Welcome to a new edition of iCAF: Independent Comic Artist Feature!

This series of articles have the intention of giving exposure to comic artists inside and outside our community of deviantART.

In this issue, featuring: =Penril

Hi! I’m Penril, tho many of you know me for my name, Fernando Cano and some others know me just as Fern. I’m a soon to be student in México City, 19, and also author of the 4our-Calendar Café. My hobbies include drawing, reading old books and music which is my other passion, and also (something just a few know) singing, but I think that already ceased to be a secret XD.

Your art, how do you define it? What made you choose your way of art and how did you start with it?

Well, first of all, I personally think the least way to describe my work is as “art”. The concept I have of art these days is… let’s just say I don’t think I fit, and I actually don’t want to. Maybe it’s a snob way to get away from the snob world of contemporary art, but the truth is I don’t feel like an artist, and I think I’m the least one to decide if I’m one or not. I don’t really know much about what is called art, because my influences have always been simple things that I like: cartoons, comics, fantasy and sci-fi books and even when I do like thinks that makes you think, I try to get away of the pretentious look, despite the fact that a few years ago I was such a snob teenager XD. A person I really admire even when he passed away some time ago, is Mike Wieringo, I remember he used to say that is sad that nowadays everything seems to need to look mature and dark, meaningful and profound, that cute, innocent and simple things are not appreciated and because of that his independent comic “Tellos” had a happy and normal feeling. I think he was right, tho I do like when stories have a dark and even tragic moment. Other of my biggest influences is Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin & Hobbes. This comic strips really marked my childhood from the moment I read them for the first time. There was something magical in the form he represented the imagination with no limits from the protagonist kid, that influenced a lot the way I design my characters, to the point that even the most bittered one of them have their cute and innocent moment.

What mediums and techniques do you use?

Well what I usually use to do my work is Corel Painter IX and a Wacom Bamboo tablet. I used to use Photoshop a few years ago (when I still used a mouse, I dunno how I did that XD), but to be honest I think the finish I like for my drawings are better done with Painter, I still believe Photoshop is a great program tho. But of course I didn’t learn to draw with a computer. I think no artist should ever cease to use a pencil and a sheet of paper, ever. Apart from that I don’t know many traditional techniques, but I’m not that bad using color pencils and I often use them to finish some of my drawings, but since I don’t have a scanner I cannot upload them :c

What inspires you to create art?

Hahaha well that’s a hard question. I don’t exactly know where my inspiration comes from, you know, when suddenly you have an idea that excites you and you want to translate it into paper right away because you feel it’s gonna die if you don’t do so. It happens a lot to me, something like an urge to draw an idea, a scene or something of the sort. In general it happens to me when I read a book I like a lot or a comic. Appart from that, I always stare at things… like I was waiting when my muse strike me out. You know, I go to a restaurant and see the reflections and things like that, those things not always come out right when I try to draw them XD.

Focusing on 4our-Calendar Café, from where it came from? What inspires you to create it?

4our-Calendar Café is about an average guy, Cambel Chowdhury, one of those persons who think are better tan everybody and doesn’t have many friends, whose life suddenly changes dramatically when fictional characters start to appear in his house. Of course, because of his friend Sara, he can’t throw them away like that, so he starts to search for a home for them and help them become part of the community. It has a huge influence from other webcomics I love, specially my favourite one, Fanboys Online (www.fanboys.online.com) talking about the sense of humor, but it also has a lot of sci-fi, from the comic strips from the 80’s like Calvin & Hobbes and Mafalda, a lot of influence from videogames, books and fantasy movies, and a huge thing almost anybody notice, a huge influence by music. The title came from the album Four-Calendar Café by Cocteau Twins, if you abbreviate it, it has my initials and appart from that, every strip is named after a song. The first strip was named like the first song of the disc that gave its name to the comic, and from there I’ve used names from Muse, Joni Mitchell, Moloko and a large list. It has some sorta “adult” humor but very subtle, more like suggestive comments rather than direct things, it’s mainly innocent humor, tho maybe like a friend of mine would say, a lot, lot sick XD.

