Did a quick digital painting, actually was not as quick as I expected, needed to practice more since the process was all over the place. Actually a first colored version without outlining.

Beam me up Scotty~

A farewell to a childhood television/ movie idol, providing the spark of imagination and interest towards the Scifi world, Space, Time and Science.

A small character build up side project to remember the awesome Spock~

Hello Monday!

How much bluer can you get on a Monday? It's the first day of the week, and already we are defeating ourselves from getting out of bed. So as the great commander of a troop will say "Get yourrrr ASss out of bed and stop whining!"

Fast food influence

Few weeks back, I managed to sit down with a big mac and watch the doc 'Super Size Me'. Just a quarter away through the movie I regret eating the Bug Mac through this movie. 

understanding atmospheric perspective

Watched a tutorial on using atmosphere to bring out perspective by Scott Robertson, I thought I might have a try with this methodology and play with foreground, middle ground and background. Did a quick mess around with a concept environment plus some sort of mech + organic forms with my scene. (embedded is the tutorial I came across. Enjoy Monday folks :P).

Words ain't jamming through my brain, just gonna sketch :)

Dozing off while reading up on training procedures~ a traffic cop wlked in Starbucks and my brain just booted back up, just because he had an unusual presence and outfit with that shiny helmet. Yes to sketch!

Still rigid on my action poses

Trying to get back on character design, however I am constantly finding myself to sketch really stiff like forms, loosing that lively oomph :( Using references I could capture that action, using my head~ the action sort of dissipates. Then, drawing bigger forms compared to the skinny ones they seem to come alive again. 

  

The controversial bite

A little nib and bite is a game changer. If Mike teamed up with Luis = game over to whoever plays them :P

FIFA FEVER!!

The energy of this year's FIFA matches are pretty great, probably because it's in Brazil :D so lively that it prompted me to throw in some twist and turns in the hefty sketchbook. Outlined one sketch with crimson red ink and the other with regular   black ink, and did a quick wash over with the most primary colors, since previous watercolor sketches where murky, wanted to make this a little cleaner and simple. 

Finally sat down to do a little digital painting

I joined up a facebook group "Virtual Plein Air" recently, was really at an awwww moment when Isaw the many inspiring paintings people were posting up here, the idea of traveling anywhere in the world without spending a dime just  rolling around in Google map with a touch of your computer button.

I really wished I thought of this idea earlier on, but someone finally did, and it is quite a fun experience similar to a urban sketch walk. Although the tough thing with this virtual plein air is that, finding the nitty gritty details that you want tocatch  (Like angle, lighting, subject and many more) becomes limited since these are simply photographs stitched up at the specific time and moment. And the fact I am working off from my laptop, my screen can only give me so much space to have my reference picture on the side :P so it's sort of crammy.

But I did have a blast giving this idea a try.
my Plein Air location was Portugal: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@41.14062,-8.613094,3a,37.5y,50.37h,81.65t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sHLTYzBohiwrJHYWK2x6Ohg!2e0!5m1!1e1

Release thy inner Kraken

Recently bought a light weight /fountain  pen by Speedball. Always wanted to try to draw with this type of pen, saw people use it to write with it, looked super easy. However it took me at least an hour to get use to the idea of producing really thin fine lines and a nice pressured thick outline. At most I poked several holes on one page, not knowing how much ink the tip could carry and how much presaure I could exert with this pen.

After several dabs of the indian ink the pen came with, I am quite happy with some of the lines. And it was a nice stress reliever :)

Congrats NYU Tisch ANDA 2014 :D

Sadly to say, ANDA 2014 is the final batch of  talented, young and energetic animation students (all ladies) attending NYU Tisch Asia in Singapore.

Hate to see the program and the school end it's chapters in a fascinating and diverse country.

As a tradition, I tend to draw something something for the graduating classes. This year was not that hard since there were only four students haha :P

Happy mama day~

Knowing that you always have my back to straighten me out, when I am down or unaware I am out of sync.
Happy mothers' day ma~

Catching up with a coffee break

Had been a while since any blogging was done :\ did manage to sketch once or twice a week now, still experimenting with watercolor, since I got the Winsor & Newton 12 color travel pack, it's been easy for me to splash on some color washes when needed. 

A compilation of the mini paintings

Compiled three oil paintings with one PS painting :P

Sort of feeling more comfortable tackling reflected objects, the way I tackle the process of painting reflective object such as glass/ silverware. is to use the surrounding information (reflections, bounced light for nearby objects, and also remembering that the reflective object is also a SHAPE itself, so also treat it with shadow, midtone and highlights. Is a little tough with words, but as you start to pick out the nitty gritty info's through observation, you soon realize that, the surrounding actually shapes the details of the object of interest. Sort of like fake it till you make it type of mentality hahaha :P

Oil vs PS #2

Which one did you start off with today?
Kicked off with Photoshop.

PS paint:

How long did the painting take?
It took about an hour this time.

Did you find anything particularly interesting today?
I never liked drawing/ painting reflective objects, I constantly think how difficult it is to capture all that reflective information and neglecting the fact that, this is still a 3D object that has a shape, and shadow. So, throwing all complex details away, I started with the basic form, determining the object in greyscale first, applied the colors. Then on separate layers adding reflective details, and to top the shine, I added another layer that I apply only highlights. I found that with the information (dark shades, shadows, mid tone, light shade, and highlights) all in place with respect to it's relative shape, the object will come together as a whole similar to a recipe. But it does become boring to follow the same recipe over and over again :(. Hope to find more interesting things further down the road of this project.   

