The VIVI Monster

02.10.2012 Demo

2012-02-11T21:25:00.001-06:00

So, I've started to teach a Introduction to concept development and character design class for middle and high school students.
This past week we continued storyboard, framing and concept thumb nailing.
Demo covers the initial sketching and a rough clean up.
I ran out of time :<

CGMA 2012 Semester 1 week 3

2012-02-11T21:03:00.002-06:00

CGMA 2012 Semester 1 week 3 WIP

2012-02-10T08:48:00.000-06:00

Works in progress

CGMA 2012 Semester 1 week 2

2012-02-07T19:49:00.002-06:00

Environment Sketching
Week 2 assignment.

Misc Doodle

2012-02-06T23:50:00.002-06:00

Quick random char for a friend.

CGMA 2012 Semester 1 week 2

2012-02-03T23:54:00.000-06:00

Feeling the affect of lack of experience pretty hardcore right now. I have ideas and I have problems putting them down on paper. I also seem to have issues trying to do mid-shots and close ups. I know the general camera angles and stuff, but for some reason I just lean toward the deep shots.

I really feel like this week's assignment could use a lot more rework or something...

Fundamentals:

CGMA 2012 Semester 1 week 2 WIP

2012-01-31T22:31:00.001-06:00

Assignment consists of creating 10 thumbnails from our own story creations. I was going to do something related to the Carnelian project I created a while back, but the more I think about it, the more flaw I find in the story.

The project is pretty hard for me, I'm not sure what it is, but I feel that I am missing something in the thumbnails I've done so far. This needs serious tweaking, I hope I have enough time to do so before due date.

CGMA 2012 Semester 1 week 1

2012-01-28T04:09:00.000-06:00

For those who know me personally knows how much I am afraid of color and environment concepts. So for the past couple of months I've been trying to take on color and now I am staring environment concepts in the eye.
It is intimidating but I'll get through it some how! :)

Fundamentals for Creative Environment Design & Environment Sketching.

Shane the Mechanic WIP - Update 2

2012-01-04T22:47:00.001-06:00

Did not work on this as much as I would have liked to, but some progress was made.

There is a light filter applied, the color will change slightly when completely done. :) (also ignore that weird arm, will be fixed)

Alchemy Works:

2012-01-04T22:11:00.001-06:00

This is sort of an art dump of works done back during August -October 2011 while briefly involved working on a casual puzzle game.

Each stage takes place in a different part of the game world, initial conceptual design of the world as well as several stage locations: Alchemy Lab, Cathedral, Courtyard, and Library. Artwork was not finalized nor used for the game due to style changes from 2D to 3D based images.

Final personal development of the lab location.

Final sketch of the lab location.

Final rough sketch of the library.


Initial design for the library.

Final color scheme mapping.

Initial location design and color mapping.

Passages between locations.

World map design.

Shane the Mechanic WIP

2012-01-03T18:36:00.000-06:00

Media exploration: Watercolor sketching

2011-12-04T11:56:00.002-06:00

Study of Jean Paul Laurens's "Portrait de Rodin"

2011-11-01T21:23:00.000-05:00

Study of Jean Paul Laurens's "Portrait de Rodin"
~ 2hrs

Color Studies week 3

2011-10-22T12:03:00.003-05:00

Color study from a fashion editorial.

~ 2hrs

Color Studies week 1 and 2

2011-10-15T13:38:00.000-05:00

Week 2: 10.15.2011 - from a fashion editorial
~ 2hrs.

Week 1: October 9. Study from a fashion editorial.
~1.5hrs

2011 AnimeFEST Preview 5

2011-08-25T16:23:00.000-05:00

One more left

2011 AnimeFEST Preview 4

2011-08-24T16:07:00.002-05:00

3 Down, 2 more to go...

2011 AnimeFEST Preview 3

2011-08-21T18:41:00.002-05:00

2 down 3 more to go...

2011 AnimeFEST Preview 2

2011-08-14T18:04:00.000-05:00

2011 AnimeFEST Preview

2011-08-11T21:34:00.000-05:00

Colors for piece number 2 and 4 are not final.

07 19 2011 Study

2011-07-19T23:00:00.000-05:00

2011 AnimeFEST Mascot design: Kiko

2011-07-18T09:26:00.001-05:00

This year's Kiko is more scifi/mecha inspired.

Clowning around...

2011-07-18T09:23:00.000-05:00

Designing some zombie circus freaks/workers for a friend's game.

