Monday, June 29, 2009

busybusybusy

I feel like I haven't posted here forever :P I wish I could post more but I've been swamped with my portfolio class.
When I signed up for the portfolio program, I signed up for a number of hours, and I'm trying my best to finish up those hours this summer. Though I don't think I can...
But that's ok, I'm going to need some advice once the Calarts portfolio deadline starts coming around.
And the reason I've been so frazzled is because I'm jumping to the different Vision 21 locations to experience the different teachers and Calarts alumni.

So I'm either in Cerritos, Fullerton, LA or Irvine..whewww....

Lately, I've really been feeling my gestures. With the help of my instructor Mike Neumann, my gestures have adopted a more animation-like style in a sense that I draw through and make everything flow more.





I've also started a short story about Jason the zombie and Piaget the Pigeon.
It's a quick story that I've added into my sketchbook to help with my organization of story.
Not really the best drawings, but I was focusing on the story, and that was already hard enough :P
I will add the rest later on.
What will happen after Piaget drops off Jason the zombie's dentist postcard?
:)

And the bottom one is just another figure gone sci-fi.
Right now for me, it's either a zombie or robot-thing. I'm going through a zombie phase at the moment.
But I'll just make the best of it :) and let it inspire me.


Speaking of zombies, I recently stumbled upon an artist named Ashley Green.
I first discovered him through the art of Metal Gear Solid. And what do you know... he has books that have zombies and robots in them :) Here

Check out his website!

Until next time!

Monday, June 8, 2009

Recent work

I've been wanting to post my recent work from Vision 21 ever since before the trip to Michigan.
But I did a few sketches while I was away. You'd think that I would have more sketches because I was traveling across the country and I got to see all kinds of things.
But not really :P
I couldn't bring myself to draw the same endless landscapes that would roll on by the car for 8 hours.
Even while I was on the plane to Michigan, I could only see about 5 or 6 people and draw them. But it was still fun and I've included them. I like how the guy who was reading the book had his toes latched on to the seat in front of him.

I have an instructor at Vision 21 who has been helping me a lot with taking the first steps of character animation and giving me a taste of what it's about. He has been assigning me small homework assignments such as: give emotion to a sausage, give emotion to a cat, etc. The sausage was definitely a challenge because I didn't want to use the little signs that indicated emotion. So I tried my best and it was really fun. I think I will name the sausage Antoine. Hopefully I'll be able to come up with more emotions for Antoine if I can think of more.
I also did a few drawings of a cat. The cat was also very fun and it's still a work in progress. I know I can think of more emotions!
I was told to keep the drawings very simple, which really works.



This portrait was done in my sketchbook with oil. I've never done figure painting before, so I would I would try my hand at a portrait. I used a girl from one of my magazines. I actually used the oil paint to kind of "scrub" in her features and such. I wanted a more rugged and dirty look. Perhaps it was because I was very into the zombie game that I was playing... (and still am)
:) I think I would like to experiment more with figure painting.

This is the painting that I've been working on at Vision 21. It's not quite done but I'm glad to see where it's going. I used oil paint on illustration board which was the worst mistake I've ever made :P
I wanted to try something different, but I forgot that the oil will get soaked up by the board. Bad bad idea...
That's why in the picture, some areas are shinier than others because of the multiple layers.
But, it's not so bad.
My instructor who has been guiding me through this painting also likes figure painting. His work is awesome and I wish I can share it on this blog, but he keeps all his work in his digital camera...
The arms on the person in the painting were painted with many small strokes and colors. This technique was taught to me by my instructor because that's his specialty, using a lot of complex colors to give form and texture to the figure. I really like the technique and would like to use it in my future paintings.


This is another figure drawing that I would like to finish. I didn't have enough time because I was using pastel pencil. I have a few unfinished works from Vision 21 that I hope I can finish.
I'm still experimenting with figure drawing by heading down a more abstract road.




Also, I wanted to introduce Daisy. Daisy is a Labrador who is very intelligent and fun. She belongs to my cousins. I included these pictures of Daisy because I hope that one day, I can capture the emotion and personality of dogs in character animation. Animals are so silly, but are inspiring :)

Ok, enough blahblah. I'll include more drawings next time, and some Chinese paintings too!

I Have Returned!

I haven't blogged in a while because I've been driving across the U.S. with my older sister :P
She recently graduated from the University of Michigan's pharmacy graduate program. Congrats to her for enduring such a tough program and finally earning her title as Dr. Emily Chang!
After her graduation, she decided that she wanted to move home to start looking for a job. So we drove from Michigan to California because she had to bring her car back.
I must say, that it was one heck of a drive... I've driven with her and my mom before from California to Michigan. But for some reason, that one didn't seem as bad. This time, I was super antsy and even 2 hours seemed like forever. But I made it and I'm back in art mode.
I just wanted to include a few pictures that I took along the road.

This picture was taken in the New Mexico area. There were a lot of plateaus in the area and all the mountains looked blue. It might have been Arizona but I don't remember :P





The pictures of the sunset and cacti are definitely from Arizona. My sister thought it would be nice to capture some of the cacti by the sunset. And the sunset was absolutely gorgeous.
I think the cacti really saved our lives... the drive was getting really boring. Some of the cactus looked really funny :)

I also wanted to post some of my work that I've been working on recently. I'll split up the posts because I still have yet to get some pictures.
Also, I returned around 12 from watching Pixar's Up :)
It really was such a great movie that touched the deep regions of our hearts like never before.
This is definitely a break through for Pixar. (the first one that made me cry :P )
I will be going to sleep with happy thoughts of the movie tonight

Good Night!