Jon Mendez - "CheeziePoof" - A Sketchblog

2011-04-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

[x] Steampunk'd Alfonse Mucha goes Under the Sea... - Update

Unsatisfied with how dark my previous progress shot was going, I decided to completely redo the color palette... and this is the direction it's going in now. A couple peer feedbacks have been that there's nothing drawing the eye all the way down the length of the piece; that the gears at the top keep the eye fixed when, really, the flow of the jellyfish is supposed to lead the eye through the piece. Richmond had suggested I incorporate the pendulum you find in grandfather clocks to help bring the eye down while the straight lines of the pendulum will add a nice visual contrast to the flow of the jellyfish. Progress shot to come...

2011-03-31T11:00:00.000-07:00

[x] Drowning in My Imagination

I started another illustration project whilst still working on the Steampunk'd Mucha-esque triptych. The concept for this is, well, as the title states... drowning in my imagination. I've been feeling a surge of creative energy lately and I can't seem to sketch/doodle out my ideas fast enough. Being overwhelmed with ideas, I came up with this illustration of a figure falling/sinking and essentially drowning in his own stream of imaginative consciousness...

Whether I will bring this to finish digitally, traditionally, or a combination of the two, I have not yet decided.

Detail:

2011-03-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

[x] Random Doodle of the Day - Oink!

2011-03-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

[x] Random Doodle of the Day

2011-03-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

[x] Random Doodle of the Day - Pilipino Kaba?

I'm Pilipino, biatch... w00t!

2011-03-06T22:55:00.000-08:00

[x] Random Doodle of the Day

I think I might turn my mom's almost-daily antics into a comic strip. Heh... Here's a doodle of her caricature... :P

2011-03-06T22:45:00.000-08:00

[x] Steampunk'd Alfonse Mucha goes Under the Sea...

09Dec2010 - Updated 06Mar2011

It started out as a random doodle over a year ago... and then I started to doodle the same gears and mechanical objects again but in the form of a Mucha piece... and for whatever reason, I thought "Why not throw in some marine life..." And, well, it kind of evolved into a larger illustration project. A steampunk'd triptych of marine life emulating the compositional and artistic awesomeness of the legendary Alfonse Mucha.

Panel I - a Manta Ray; Mao'ri symbol of inner tranquility and protection.

Panel II - Jellyfish; no specific reason why I picked the jellyfish... I just loved the possibilities of how I can illustrate its movement and form. Although, thanks to my buddy Kumo, the jellyfish does represent Grace. :)

Panel III - Crab; Western astrological symbol for Cancer, symbolizing a number of traits. Those of which I connected most with are Trust, Transformation, Cycles, Emotion, and Regeneration

2011-03-02T17:00:00.000-08:00

[x] Mekanikal Koi

Print samples approved... Limited Edition run of the Mekanikal Koi is about to begin. Now takin' pre-orders. :) Dimensions 9x17, printed on semi-glossy 11x18 heavy stock, $15.00 unframed. Anyone wants? :) Help a starving artist out... Don't make me beg. Well... I'll beg if you make it an even 20. :P

2010-12-15T00:00:00.000-08:00

[x] Random Doodle of the Day

An illustration for someone very important to me...

2010-08-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

[x] Lady in the Water

No, not that crappy M. Night movie, but rather a random illustration project I've started up for myself which will eventually be developed into a chestplate/sleeve tattoo for a friend of mine (provided he doesn't wait ANOTHER 7 years to actually get it inked).

Anyway, the main concept is water and while I did a rough sketch of the water on his chest/arm to get a basic shape layout, we talked about having a woman bathing in the water as the water enveloped her like a living organism... The woman will be on his arm with the head coming up to his shoulder, and the rest of the tattoo will be a detailed movement of water over his chest, shoulder, and back.

2010-06-01T13:22:00.000-07:00

[x] Random Doodle-of-the-Day

A random doodle-of-the-day from several weeks ago. Did this during a meeting with some of my bosses. Don't get me wrong... I was totally paying attention... but my pen/hand have ADD and need to be moving while I listen to things.

2010-04-12T19:12:00.000-07:00

[x] Bizzy Bee

Wow... first real post of 2010 and not only am I four months late, but I also have nothing really substantial to show. I haven't been working on any personal projects and that kinda disappoints me, really - especially since I've been following my peers' blogs and they're constantly updating with some pretty awesome pieces (ahem... Jake... Paul... Sean... etc.). That's not to say that I do not want to work on personal projects; unfortunately, work has eaten up so much of my time and creative energy.

I started a full time position earlier this year as a Marketing graphic designer. Although it's not the entertainment design industry that I ultimately want to end up in, it does allow me to do graphic design work that I am equally interested in. Work has been steadily fast-paced and I'm learning a lot. Unfortunately, the downside is that when I do get home from the office, I'm just too beat to pick up my wacom pen and paint something that's my own. Sigh... I gotta start setting time after work to just doodle and paint.

[x] Koi Interrupted

All that being said about work taking up a huge chunk of my time, it is unfortunate that my koi illustration also fell on the backlog. This is pretty much where it is now... and where it has been since, um... January 2010? Oy...

It's almost there, actually... I remember that when I last worked on it, I was debating on whether to promote the design on Designbyhumans.com as a t-shirt... or to just sell large prints independently. Anyone have any suggestions?

