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MOTORCITY PREMIERE

Quick 'n dirty fanart of Mike and Chuck in honour of MOTORCITY premiering tomorrow!! I've been busy lately doing cleanup on this show and am proud and happy to be able to call myself part of the team along with no shortage of talented and hardworking people. :D

I'll be drawing the rest of the characters eventually but this will do for now. WATCH THIS SHOW GUYS, it is beautifully animated and a lot of fun, and the first episode is available for free download on the iTunes store!

I'm struggling to make drawing for myself a habit again (before I was unmotivated because I was stressed and not very happy, and now I'm just really busy), but I think I'm settled in enough at my job to start trying new things of my own again. Excitement!

hold my heart

Valentine's Day seemed like a good enough excuse to doodle up a quickie of a couple much-loved characters that I hadn't drawn in a while. :) ♥ I hope you got to spend it with someone that loves you and that you love, no matter what your relationship might be.

large flock guardian

More colour/background practice for what I've decided is going to be Colours And Backgrounds Month (am going to start picking something different to focus on every month so I can stay organized and on top of things)! I've started first doing underpaintings so I can figure out the general colour scheme of everything instead of getting overwhelmed when the time comes to fill it all in - seems a bit of a 'duhr' solution and it's a bit silly that I've only been trying it lately, but I'm glad I finally came around to it even if it took me a while. I've also become more brave about outlining background elements, I went in and refined the clouds after someone pointed out they looked a tad blurry.

The dog pictured is my Maremma Sheepdog character, Sirocco. I imagine he's scaring off a stray dog that got too close for his comfort, or something.



I should do some quick colour studies of photos and the view out my window and the like just to practice!

this is the life

First time I've completed a piece with these characters in it since... well, the thesis. My credits would have looked something like this if I hadn't been a sleepless apathetic wreck towards the end of it (or if I'd planned ahead a bit more effectively), little postcard-like images of Labu and the monkeys palling around the jungle. I've been actively trying to play more with colour palettes (since I've always been a bit tame with that) and push myself for more interesting images, and I'm proud of this one! Was good to revisit these guys again too (with an updated skillset!), even if I doubt I'll do much more with them.

More illustrations to come for sure, I still need more practice with them backgrounds and colours...

The Bunny That Fell To Earth

Tribute art based on Naughty Rabbits, an iPhone game that I designed the characters for!



If you have an iPhone or iPad, check this one out. It's based around the myth of the rabbit in the moon from traditional Chinese folklore - apparently that rabbit's extended family is misbehaving and attempting to free-fall down to earth, and you have to help them get back home! I can't post any concept art I did for the game just yet, but once I get the green light I will probably do so here!

I've been trying to get back into drawing full backgrounds, I realized I haven't really finished a picture with a background since my thesis, and that's a little sad! I have a work in progress that I'm thinking about livestreaming sometime tomorrow... I'll post on my otherwise rather dusty Twitter account when the time comes.

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.

fiddlesticks

Fiddler crab, suggested by my good friend Tris. I've always loved these guys since I was a kid, definitely one of the most charming crab species out there. I really liked the colours on this one so I used that to choose a colour scheme. This one's a super quick Photoshop painting because I am having to prepare for a hurricane.



I'd love to draw more arthropods in the future, they've always intimidated me with their complex exoskeletons and I'd like to find a nice balance between realistic and cartoony for them. We'll see how that goes...

gourmet race

super quickie because I'm busy this week, but I'm happy with how it turned out. I don't normally get this bold with bright colours!



I was just going to be cheap this week and draw Kirby (for those who don't know - my favourite video game character of all time, and that is a big deal because I don't usually just have one favourite anything), but he's shown up in my blog/sketches so many times already it seemed pointless to use him for this project. I then figured I'd just draw a character from the Kirby series but I couldn't decide on whom. I like King Dedede and Meta Knight, of course, but wanted to pick someone that's less prominent in the franchise if I could. I like a lot of the enemy designs, but couldn't think of one that really stood out to me until I got to this guy!

I'm not really sure why I like Chef Kawasaki so much, honestly. He's an orange blob that can cook, great stuff. Oh, and when you eat him he gives you the power to destroy all enemies on screen by sucking them into a giant pot and cooking them up (sound familiar, Brawl fans?). That has to count for something.

have you ever seen a cephalopod fly?

Second entry in my Friday's Beast project, the aptly-named Dumbo Octopus, one of the most adorable molluscs in the world even by normal-people-that-don't-think-molluscs-are-cute standards:



Those "ear" fins aren't just for decoration of course - they help the octopus move around in the water. I'm assuming they can change colour like most cephalopods, since the images I found of them varied hugely in colour. I really liked the colouring this guy and this guy had, so I went with that for inspiration. Check out this video of one and you can really see why they picked the name. Adorable!


Not much is known about these creatures, like most deep-sea animals, but I hope that will change in the future. Deep-sea creatures are awesomely weird and I'll definitely be drawing more in the weeks to come!

you don't scare me

I was hoping to finish this game before I drew this but since that probably won't be for a while:



Here's little miss Sakamoto from Cave Story, who's already one of my favourites! I love how scrappy she comes across so I had to draw her all messed up but still ready for action. :D

If you don't know what Cave Story is, it's an indie 8-bit styled free-to-play platformer made completely by one man, Japanese developer and artist Pixel.. The designs are appealing, the story is really engaging, and it's just a lot of fun! I also think it's super cool that Pixel has kept it free to play online even though it's now out for download on the Wii, and soon to come to the 3DS (but I recommend playing it on the PC first and foremost, since Nintendo did change some things in their port and I'm always for experiencing something as the artist intended). If I've piqued your interest at all - and I hope I have - do check out the game here! I definitely recommend it.

I was trying to incorporate some background references to places in the game, but it wasn't working out so I went with my original simpler idea. Not the most interesting image in the world but I'm trying to make more complete images instead of just having a character on a blank background. Starting to get more into it, I think!

ace spiritualist

What's up, internet! This week I've started a new personal project to get me to draw and post more, and I've designated Monday and Friday my special themed days for this (yes I know it's Tuesday, bear with me here. the hardest part of anything is getting started so better late than never x)).

Basically, every Monday I'll draw and put up a picture of one of my favourite fictional characters (well, ones I didn't create that is :B). Kicking off Monday's Character is Maya Fey from the Phoenix Wright games:



I like her because she's such a dork and likes food (both things that we have in common) and I like her design. She kind of annoyed me when I first 'met' her in the first Ace Attorney, but I've definitely warmed up to her since and it's weird whenever I have to solve a case without her. Her theme music is also lovely (♥), particularly when performed by an orchestra:


I do enjoy her and Phoenix's growing relationship (which I see as more sibling-type, btw, don't really buy the supposed romance... but then again I haven't played Apollo Justice yet, maybe I'll feel differently then. Also, please be a decent human being and don't spoil me). I love a lot of the characters from this series, so probably more will be upcoming on future Mondays.

Attempts at monochrome, hooray! This one's relatively 'normal' for me, but I'm hoping to get more experimental with these pictures in terms of colour, lighting, composition etc. which are things I'd like to play with more.

You guys can also feel free to suggest books/tv series/movies/games/comics etc. for me to draw from, and if it's something I haven't checked out yet I'd be happy to and see if I like anyone in it enough to draw them. What's in store for Fridays? Stay tuned... :B

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!

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.

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. :)

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!