Monster Project Unite + Inktober 2018

For the fourth day straight I have been participating in this year's Inktober! What does this mean? Everyday in October there will be a topic for which people would be able to draw and post it online.

This year's Inktober topics!

It's been intense so far and this is indeed a big challenge given that I gotta make sure I make myself the time daily to submit a new drawing. I have been pretty active on Instagram: www.instagram.com/okcerk specially in the last week or so.

I have also been participating in the Monster Project UNITE. (https://themonsterproject.org/). Every other week a kid from around the world will submit their own drawing for a monster and people around the world will recreate it their own version of such monster. I have been part of the first two so far and tomorrow there will be a new prompt. This is far from exciting since one is excitedly awaiting for that Friday to see what the next monster is going to be.

My version of Barbara's monster

Original second MonsterProject UNITE prompt made by Barbara, 10, from Brazil

It's been some interesting couple of weeks where I've also been adding some new regular-- drawings to my Instagram account as well. I've decided I'll be taking a little longer to keep my website updated so it may be behind by a couple of weeks but I'll get there eventually. I'll probably be creating an "Inktober 2018" or "Projects" section to upload all these new creations.

On the other side, I've finally started digitizing this one comic I had partially made last year. It's a long project that I want to get to and will hopefully see the light sometime next year (yeah, 2018 is pretty much done isn't it?). I'll also be taking some time off in November and later in December but will  keep adding content as usual.
But Andres what about animation projects? I gotta get back to that! Still got the last episode of Squad 37 to finish and have to come up with an idea for an independent short film. Hoping to have more time in 2019 to tackle these ones down :)

Bis bald_ Andres

The end of the summer

Well I gotta say it's been a nice summer so far, hopefully we still got a couple of weeks more here in the Pacific North West. However, you can already feel it's going away unfortunately.

Personally, I've been feeling accomplished regarding my artistic work this year so far. At least my Instagram account has been pretty active -- sorry guys for not updating the website as often as I should have, will try to get better at it. The website really needs to be pumped up by setting up a new way of uploading content (right now it's been very manual) and that's the main reason I've been slow here :) -- Well also remember I got a completely unrelated job and rent to pay .. oh well.
There are still many projects I'm trying to accomplish but I really need more time, I guess that's everyone's desire, isn't it? For now, doodles will keep being uploaded and hopefully a new short film or the last episode of Squad 37 will keep in production (there are already a couple of minutes made there).

On the other side, I spent a couple of days in Los Angeles this summer and after the third time going there I got to go to Universal Studios Hollywood. I had already been to Universal in Orlando and Osaka (Japan) and since they were quite similar, I didn't have huge expectations for this one. However two things: One the Studio Tour at Universal Hollywood is a MUST DO, it's just an amazing one hour ride that you cannot miss. Second, I was lucky enough to be there for the last day of the Jurassic Park ride, after about 22 years it was going extinct that one Monday night! Even though I was never a huge fan of such ride, it was a pleasure going there for one last time. It seems they are going to be working on a Jurassic World ride to open in 2019, so that'll be interesting to see and probably will need to book another flight to LA.

Finally, I've created a dashboard on Threadless.com: https://okcerk.threadless.com/
I'll be uploading my doodles there so that people can buy products with them in it. I'll have to start promoting it soon and see how that goes, but looks like a very interesting side business for artists so check it out!

Until the next time!

About travelling and moving

I've recently spent some time off flying back home and moving to a new place in Seattle-- Main reason I haven't uploaded much in the last month and a half, sorry for the inactivity.

Travelling back home (Argentina) was an experience, it had been two years and a half since I had flown there and it was great going to my best friend's wedding and meeting people I hadn't seen in a long time. It's also always a really weird feeling, some things change but also many remain intact and it feels like one's moved and gone everywhere and those things got stuck in time with no change whatsoever. They're just a few things I won't name, but that was the general feeling. Oh yes, I brought some Fernet Branca which is surprisingly cheaper down there compared to the states -- turns out since it's the country that consumes it the most, they've got their own 'fernet factory'.