Anywhoo... back to work...

2009-10-19T21:52:00.000-07:00

[x] Slowly but surely...

2009-10-01T12:29:00.000-07:00

[x] Play with Fire - He's nice... really...

2009-09-27T18:30:00.001-07:00

[x] MechaniKal Koi - Construction Ongoing

Here's an updated progress shot of the koi since last entry. I picked a limited high-key palette inspired by a piece from one of the artists I e-Stalk on my tumblr.

Still gots more works to do's... I need to paint my shiet faster... :-/

2009-09-19T18:11:00.000-07:00

[x] Art-Hop

Kumo had the perfect idea to spend Labor Day weekend doing an "art hop" - basically, artgallery-coffeeshop-bookstore hopping throughout San Francisco and San Jose to essentially inspire and introduce ourselves to other styles of art. It was extremely motivating, indeed.

Among the stops was Fabric-8 gallery/store in the Mission where we happened upon some of Erik Otto and Martin Hsu's recent work. F*ckin' awesome, I must say. F*ckin' awesome.

Took a couple pics along the way... these two come from Clarion Alley in SF. A collection of some really good street art murals and graffiti. T'was fun. Gotta do this again.

2009-09-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

[x] CATCH!

==UPDATE - 18Sept2009==

My part in the project is almost complete... Just need to tweek a few things here and there with the programmers, but I was to do a bunch of action-animation frames for the characters as they ran, threw, caught throughout the game, as well as designing the overall playable area of the game in general.

game screenshot (sans game interface)

==04Aug2009==

Been working steadily with POW Studios, an independent game development company over in New York, who's been contracted to design games for a rather large medical company. The concept is very similar to the Wii Fit but for the purpose of physical therapy, meant to be used in medical facilities in conjunctions with their pre-existing interactive physical therapy games and equipment.

I'm definitely learning a lot when it comes to developing artwork for games and such. Learn-as-you-go, but still quite an educational experience. Fun, too. w00t!

Here's a few of the approved characters I've done so far.

Additionally, they've also asked me to do a UI re-design of their pre-existing equipment interfaces to be a little more streamlined and modern. I did a few mockups and sent them over for their approval. Hopefully, I'll be able to post a couple of those soon.

2009-08-21T01:03:00.000-07:00

[x] MechaniKal Koi

Inked it out and hand a grand ol' time erasing the colored pencil sketch lines... this phase is now finished. Now it's on to color comping it and thinking of a painting style that would both enchance and add contrast to the line drawing. W00T!

As far as digital conversion, converting it into vector lines and tweaking the lines to be cleaner and smoother is definitely going to be a bitch. But hey... a fun bitch.

===UPDATE // 27Aug2009===

So, with Kumo's assistance, I've got the damn thing vectorized... and lemme just say that it looked so much cleaner as a sketch. Anchor points, handle bars, and vector paths are my enemy this night... and they have gathered against me en masse.

2009-08-20T01:23:00.000-07:00

[x] Test

I've been interviewing here and there for a wide range of companies and I've been issued art tests for a few of them. Unfortunately, I haven't been offered a position, and it can definitely be disheartening and demoralizing at times, but all in all, I really can't let that bog me down. I just gotta keep, what's the phrase... I just gotta keep on 'truckin'... Heh.

Anyway, here's one of the tests that I did for one of the companies I interviewed with up in the City. I was asked to design some furniture game assets in Illustrator to fit a particular type of country cottage feel based on an established style, and such. Anywhoo... thought I'd post it.

Some of my personal projects aren't well developed enough to post progress shots of just yet, and I definitely need to finish up my mechanical koi. I have a couple ideas of completing it, both traditionally and digitally. Should be very fun to finish... just gotta muster up the motivation and dedication to hunker down and do it.

2009-06-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

[x] Wear it with Pride

available in black bean sauce (black) or on sweet white rice (white)
black bean sauce // sweet white rice

"Bok Choy Apparel supports the Gay community with its dedicated line of 'Family shirts' in celebration of unique identities and collective strength."

June is national Gay & Lesbian Pride month in the United States and this coming weekend is the Pride Festival in San Francisco. Having done a mini-series of sexual identity designs for Bok Choy Apparel a month ago, I was thrilled to find out BCA selected my shirt as their official 2009 shirt at this year's festivities. (Unfortunately, the lesbian and straight options are not yet available - to make it available, feel free to head over to the apparel page and submit your vote.)

So, if you happen to be gay and would like somethin' to wear with Pride, feel free to click on over to Bok Choy's site and purchase a shirt for yourself to sport proudly; or head on over to the Bok Choy Apparel booth at the Pride Festival in San Francisco's Civic Center plaza this Sunday, June 28th to pick one up in person.

However, if you don't want this particular design, it's all good. I ain't gon' hate. But feel free to head over to the website anyway to see what other designs and themes we have available for voting that appeal to you.

Thanks for all your support, you guys...

==========UPDATE==========

SF's Pride 2009 was pretty fun. It's always an experience to watch the Parade and partake in the festival activities and just be a witness to all the activism and community involvement in addition to all the music, performances, and, well, debauchery. Heh.