Tell us about the process you follow to create this comic.

4our-Calendar Café has a really funny story and actually the “general” concept wasn’t mine. It was something like 5 years ago when a friend of mine ( ~Miquixtli ) gave me an idea after she told me a friend of hers used to make comics with characters of videogames who lived in his house. I loved the idea and having barely 14 I didn’t wait and started a story of how characters came out of TV and lived in my house as well. By that time I used the name “Stock-Pot House”, since the co-protagonist was Link from The Legend of Zelda. I remember my friend got mad at me and shouted at me because I was ripping ideas and all that… and it’s certainly something I’m not proud of but it’s the truth and there’s no point trying to hide it XD
Some years passed and I left the project, until recently I met ~Celph and ~KoalaExe, they invited me to form part of their collective called Cloverian, which we recently let die. However thanks to them who gave me a hosting I decided to continue with the project of what used to be “Stock-Pot House”, but I didn’t liked the original idea anymore. Then a friend of mine self-proclammed nerd helped me with some quantum theories and all that shit nobody understands and I found a theory that caught my attention: the multiple universes theory, which in resume for civilians says that reality is so big, that the possibilities of existence of something could be infinite, meaning in an infinite universe ANYTHING is possible and all fictitious characters somebody could imagine at one point can exist. This gave me a good excuse for the story of my project and it fit me as a glove and from there I started to develope my idea: fictitious characters who appear in the protagonist’s world and came from other dimensions for a reason I would think about later on. I started to think about the characters, their personalities and stuff and decided I wouldn’t use already existing characters, but the comic would focus on parodies of the pop culture, so prominent today. A lot of people have asked me if my characters are based in people I know, and I cannot deny it haha. The main character, Cambel Chowdhury was inspired in my older brother. Hes grumpy, capricious, kinda snob and lonely, but also has a golden heart despite he always try to look like a jackass. The princess Lau, who is the favourite of many, is the classic damsel in distress of fantasy stories and it’s like the psychotic version of a friend I love so much. When she’s not possessed and make horrible faces, she’s a really sweet girl, who cares a lot for others and always puts them before herself, but she still is a normal girl, who feel jealousy and gets offended, however when she switches her personality, she can scare whoever sees her mad assassin smirk. Seth is lot more complicated, its like a mix of the stupid and happy side of mine and all my friends’, its very innocent and childish, but never with bad intentions and it’s like the cliché heroe of all movies and fantasy RPGs, who travels through magic worlds and fight with dragons and that stuff. The last of the main characters is Sara, she is completely based on a friend of mine with the same name. I think she’s my favourite character, because she makes the characters who come from other worlds to look normal. She’s very direct and honest and even to certain point, cruel, but from all she’s the most charitable. She lets the homeless stay at home, she donates to charity fundraisings, she’s into a program of older brothers, of course all this is revealed further on the comic. The best of all the weird stuff she does is… let’s say it’s not that different from reality, except that in the comic Sara is madly in love with Cambel. Of course the cast of the comic is not only this, a lot more characters will come from other dimensions to expand the humor and the horizon of every strip. Ok I think I already talked a lot XD

Your plans for this comic or any other project you currently have?

