These are for Shadowrun: spy games.
I like the sketches more than the finished works.
A short comic, written by Ian Daffern.
Old works, new post.
It's frustrating when I can't show what I was working on right then and there, by the time I can, I either forget about it already, or really hate how it turned out. Such is life.
These are for Shadowrun: spy games.
A short comic, written by Ian Daffern.
These are for Shadowrun: spy games.
A short comic, written by Ian Daffern.
Google+ is awesome.
I hope I didn't just jinx it by saying that out loud. But I really like google+. I like everything about it. I like how intuitive the interface is. How easy it is to post, be it text or image. I love the image viewers. I love the people there.
I haven't been much active in any social network for quite a while. While I like twitter for what it is. I tend to just sit and listen to what people have to say, rather than having any say myself. I can't express myself accurately with 160 letters. With such limited space, it's easy for me to get snarky, unnecessarily so.
Google+ also had boosted my productivity. I have done quite a few doodle especially for it. Just because black and white doodles look so pretty in the stream. Yeah, my mind works in simple way.
There's still a lot of room for improvement for Google+, but the best thing about it is that, google had shown the willingness to listen and constantly working on improving it. I'm quite eager to see what Google will bring onto the table.
I haven't been much active in any social network for quite a while. While I like twitter for what it is. I tend to just sit and listen to what people have to say, rather than having any say myself. I can't express myself accurately with 160 letters. With such limited space, it's easy for me to get snarky, unnecessarily so.
Google+ also had boosted my productivity. I have done quite a few doodle especially for it. Just because black and white doodles look so pretty in the stream. Yeah, my mind works in simple way.
There's still a lot of room for improvement for Google+, but the best thing about it is that, google had shown the willingness to listen and constantly working on improving it. I'm quite eager to see what Google will bring onto the table.
Art books galore
I thought I’d never buy another book again, because, frankly, I just don’t have space to store them. But ones can never have enough books. Also, never say never.
1. Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter by James Gurney
2. Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn’t Exist by the same James Gurney.
3. Digital Painting Techniques: Practical Techniques of Digital Art Masters (Masters Collection)
4. Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth By Andrew Loomis
5. Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation by Hans Bacher
6. Sargent Portrait Drawings: 42 Works by John Singer Sargent (Dover Art Library)
7. Beasts of Burden by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson.
8. reMIND (Vol. 1) By Jason Brubaker.
9. The Human Machine By George B. Bridgeman
I finished both of Gurney’s books a few times, as well as reading through his whole blog archives. I have to say that he taught me about art more than anyone else had ever done so. And I proclaimed him my mentor. (No, he didn’t know that :D). Digital Painting Technique, this one I got on a whim. I have way way too many digital art how-to for them to really show any anything I didn’t know anymore (knowing does not translate into actual skill, just a note), but it has Kekai Kotaki (of Guildwars fame) in it. And, well, I like Kakai. *Shrugs*
I actually own ‘figure drawing for all its worth’ before… in a form of xeroxes, half the actual size, with illegible texts. Glad to finally own a proper copy.
Beast of Burden – I do own the floppy versions. So this is a pure luxury purchase, I do like to read it again without worrying my sweaty hands would melt the darn book.
ReMIND, since I’m coloring book 2, I thought I should get book one in hand, even though I have read them all on the web already.
1. Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter by James Gurney
2. Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn’t Exist by the same James Gurney.
3. Digital Painting Techniques: Practical Techniques of Digital Art Masters (Masters Collection)
4. Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth By Andrew Loomis
5. Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation by Hans Bacher
6. Sargent Portrait Drawings: 42 Works by John Singer Sargent (Dover Art Library)
7. Beasts of Burden by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson.
8. reMIND (Vol. 1) By Jason Brubaker.
9. The Human Machine By George B. Bridgeman
I finished both of Gurney’s books a few times, as well as reading through his whole blog archives. I have to say that he taught me about art more than anyone else had ever done so. And I proclaimed him my mentor. (No, he didn’t know that :D). Digital Painting Technique, this one I got on a whim. I have way way too many digital art how-to for them to really show any anything I didn’t know anymore (knowing does not translate into actual skill, just a note), but it has Kekai Kotaki (of Guildwars fame) in it. And, well, I like Kakai. *Shrugs*
I actually own ‘figure drawing for all its worth’ before… in a form of xeroxes, half the actual size, with illegible texts. Glad to finally own a proper copy.
Beast of Burden – I do own the floppy versions. So this is a pure luxury purchase, I do like to read it again without worrying my sweaty hands would melt the darn book.
ReMIND, since I’m coloring book 2, I thought I should get book one in hand, even though I have read them all on the web already.
Postcards from Atlanta
I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner, now I have to go back to vegas again at some point.
I do find the Forever stamp fascinating. Imagine in a thousand years from now with flying cars and shit like that, and this stamp would still be good. Isn’t that awesome?
I do find the Forever stamp fascinating. Imagine in a thousand years from now with flying cars and shit like that, and this stamp would still be good. Isn’t that awesome?
Concerning Art
If you had known me long enough, you might have heard me talking (or whining, depending on your point of view) about art, my lack of formal art training, and how I regret it.