I took a group of Shrunkenhead friends to the celebration and we eventually came to the Bok Choy Apparel booth. It was both awesome and surreal to see my design floating about the festival grounds and definitely around the Asian/Pacific Islander alley. :-)

Genius marketing, really...
a t-shirt company... selling t-shirts... by having their t-shirt model... shirtless.

Oh, my...
How, ever, did the logo of the Shrunkenhead make it on to the shirt? :-P
I wonder...

Heehee... a simple shoutout to the Animation/Illustration crew at SJSU. :-)

2009-06-25T10:13:00.000-07:00

[x] Wakeup Call

It's been a while since I've been issued a production test, especially one for a fast-paced gaming company, so you can imagine my anxiety and excitement when I received one with less than 24 hour turnaround time.

Suffice it to say it was quite the wakeup call that I need to refresh and definitely refine my speedpainting skills. I found myself spending waaay too much time finessing details that only came out muddy and sloppy when I stepped back from it. I will say this, though... it was fun. I'd almost forgotten the intensity and pressure of quick turn-around times. :-) I both love and hate it.

Ahh, c'est la vie. Definitely need to do some speed painting practice pieces now. Anywhoo.... quick nap... then it's off to be an office rat for the day.

[x] Spartan Film Productions - Superhero Party Clown

I think what also ate up a huge amount of my time was that I scheduled a meeting to go over some possible illustration work for the new student/independent film production at SJSU. In retrospect, had I been more serious about the test, I would have rescheduled the meeting for later in the week after the test was due.

However, I'm still excited about the film project and the work they've asked me to take care of... plus it gives me an opportunity to collaborate with Jake Panian and Nelson Hernandez... two of my peers from the Shrunkenheadman club/cult (heehee) at SJSU whom I admire and respect a great deal. It'll be awesome to work with them and the other artists involved on this film project.

I was told Superhero Party Clown is going to be featured at Cinequest in 2010... Holler.

2009-06-22T01:17:00.000-07:00

[x] MechaniKal Koi

An 11x17 illustration sketch I started...
Tryin to think of a style to paint it in... both digitally and traditionally.

2009-06-16T10:39:00.000-07:00

[x] BlueTooth Fairy

She's finally done. Moving on to the next project...

2009-06-12T12:24:00.001-07:00

[x] Bok Choy Apparel

Bok Choy Apparel

Bok Choy Apparel has been live for about a month and a half now and things are going well. Joey's been made Creative Director and is working closely with all the contributing artists to ramp up the quality of the designs to make them more unique, eye-catching, and overall awesommer.

As it stands now, we're generating a fair amount of traffic but still need more votes to get more of the designs (other than the Flagship logo designs) printed and produced. So, feel free to peek on over and vote on any of the designs that appeal to you.

Half a dozen new designs have been added to the voting pool including a Katipunan Sun design that I did to follow my first Katinpunan Sun. Heh, what an awesome way to commemorate Philippine Independence Day. :-)

To Vote for a Design:
1) click on link: Bok Choy Apparel - Designs
2) click on the design that appeals to you.
3) enter email addy in the space provided.
4) click 'submit'!
5) give yourself a cookie for voting. YEAY!

NOTE: You will NOT be spammed by Bok Choy Apparel in anyway.
Submitting your email will only be used to send you a notification that if/when the design you voted for gets selected for production

P.S. Vote for my designs and be automatically entered to win a date with the model wearing the shirts. :-)

(How's that for marketing tactic!)

.

2009-06-02T11:32:00.000-07:00

[x] 7 Creative Principles - John Lasseter, PIXAR Studios

In an article in the German news magazine, Sueddeutsche Zeitung (South German Newspaper), Disney/ Pixar's chief creative officer discussed seven creative principles that have helped him realize his visions for his animated movies:

1. Never come up with just one idea.

"Regardless of whether you want to write a book, design a piece of furniture or make an animated movie: At the beginning, don't start with just one idea—it should be three. The reason is simple: If a producer comes to me with a proposal for a new project, then usually he has mulled over this particular idea for a very long time. That limits him. My answer is always, `Come again when you have three ideas, and I don't mean one good and two bad. I want three really good ideas, out of which you cannot decide the best—you must be able to defend all three. Then we'll decide which one you'll realize.'

"Creative people often focus their whole attention on one idea. So, right at the beginning of a project, they unnecessarily limit their options. Every creative person should try that out. You will be surprised how this requirement suddenly forces you to think about things you hadn't even considered before. Through this detachment, you suddenly gain new perspectives. And believe me, there are always three good ideas. At least."

2. Remember the first laugh.

"A big problem in the creative process is related to the enhancement of your ideas. Revising, retouching, refining is very important, but it carries a danger. If you have a story, a joke, a thought, which you write down, it loses its effect over time. It wears itself out. When you hear a joke for the second time you still laugh heartily, on the third or fourth occasion already less so, and when you hear it the 100th time, you hate it. "I say to my writers: `Take notice of the first laugh, write it down if necessary.' At times, this may be bothersome, but it is important. Many times, good things got lost because people could not remember anymore how it felt when they heard the idea for the first time."

3. Quality is a great business plan, period.

"There is a crucial rule: No compromises. No compromises on quality—regardless of production constraints, cost constraints or a deadline. If you get a better idea, and this means that you have to start again from scratch, then that's what you have to do. In any creative industry, quality is the sole business plan that prevails in the long run. Many managers fail to understand that, but the audience understands it. The process is only finished once the creative professional in charge says it's finished. That does not mean that there isn't any pressure—there's pressure all the time anyway—but the individual creator always needs to have the last word."

