I've been busy as of late freelancin' away and spending some quality time with my family! It's a little overwhelming to be self-employed after almost a year of working full-time, but I plan on making the most of it, beefing up my skills and starting some projects of my own if I can.

Here's something I've been working on for Little Fireface Project, the slow loris conservation group that I mentioned in an earlier post. They're putting together a children's book to educate young kids about lorises and the part they play in their native ecosystem, and I'll be illustrating it! The plight of the lorises is something I've grown to care a lot about, so I'm pleased that I get to help out these animals in my own way.

Follow Little Fireface on facebook to keep tabs on their efforts (book included)! They are an amazingly dedicated diverse group of people and are doing great things for these cool little primates.

purrrow

my favourite beasts and characters updates will return, promise, when I'm feeling less overwhelmed.

until then, I'm glad that an art trade with my good friend Natasha Fishman has jerked me out of my art slump. I've been scribbling around producing nothing much I feel is worth showing, and it's possible I just needed to do some relatively meticulous Photoshop inking for a change of pace and concentrate on details which I don't do often. Natasha's character S'daza the spectrum demon is certainly good for giving me details to concentrate on. she's more than a little catlike in nature and that was what I drew on for the pose etc.:



the inking was meticulous enough, but I got lazy with the shading as I am wont to do these days and messed around with layer styles instead of being proper about it. e_e;

on a lighter note, I recently received my Sketchbook Project sketchbook in the mail! the theme I chose is 'prehistoric', and I look forward to doodling plenty of awesome primitive fish, mammals, and dinosaurs in the weeks to come. :) I've opted for my sketchbook to be digitized, makes sense since the people I hold dear span at least two continents, but I might post any pages I'm particularly proud of here.

25 years

man, I feel old. x_x

anyway! I did a t-shirt design a while back for Cat Clark's training school, Dog Radical, of her whippet Pogo! I love European whippets, so this was just a delight for me. she sent me some update photos now that the shirts are printed, and the designs look great on them!





I've got myself an account on Steam now! mainly joined because I am looking forward to some crazy Team Fortress/L4D action with my buddies, but I've found plenty of other PC games (cute, quirky, third-person adventure/platformer is more my style) that I'm keen to try. click on Fighter Kirby to visit my profile and add me if you wish :)

illustrator is annoying

but I used it to make another picture.

I was just playing around with pen tool and pencil tool today. at this point I feel I could have made a much better image with Flash, but oh well. probably just need to watch more tutorials...

vector vector vector

been playing around with Illustrator CS3 over the past few days, watching online tutorials and trying to teach myself the ins and outs. I'm not fond of working in vectors but thanks to Flash I'm a lot more comfortable with them than before and it's not so counter-intuitive for me. it's my first time really trying AI out and this is the first picture I've done with it, of my character Penny who always serves as my new technique guinea pig somehow:



the jury is still out on whether Illustrator and I are going to be friends, but figuring out how to toggle the brush settings has helped its case. :B

here's a vector logo I did for a dog-walking service, made with a more familiar foe-turned-bosom-friend, Flash:

trainer wishes to battle

pokémon: still very much a great escape from reality.

wanted to play around with colours - and Pokémon - after reading through PK's Colouring Tutorial. I'm cheered by the results!

small but mighty thing

this is what happens when you watch The Thing and Beverly Hills Chihuahua back to back (yeah, some weird taste in movies, no?):



I may actually finish and colour this at some point, just wanted to get the image down. :B and maybe do more drawings, I find the morphing scenes in The Thing inspiring and would like to try going crazier with it.

happy place

quickie idea that's been in my head for a while.

I need to draw stuff other than us, but eh.

dive

I don't think I'm afraid of great heights so much as I am of the possibility of falling from them.

not really a vent piece but definitely based on things I've felt. features my character Switch.

dive

I don't think I'm afraid of great heights so much as I am of falling from them.

not really a vent piece but definitely based on things I've felt. features my character Switch.

red tape

feeling a little glum because of recent developments in my situation, so I doodled.


be thankful if you've never had to deal with immigration laws ever.
don't be fooled - he's mainly annoyed because my butt is less than a foot from him and he can't reach it. ♥

three tigers

"The White Tiger is connected to the symbol of jinx in China history. Some Chinese might consider that 2010 White Tiger is a bad year....

