art

I've been drawing sketches in the margins of my notebooks as far back as I can remember, but it wasn't anything to shout about. Still isn't, that's why in school. But it wasn't 'art' to me until my first comic got published. And once it did, I realized that this was probably not so bad a career move, either.

I am in my fifth semester at East Carolina University's School of Art.

classwork | comics | other work

Most of the work I've done so far has been in class, as that's where most of my time is spent nowadays, for obvious reasons.

ART 1020: Drawing
Fall 1995 / Instructor: James McElhinney

ART 1005: Design I
Fall 1995 / Instructor: Hanna Jubran

ART 1030: Figure Drawing
Spring 1996 / Instructor: Michael Voors

ART 1015: Design II
Spring 1996 / Instructor: Roxanne Reep

ART 1050: Intermediate Figure Drawing
Fall 1996 / Instructor: Michael Voors

ART 2070: Introduction to Computer-Aided Art and Design
Spring 1997 / Instructor: Carl Twarog

ART 2200: Introduction to Communications Arts
Spring 1997 / Instructor: Craig Malmrose

ART 2210: Graphic Design I
Fall 1997 / Instructor: Laurie Godwin

ART 3250: Introduction to Digital Photography
Fall 1997 / Instructor: Leebrick

classwork | comics | other work

Way back in 1994, my friend Greg Sepelak approached me with the question, "How'd you like to do a comic?" I hadn't really thought about it much, and, as I wasn't that proficient at drawing, I conveyed my concern. He said that it didn't really matter much, the point was the story.

So I drew one. Inspired by Greg's own comic book, Warped Space, I came up with a storyline of my own, which eventually grew into the Transient mini-series. So, after a few years of drawing that, I eventually realized, "Hey, I like art." So I went into school for it. Eventually, school kept me away from the Transient, and it's still on hold at issue #4.

But that's okay, because I'm working for money now, with the Nine Stitches storyline, which is currently being published in our school paper. I'm trying a lot more new techniques, and learning a lot more. Still as confusing as the Transient, so I've heard, but it's hopefully a lot more fun and a lot more enjoyable.

The Transient takes place in the small, isolated town of Ash Grove, in the year 2034. Several years ago there was an earthquake which rocked the town, bringing it to its knees; since then the town's been rebuilding constantly. A giant mega-corporation moved in to take advantage of the crisis, offering help to the townspeople as well as moral support. Consequently, the Byzan corporation grew so large that it eventually had full control over the town -- almost. A small band of resistance formed in the town, naturally, and began to protest against Byzan... the Transient storyline takes place near the end of this undeclared war.

Published in 8 ¹/₂" x 5 ¹/₂" format, the Transient was published by making a plain-paper original with black ink and magic marker. Then the original was photocopied once and corrected with whiteout, and that copy was taken to the Copy Center to make the final copies, saddle-stapled, and selling in the local comics shop for $0.55-$0.65. The Transient home-page that I created for National Local Color Black and White Comics is at http://www.maison-otaku.net/~xelloss/nlcbw/tr/index.html and contains extensive chronologies and character profiles, as well as issue summaries and cover shots for the first (and only! ;_;) four issues.

Nine Stitches starts off with a young mage killing a dragon. And then a time-traveling mad scientist type comes in and takes her to the future, asking her to teach him magic. Weird enough yet? Throw in a time-traveler from even further in the future and find out that she's trying to assassinate both the mage and the scientist and prevent a grave calamity from happening in her own time!

Published weekly in the East Carolinian, the official school paper of East Carolina University, Nine Stitches takes up two tiers (8" x 13") and is published in the usual newspaper manner. Web-page is at http://www.maison-otaku.net/~xelloss/nlcbw/9s/index.html and contains on-line copies of most of the printed issues.

classwork | comics | other work

Lord knows the art classes get you into a creative mood after having you create so many abstract pieces of "art"... have to release somehow.

Animation Cels (Acrylic paints on Transparencies)

Sketches (Mostly for comic)

Other (Watercolor, computer-based art)

ANDRE GERMAIN || art | anime | games | mucks | other

André Germain
uggermai@ecuvax.cis.ecu.edu
1717 Netherfield Lane, Raleigh, NC 27610-4550
145 Fleming Hall, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858-4353