to all things… well… me.

    I’ve archived all the media that I produced for TPD – podcasts, videos, articles – and there may come a time when I add a page here giving you access to all those wonderful hours of stuff, if you’re interested in taking a trip back.

    In this age of social media, websites seem to be a thing everyone still thinks they have to have, even though a Facebook account or Tumblr page is more widely seen. It’s still considered something like a home where you can store all your shit, while your Social Media presence is more like your public face, or shop-front, where you announce your wares to the world in a place that is easily accessible.

    I kinda like what this particular website has turned into. Content-wise, it’s clean, easy to navigate, and stores all the stuff I really want people to have access to: showreels, portfolios, an eStore, etc.

    I’ve already set up redirects for both the email account and the website, so with any luck when the domain expires in early 2016, most people looking for me there will land here.

    I won’t easily forget the years I worked on the Process Diary. They span a big swath of important events: going freelance; getting married; having kids; creating a comic – all the stuff that has led me to this point.

    Cheers to that journey, which is still on-going, just a bit… different.

  • How To Make It As An Independent Illustrator

    How To Make It As An Independent Illustrator

    I recently had an article published on Lifehacker (many thanks to Chris Jager for publishing) on a subject near and dear to my heart. It stemmed from rethinking how to succeed as an independent creative, and focuses on diversifying  the areas where you might consider applying your talents.

    From the Article:

    “At first, drawing comics was exciting: I loved seeing my ideas realized on the page and in print. I registered at local conventions, and getting just a handful of sales felt incredible – it meant that somebody was interested in reading my work!

    Each year, I would try to learn all I could from observation, trial and error, and networking, so that I could improve sales, grow my fan-base, and eventually turn a decent profit. But after five or six years of attending conventions, working social media and networking with other artists, book sales have not grown beyond the handful-per-con level. Costs pile up, and each year it’s harder to justify the losses.

    Creating a book takes many hours to layout, pencil, ink, color and letter, and marketing your product is an expensive investment in hard costs: A 9-foot table will cost you between $220 and $350 for a weekend at one of the major Australian conventions. Unit print costs can average $3 for a 24 page comic, or $15 for a 80-200 page graphic novel. Order a couple hundred copies, and you’re already racking up costs at nearly $2000 just for the opportunity to sell.”

    You can read the full article here:

    Identity Swap: How To Make It As An Independent Illustrator