...Tiger contains Mainly Wood, Fire and little Earth. Wood and Fire together will make Fire stronger. Metal is afraid of Fire and Metal is also against Wood. That means Metal and Tiger together will fight each other, which implies 2010 won't come quietly and peacefully. We can image that 2010 is a Tiger wearing armor. This Tiger doesn't like armor on the top its body and keeps jumping around. For safety, we should keep our distance from it. That's why many Chinese don't like White Tiger."
-Chinese Fortune Calendar



A year ago, whilst celebrating Lunar New Year in Chinatown with my buddy Ivey, I slipped and fell down the steps of the subway, giving myself a massive bruise on my hip, and breaking a bracelet that a friend had made me in the process. A week after that, my wallet (containing my immigrant work permit) and mobile phone were pickpocketed. This was the start to my third Year of the Tiger.

I had meant to draw this picture back then, but the incidents listed above put that thought out of my mind for quite some time, and after that things just seemed to keep cropping up. A recent trip to the Singapore Zoo (it's beautiful; I took lots of pictures :D) made me remember it, and I figured might as well do it before the year officially ends. I try to draw a Lunar New Year picture every year, and I had meant this year to be far from an exception.

The Tiger is the year of my own birth, which means as of this year I've completed two twelve-year cycles (a complete cycle is 60 years, which means I've gone through the years of each animal in each of the five elements). Tiger Year children, generally speaking, are not traditionally favoured in Chinese culture (in the year of my birth, 1986, the birth rate fell dramatically in predominantly-Chinese Singapore), and girls particularly not so - apparently because it is supposed to make them overly aggressive, which is not a value that Chinese women are traditionally supposed to aspire to. The Chinese equivalent of the term 'bitch', at least where I come from, is 'mu lao hu' - 'tigress'.

It's been an interesting year, to say the least, definitely a year of extremes and firsts. A lot has been going on, some things nice and others not-so-nice, but one thing it has certainly not been is forgettable - as tigers never are. I've been very fortunate this year, but with all the good fortune came a great deal of stress and wear, and I've been trying to hold it all together and keep everything in check. Exhausting, but worth the effort in the end to my mind. Similarly, with all the not so nice things that happened, there was always a silver lining somewhere -- the day of my fall in the subway, there were good samaritans kind enough to help me up and give me tissues for my bleeding wrist; and the day my valuables got stolen, my friends pulled through for me unbelievably while I was being a hysterical mess. Also, I had already sent in the application for my work visa, so that was unaffected by my permit being missing (applying for my social security number on the other hand was another story, but thankfully that's all in the past now and didn't really affect anything either).

So here's my image for the Year of the White (Gold/Metal) Tiger -- the White Tiger himself, sitting in foreground, the Yellow Earth Tiger (1998) in the middle and the Red Fire Tiger (1986) at back. I'm amazed at the ease with which this picture appeared within the space of a day or so, given that it took me long enough to get around to making the effort.

Anyway, actual Lunar New Year picture coming soonish. :B And a fond farewell to the Year of the White Tiger -- it's been rocky, but grrrr-eat.

Oh oh also! Going to the zoo gave me the idea of possibly making some prints to raise money (and awareness) for conservation efforts. I hope I can find a good way to do this - since I've never done anything like that before and am not sure how to set it up. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know!

hello, mr. long

Chinese long dragon for 'East Asian Monsters' theme on Tonight We Draw :D I'm proud of this one.

back at bunko

and somehow my blogposting missed october. sorry, october. :[

here's a doodle dump circa june 2010 I found on my cintiq at the studio, consisting of drawings both work-related and otherwise:



I like my stylized Raphael and baby Michelangelo.