4. It's all about the team.

"One of the most popular questions is always whether groups are more creative than individuals. My answer: In most cases, it's the team—provided you follow certain rules. As a manager, it is my task to abolish hierarchies. It doesn't matter at all who has the idea; that's a very important rule for us. The group must be honest, direct, and endeavor to sincerely help the creative individual. But in the end, nothing that the group says is binding."

5. Fun invokes creativity, not competition.

"There is this idea that you put two people, who cannot stand each other, into a room, hoping that all this negative energy leads to a creative result. I disagree. Co-operation, confidence and fun—that is the way. Creative people must believe that all others support them in making a great movie. They need to believe that all people involved understand what they are talking about. Creative people are easily bored, moody, a bit difficult to handle. You have to make it fun for them, care for them.

Creative people only produce really good work if you creatively challenge them. They have to like what they're working on. They have to be damn proud of the fact that they're a part of a particular project. That is again the manager's task. Each time, you have to give them creative challenges. That's difficult, but nobody said it was easy to lead creative people."

6. Creative output always reflects the person on top.

"Poor managers harm the creative process. Laughter, being crazy, freaking out and being silly are hard work. A manager who spreads his bad mood and who forbids his employees to have fun impairs their creativity, and thus harms the enterprise. I would fire him. I cannot risk so much money just because a manager indulging in his bad mood harms my business."

7. Surround yourself with creative people you trust.

"Bring only those new members into your creative team whom you consider to be at least as talented as you. If they are also pleasant and good-natured, even better. Most managers don't follow this approach, as they are insecure. Insecurity and creativity do not get along with each otherwell. Most managers surround themselves with yes men, and as a result, audiences get bad movies."

----------------------

2009-05-20T12:37:00.000-07:00

[x] Bluetooth Fairy

Thanks to Neil, he referred me to a client who needed a reconstruction of their company's 'mascot.' The company is a bluetooth technology retailer called "Bluetooth Fairy". Their current fairy mascot was somewhat... lacking... in appeal and Neil and I looked her over and thought she could be vamped up considerably to be more eye-catching, appealing, and definitely market-friendly.

original

first-pass revision

updated revision - close to finish
just have to tweek some details that the client isn't a hundred percent on.
She needs to be "sexier"...

Essentially, the client wanted me to keep the same essence of the illustration... the pose, the wings, the color palette, etc. I did alter the figure, though, specifically the body posture and the face. The original illustration's pose wasn't very... structured... and felt like the spine was either broken or not there entirely. As for the face, it just wasn't striking me as something that made me want to stop and look at their product.

Anywhoo... that's where the fairy is so far. I have some other detailing to work out. ~~Should be done before week's end.~~

the revisions continue...

2009-04-26T21:59:00.000-07:00

[x] Bok Choy Apparel

www.bokchoyapparel.com
[best viewed in anything EXCEPT Internet Explorer]

It's been a long time since my last blog... but I'm back and I've got a bloggie entry for ya.

Over the past couple of months, a group of friends have been working tirelessly almost every night to get a new apparel website online. "Bok Choy Apparel" BokChoyApparel was "created as an outlet for the growing 'Asian Artist' as well as providing support for various non-profit groups, BCA was from the beginning about what we care most about: our community.

We envisioned doing this by making people look good. Everybody loves a t-shirt and they love it even more when the shirt fits both body and personality. To this end we print only on 100% cotton American Apparel shirts, for the softest feel possible. We are also constantly on the look out for artists whose work appeals both aesthetically and socially to us and our causes. Artists are passionate about their work, community organizers are passionate about their causes; we are passionate about providing a medium to unite these forces, and make some great clothes along the way!" [About BCA]

As a member of their creative team, I submitted a few designs that could be turned into screen-tee's - provided that the designs generate a decent amount of votes. [Please vote - teehee]

The way that BCA is set up, the designs are put online and then they are voted on by the community (i.e. YOU) to be turned into actual shirts - very similar to how Threadless.com and Designbyhumans.com operate. So... um... wanna vote for my designs? Pretty please? :-D Just enter your email under the design that you like [P.S. You won't be spammed. All you'll ever receive is a simple notification that the shirt you voted for went into production and is now available for purchase.Just in case you guys were wondering.]

A very illustrative take on the Filipino Sun
[to vote, click and then enter email addy]

Because girl-on-girl is hot... and hopefully my design for lesbian love makes it hotter.
[to vote, click and then enter email addy]

Gay and proud...
[stop staring at the model! it's the shirt I'm trying to showcase here! Sheesh!]
[to vote, click and then enter email addy]

Heterosexuality's gotta look cool too. :-)
[to vote, click and then enter email addy]

Hope you like these, you guys. If you don't please feel free to leave comments with constructive criticism. :-)

P.S. To my fellow Shrunkenhead... find the skull of the Shrunkenheadman. :-)

2009-03-16T23:52:00.000-07:00

[x] EmoBot

8x10 - watercolor & acrylic

What if TinMan wanted to return his heart to the Wizard...
...to exchange it for a thermonuclear device? :-P

I dunno what prompted me to paint such an emo piece. Anywhoo... introducing my "Emo Bot" :-P

2009-03-09T23:11:00.001-07:00

[x] So You Think You Can Dance...