I feel that the original version is a little too girly and is just weird and not in the good way. So I changed some things up a little. It's still in the ugly phase, so...

The clown, making some things more simple for the team to model, I decided to put most of the details in the texture and color of the character.

A few ideas for the zombies for the game project, some are deemed too complicated for the current student team to model in a short period of time.

Project Finite

2011-05-26T23:01:00.000-05:00

Helping out a friend's cap stone project.
Squatters:

Commission: ALEX (WIP)

2011-05-22T13:04:00.000-05:00

An anthropomorphic polar bear wondering warrior named Alex, his part of his ancestry can be traced to Scotland.

Concept thumbnails and then some

2011-05-14T14:25:00.001-05:00

Today marks the official day that ends my career as a student. To be honest, I'm afraid of the unknown future. I know I got a lot of work to do before I can stand up tall in this field. Not only did I get a late start on concept design and illustration, I started off as an anime artist originally. Reflecting on my past 3 years, my style practically flipped from what it used to be, and not only that I'm taking the chance, and finally face environments. I'm still very afraid of completing any particular piece as it was the main issue form the last portfolio review.

This summer, I would like to see how far I can push myself, and catch up to the guys in the industry.
I'd like to...

Finish at least 2 pieces of work, I mean really polish them.
Study the anatomy of everything.
Work with color and lights.
Re-make my online portfolio site.

A couple of quick random concept thumbnails.

More developed version of the frog palace from last week.

Quick concept brainstorming session

2011-05-06T00:12:00.001-05:00

A bout almost two years ago, me and a couple friends started this concept brainstorming session. Each session consists of several rounds of quick firing concept development topics. The topics includes random combination of words and scenarios, and our job is to create some sort of conceptual output on paper within a given time. When time is up, we share our works to each other and give/receive feedback.

Each set is done within 20-25 minutes.
1 & 2: Obtaining Tim-burtonesque Train
3 & 4: Deserted, conflict with a god, fireplace
5 & 6: Frog, fish out of water, industrial

Carnelian: Kaja Beast & Buildings

2011-04-24T19:05:00.002-05:00

Dream State : Allison & Zach Portrait

2011-04-22T13:29:00.000-05:00

Carnelian: Travels 2

2011-04-21T12:23:00.002-05:00

Carnelian: Travels

2011-04-20T14:15:00.002-05:00

Carnelian: Winter Newt

2011-04-17T12:22:00.000-05:00

The Winter newt is usually found in the northern region’s
forests. They hunt by attracting prey with its spine and tail. Because
of the scarcity of the food resource in the winter, their prey generally
consists of small games. Their tails releases poisonous spores that
paralyze its prey, because of this, often children of the northern region
would fall victim to its spores. The poison can only be cured by using
a winter newt spore sac.

Carnelian: Caped Dorae

2011-04-16T13:18:00.002-05:00

Carnelian: Korre nomad settlement & Almai settlement

2011-04-15T14:58:00.002-05:00

The nomad settlement:
The look of the nomad's houses seems to be what I had in mind, but I'm not sure if I am a fan of the location...

Motus: Female hiphop dancer

2011-04-10T13:29:00.002-05:00

Carnelian: Opalecia , Ellonia & Eldonia

2011-04-08T17:11:00.002-05:00

Carnelian: Some Environments Aryll and Sol'plera dwelling

2011-04-06T14:09:00.000-05:00

Dream State: Additional Illustrations

2011-04-05T21:47:00.000-05:00

Sam have asked for a Hi-res portrait of Zach and Allison (his girlfriend) for the game.

Carnelian: Korre Fire Sisters

2011-04-01T15:41:00.000-05:00

The Fire Sisters
Impala, Protea, and Mundii are mercenaries as well as fire dancers. They are originally from the tribe of Korre which primarily dwells in/on water.

When their village was destroyed, the surviving Korre become nomadic. Some re-settled near new bodies of water, but the rest travels as performers. The three sisters are fire dancer in the troupe, but their act is just a front for their merc business.