On the other hand, before leaving I had left my place in Bellevue, WA in order to move to Seattle (they're 20 minutes away from each other) the day after I was getting back. And even though I don't own many things (or didn't use to, I've been purchasing furniture lately), I can say moving is a pain in the ass. Because I didn't have many things I did the moving myself with some help from some folks, but it was still painful. I've also been buying nice furniture but it's taking time, every single piece I'm purchasing I have to be super sure it'll fit and that I'll like it -- quite different from past times where I just went to Ikea and got everything at once. But that's part of the charm anyways. I'm still thinking whether I made a good choice picking this place up or not, but it's been alright so far.

Oh yeah and I went to see The Offspring last night at the Sabroso Taco Fest in Auburn, WA.

First time seeing one of my fav bands of all times

I've got a sick desk and a nice setup to keep sketching and uploading stuff to the site. I can't wait to get back on it!

Until the next time,

A.

First month

So it's been a whole fun first month of okcerk.com and I'm personally so glad and fulfilled about it. With weekly updates (usually more than one post per week), I've been back to my roots somehow and been having so much fun working on comic strips and doodles. Comic strips are something brand new to my life if I had to say. It's something I'm still learning and getting used to, while also realizing how hard it is to come up with a good short story / situation / joke to tell. On the other hand, those doodles / sketches I've been uploading are basically what I've done my whole life except that now they're being digitized and colored (somehow). Personally, this is a very fun time spent and as it used to happen with E37 back in the days, every time someone comments or says something about it, it pushes me to keep working on more productions.

These are still very early days, I have many ideas on the table for things I'd like to create and upload. I have a huge stack of drawings I've made over the years that I'd like to color and upload. I would also like to get started on uploading a comic series, probably one I had started over a year ago and got about 7 pages done already on paper. Finally, I would like to move out of YouTube for the E37 episodes, and get them uploaded to Vimeo -- I will have to figure out how adding subtitles there works though. I still need to get back on the final episode of E37 but that's still a big project. Once that is released, I'll start thinking about well produced short animated films, not necessarily comedy ones.

He looks like he's skanking

Don't freak out if things go slower in April, since I'll be taking some time off and won't have access to my precious Wacom tablet. Also good ideas area always welcome.

What else? I've been lazy with making changes to the website lately, but there are a few things I wanna modify and should probably get on that as soon as I get some free time.

Sayonara!
A.

okcerk.com to be born!

This is just a sneak peak of what I'm finishing in the following days. I believe this is the 5th website design I've made during my lifetime, always with the same purpose: Upload the things I love to make. All my creations will be uploaded here: 2D animations, comics, sketches and other related stuff.
I figured it was time to make a comeback and finally get back to the roots, to the things I really really love. To begin with I'll be uploading the good old Escuadron 37 (Squad 37) episodes that remained in my YouTube account together with some sketches I've made in the last year. Right after, I'll be planning on uploading my most recent comic book pages -- probably after going through some simple digitization process. I'm also making the final episode for Escuadron but that will take longer, I want to close the series with a legit episode.
It's taken me some time to finish this idea since I'm a busy dude who works a lot and does not have much time or is too tired in the evenings to keep working. Hopefully I'll learn to manage my times one day :P

Here's what it will kinda look like:

Squad 37 sub-section in okcerk.com

The website will indeed be: okcerk.com (yes, I got to that point in life where I finally got a .com domain!)

Here is some history of how I got here:

I started making Flash animations after watching an episode of The Simpsons where Bart was watching TV and some internet cartoonist shows Bin Laden in a blender. Pretty hilarious I thought. The next day I purchased a pirated copy of Macromedia Flash MX (yes, I'm that old). I started making very short cartoons while learning how to use Flash. One of my first ones was three very short and crappy episodes of a mouse that found different ways of dying. A couple of weeks afterwards, I was making my first episode of Power Rangers Ultimatum, which I uploaded to my very first site.