11x17 - acrylic
finished unfinished-painting of the day

Decided to paint this one with a really painterly unfinished feel - partly because I didn't feel like fleshing it out all the way and partly because I didn't want to spend too long on what should have been just a quick painting sketch. Anywhoo... on to the next painting. Now, if only I had an idea of what to paint...

2009-03-07T11:10:00.001-08:00

[x] Mabuhay

Igorot man
11x17 - watercolor/acrylic

painting of the day...

2009-03-02T21:57:00.000-08:00

[x] Paint Drums

Having to sit out of practice for at least a month is extremely frustrating. I could potentially be removed from the performance roster for the Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown coming up in April. Extremely bummed...

Meanwhile, physical therapy is painful, but that was to be expected. It has been recommended by my doctor that I take vicodin twenty minutes prior to starting the PT sessions. Oy vey... And it is going a little slower than I had anticipated. I have a series of exercises I have to do at home to strengthen the hamstring and restore mobility and range of motion to the knee area. I wonder how fast I can speed up the recovery... Hmm...

It's quite discouraging having to sit on the side like an observer while my peer group, not only continues to add new students, but also gets to learn the new routines for the festival. GRRR...

In my frustration, I decided to paint. It's been far too long since I've painted with traditional paints, so I pulled out my acrylics and watercolors (dusted them off accordingly) and decided to paint my frustrations out. This is what came out. I know I've done a speed-sketch of an odaiko drummer before, but I wanted to see if I could flesh one out more realistically while still having it keep a certain artistic flare. And, of course, because this is a more detailed painting in terms of figure, lighting, and color tones, I had to gather the accurate reference. This is the end result...

Oyasuminasai...

2009-02-24T00:46:00.000-08:00

[x] Animated Caffeinated Awesomeness

Dedicated to my peers, friends, brothers & sisters, bleeders & sweat-ers, fighters and pioneers of the Animation/Illustration and Entertainment Design industry...

2009-02-02T10:41:00.000-08:00

[x] Follow the White Rabbit...

down the rabbit hole...

:-)

2009-01-26T22:33:00.001-08:00

[x] Stop! Mucha Time!

I decided do a digital painting of the sketch that I scribbled in my sketchbook yesterday and I wanted to do it with an Alfons Mucha feel. Mucha always chose women for his subject matter so I painted a male version of the concept of Time. Compositionally, it's inspired by Mucha, but my roommate says the painting itself has an Alex Ross feel. :-) Totally not a bad thing, in my opinion. HAHA.

Anywhoo... Hi. :-)

2009-01-25T22:40:00.000-08:00

[x] Sketchbook Musings & Photoshop-ness...

work in progress

In addition to the SF matte painting I'm working on, I dug up an old illustration that I did as a reinvention of the Alice in Wonderland story that I did when I was at school at the Laguna College of Art & Design. I came across it as I was cleaning out some old image folders I had on my computer and decided to re-paint it partly because of reading the books The Looking Glass Wars but mostly because I was inspired by some of the concept art for it by Chris Applehans.

Below are a couple sketches I did during one of my regular coffee-shop adventures with my homie and roommate, Derek Brand:

Hail, Caesar!

A lot of time when I'm sketching, I do a lot of "stream of thought" drawing where I doodle with no particular idea of what I'm drawing or what it's going to end up being. For this sketch, I dunno what I was thinking about, but it started off as a straight-on sketch of a Roman woman... but then my pen started drawing lines on her face and it turned into a Roman woman...assimilated by the Borg. HA!

Father Time...when he was in his late 20's...

2009-01-16T17:02:00.000-08:00

[x] Fire

Your next Firelord of the Fire Nation. Bow down... and fear him. :-D HAHAHA (Probably one of my more geekier moments.)

2009-01-13T17:36:00.000-08:00

[x] An Apple a Day...

Today's photoshop-sketch - a still life study of some apples that my mommy wants me to eat before they turn. Heh... (Instead of eating them, I ended up painting them. At least I put them to some sort of use. HAHA. Maybe I'll have one right now, actually...)

::CHOMP:: Om nom nom nom...

2009-01-08T23:15:00.000-08:00

[x] Lazy Boy

Not sure why, but I painted out the ultimate recliner of the 21st century... fully equipped with hovering flatscreen television screens and computer monitors and a small drink table for all those diet cokes. :-D

2009-01-07T22:47:00.000-08:00

[x] Koi Sub

2008-12-26T04:22:00.000-08:00

[x] Back onto the bandwagon...

I've been MIA for a couple months what with the wedding, work becoming increasingly erratic with the unstable economy, and, of course, the holiday season. But, fortunately, I have some time freeing up and I'll be able to get back into the game of freelancing and painting and drawing and all that... art... stuff. :o)

First project is the "Bully Banks" freelance project - an investors consultant group based out of Alameda County. Second, is to dustoff some projects that I've started and have yet to finish - namely, the Gnomes in the Shed project initially conceptualized by my good friend, Tony Nguyen.

2008-11-19T01:17:00.001-08:00

[x] The Random Doodles of a Restless Mind

Heh... It's been far too long since I've posted any personal project progress, but that is in part (a huge part) because of my friends' wedding that I was a part of. T'was a grand affair and a lot of fun. But now that it's over, I can focus on catching up with all the other awesomely awesome artists out thurr.

