Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Tiger drawing (Pointilism)

Drew this when I was in university.
   
 Tiger 

 I used the pointillism technique. 
Basically I used a few pigment liners (size 005, 01, 02,03,05 and 08) 
and keep dotting on the paper until it forms a shape.



Pigment liners look like this (I use Pigma pens like the ones here)
Image Credit

Below is the image I used as a reference.



Got it from searching Google for 'Tiger'.
Image credit

It was a pretty tough and tedious project, although it's really fun. ^.^

The journey will begin again tomorrow. :3

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Digital Illustration : The Balloon Bear & Layers for iPhone

Hi there.

Sorry for the absence. My boyfriend's uncle has been diagnosed with cancer. His condition has suddenly worsened on Friday night.

By the time we visited him on Saturday, he was already unresponsive.

We could only see him sleeping on the hospital bed, breathing oxygen from the mask. A few months ago in a family reunion, he was still all fine and healthy. Such a jovial, cheerful person that makes everyone around him feel happy. I couldn't help but cry. It was so sad to see him like that.

I gave the portrait I drew to his wife and children. 

I didn't blog for a few days, decided that I should spend time with my boyfriend and be there for him.


Thanks for reading. Here is the addition for today.



The Balloon Bear

Tried out a few custom brushes. It's not bad at all. Learned a few new ways to add texture look to my drawing.

I also got myself a Layers app on my iPhone. It's a drawing tool. Have been trying it out (mostly on the subway train). It's not bad, actually. Although it's quite hard to draw detailed image on such a small screen with finger. I used the app to draw a few things these few days. Nothing that great, but the best I can draw on the phone. XD


Thanks for reading. The journey will begin again tomorrow.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Fine art portrait : Uncle Donald

A fine art portrait for today



Tool : mechanical pencil (2B lead), EE pencil
Estimated time taken : 3 hours


Uncle Donald, an uncle of a good friend of mine. He's diagnosed with cancer, and is now in a hospital.

Will give this portrait to him as a gift when I'm visiting him at the hospital this weekend.

I wish him all the best.

The journey will begin again tomorrow.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Speed Paint : The Optimistic Bear

Something different for a change today.



Mr. Bear The Optimistic

Fishing for a sugar cube? I don't know too XD

All done in Photoshop in... 30-40 mins?

The journey will begin again tomorrow ^.^

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

pencil sketch : an elven girl

A drawing I did on a subway train to work.



Tool : Mechanical pencil (2B lead)

An elven girl. I quite enjoyed drawing the hair part XD. Let's see if I can bold the outlines or paint her later.

A short post for today ^.^ The journey will begin tomorrow :3

Monday, March 12, 2012

Anime school girl drawing

Update for day 17! :3

A quick manga sketch in my personal sketch book XD


Drew this on a subway train to work. Then later today in the evening, I decided to bold the drawing lines with black pigment liners.

The result looks like this :



Maybe I will color her later :3

Tools : 2B mechanical pencil, 005 & 01 pigment liners.

I wish I had a scanner :(

A small post for today. ^.^ The journey will begin again tomorrow! Thanks for reading :3

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Left 4 Dead tournament poster : Zombie Mania


Hey there! What's up! :)

Today I will try something different. I'm covering a design I did a while back: a poster for a game tournament, Left 4 Dead. My friend, Darren Lee, was the organizer of the event. (He's currently practicing violin and blogging about it daily. Do check it out if you have time.)

This is how the final result looks like.



I will be talking about my concept sketch, the process, and design. If you are interested how the work has been thought out from the ground up, do keep on reading. :)

Now let's get started! ^^

A few years back, when the game Left 4 Dead first came out, it had become pretty popular.

In case you don't know what Left 4 Dead is, it's an online survival horror FPS (First Person Shooter). You and 3 other people are the survivors in a zombie apocalypse, and need to fight your way out to the safe zone. The unique thing about the game is that, you can also choose to play as 'The Infected', a team of mutated zombies with special ability, to prevent the human survivors from reaching the destination alive. It’s a men-VS-zombies kind of game instead of your normal men-shoot-men FPS. The mechanic of the game was quite unique and refreshing in a sense, and even though FPS isn’t really my cup of tea, I found this game to be very fun and addictive.



