Nicolo Balce (baloney) the-null.com halfproject.com

Hello baloney, let us imagine pencils could talk... could you give us a short introduction of yourself in a pencil's point of view? baloney is a twerp who tries to draw with his shaky, sweaty hands. he's very unorganized, which makes him use my buddy, the eraser, more than me. his drawings usually show humanoid female characters who either look too happy or too forlorn or lethargic.

he's also a starwars fan who, at age 12, was already bugging nearby betamax retal stores for an episode one. eight years later, he finally got to watch it.

What is baloney... before and after you join the halfproject crew?  How did HP changed you?

hp was kind of a drill for me. before that, i was just making things for myself and working at my own pace. working with them gave me some xp (next level, 3500 xp) on group work. in some way, it made me realize that anti socialism is not really practical. and it also introduced me to the design stuff found on the internet.

it's like:

baloney (before hp) --- lazy twerp without experience
baloney (after hp) --- lazy twerp with experience

But given that you're surrounded by great designers at HP (drew and zoorex and the others), how do you let your style emerge in your works?

My coloring contrast with the things drew and zoo does with the other graphics. uh... i guess that's the best explanation i could give.

more of baloney... ...and at halfproject.com

How do the crew of HP work/collaborate btw?

We text each other back and forth because everybody is from different ends of the earth. drew's in laguna, zoo is in cainta, i'm in antipolo, berg is in somewhere...
that, or we meet in icq. we pass files via hyperterminal or via ftp.

the process usually starts with a brainstorm, then i do the first part which involves the illustrations, then zoo makes the grungy / techno design stuff with photoshop, then drew makes some vectors and codes the site.

Can you give us an overview of the little things behind halfproject? (Aside from the fact that zoo is a coffee lover :P)

little things...? ehr...

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drew's psuedonym comes from the past tense of the word "draw." she said that herself. heheh. i thought she got it from, like, drew barrymore...

we also call her "tita nids" or "ate nida" sometimes. it pisses her off.

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berg's already an erpats... he originally planned to name their offspring "nimrod," but i guess that idea was scrapped...

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zoo has an n'sync shirt...

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i also drew for that poster for slapshock once...

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i fly my bio-dragon on my free time, patrolling around for mecha-gaigans that usually wreak havoc on marikina. i wish.

Hehehe... does this bio-dragon loving artist drink coffee too?

i was terminally addicted to coffee for a while. i had pulpitations and my blood pressure was high. no, it was way up there. it was horrible. i'm not touching that stuff again.

What keeps that creative ideas of yours flowing?

i wish i could keep my creative ideas flowing. hehe. there are times when i really go blank. music, surfing the net, eating peanut butter, video games, watching obsolete sentai series on solar channel, watching nhk (even if i can't understand a thing)... i try everything to keep myself going...

How do you make those illustrations of yours (esp the new one on your new site) look so sexy?

it's easy if you're male, and you have a filthy mind. wehehe. oh, come to think of it, it's easy even if you're just male. knowing several fetishes also helps.

i try to follow the concept of the "good girl" illustrations of the 50's (or was it 40's?). the girls you see painted on the flying fortresses and some other war planes. they're sexy, but not lewd.

I read one of your online comics... the one with this kid who owns a robot (hehehe...) any plans to finish that one?  Or did i missed the finishing chapters already?

wow! O_O really?? you saw that? that was, like, two years ago. the title was "underground." that comic revolved around the happenings around u.p. fine arts 20 years later. heheh.

aw, you haven't missed anything yet. it got stuck on the part where they were having a road-chase. i have plans of finishing that, but i'm currently finishing another one. i'm redoing one of the stories i did for a school project. it's about a vampire - manananggal - mangkukulam love triangle set in general delgado st., san antonio, pasig (near kapitolyo). any ideas for a title? :)

Do you ever wish that those sexy cheerleaders of yours come to life?

yeah. and half of the other girls i drew. the other half are alive and roaming about or in galleries for people to see it, right?

Any character you have created which you wish to marry? (LOL)

no. date, yes. marry, no. i'm not in the marry-me stage yet. wehehe. i loved that girl with the goggles.

Hmmm... DC or Marvel?

marv... d... hmm... d.c. yeah. d.c. "impulse" rocked. specially those issues done by humberto ramos.

And your favorite cartoon character?

ruriko ikusawa. (gatekeepers) ganda. :)
(doraemon only comes in second)

What's the ideal girl for an great illustrator like you? (Hehehe)

(great eh, no?.... heheh. kulet mow.) ideal girl? this question is hard, man. one that looks like ruriko ikusawa. :)

Almost forgot to ask this... why 'The Null'?

originally, it was supposed to be just "null," but because of syntax problems i was having, i called it "the null."

i called it "the null" because...

1. because i really can't think of any title for my experimental page.
2. i think this title wouldn't make the viewers expect or presume something from me.
3. this just came a few days ago) the fact that it's reduced to nothing when the computer or the power goes off. (nakhumpuchah!)

Traditional art or digital ones?

traditional. they don't have undo buttons to save them from their mistakes. that alone makes them kick ass.

Where do you see yourself seven years from now?

i see myself in endor as a (wealthy) nerf herder, with ruriko ikusawa (or some other equivalent.), occasionally saving marikina from the evil dr. man and his henchmen mason and farrah.

Final words for the viewers... (Anything goes)

Yokai, aegis!

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