Although, I have nothing recent, nor substantial to really post, I'll post a few random sketchbook pages that I've accumulated over the past six weeks or so. These sketchbook pages are nothing more than the ramblings of my mind in sketch-form.

2008-10-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

[x] Gnomes in the Shed

My good friend and awesome artist, Tony Nguyen, did a rather nice sketch of gnomes escaping a shed based off of an assignment in Ruben Perez's visual development class at SJSU. Although a good sketch and very cute story moment, Ruben thought that it could be simplified. Tony went back to the drawing board and I asked him if I could go ahead and digitally paint this piece rather than let it become buried and forgotten in the fray of his extremely busy academic schedule (something that happens very often with many sketches, drawings, paintings and such, not just in school but during any intensive work schedule; sometimes we get so busy that even some good ideas get shelved and forgotten). Anyway, so rather than let that happen, Tony let me finish it. This should prove to be a very fun piece to paint. This be fo' you, homie. :-)

2008-09-28T23:54:00.000-07:00

[x] Odaiko Drummer

Here's a quick 20-minute painting sketch I did of an odaiko drummer. Over the years, I've had this attraction and fascination to the art of taiko drumming. There's something about the forms and the rhythms of taiko that's just so captivating.

2008-09-22T19:27:00.000-07:00

[x] Rock With You

Near the end of the short-film production by Professor Dave Chai, a couple of the animators (ahem Corey Tom and Andrew Harkins) tweaked a simple second of animation of their particular scene to the beat and rhythm of some music. I can only guess how much productivity time this ate up, but good lord is it hilarious. So hilarious that I had to share it with everyone (with Corey's permission, of course). :-) Enjoy. Again... props to Corey and Andrew. :-)

[x] Totoro Forest Project

I had the opportunity, earlier this month, to partake in the awesomeness that is the Totoro Forest Project auction at the PIXAR campus in Emeryville. It was... Mecca, Heaven, ultimate level of spiritual enlightenment, and an artgasm all rolled into a hug from Jeebus. Heh. It was incredible. Just from walking in the door, I started recognizing different artists whom I've heard and whom I've admired throughout my academic career - Bill Cone, Steve Pilcher, Khang Le, John Lasseter himself, Bill Presing, Kei Acedera, James Jean, Bobbi Chiu, Peter De Seve and so many more... I also saw some alumni from several classes before me - Noah Klocek, Tim Heitz, JP Balmet, Martin Kau, and of course our esteemed advisors Courtney Granner and Bunny Carter. T'was an incredible experience. But of course, PIXAR is strict on cameras so unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the actual event. I had to scorch it into my memory. :-)

Being a gnat amongst the giants, it didn't occur to me to be a complete dork and ask for these artists' signatures on the pages of the Totoro Forest Project book that we got with our tickets. It wasn't until Courtney said "When's the next time you're going to see this many industry artists in the same room like this?" Well, I grabbed a pen and sheepishly started asking for signatures. "Umm... excuse me... Mr. Lasseter? Will you sign my Totoro book?" HAHA.

2008-09-20T21:09:00.000-07:00

[x] 'A Work in Progress' - complete

In the interest of the other projects, I've decided to call this one "done"... now on to one of the other projects that I've started and have yet to finish...

2008-09-11T17:31:00.000-07:00

[x] 'A Work in Progress' - The Next Step in Human Evolution

So I've been working on a number of pieces here and there. My attention span has been destroyed by the marvelous wonder that is the Internet, video streaming, DVD's and what have you, so I rotate among upwards to six projects. Here is one of the ones that is closer to finish than the others (although, I'll be posting those relatively soon):

This is based off a very old sketch I did when I was going to school at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. I was sitting in one of my classes listening attentively (shocking) to the students and professor debate back and forth amongst each other on technological progress and the next stage of human evolution and if the two may overlap at some point. As we talked about it, I doodled in one of my sketchbooks, which happened to also be my class notebook.

Recently, when I was digging through old school stuff, I came across the sketchbook and found the sketch inside. Anyway, I decided to revisit the concept and started painting it. It's very much a work still in progress. I'll post up the final one up when it's done. :-)

[x] DUCK!!

I had the opportunity in joining a good number of my fellow minions of the Shrunkenhead at D-Structure in San Francisco for a gallery reception put together by fifteen awesome alumni. Such incredible artwork was on display... a true testament to what discipline and dedication can do to your skill level. These guys were and continue to be an inspiration, even though I only know a third of them personally. The rest I only know through their well-deserved art reputations.

As you can see, it was an incredible turnout. The crowd outside was just as hefty. Not to mention it was bloody hot inside. Thank gawd for the complimentary booze. :-P [ I took pictures of the artwork too, but 1) the photos don't do the actual artwork justice and 2) the artwork is not mine to display. ]

It was incredible to see such different styles of work coming together. If you guys happen to find yourself in the Haight/Ashbury area of San Francisco, you guys should check out DUCK!! on display at D-Structure. It's located on Haight Street @ Fillmore.

