my boyfriend's dog

♥

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.

marchly sketchdump

I'd been feeling a bit unmotivated as far as drawing lately, so I figured I'd mix it up a bit by playing around with media - that usually helps. I picked a random handful of my copic markers and just started playing around.


long-dragon. I like some things about this but overall I'm not sure what I think. I'll need to try this again..


I like animals with long noses, if you didn't know already. from top to bottom: giant anteater, pangolin, tamandua, aardvark, armadillo. no references used, so if anything is off that's why.


supposed to be White Snake and Green Snake from the Chinese story. I'd like to do more illustrations based on that someday.

also watched Kestrel's Eye, a documentary that follows a pair of kestrels in raising a nestful of youngsters (not really recommended if you have a short attention span or need dialogue/narration in your movies, unless you're a nature weirdo like me and love observing animals for hours). since I'd never really studied raptors or falcon-type birds before, I took the opportunity to make some drawings.



small diversion: my boyfriend's dog, who had decided to come take a nap nearby. lifedrawing with markers is definitely something new for me.



I was inspired to draw the gryphons in these pages by the 'gryfalcons' in Mercedes Lackey/Larry Dixon's The Black Gryphon, which predictably enough are my favourite characters in that book. I love the sleekness and compactness of falcon-type birds.

one more stream-of-consciousness sketchpage, including my character Penny and Blossom of the Powerpuff Girls in a kind of weird style which I may mess around more with.


and to close, a pair of caricatured corgis:

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.

hello, december

my friends and I have started a joint drawing blog! I've wanted to try being a part of something like this for a long time so I'm glad we've got it all set up. check it out: Tonight, We Draw! :D

I leave for Singapore in a couple of weeks! I'm looking forward to visiting home for the first time in two years. :) it's been a while since I've seen my whole family and a lot of my friends. plus, I've been checking out the developments at our local zoos and animal parks, and I'm psyched to hear about all the new animals that have moved in since I was last there! (which was admittedly quite a while ago - shame on me.) they even have pangolins now and I'm so looking forward to seeing them in the flesh. expect sketchbook/photo dumps once all this happens.

anyway, I was kind of productive yesterday:

I only really like about 20% of these drawings. :[ but at least I'm drawing in my sketchbook again. slowly the rust is flaking off my doodling equipment. ballpoint pen is pretty much officially my implement of choice by far.

and this because I'm silly.

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.

sketchbook gaming

the usual suspects and I were in central park over last week to draw some stuff, and somehow, unsurprisingly enough, this turned into a contest as to who could draw the best goblin drag-queen:



this made me bring up the idea of sketchbook hero again since it's been a while since I've drawn with a group of people. we decided the prompts were going to be a combined verb/adjective and noun, each chosen randomly by a different person. we took turns choosing words. the results are as follows:

"Flying Pants"


"Bare Gorilla"


"Aggressive Cthulu"


"Sloppy Platypus"


we went all out on this and decided to pick three prompts and combine them in one picture. "Ski-jumping Cat", "Furious Sweeperbot" and "Spongy Cougar"

I wish I hadn't misjudged the amount of space I would need. :| if I'd been able to finish the cougar's tail I might actually be quite proud of this one.

I think everyone else who was there at the time needs to post up their versions somewhere. I'll link to them if they do! :D

more pokemon

expect even more pokemon. I forgot how addictive and fun (and maddening) these games were.

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. :)

doggycatures

old art -- or old-ish, anyway, from early 2009.

at the time, my style of drawing was starting to loosen up in a dramatic and wonderful way, so since dogs are a subject matter I am familiar with plus varied enough to keep me interested in them all these years, I asked my watchers on deviantART to suggest some breeds for me to play around with drawing. and play I did!

I guess I got too caught up in the thesis rush to remember to scan these and put them on the internet, but I was leafing through my old sketchbook and came upon all these -- and wonder of wonders, I still like 'em. so here they are. :D

more stupid video game fanart

coloured the silly doodle I made of Kirby and Rick. I love Kirby's Dreamland 2 and I've been playing Super Star Ultra like a madperson.

Parasol Waddle Dee, you're my favourite helper!



I'm convinced that (if it wanted to, which I doubt) the Kirby franchise could birth the most adorable and disturbing example of cartoon violence. dichotomies intrigue me, and impossibly cute small things that kick a large amount of ass has always been a favourite - explains my love for Kirby and the Powerpuff Girls, among other things. expect more drawings in this vein. :B

more doggie/wolfie stickers I made for people:



(all characters © their respective creators and do not belong to me.)

and silly doodles of the boyfriendthing because he's abroad and I can:



still not much personal art other than stupid doodles, but at least I'm drawing. :)
I've been doing so much animation at work that I'm proud of, I can't wait to update my reel! :D

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.