It's Summeerrr

I really haven't been posting much even though I've been out of school for a while.

But I've been catching up with things that I couldn't do while I was in school.

Working out, cooking, playing video games :P

I haven't completely thrown away art though. My Chinese painting exhibition is coming up soon.

I'm really excited because I've improved and learned so much in just one year.

My teacher has been selecting some pieces that will be exhibited.

And he actually took out one of my favorite pieces :(

It's been signed, stamped with a seal and everything.

Good-bye little fishes... maybe next year.

I've been learning to paint a lot of other stuff too. Such as this squash.

I don't know what kind of squash it is...I'm not sure how to say it in English.

But it's a dish that we order at Chinese restaurants when we go out. Other then that... I don't know much about it :P

It's fun to paint though.

This squash is quite funny. They start out as a yellow flower and grow down from there.

So when the squash is fully grown, they still have a small yellow flower at the bottom.

I've graduated to painting koi!!! This is only my first koi painting, and it's not the greatest.

But I'm so glad that my teacher approved.

So now I can start practicing. And maybe I'll have a really nice koi painting for next year's exhibition.

I've been picking up digital painting too. I kind of had a late start because I was struggling with it for a while.

I tried painting myself but it just wasn't working. They were all so hideous.

So I asked a good friend of mine to help me out.

My friend Young is an awesome digital painting and I love his style. And he was so willing to help me out.

Many many thanks to him.

Here is the link to his blog: http://nyang27.blogspot.com/

He has some amazing paintings. *jealous*.....

I'm posting my works in progress.

I've been starting out with just portraits. I still have to get the hang of it.

This definitely needs a lot of practice.

But they're not bad for my first time I guess :P

The first one is my boyfriend. His lips look weird...

I kept looking back and forth at the photo. Maybe he really is making a weird kissy lip thing.

The second is the actress Gemma Arterton. I made her look kind of disheveled and dead. Haha

I'll continue to work on these and make them better.

Much Better

The world has become slightly better with Steam on Mac.

This is a very happy moment :)

I'm posting a random sketch that I did in my sketchbook. It's a character I designed for one of my classes back in the Fall semester.

Supposedly, he is supposed to be a very handsome alien with a love for aesthetics.

I think I made his head too small...

Tom the Zombie

For my last project in Media in Motion a fellow friend, Nick Shoen, and I created a short film in After Effects about a zombie named Tom who lives in a human civilization. We are very happy with the finished product, though a few changes can still be made.

Using Illustrator, Nick made all the back grounds and animated the second half of the film.

I made all the characters and animated the first half of the film.

All the zombie groans and moans are done by Nick.

The intro song is Overture from the Katamari Damacy soundtrack.

The main song is Blue Blood from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

All the sound effects were either self-recorded or found in a sound effects library.

And just a side note: I am very lucky to have worked with someone like Nick who is very passionate about animation. I hope that I can collaborate with him in the future again.

I'm very excited to be posting the video on my blog :)

enjoy!

Tom the Zombie from Tammy Chang on Vimeo.

Last Day of School

Today was officially my last day at Otis. And not just because I'm done with classes.

Today I turned in my completed withdrawal form and even my student ID :'(

I was really hoping that I could keep my student ID as a little keepsake. I won't be able to keep my Otis email for very long too. Very sad...

Maybe I should've just told them that I lost my student ID.

Anyways, I thought it would be very appropriate to log the last day of school at Otis like I did with my first day of school. Otis has been one of the best experiences of my life. I will definitely never forget it nor the people and teachers there who have been with me.

I remember writing about Irvine and how sad I was leaving because it became my comfort zone.

And here I am writing again, knowing that I will be moving in just a few months.

Again, I'm moping at the thought of leaving so many good things behind. But at the same time, I know that I will be leaving for other great things as well.

I guess that's just how life is. You never know where you'll end up cause it's always changing.

And knowing myself, I'm always optimistic and looking forward to where my life will take me.

But for now, I'm thinking about summer and all the stuff that I can do before school starts again.

It's going to be an interesting summer.

I posted pictures of the last sculpture that I did in class. It's the robot soldier from Laputa.

I'm not quite finished because we only had 1 session to work on it. This is probably something that I will work on during the summer.

I want to post pictures of the final landscape that I drew for my landscape class.

But I'm stupid for not scanning it.

And I'm even more stupid for taking pictures of the armature that I made for this sculpture.

This was the first armature that I made myself that was more involved.

I had to ask my teacher, Glen for a little assistance.

The top part of the robots chest, the part running across from shoulder to shoulder, was a bit difficult to get.

It's time to get to work already!

I have some internships to apply for :P

RIP Jun Seba

http://www.e22.com/nujabes/

I am very sad to have recently found out that one of my favorite hip hop artists, Jun Seba or Nujabes, passed away in a car accident in February. It wasn't until March 17, that it was confirmed and announced.

He was only 36 and had not finished his musical career.

It's a very tragic and tremendous loss for the hip hop community and I hope that his music will continue to live on.

Rest in peace Nujabes

just for fun

16 days until the end of school

Sooo... I went to the CalArts Accepted Students Day.

And the atmosphere and people are so different from Otis.

It really is a unique environment and such a different world. I think I'll come to like it.

But while I was there, I couldn't help but think of all my Otis friends and how I won't be seeing them next semester :(

It's going to be tough keeping in touch. I know that all my Otis buddies will be battling their way through junior year.

And junior year at Otis is meant to beat you down. But that means that they will be that much better.

While I start over as a freshmen at CalArts and go through another 4 years -_____-

But I don't mind, since I'll be learning all kinds of new stuff.

All that aside, I want to post pictures of the finished sculpture of my grandpa's head!

The first two are pictures of my work in progress. The second picture is an ear that my teacher built as a demo for the class. Ears are really fun to sculpt.

I still have some work to do, but other than that... I'm pretty happy that I took this class.

I'm a very hands-on person and I like building things with my hands.

The intricate wrinkles on my grandpa's face will have to wait...

And I'm also posting pictures of my last landscape field trip at the West Fork San Gabriel River.

I think it was the best trip by far because it wasn't just some park and it was more isolated.

Even my teacher was so psyched about the area that we spent most of our time hiking and not drawing.

But I managed to get 3 nice sketches in of the trip.

There's only about 2 weeks of school left. I'm looking forward to the summer, but at the same time I don't want the school year to end. These are my last weeks at Otis.

But at least I'm getting the best out of these last weeks. I'm currently working on an After Effects animation with a friend of mine about a zombie named Tom.

And I have my Chinese painting exhibition to look forward to in July.

This time, all the Chinese painters in our group will be creating a book of paintings to share with friends and family.

I'm pretty excited about that because it will be the first time my Chinese paintings are published.

So hopefully there will be posts about all that in the future.

I know that some of my Animated Buzz friends are creating new blogs for their CalArts experience.

But I think I will keep this blog. This blog has travelled with me for a while and I've grown extremely fond of it.

And it will be a good way to keep in touch with my Otis pals since they have blogs too.

This blog is ultimately about my journey as an art student and more.

I wonder what it will look like in 6 years...?