2008-08-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

[x] Water Tribe

A freshly baked batch of whatever cookies you desire if you can figure out which geeky cartoon inspired this sketch... :-D

=== Aug 06 ===

=== Aug 12 ===

I got some critical feedback from D-Rock, T-Dawg, and Charlene the Airbender. Charlene was pretty quick to point out that the piece lacked a distinct and clear light source and Derek similarly suggested that there would be some reflected and caustic lighting on the figure bouncing off the water. So I'm gonna get crackin' on that.

Tony also suggested that I should build an environment around the waterbender so that the place tells more about why he's doing what he's doing and where he's doing it. Turns the illustration from a still image into a story piece. He and I also thought that it'd be cool to do a sequence of images... how his forms start and how his forms follow through.

Heh... Originally, however, I really didn't think I'd be putting this much into the piece. When I first drew it, I was pretty much geeking out during the series finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender. However, when I threw some color onto it, I quickly found myself painting it - attempting to bring it to a level of finish that I'd yet to accomplish during my academic career.

Anywhoo... based on the three of their suggestions, here's what I have (Tony's environment suggestion has yet to be completely fleshed out). I hope to be done with this one by week's end. Heh... maybe I'll do a piece for each of the other elements. We'll see. :-)

===Aug 15===

===Sept 07===

I stopped working on the waterbender for a while to start a few other personal projects. I only just recently re-opened it to tweak some stuff and call it a day, so to speak. I don't want to spend much more time on it as I really didn't expect it to progress this far beyond the sketch I just doodled in my sketchbook while geeking out watching the series finale. Heh. :-) So, here's where I'll be leaving him...

By the way, he doesn't have a name... Any suggestions? :-)

2008-07-04T12:19:00.000-07:00

[x] Sketchbookings

Happy 4th of July, everyone... Just uploading some sketchbook stuffs from the past four weeks or so before I head to the beach for the day. Have a safe holiday weekend, everyone!!

Chinatown

quicksketch around Pier 39

DeYoung Museum Cafe - Golden Gate Park

Felton

Colma - Italian Cemetary

2008-06-13T23:48:00.000-07:00

The Hermit of the Abbey

[x] The Ruins

Over the last few weeks, mostly before my final semester came to a close, I've been getting a lot of incredible feedback from different artistic peers for the various environment concepts for my story about the hermit and his abbey. Much thanks especially to my buddy Brendan, Lawrence, and fellow Shrunkenheadman Gus Dizon.

Gus made a few helpful suggestions with the ruins design and was kind enough to take the time out of his own day to do a paintover of my piece. He essentially expanded the canvas to push the hermit and his alter out of the center while at the same time creating a little visual appeal beyond the foreground pillar.

I attempted to recreate what he had painted and I went ahead and kinda re-oriented the canvas to adjust the "tilt" in the perspective that other peers said they were feeling. I'm not sure if doing that helped or hurt the revision suggestions that Gus had made. Here's my revision...

And here is Gus's paint over:

[x] The Cottage at the Waterfall

Brendan and Lawrence gave me some good feedback for the waterfall piece. It's still a work in progress, but at its current state, B-boy suggested I put in a path on the left hand side - like a set of rock stairs along the cliff face to lead down to the waterfall, behind it, and back out at the ledge where the cottage/cabin is. Both Brendan and Lawrence also suggested breaking up the large shape of the waterfall with other rock formations just to break up the space and perhaps help leading the eye as well. Brendan's paintover is a little more successful than my revision shown here, but then again, this is still a work in progress.

[x] The Orphanage

No, not the Guillermo del Toro film... haha.

I also started thinking about the hermit's childhood... where did he come from, how did he come about to being at the abbey, why did he stay when the rest of the clergy and congregation moved on to other parishes?

I started to think that the hermit was an orphan who had run away from an orphanage on the border of the woods not too far from Vienna. He came across the abbey in its prime and the clergy took him in and let him stay provided he serve the church as an alter boy and assist the aging monks with chores such as cleaning, cooking, dishes, etc.

However, as the years passed, the church was swallowed up by the woods, eventually forgotten among the general city population. The clergy opted to move to other parishes, but the orphan now a teenager old enough to make his own decisions, decided to stay. He grew up, tending to his duties of maintaining the abbey as best as he could over the decades but it eventually started to fall into disrepair beyond his abilities to fix. With no where else to go, he continued to grow up and live in the ruins of the abbey.

Occassionally, he would venture back to the orphanage that he left to see what had become of it, and I pretty much envisioned it to be abandoned by the time he had grown up. All that was left was the brick/mortar deserted structure.

I started with a very simple Maya mockup to help me play with placement and camera angles, and then I did a basic grayscale painting in Photoshop and then started to apply color. This piece is less photoreal, having almost no phototextures in the piece. I wanted to try to do more of a conceptual painting before I did a photoreal matte painting.

2008-05-28T01:21:00.000-07:00

Now that my collegiate career is finally over, I'm taking advantage of the down time to work on sketchbook paintings and such. My gawd, do I need practice. It's jarring just how stunted my traditional skills are since I've been focusing on digital skill development; but at the same time, it's good to get back in the swing of things.

Went with Tony, Derek, Charlene, Jamie and a few others down to San Juan Bautista to chill and paint. Here are a couple of the images that came out... decent.

I have a habit of acquiring numerous sketchbooks before I fill up the current ones that I already have. As a result, I have a lot of started-sketchbooks, but few finished-sketchbooks. One of the books I dug out to use for drawing/painting down in San Juan Bautista happened to be a sketchbook I started using for Barron Storey's 'Conceptual Illustration' class. Heh. I found one of the early collage assignments we did in his class...