(Yes, these were the "Valkyries" I wanted to do a while back, some of you might have seen the silhouettes before. I wanted to take on the Valkyries in a different direction :D )

Carnelian: Aryll healer Tikara rough draft

2011-04-01T12:17:00.000-05:00

Study: Lily cole (2hr)

2011-04-01T00:59:00.002-05:00

Practice day: Hands & Arms

2011-03-31T21:29:00.000-05:00

Study: Cate Blanchett (2hrs)

2011-03-30T23:37:00.001-05:00

There are a few actress/actors whose looks I really love, Cate is one of them.
No matter which movie she is in, I enjoy each and everyone of her role :)

So I decided to do some painting studies as I've actually not worked with color for quite a while.
This is actually the 2nd version, the first version was scrapped because I just really couldn't stand it, and I know it was not going the way it should, so instead of finishing then re doing, I just scrapped it to start over.

My painting however, the more I look at it, the less it looks like Cate anymore. Maybe it's just me.

"Make your work. Make your work constantly. Love it. And hate it. But make it." - Stephanie Diamond, artist, New York.

Original Ref: http://www.mannythemovieguy.com/images/cate_blanchett_maid_marian.jpg

Motus Digital: Character design for a dance game

2011-03-30T00:26:00.000-05:00

Carnelian: Aryll dwelling and Korre warrior

2011-03-30T00:25:00.000-05:00

Carnelian progress: Celtis

2011-03-27T22:02:00.000-05:00

Carnelian project:
Celtis of the wind, second in command under Indica. He is known as the best strategist in the squad. He is even tempered, happy as long as there is food, and extremely protective of Indica.

Ohmaru design

2011-03-27T19:29:00.000-05:00

Project Carnelian: Ohmaru.

Logo designs:

2011-03-25T17:11:00.000-05:00

Designed new logo completed yesterday for the three projects I've worked on this semester and my on going project Carnelian.

Dream State:

Season Project have been renamed to "Flower of the Heart":

My graduate project has been named as "Carnelian":

Website update and project status:

2011-03-25T17:07:00.001-05:00

Dream State: Concept art needed for the Dream State project are all done.

Carnelian: Some characters are established and colors are set ready to finish. More characters are needed to complete design. Three Races are designed and ready to be illustrated, several key locations have been designed and sketched.

Website: Portfolio have new artwork posted.

Some more sketches for the final project: Carnelian

2011-03-25T17:04:00.001-05:00

Works for Project: Dream State

2011-02-06T15:36:00.000-06:00

Some design work for friend's game project, Dream State.

Works for Project: Season

2011-02-06T15:35:00.000-06:00

Some character works for a friend's animation film project

Lauka

2011-02-03T16:05:00.000-06:00

Project (Still deciding on a title...)

From the previous quick character sketches comes the first race of my project:
The Lauka

They are half human, half jerboa/dormouse sort of creature. They were originally nomads, however the city of Beleira is most populated with the Laukas. They are especially talented in anything spiritual, such as healing, casting, enchanting and so on. The male and female are similar for this race, the female has a more slender frame and longer ears, the male are more broad in frame and their ears are shorter. In their custom, all proper nouns ends with "a".

Altera - Alcolyte type class
Medica - Healing/buff class, advanced Altera
Spira - Apprentice type mage class
Magica - advanced spira

Some characters 2.2.2011

2011-02-02T19:58:00.000-06:00

12 22 2010 Zach Brighton - portrait

2010-12-22T19:32:00.004-06:00

2 hrs

12 12 2010

2010-12-12T12:01:00.003-06:00

Warm up and stuff

Jullian (Juls) Mccallen

12 11 2010

2010-12-11T11:43:00.002-06:00

Warm up

12.09.2010 Project Dream State

2010-12-09T22:04:00.002-06:00

Initial sketch brain storm, look sheet for main character (45mins), and concept of some enemy monsters, (1.5hrs), (1 hr).

12.06 - 12.09 2010 Studies

2010-12-09T11:43:00.000-06:00

12.06.2010 Study

2010-12-06T17:58:00.000-06:00

12.06.2010 HQ

2010-12-06T08:58:00.000-06:00

The HQ of a global organization specialize in bounty hunting.

12.05.2010 W I P

2010-12-05T12:44:00.003-06:00

Some changes...

WIP2

WIP1

12.05.2010 Hive in the sewer

2010-12-05T09:37:00.001-06:00

A couple of things you can find in the Sewage Hive.

The Butcher

2010-12-03T00:25:00.002-06:00

12.02.2010 Sewer and Hive

2010-12-02T22:20:00.004-06:00

Random doodle. 11.22.2010

2010-11-22T11:02:00.000-06:00

Composition : Childhood

2010-11-22T00:09:00.000-06:00

Experimenting with composition and environment. While listening to some music, I thought about my childhood.