Back in the good old days -- in 2004 my first website was hosted for free in okcerk.galeon.com, which I wonder if it still exists today. Because it was fully free, I had to deal with lots of added ads that made the whole thing very annoying, but it filled its purpose. That was the golden age of Flash animations in Argentina, originally leaded by Alejo y Valentina. We were about 15 or more animators between ages 14 to 25 I would say, spending our free time making cartoons while still living at our parents's home.

From 2003 to 2007 I made four Power Rangers Ultimatum episodes (three main ones and a special one). After that I thought it was time I stopped parodying the Power Rangers and start making something with my own characters. I was sitting in my classroom and drew almost all of the main characters for Escuadron 37. The next day I started animating the first episode. The idea was to make something simpler by having all the characters locked down in a spaceship. This way the same backgrounds would be repeated across the episodes. However, one always wants to improve quality and story, etc, etc and it always becomes a harder job for good.

My first Flash series: Power Rangers Ultimatum

During this phase and after a few design changes, I got the okcerk.com.ar domain for free. I'm not sure if Argentina still gives out these domains for free, but that was the case back then. Of course, now I was paying for hosting, but I had access to some extra money. This phase was great, I got to learn a lot more and my website was almost fully made in Flash (99%).

The second episode of Escuadron 37 got delayed for over a year cause I became an exchange student in the US. When I got back home, I finished it and released a total of 9 episodes (2007 to 2012). Eventually, I didn't pay my hosting and the interest on Flash animations decreased a lot. Most (not to say all) of the 2D Argentinian cartoon sites are dead today, none remained which is a shame since there was good stuff back in the days.

I never stopped drawing during my spare time, but I did stop animating for a long period where I went to university and later moved to Canada and then the US, where I currently reside. However, for the last year I've felt more and more the need of going back to what I really love. This new phase probably won't be as good as the one from 10 years ago, but hopefully it makes my days happier and maybe I get to meet cool people in the same environment.

The site will be live in the following weeks!

Cheers,
A.

Japan

So a bunch of little things happened since my last post. I spent the entire month of November in South Korea and Japan. Here is a nice picture I took:

The golden temple of Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto

It was an eye-open trip. A few cities I visited include Seoul, Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Fukuoka and Kagoshima. Japan especially was very insane, after travelling to 15+ countries I don't think I had ever seen something like that. Their culture, their food, not even counting their language (of course) are completely different to what the rest of the world has to offer, and that's what makes it so unique.
Also, any anime fan should at least once in their lifetime come to Japan.

Dabura transformed into a cookie by Majin Buu

Transportation is also unbelievable. We got around the whole country by getting a JR-Pass for about $500 for two weeks. It seemed expensive at the beginning but if you really plan it ahead, it's well worth it. We were taking at least one train every two days, but since its speed is about 400 km/h you can just go to Hiroshima from Osaka in a few hours, making it a nice day trip. Even if you are in the southern island, you'll be able to reach Tokyo in no more than 5 or 6 hours, which is crazy.
Tokyo must have the best train system in the world, no matter where you are staying, any place is reachable.

Shinkansen to Hiroshima

On the culinary side: Sushi, ramen and rice bowls domain, I'm not sure if that's the right order. I was just amazed by all these, specially sushi. The one sushi place I'll always go back to is: Gansozushi in Akihabara. If you happen to be walking around that obligatory geek neighborhood, you gotta go Gansozuhi -- a small but effective place with the freshest fish I've ever eaten. Almost everything comes with rice, I would compare it to bread in Italian restaurants. And ramen is just amazing. I gotta say, after three weeks of being there, the food becomes a little monotonous so make sure you flip between one and another -- meat options are expensive and veggies barely exist in the island :)

Ramen

I'll probably need to make a couple more posts about this amazing trip I just had. Seoul was also a very nice experience. I'm also still working on my new website to start uploading animations and sketches once again, I've had a few design changes but everything is coming together. Will keep updating! Til next time.

A.