Anywhoo, that's all for now. Will be posting a lot more frequently now that I have the time. Stay tuned!!!

2008-05-21T18:43:00.000-07:00

Wow... wouldja look at that... TWO entries within five days of eachother. Unheard of. HAHA. Heh, I was offered a freelance job for an independent band in New York. Basically the album was a parody off of the Transformers and I was asked to design a CD cover with the Autobots done in chibi-anime form.

It's definitely not an art form I'm accustomed to doing, but it was fun to branch out into a different style and tinker around with it. I had a little bit of trouble trying to make the characters still feel like the Autobots while at the same time stay within the cartoony, simplistic style of chibi-anime. I had to remind myself it's all about simplification. Heh... after one or two characters, I started to have a lot of fun with it.

Anyway, here's a montage of the characters I was asked to draw. I was also given the opportunity to design a series of chibi-formers similar to the Constructicons, but for this project, they would be called the Acousticons and would have been made from various instruments. Heh... Unfortunately, they're not in this lineup.

Guess the Transformer and win a quarter! Hey... that rhymes! :-P

2008-05-17T04:16:00.000-07:00

It's roughly a quarter past 4AM on a Saturday morning and I think it's safe to say that I've lost any productivity momentum for the evening. But before I journey back to my habitat, I thought that I should update the bloggie. My photoshop sketches/paintings for my Hermit story concept are progressing nicely, albeit slowly.

In addition to those pieces, I've also been putting in a considerable amount of time in turning my Veldt illustrations from last semester into a 3D environment in Maya. Jules had the idea of letting me do one of my own vizdev pieces for my Maya environment final rather than an image I picked from a magazine. Right away, I thought of the images I did for The Veldt by Ray Bradbury.

Anyway... here's the original sketch and what came out of it in 3D land...

As always, comments and suggestions by my artistic peers are welcome. As well as the random philosophical musings that are inherent to our late nights in the dungeons of our labs and studios.

So... tell me... How are you?

2008-05-03T16:36:00.000-07:00

I have a moment to breathe... I know, shocking! So before the moment runs out, I shall update the bloggie.

Continuing progress on the "Hermit of the Abbey" concept, I've torn down my original matte painting of his quaint waterfall cottage.

This was the original matte painting I did. Actually, now that I think about it, this is my first matte painting ever. Over the past several months, I've been growing increasingly curious as to the process of digital matte painting and photo-compositing. Over the past spring break, I decided to give it a try based on a few tutorials and matte painting forums I found online. This was the end product.

I guess my initial mistake was just throwing photo elements over my original drawing without fixing a lot of the perspective issues that I had. When I drew the image, I was trying to give it a fish-eye effect, however I failed to convey that with a wonky perspective on the house on the ledge. With such a dynamic upward angle, for example, I shouldnt be seeing that much of the rooftop. But live and learn, yes? This piece went through a series of harsh crits and was only received on a mediocre level at best. Gia was the harshest of my crits, but probably one of the more motivating in terms of starting over.

Taking everyone's critiques into consideration, I went ahead first setting up my scene in Maya and then doing a basic block-in of values in Photoshop. As it progressed I moved into the color painting layers and later started compositing photo elements into the piece. Here is my basic process and the piece thus far:

As far as the progress on this matte painting goes, there are some things that I need to immediately address... the shape of the cliff on the left and the waterfall are too similar in size and shape, horizontal, and too much like the original Maya geometry. I need to go in and break those shapes up but not too much where the shapes compete for focus. Brother Paul made suggestions about the left cliff-face and Brother Don gave me some pointers to break up the waterfall and make it more 'beautiful'... I just hope I don't mess it up. Heh. I was quite surprised and please with myself with how well the waterfall came out.

Anyway... any additional comments, suggestions, philosophical musings? Feel free to comment, everyone. :-D

2008-04-27T13:33:00.000-07:00

With graduation quickly approaching, I've put off putting together a blog long enough. So... here's my first entry and what I'm currently working on right now...

Hermit of the Abbey

This particular project spun off of the Beethoven project of the BFA seminar. I took several elements of my research - Vienna's rich religious culture, Beethoven's private hikes through the woods, and ruins left over from the Napoleonic wars - to develop a story of a hermit who lived in the ruins of an abandoned abbey/cathedral.

This is one of the first layouts I did and I had alumni Gia Luc take a look at it. He was brutally honest, which is what I hoped for and he pointed out some things that I needed to fix. First he pointed out that it was compositionally boring, indicating that everything was pretty much in the center. Second he also said that my perspective was getting lost and that the hermit seemed to be out of perspective with the rest of the environment. Third he pointed out that the atmospheric perspective was lacking.

Unable to fix the first issue without starting over completely, I opted to make adjustments based on his other points of critique.

I pushed the atmospheric perspective more and I fixed the perspective angle of the hermit. Hopefully it's reading a little better.

At the same time, however, I wanted to try a new composition based on Gia's crit, and this is one I came up with. I initially tried about 9 other compositional setups, each based off of a different camera angle on a Maya model I had built. After receiving some feedback from Derek Brand, I settled on this one. It's still in progress, so we'll see how it pans out in the next few days.