I think that, like the most of us, I get excited with the idea of someday present this outside and that people have a comic of mine in their hands, printed, that they would read it and I can see in their faces that they enjoy it. That would be like really nice. Of course that requires a lot of work and effort, but having barely 19, let’s say… it doesn’t concerns me much at this moment. I want to do a lot of things in my life before focusing 100% on my comic projects, I want to travel the world (cliché, I know ) to try little jobs like those that are given to students, of waiter, office boy, all that. There are so many things I would like to do before locking myself in a studio and don’t get out for 4 years, of course I’ll do that at certain point. There is a lot of work ahead but I also have a lot of time, or at least I want to think that, if I don’t die before that XD
For 4our-Calendar Café, I think it won’t go further than a webcomic, tho I would love to someday print it in some kind of compilation. Truth is, this comic is not as much as a dream, it’s like a way to test myself and to get excited too. As a kid I had dreams of seeing my stories go by, you know, to see the character having a conversation and to see how the story developes, even tho I already know it, it’s like I was telling stories to myself, and 4our-Calendar Café is the first story I tell in an official way.
Or course, like everything, I know it has an ending (which I won’t tell) and I promised myself I would reach that ending, and that day will be the day when I really will know how to tell a story. Let’s say it’s like an initiation test.
If the opportunity is given further on for 4CC, of course I won’t waste it, because not because it’s the first one, deserves less than my other girls.

Do you have any other project coming up?

Too many! More and more things come to my mind every second. I like to create stories, let’s see this way: I like to create character to immortalize people I really appreciate. MOST of my characters have a special bound with special friends of mine, by being actually based on them, having their names or personalities or being completely original creations. I always wanted to have a younger brother and let’s say this is my way to replace that, creating characters based on them for me is like saying “I have you with me forever and I will never forget you”, that’s why my stories are like my daughters and one never forget their children, or at least that’s what they say. Right now, appart from 4our-Calendar Café, I’ve been developing another 2 stories, both of them without a name yet and one of them doesn’t even have the characters set, but there they are and I’ll be focusing on them. One is a fantasy story, very joyfull, with very specific and identifiable characters. The other one is about two jew brothers during World War II who have to scape from the Nazis, but it won’t focus a lot in the war, but in the relation of the two brothers and the fact that the younger one can see and talk with ghosts. One of the central points of both of them, and most of my stories is the brotherly bond between two people until death. It’s like a shape of how I feel for the people I care most, and its something I’ll never forget.

Talking about DA, what brought you here?

Oh I don’t even remember why I joined, hahaha. Tho I do remember that at certain point, a friend of mine (maybe my brother) was here and I said “well I want to join too!” and at one day of November 2004 I joined and since then I come here every now and then, maybe too more often that I would like XD.

How has DA influenced your art? Your career?

Yes of course! Everything you live has a impact in what you do and I cannot deny deviantART has been a huge one. A lot of people know me for ranting about the ripping of the community and people focusing on pageviews, and well I still think that’s silly, but to be honest I couldn’t care less these days. I used to rant a lot, but at the end I’m still here isn’t? XD Truth is, DA, like all communities in the world has pros and cons, trolls and wonderful people. Fortunately I’ve been so lucky to interact more with the second group and to be honest I don’t remember having any issue with anybody here. I’ve found incredible friends, people who I consider an example because of their personalities and skills and I think exactly tha’s why I’m still here, for about 5 years by now, even when I don’t upload as much as before, I still come around and see all the amazing stuff people do, besides, I’m always looking for tutorials and stuff like that, and seeing other people’s drawings it’s how I’ve learned a lot of what I do.

Any advice for fellow artists?

Like I said before, keep your eyes peeled. If you have a problem with a drawing, look around and see how is the real world and not only that, but look at other’s people’s work. Courses and tutorials won’t mean much if you don’t learn to observe what’s in front of you. That and also, learn to accept your errors, but never let that to make you feel down. What matters most is to think you can do things, and if you can’t do them now, you’ll be able to do them further on. That phrase of “the best you can do now is enough” is garbage, you can always go further, and you HAVE to surpass yourself, just remember there’s no limit, the road will never end.

Thanks =Penril for your time!

If you want to check =Penril’s comic or want to contact him, you can do so through the following links:

E-mail: fermond@gmail.com, fern@cloverian.net
Website: [link]
Comic: [link]



Previous issues:
Vol. II - MarkandDamien
Vol. III - VanZero
Vol. IV - ginmau
Vol. V - misskittyoooo
Vol. VI - JohnnyQwest

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