Tell us a little about yourself?

Online I'm known as Alexds1! But my real name is Dershing and I'm a 23 yr old from California, gasp. I have not been drawing since I could hold a pencil, sadly, but I started really focusing on learning how to draw better around '97. I hope one day to be a published comic artist and see my work in the shitty comics selection at our local Borders... for some reason I am really gunning for that. Then when I'm browsing I can nudge the person next to me and be like YEAH SUCKA THATS ME. I did not go to school for art, I have a BA from Berkeley for Integrative Biology of all things. I am currently in the process of becoming a high-school bio teacher, but in the meantime I am trying to stuff as much art and comics into my day as heavenly possible.


What made you decide that comics were what you want to do and what inspires your work?

To me, comics are like the boss battle of art, haha... The comics I find most successful are the ones in which the artist has completely mastered concepts, drawing, inking, coloring, perspective, composition, etc. (Not to mention the ability to tell an engaging, flowing story!) Or at least is working with a team that collectively masters these. I love to push my work and I have a story to tell, so comics are the way I've chosen to go with! I get my inspiration from reading other comics, breaking down how movies/ tv shows are directed, my immediate environment and of course from DA.


What kind of role do you have as a comic artist?

I don't have a specific role... since I work alone I do a bit of everything. My favorite part of doing my own comics though is penciling, if I could talk myself down to it I would probably just pencil all day long, but alas I aspire to greater things :B


Are you self-published/online or do you work for a major comic label? Can you share some of your experiences with us?
I self-publish (haha that sounds way more professional than it is) a small comic that I do on my extra time, but most of my comic efforts go into a rough comic that is for now posted online. All of it is very amateur, but even that has taken me a while to achieve, mostly because comics are more of a dream/ hobby and unfortunately real life gets in the way sometimes.


What mediums do you prefer to work with and why? What mediums/artists do you admire?
I don't use many materials... for my drafts it is just mechanical pencil on to computer paper, and the final is done digitally in photoshop CS2. I love pencilling right onto paper, but when it comes to inking I prefer to ink digitally as I have a greater control over my line weight with the tablet that I am unable to achieve with my traditional media (because I suck, haha). I truly admire the artists who can use an ink pen to create such lovely flowing lines, I wish one day I could develop as steady a hand and technique as they have.


Do you still use reference material such as stock or from life for poses, buildings and other props and item when drawing out comics? How do you come up with the poses? Are you ever unsatisfied with your work or have an artist’s block?

I tend to only reference the things that I really want to look precise, like vehicles and certain difficult poses. I would truly recommend using references whenever you feel like you're getting stuck or something looks a bit off. It takes a lot of thinking to decide on the orientation of a person/ object, the angle the scene should be portrayed from, the relationship of the panel in question to the surrounding panels in terms of how the eye moves or if there is a natural progression of movement of the figure...
I am constantly unsatisfied with my work. My main project is in a 'rough draft' state, something I have some qualms about as I have gotten to the point where I'd ideally like to scrap the entire draft entirely and re-do it to make more sense... on the one hand, I might not have had the ideas to do so if I hadn't done the draft, but on the other hand what a waste of effort! It has taken me a year to get to the 200+ pages I have at the moment, and the dissatisfaction I have with all of it is sort of concerning. Thankfully I have a lot of people to talk about this issue with, and they mostly agree that the learning experience has been invaluable and of course, the final product will be that much better, right?


Thank you very much for taking the time to share you experience with us!