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.

Provided with some references, I really enjoy the painting style and brush effects that Dice Tsutsumi has going on for his color mood boards in Toy story 3. In most of his works, the simplified features and the block like brushes has an oil painting aesthetic in them. Totally describes his idea of using simple strokes (http://www.simplestroke.com/)

Using some of his examples, I had to practice my way of using color in Photoshop. I like traditional oil painting, and to transfer that sort of feeling digitally came as a challenge. However by observing and testing the brush features (shape dynamics, scatter, other dynamics), I was sort of glad to find some close results to what I wanted the oil painting effect to look like.

My take on the practicing via observing:

Stepping out for a walk and sketch

Sketch walking again, too much computer is making me miss whats really out there in the city (culture, color, fooooood, and smell)

Posing and action!

Compiled a character pose sheet, accumulated since last month to help me seek new interesting poses and ideas for character movement or character design.

Illustrating for children's book

Guess again, I had been off the mark to keep my consistency to update my blog :(
However, it's been quite an exciting start of the year with lots of interesting projects that's been hitting me in the face and some had to be pushed back a little. (But I think that's time management on my side haha! never liked planning because nothing works out what I had in mind, so I strive for spontaneity).

Just collaborated and helped a friend (Adeline Foo - author: http://www.adelinefoo.com/) to complete her new children's book. Me and a couple of my alum friends from New York University Tisch Asia founded an illustration group "The Scribblers" helped to stylize the look in her new book.