I grew up in Harbin, China, north eastern region of the land, super cold in the winter, and pleasant in the summer. Every summer of my life until moving to the US at age 11, I spent it with my grandmother who is a botanist researcher and professor at the Northeast Agricultural University (NEAU). We take the bus to the campus, check her mail box, and head to her research lab, which consists of green houses. For majority of the day I spent wondering the campus, catching dragonflies, hanging out with her graduate students (aka causing trouble), or peeping into the green houses to see what they are growing this year.

Since I have left, I have yet to visit China once. I miss it, and I know within the past 15 years, a lot have changed. I hear from my mother that I will probably have trouble recognizing places that I used to know. That campus, would be no different than all the other places, my elementary, our shopping mall that we visited every weekend... and so on. Grandma passed away last year, and since I've often thought about those carefree days.
How ironic that we can't wait to grow up when we were children, but once we grow up, we miss those days when we were young.

Study 11.04.2010

2010-11-04T20:55:00.000-05:00

I seriously don't draw enough in realism style. I have been sort of dipping my toes in that pool for a few weeks. Today I just felt like drawing from some friends in my list rather than the Anon model I find in an editorial or a commercial photo.

I would like to color these sometime...

Livestream 07.15.2010

2010-07-15T21:56:00.000-05:00

Concept Workshop 07.10.2010

2010-07-11T08:01:00.000-05:00

07.08.2010 Environment

2010-07-09T13:56:00.001-05:00

Ah.. stuck with a night shift. mmm all-nighters... mind as well do some sketch during break.

Concept Workshop 07.03.2010

2010-07-09T13:55:00.002-05:00

07.07.2010 Folds. Drapes. Environment

2010-07-09T13:53:00.001-05:00

07.03.2010 Hands. Feet. Skeletons.

2010-07-09T13:52:00.003-05:00

Expression and guestures 06.29

2010-07-09T13:44:00.004-05:00

Dr. Sketchy session during Indistry Giants

2010-06-14T10:23:00.001-05:00

Sometimes I wish I didn't sketch with pen lol... but most of the time, I love it!

1 minute warm ups

2 minutes...

5 minutes...

Collaboration with Paul R.

Back to more sketches :)
*20minutes

This one won me a free session with Dr. Sketchy later :D yay~! I'm going to paint it :)

Some style experiment after getting home.

Doodles

2010-06-11T21:09:00.002-05:00

Concept Workshop 06-05-2010

2010-06-06T22:34:00.001-05:00

Here are some sketches from the workshop.
Each round lasted about 6-8 minutes.

A bunch of Sketches/Studies

2010-05-31T23:35:00.005-05:00

05.31.2010 Human Study

Date? Environment Study

05.08.2010 Raccoon Study

05.08.2010 Canine Study

05.08.2010 Culture Study

05.06.2010 Magianno's

Some more stuff

2010-05-31T15:13:00.002-05:00

Kirin like creature + humanoid form.

Random quick sketch

Patamon :) I only took the beginner's modeling class in the Spring, and since I'm not able to take classes for the summer, I figure I'll just start doing the more complex models myself. It's cute, it's interesting.

midnight speed painting 05 21 10

2010-05-22T11:15:00.000-05:00

Life drawing at Northpark

2010-05-20T16:09:00.002-05:00

More Livestream

2010-05-09T09:08:00.002-05:00

Livestream Launched. Vivi Monster take over.

2010-04-27T05:57:00.003-05:00

So I've started livestreaming :) Vivi Monster

A nomadic princess : around 45 mins or so.

Cell shading Vivi style tutorial, as requested by viewer.

Untitled Project spring 2010

2010-04-25T16:38:00.001-05:00

Portrait of the Duchess from my spring project.

Front door of her home.

Little Concept Workshop 04-24

2010-04-25T13:09:00.001-05:00

Some concepts from Saturday 24th meet.

Workshop 04-17

2010-04-23T12:29:00.005-05:00

Original image: a character concept by nna (Deviantart.com)
My sketch during the workshop:
He is a dwarf kind of thing I guess.

Alternative:
I just picked a few designs I really liked from the workshop and kind of made an alternative out of it.
Motoki: Return of the Messenger
Scene illustrates a Japanese like town, its messenger swings in from his mission as the others alerts the town, that he has returned.
Music: The New Gothic Power - X-ray Dog

My sketch during the workshop:
An execution scene, the executioner is escorting the prisoner to the chopping block.