..okay, back to work.

goodbye summer

ARGH am on a hiatus from work, but I've been busy! with what, I'll say once I'm at liberty to, but in the meantime, yay art.

first, a couple of logo-type commissions I did for some very lovely dog-people:


logo done for Kelly Hayes for her kennel, Offshore! Kelly breeds Wirehaired Pointing Griffons; it was my first time I've actually drawn one, and it's always interesting for me to study a breed I'm not that familiar with. You can check out photos of Kelly's dogs and her dog photography at her website.


English Cocker Spaniel for a website banner. :) as far as I know it isn't online yet but if I do hear anything I'll update this with a link!


Illustration I did for Wielder of her characters, prismacolor pencils on recycled paper. First time using coloured pencils to draw a full background and everything, and I'm quite pleased with the results. I've been using the computer (and failing which, markers) so much lately that it felt good to break out the pencils again. Wielder's own illustration work is fabulous, I definitely recommend giving her art a peek.

okaayyy on to more personal stuff!


I made some silly doodles of my friends and I hankering after our various ethnic foods. I think I succeeded in making a lot of them look like themselves which made me happy, it seems I only really get comfortable drawing people after I've been friends with them a while. still, was a good excuse to practice and I intend to keep doing so.

here's a great idea from fox-orian on deviantART, an influence map!

as an artist, it was interesting to sort out the various things that inspire me -- quite a task since I've been inspired by a lot, and quite overwhelming at times. I think I did a good enough job listing things from my childhood up to the present day, but likely this isn't something that will ever be set in stone, since my art and artistic goals have evolved so much over the years - some of these areas are increasing in size while others are decreasing, and no doubt I'll keep finding more and more new areas to add to this. still, I try to take a little something away from everything I come across.

if any of my other artsy friends decides to give this one a shot, do link me - I'd love to see. :)

tall grass habitat

perfectionism and control-freakiness when it comes to animating scenes resulting in overtime and much hair-pulling, combined with the wish for more time and energy to play video games - among other things - can be a lethal mixture. it leads to silly flash doodles and easy amusement. but who doesn't like silly flash doodles?



I've been 24 for almost a week now! w00t.

brave new world

this is late, but better late than never eh? happy 2010! :D



my new year's resolution is to cut loose all the emotional and mental sandbags, and do my best to fly. the real world is terrifying, but I need to stop being a wuss about it.

and, just because I can:

that joke will never get old. :)

hello hello

to break this awful habit I have of not posting, here's more stuff people paid me to do:

pet portraits for a couple friends!





I am still taking orders for pet portraits if anybody is interested. :)

I've also been very busy with sticker-making -- I love sticker-making so much! will save those for another post though, I still have to sort out all the scans and photos. I've got an account on etsy now and once I stop procrastinating I will have to get active on there with art. such a lovely site!

couple drawings of a new character of mine. or rather one I've had for some time now but only just managed to be able to draw to my satisfaction.



more about her later on, if enough people want to hear about it. I figure I should stop being such a wuss and post more about my personal art here, since most of what I seem to post are random crap and work-art.



I was having a not so nice day. but it's all good now.

♥ !

boo, baby

picture that somebody commissioned me to do of their original characters:


I finished this a while ago but figured now was a good time to put it up. it was an interesting digital painting learning experience and I really enjoyed working on it. both characters are supposed to be that balloony, shiny kind of texture and I was working on making that show through.

plus, I think I need to start drawing more monsters and maybe some *gasp* gory stuff too. I actually love doing that, it's just a side of me not a lot of people see since I tend to be seen as the kid that draws cute puppies. I need to work on making my scary things look more scary. :C

here's a fun art meme someone on deviantART made, draw your character as a variety of beasties and monsters:



in case you can't tell, I'm an Alien/s and a 28 Days Later fan. hahah.

if you don't have any characters you can just draw yourself I guess! the blank one is here, just click the download button on the left side of the page. if anyone I know decides to do this please link me, I want to see. :D

happy belated halloween! I had a great weekend.

to end off this monstrous post, some cute mixed with scary 'cause that is how I roll, as they say.

work doodleses

did these over wednesday - friday in between doing work things. :) cintiq fun hah. most of these are my original characters, I labeled those with their names.

feels good to be doodling again!