LizzBuenaventura.com

Had the chance to show my stuff to a fairly popular comic agent who was visiting Manila today, and I learned quite a bit about my style's marketability. I'd previously made an appointment for 7:30 pm, and I zipped to their studio after work (saw a bunch of Avengers pieces on the light boxes-- they'd probably make a collector's mouth go dry, lol), and even though I got a little lost while driving, I managed to get there on time.

The studio was three floors-- comprised mostly of galleries and such on the first and second floors, then a large room with all the artists on the third. As it was already past 6, everything was closed except for the third floor (so I could be wrong about the contents/function of the first two floors.) Lol.

In any case, my meeting with the agent took about an hour. I only brought a folio of 12 samples (6 sequentials, 6 pin-ups), and he gave me a detailed critique of each piece. The pieces he thought were all right were: the Witchblade sequential, the Randy Green Dark Knight and Robin pin-up, and the Philip Tan Batman and Ivy pin-up.

We talked at length about the Spider-man sequentials by Mike Deodato (which I'd sent in advance by email last week). He'd actually forwarded my 5 samples to Deodato (he's one of the artists the agent represents), and his main comment had been that I'd "colored a book different from what he'd penciled".

As a big fan of Deodato's work, I was pretty embarrassed that he'd even seen the pieces... but I did appreciate the crit and frankly, that one sentence pretty much encompassed my biggest flaw as a colorist.

As a whole, the agent said that my portfolio had promise but it looked like I still needed to find a penciler who I could enhance rather than overpower with my colors. He said I was at the stage where I still needed to experiment with an array of pencillers to find the right style I could work with, but if and when I did find it, the outcome would be pretty fine.

After we wrapped up, he sent me home with 5 test pages from an artist I've never worked with before and told me to go nuts.

Current status: No definitive work, but definitely a step in the right direction.

Maybe I should feel bad about not getting actual work, but somehow I can't stop grinning.

He didn't recognize me, but he was the same agent who ragged on me years and years ago; I can't help but feel like I've already won just by screwing up the courage to actually show him my stuff again.

Guess you just have to keep believing! :D