Why didn’t I go to art school?* Well, to understand how I ended up in the current state of affair, I have to tell you a little about my life story; I grew up in a lower middle class family. My exposure to art was limited. When I heard ‘art’, it conjured up the likes of Picasso, Van Gogh, the modern pop art, expressionism and abstract art, those of which I didn’t find appealing in the slightest.** I read manga growing up, A LOT of manga. Name the popular manga in ’80 and ’90, chances are that I have read them.*** Naturally and typically, that led to me wanting to draw my own, and draw my own I did. By the time I finished Highschool, I was already published in then leading Thai comic magazine. And worked professionally as a comic artist. When someone mentioned art school, all the images I had in my head were of those people sitting around sketching balls and cones, or splashing colors onto canvas randomly, or drawing lifeless fruits on table.**** That wasn’t what I was interested in. I drew because I wanted to tell stories. I didn’t want to draw what I saw in front of me, I wanted to draw what I saw in my head. So, trying to go to art school didn’t even cross my mind, I never even considered it, I hated art, I like manga. Or so I thought.
I know It was naive and stupid. So what changed?
Around 2007, I became disenchanted with Manga. I won’t go into details. It suffices to say that I want to do something more, something else. I became interested in realistic style CG, concept art. I subscribed to ImagineFX magazine and started to hear names like William-Adolphe Bouguereau (never got his name right), Arnold Bocklin, Gustave Dore, J.C Leyendecker, John Singer Sargent, and Ilya Repin. And I realized, shit, this is art and I like it.*****
And this is the skill level I want to attend.
I just wish it didn’t take me this long to find out, and hope it isn’t too late.
[more on this later, I think.]
Why didn’t I go to art school?* Well, to understand how I ended up in the current state of affair, I have to tell you a little about my life story; I grew up in a lower middle class family. My exposure to art was limited. When I heard ‘art’, it conjured up the likes of Picasso, Van Gogh, the modern pop art, expressionism and abstract art, those of which I didn’t find appealing in the slightest.** I read manga growing up, A LOT of manga. Name the popular manga in ’80 and ’90, chances are that I have read them.*** Naturally and typically, that led to me wanting to draw my own, and draw my own I did. By the time I finished Highschool, I was already published in then leading Thai comic magazine. And worked professionally as a comic artist. When someone mentioned art school, all the images I had in my head were of those people sitting around sketching balls and cones, or splashing colors onto canvas randomly, or drawing lifeless fruits on table.**** That wasn’t what I was interested in. I drew because I wanted to tell stories. I didn’t want to draw what I saw in front of me, I wanted to draw what I saw in my head. So, trying to go to art school didn’t even cross my mind, I never even considered it, I hated art, I like manga. Or so I thought.
I know It was naive and stupid. So what changed?
Around 2007, I became disenchanted with Manga. I won’t go into details. It suffices to say that I want to do something more, something else. I became interested in realistic style CG, concept art. I subscribed to ImagineFX magazine and started to hear names like William-Adolphe Bouguereau (never got his name right), Arnold Bocklin, Gustave Dore, J.C Leyendecker, John Singer Sargent, and Ilya Repin. And I realized, shit, this is art and I like it.*****
And this is the skill level I want to attend.
I just wish it didn’t take me this long to find out, and hope it isn’t too late.
 |
| Howard Pyle - Marooned |
[more on this later, I think.]
* I actually forgone university entirely, but that’s another story.
** I still don’t.
*** Please don’t test me, I probably only know Thai title, and only those that popular in Thailand :3
**** I understand that this is not an accurate portrayal of art school, but this was how it was portrayed in Thai movies.
***** This is not, I repeat, NOT, an implication that manga or comic isn’t art. Because I fully realized that it is. But this is not what this post is about.
** I still don’t.
*** Please don’t test me, I probably only know Thai title, and only those that popular in Thailand :3
**** I understand that this is not an accurate portrayal of art school, but this was how it was portrayed in Thai movies.
***** This is not, I repeat, NOT, an implication that manga or comic isn’t art. Because I fully realized that it is. But this is not what this post is about.
Unexpected April Awesomeness.
I like it when unexpected things happened to my favor. They're mostly little things but never failed to brighten my day. Last week I attended Norwescon. It was a smallest con I've ever attended, only 3500 of attendance, set in the hotel. The best thing about the con was that a lot of attendees dressed up in awesome costumes, not necessarily just cosplay but general period and steampunk stuff, a lot of pirates and knights from various era. I spent most of my time walking around with @bicyclefish, attending panels, one of the panel is introduction to Armor, ran by Dameon Willich. I spent the time in the panel sketching him because he was wearing an awesome armor. Afterward, I showed it to him and found out he had worked with DC and Wizard of The Coast. He gave me a signed artist's proof card (the back is blank) and gave me encouragement I much needed.
(on a side note, when you bump into someone in Seattle, good chance that they work or had worked for Microsoft, Boeing, Wizard of the Coast or a few other game studios)
Another awesome unexpected thing was that I got my Guild Wars 2 artbook (which I got for free from PAX '09) signed by A LOT of people from Arenanet, thanks to Horia Dociu.
And thus end the awesome April for me, until next month!
Futurepoly
I'm taking a short course on digital painting at Futurepoly. The course is taught by Horia Dociu. I had to admit I was interested in Futurepoly because of Guildwars. I'm a big fan of Guildwars and a chance to get a hand-on information from people who work on it is too good to pass on. I know of course it's not a magic bullet to help me get any better at digital painting, but a little hand-holding goes a long way.
Surprisingly, the most valuable lesson for me so far wasn't about how to do mad detailed rendering, but how to do fast readable sketch that can get idea across, how to see big picture.
Here's some of in class stuff I did:
Surprisingly, the most valuable lesson for me so far wasn't about how to do mad detailed rendering, but how to do fast readable sketch that can get idea across, how to see big picture.
Here's some of in class stuff I did:
Evil cat of doom.
Same scene from various angles, conveying different feels.
20 mins quick copy, can you tell what are these from?
20 mins tribute to Ashley Wood, who doesn't like robot with chick?
5 mins copy of my least favorite movie, never been easier to look at something with clinical eyes.
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