The survivors team


The Infected team

At the peak of the game popularity, Darren had approached me and said he would like me to design a poster for the Left 4 Dead tournament he’s going to organize.  We were then brainstorming on the concept of the event. We decided that we wanted the tournament to be fun, casual, and newbie friendly, and the event’s poster was going to communicate just the messages.

The concept had been settled in words, and now it’s my turn to come up with the right design. I spent my time sketching, thinking of the art direction and style. I ended up with rough images of a few concepts I had in my head, and then presented to Darren for his opinion.

We both agree that this design sketch was our favorite.


Something fun and lively. A fully illustrated poster depicting a fighting scene in the game, survivor team VS zombie team in a building called ‘Aloha’, the name of a LAN gaming center that we will use as the tournament destination.

After we agreed on this design, I further develop the piece into a more detailed sketch.


Before I came up with this sketch, I spent quite a while trying to get accustomed to drawing a ‘chibi’ style (smaller and cuter version) of the characters. Making a serious-looking 3D characters and horrendous monsters into something funny and cute was a bit tricky. Cutting out unnecessary lines and simplifying the details are key. I drew a detail-down, cartoony version of a character, then I cut out a few lines and details, then I redrew it in an even more simplified version.  It went on and on until I arrived at the desired result.


One of my character sketches in initial stage : The Hunter

Darren happily approved of the sketch. When everything was set to go, I started right away on the illustration. After a few days, it was done.

Software : Sketches done in Adobe Photoshop. Vector art done in Adobe Illustrator

The result was more than a satisfactory, and it seemed people in the event loved it a lot. It’s a fun project and I need to thank Darren for giving me this opportunity. It’s by far one of my best vector illustrations.

Hope you enjoy my post for today. :) The journey will begin again real soon.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Cat Girl (finished) & Alone in Dream (work in progres)

 Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I kinda fell asleep last night when I was laying on my bed >.< My mistake.

So today I'm posting 2 works. :)


It's finished at last! =D (Continue from #1 #2 #3 #4 )

And I did this piece during lunch break at work :)

"Alone In Dream" (Work-in-progress #2)




Continue from this earlier blog post. Planning to finish it some time later.

Thanks again for reading! :) Please feel free to leave some comments or critics. I would greatly appreciate it!

The journey will begin again tomorrow! ^^

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Cat Girl (Almost done), and some sketch

Today I come back home very late, again x . x

Went out for a business meeting. Came back and took around 30-40 minutes to draw before I felt too sleepy to continue.





Touched up the skin and her hair. (See previous progress : #1 #2 #3)

By the way, I drew this on a subway train on my way to work XD



Still looks quite rough, but looks like fun to paint :3

Anyway, need to go to bed now or I will not be able to wake up to work tomorrow. XD

Thanks for reading. :) Have a great day! The journey will begin again tomorrow ^^

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Anime Cat Girl (Work in progress #3)

Hi all! :) Today I was pretty productive at work. Managed to finished a few projects and it was all good. XD

Later I went out for lunch and had this wonderful fried chicken. :3 The place is called 'Arnold's Fried Chicken'. Wouldn't mind to eat there again. <3

After work, I headed to downtown to meet up with my friends. We browsed the art supply store, and had Japanese food for dinner, then walked around for a while before going back home. It was quite a fun day. Too bad it meant I had less time for my drawing. >.< By the time I reached home, it was already quite late.

I turned on my computer and continued on this piece. (previous blogs : #1, #2)


I finished the rough guideline for coloring, highlight and shading. Hopefully I can finish the whole thing by tomorrow. I doubt so though, as I also got another appointment tomorrow's evening.

Will try my best.

The journey will begin again tomorrow. :)

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Alone in dream (Work in progress)

Did this during my office lunch break.


"Alone in dream" is a temporary name for it.

Still a sketch. Seem to be a fun piece. Plan to experiment about lighting/shading on it later. :) There seem to be a lot of work in progress from me lately. Will finish one of these pieces real soon. XD

Have a great day guys! ^^

Monday, March 5, 2012

Anime Cat Girl (Work in progress #2)

Today I had a lunch party in the office.

My Filipino colleagues cooked their national food and brought to the office. One brought rice. I brought 2 big bottles of soft drink to join in. It was pretty tasty, and we had fun. After we finished the meal, we decided that we will organize a lunch like this once a week. Can't wait for the next time! ^^

Anyway, here's my addition for today.