Did you learn anything new about yourself in this technique?
Became more confident in tackling reflective objects~

Is there something you wish you could do differently?
Have a better understanding with rendering shadows, felt my shadows were a bit difficult to come by. banana shades and colors were off.

How do you feel about this project right now?
Not too bad today, sat down and powered through the paintings under a stop watch.




Oil paint:

How long did the painting take?
it took over an hour and a half I think, lost track of time once I started the painting haha~

Did you find anything interesting today?
I purchased some new brushes, that were actually flexible and easy going on the canvas. Did feel a significant change in the way I organized my thought process of painting on canvas. I think kick starting with PS, help with my color decisions faster. Shape wise I feel I did a trial run on PS so it was easier the second round.

Did you learn anything new about yourself in this technique?
Finding the procedural process of painting in PS sort of useful when applied on canvas. The thought process of laying the base colors, then additional mid tones and followed by highlights works. What was nice in actual painting is the mixture of color and the spontaneous outcomes of a dab of this and that color.

Is there something you wish you could do differently?
Get a bigger dust bin, newspaper wipes are over flowing from the little bin :P

Additional comment:
So far am seeing some improvement in my confidence of color pairing. (That is for now, I might go into a color shock in the latter).

Oil paint VS Photoshop

Gonna try a new experiment:
Will be painting 16 different still lives with the traditional technique versus the digital technique.

What technique did you start with today?
Painted with oil first and moved over to PS 

Oil paint:

How long did the painting take?
It took me about an hour to whip this cup into shape.
The setup was tedious I guess~

Did you find anything interesting with this technique?
I love the way you can twist and turn your brushes freely without any limitations, you get more personal in relationship with your materials: The mediums, oils, brushes, palette knife, newspaper and the canvas.

Did you learn anything new about yourself in this technique?
It has been a while since I scraped and cleaned my palette board, sorting out the colors one by one from warm to cold. And smelling the linseed oil that sort of could suffocate you entirely in a closed environment :P. I did feel I have less fear and reduced the hesitation of finding the perfect color to start and finish this painting. What was nice, I timed myself for this project, so with this in mind I think it made me care less about thinking too hard on what colors I should use, instead to just pick the colors with my gut feelings.

Is there something you wish you could do differently?
 I wish there was a Ctrl + Alt+Z function in traditional technique :P, damn it all goes back to the scrape knife to get a clean slate for new and cleaner paint to be applied.

How do you feel about this project right now?
I feel good about it at this moment. I finally stepped in to start it (Since I started thinking about this three days ago).

PS paint:

How long did the painting take?
It took me about 30 min, I timed it 

Did you find anything interesting with this technique?
I find it more structured with the layers, I could plan the way the cup is painted in different layers (Shadow, dark shades, mid tone, highlights, and patterns) without destroying the other worked upon layers. And the eraser tool is really useful to get that nice crisp edges and finishes, or acts as a blending tool between light and dark. 

Did you learn anything new about yourself in this technique?
I do feel much more comfortable using PS now, as compared with my first encounter with PS back in the days, where it was so unfamiliar and ridiculously hard to navigate with the layers.
I do find it easier to pick my colors in advance and sort out a layer just for color palette. The brushes I have come to be accustomed to use with some tweaks of shape dynamics and other dynamics. I feel my speed painting will really improve after a few more try outs this week. 

Is there something you wish you could do differently?
I do wish I am able to rotate my brush shape with short keys, instead of constantly going over to the brush menus to rotate the brush. I guess this what i get with CS4.

How do you feel about this project right now?
Feeling great to know I can initiate a digital color painting, as I use to hate using colors because I fear them. I do not know why? But a Professor has embedded a rule that you should think about what you draw in shapes, color in shapes, shading in shapes. And I do like blocky shapes coming together to form the final render of an object.

WWE LIVE with sis and dad :P

It was quite a funny imagery when my sister told me that she took my dad to a WWE showdown~ as she was describing the excitement of the show, in my mind I was imagining how in the world the two very people who I never had thought, liked wrestling. Actually went to a LIVE wrestling match?

I had to draw what I thought was a priceless image of dad and daughter out for a wrestling match hahaha.

Wedding!

Been asked recently to do wedding related designs and animation this year. Guess I ain't young no more : D. Helped this particular friend design some illustrations for a wedding invitation.
Took a while to establish the final outcome of this project.

I took the initiative to compile the process of creating the idea, and working towards what my friend finally decided on. (First roughs actually included crazy creatures, then it was of course too radical and asked to to be changed. Haha!)

Wedding no more up to this stage haha~

 

Mech Sunday

Used to buy these really intricate model kits of Gundams. Always liked the way each Gundam was designed.
Some with really cool weapons and wing spans, others have super awesome masks and spikes that swooshes out from the head.

Never had I tried drawing them when I was a kid until now, this was a rough rendition of a size in contrast of machine vs little man running :P.

In addition to have that comic feel, I added the typical dotted mask that's layered beneath the drawing. Just to mention, the "rough" style was also an inspirational mood I sort of liked from graphic novel artist Ashley Woods.