Alternative:
Star Cobra: Instead of the male executioner, I've made the character a female, possibly an assassin of sort. She is captured and chained to her misery.

Little Concept Workshop cont.

2010-04-23T12:22:00.002-05:00

--This latest meet (04-17-2010), I implemented a couple of new ways of approaching concept design. The main focus is construction and deconstruction, and the other is emotional implantation.

The first, has to do with taking something existing, deconstruct it to its bare elements, and reconstruct something new and fresh from those bits and pieces. I see every thing as an embodiment of many things, an echo of one and another. Therefore the artists are presented a random conceptual photographs or a pre-existing characters, their job is to study the image and create something original from it.

For this I pretty much randomly pulled some character and photograph off the internet, I don't want to use something that is familiar to the artists, I want them to have a clean pallet. I think sometimes after we are familiar with one subject, we tend to become quite biased to a certain view. If we see something new and random, it encourages our brain to think, and our mind to search through all that we know and experienced.

The second, comes from the musical part of my background. I was brought up in music, rather than art. Music always seem to paint a story for me in my mind, just like we can create echos of pre-existing images, I believe people are able to create from music. So for this section, a piece of music is played for 5 minutes (or 6 minutes depends on the piece), the artists are to draw as many things as they feel like during this time. The key is to feel the mood of the music, the way the beats are played, the way the melody sings, and anything that can be felt.

More experimental exercises to come, and more exploration are to be conducted :)

The Little Concept Workshop

2010-04-23T12:05:00.002-05:00

This started around summer of 2009. After working with some friends for a pre-production project, I started to really like working in groups, to get other people's opinion on things and return with my own feedback regarding their works.

So, I gathered a couple of friends and decided that we are going to meet every weekend and experiment with different concepts and challenges. We started by having a set of criteria that we must satisfy within 5 minutes after 1 minute of brainstorming. This challenge ended up to be something really fun, funny, and overall interesting. It is amazing how one single concept can be viewed in such a vast amount of perspective.

I brought it back mid spring 2010 semester. I've met quite a few talented folks, and each one with their distinct flavor of artistic interpretation. I hope in the long run, people do learn form this little workshop, and create more beautiful worlds.

Inspired

2010-04-23T10:55:00.003-05:00

School has been so busy lately, I have a lot of sketches to scan and post...

Yesterday I discovered a few artists that are extremely inspirational. I love film music, I must say, there are a lot of feeling in the melodies that I can fee. They makes my mind tingle and fingers wiggle, inspires me to create. :)

Enjoy.

(Music) Inspiration: Clair Voyant by Two Steps From Hell.

Life Drawing: Willow Bend - March 5th

2010-03-08T07:52:00.003-06:00

- Alexander McQueen - Fashion Series (1) WIP

2010-01-07T14:19:00.001-06:00

- Alexander McQueen - Fashion Series (1)

2010-01-06T23:15:00.003-06:00

Some thumbnails...

Two looks:
From the Fall 09 Collection

From the Spring 10 Collection

2010 - Now launching the Fashion Series

2010-01-06T23:12:00.002-06:00

So, I am starting a series of artworks inspired by fashion designers. I still have this passion about the fashion world and I hope to explore some day once I am done with school.

However, while I am quite attached to the computer, I'm going to pay tribute to some of my favorite designers. These artworks are inspired by a particular piece(s) that the designer may have in one of their collections. I will post the piece that inspired me as well as what I come up with after.

I hope this will be a interesting experience for both me and my audience :)

Enjoy!

sketch dump - late October

2009-12-04T01:21:00.004-06:00

I need to draw more... imperfect things... ><
Tool: Pen.
I have a strange habit of sketching with pens...

Aire and Max - Akitsushima characters

2009-11-06T21:13:00.003-06:00

Aki - F

2009-10-27T17:19:00.001-05:00

WIPs

2009-08-22T10:14:00.001-05:00

Hana Complete

2009-08-22T10:11:00.000-05:00

Hana Spring.

New artworks

2009-08-22T10:07:00.000-05:00

It is always frustrating when I can't show my latest works due to restrictions. After the event, I can post them :) Meanwhile, I can post the sketches for them.

In addition, they have decided to print my work on some new shirts as well as making a Jigsaw puzzle of 400 pieces, oh boy! More updates soon.