Cat girl (still a work in progress lol)


An update from yesterday. Touched up her eyes and skin, and added some color guides. Haven't managed to finish it by today. Need to sleep already. >.< Booo....

I will bring my tablet to office tomorrow and see if I can finish it there.

The journey will begin again tomorrow! :)

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Anime Cat Girl (Work in progress)

Today I woke up at 3:30 pm in the afternoon o.o

Last night I slept at 5:30 am in the morning, after battling with the realistic portrait I spent the whole night drawing. XD Please go take a look. Managed to get a good, long sleep at last, for the first time of the whole week. I will need energy for Monday, which I need to go back to office again.

Today I'm back to something simpler, Anime style drawing.

Here's a work in progress.


Sorry I haven't finished the piece. I will need time to rest. XD

The journey will begin again tomorrow! ^^

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Fine art portrait #2 : Guess who is this

Can you guess who is this?



If you can, I would be very happy. lol. Short post for today. I'm so tired. This piece took me really long. TvT

If you think you know who is the person, don't be shy to leave your answer below. =)
The journey will begin again tomorrow. ^^

Answer : Emma Watson

Friday, March 2, 2012

Fantasy DIgital Painting : Elven Sorceror

Today I was late to work. =( I didn't hear the alarm clock. Guess I was too tired. Haven't had enough sleep for the whole week. I guess I need to find a way to balance between sleeping, my work, and my drawing. XD Anyway, I'm so glad It's Friday. Went to have dinner at this great Japanese place called 'Standing Sushi Bar'. The food there was amazing. <3 Yum yum.

Just got a great news that I won an art contest in Roleplayer Guild Forum. =3 It's a nice community of great people that love play-by-post roleplaying. Be sure to take a look. Thanks to this forum, especially to the AOTM contest, it's actually one of the reasons I've been motivated to start drawing again. You can view other contestants' amazing artworks here.

This is the entry I've submitted to the contest.

 

The concept I picked was 'Magic'. The color scheme I chose for this piece is green and purple, contrasting colors. It's one of my attempt to draw something other than anime/manga style, and to practice myself in highlight & shading by limiting the colors I can use.

Actually the full picture looks like this. XD I cropped the piece before submitting to the contest, because the original size wouldn't fit in with the contest's legal image dimension.


Click to enlarge!

Today I've touched up a few parts in this illustration. Below is a step-by-step snapshots for the illustration progress =D


Click  to enlarge! Or view on a seperated window here.

Hope you like the piece. The journey will begin again tomorrow! =)

P.S. I also made a forum signature for Baka Kitty today. :)

Baka Kitty (AKA Darren Lee) is now taking up a challenge by self-learning a violin despite his lack of musical background. His dedication and effort is admirable. He's blogging about his practice and progress daily here. Be sure to take a look and it would be invaluable for any feedback you guys can give him to help him improve his skill. Thank you in advance. Wish you all a great day! XD

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Fine art portrait : Jessica Hamby (True Blood)

Today I tried fine art portrait.

The model is Jessica Hamby from True Blood. She's my favorite character of the series. ^^

Jessica Hamby (True Blood)


I was a bit nervous at first, because the problem in my drawing is that every time I try drawing a character, it always ends up looking anime-ish, even when I don't want it to. So today I posted a challenge to myself to draw a realistic looking human. The result was far from perfect, although I feel quite pleased. ^^ I had always been afraid to draw realistic portrait (for fear that it won't be good enough), and I also have drawn only 3-4 pieces at most for my entire life. This piece is, by far, the best (and most probably the fastest) portrait I've drawn so far. I spent time drawing it on MRT to work, MRT coming back, and another one hour at home.

I've planned to practice more on fine art, in order to advance my skill in art furthermore. There will be more realistic portraits coming from me in the near future, until my fine art skill has exceeded satisfactory level. :)

I feel a bit sorry for Jessica. XD My art skill hasn't done her beauty justice. It doesn't look exactly like her, and I kinda drew freely at the hair part. Maybe next time when my drawing skill has improved, I will redraw her again.

Thanks for reading. ^^ The journey will begin again tomorrow! :)