Monday, February 25, 2013
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
My FIRST and SECOND KICKSTARTER PROJECT.
Hi people, the time has come. I just recently launched my first KICKSTARTER project. Funny enough, this is the second time I'm on KICKSTARTER because the first one was a successful comic anthology. This project took me a year and if you like it, follow it via FACEBOOK and spread the word. Thanks!
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Winter Break
A belated Happy New Year to everyone! Its been 3 months since I last posted anything on blogger. This is the first time ever in 2 years that I've taken a hiatus without posting anything within a two weeks span. Well the biggest reason is because I flew back to Singapore for Winter break and was busy with freelance, family/friend gatherings and visiting studios. I got the opportunity to catch up with great comic artist, Sonny Liew and also, Troy Chin, the insane self taught comic artist. I also visited Feng Zhu's School of Design and got a little tour around the building. One word, INSPIRING. Last but not least, gave a talk at Nanyang Polytechnic as an Alumni sharing my experiences in the States.
Sonny Liew's Studio: I've known Sonny since 2009 and our first ever meeting was at McDonald Back then he just finished Wonderland and had already published a few other books. I was crazy enough to email him and ask him out for advice as a fellow artist. Surprisingly he agree to meet up and ever since then, we've been in contact. Currently his schedule is packed with a few books and when I was at the studio, he was being interviewed. So I took the opportunity to snap some photos. He is a HARDWORKING and HUMBLE artist. Very down to earth and encouraging. We discuss about trends and the future of comics in Singapore and Asia while his editor and assistant work nonstop.
Till this date I refuse to believe Sonny is a human. Look at all those work!?!
Where does he find time to do oil paintings like that? Maybe he is secretly a mutant and has 6 hands!!!
FZD School of Design: Can't say enough about the school. Having Feng Zhu as a mentor/teacher/master is just too good to be true. I didn't get the chance to talk to him in person as he was not available during the time of visit but I did get to meet Elvira, the Industrial Relations Officer. She is super nice and gave a great tour of the building. I saw portfolios and got a glimpse of class room life in the school. Below are the standards of their student work. You can see more here on their website. MINDBLOWING~~
The Highway to Entertainment Design: According to Elvira, there is no internet access in the school. This is to prevent students from surfing the net or using facebook. So what if they need research? Well there's a library in the school to borrow books for reference. The students come into class from 10am to 630pm daily. Within each day one might have 2-3 lecture classes which runs for about an hour or so. After class, students stay in their respective studios to work. YES WORK, you hear it correctly.
NYP Talk: 8 hours before my flight back to the States, I visited my old school as an alumni to give a talk. Well some what of a talk I guess. Its more like sharing my experiences in the U.S. from collaborating with Microsoft as an art director on a NDA game to my invitation to Baltimore Comic Con as a special guest. But I wanted it to be more than a normal sharing session or talk. So I came up with a topic for my presentation which is titled," The Art Of Giving Up". This is what I told them, "I figured that sometimes students in schools are so hard to inspire so instead of forcing them to work hard, why not tell them to give up. If you can't stop them, JOIN THEM." So my entire presentation became this idea of giving up. But what I wanted to share wasn't to give up on art, it was to give up on things like 1) arguing/talking back to your professors 2) Procrastinating 3) Being Lazy, etc. In the end it was really fun and lots of students stayed on to ask questions about studying abroad. Hopefully I'll get to do more sharing and presentations similar to such in the future. This is the fourth time I've done it in school and I guess I really enjoy talking. Ha!
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Freelancing - Gutters 351
Two days ago I did a freelance gig with http://www.the-gutters.com/. This all happened because I met Rich Young, one of the editors in Gutters awhile back in Baltimore Comic Con. This is the third time I've been contacted as the first two scripts didn't work out for both parties due to schedules. It is extremely interesting and stressful because the turn around time was slightly more than a day. ( I receive the email 2pm on Monday and had to turn it in 7pm the following day)
The funny thing about this gig was that I'm in the middle of doing projects for Microsoft and Mattel and something was due the following day. I dunno what struck me to do it but it was a combination of these reasons. (1) I free bad about rejecting the script again. (2) Its a great way to push and see what I can do under such extreme deadlines. (3) I've never really done mainstream comics before.
Now with those 3 reasons, I agreed to do the job but regretted my approach. Firstly, I challenged the script and drew something different at first knowing it might not go through. Secondly, I decided to inked it traditionally. Thirdly, I didn't do the final page in my usual art style. It was a fun learning experience and definitely, I've enjoyed drawing it. The entire process from digital sketches to revisions, tight pencils and inks took 7 hours. I didn't do the colors and lettering which look awesome. (I think the colorist and letterer bail me out) Here's the ink to the comic.
The final comic. I only did the inks.
When I got the script, I wanted to change the actors into kids (sketch on left)
in line with the second panel which is suppose to be a school bus. I did
the sketches in photoshop.
The blue pencils were done on 11 by 17 bristol and inked over.
Here's the final scanned inks.
When I finished the page, I send over my reference images in hope that the colorist will have an easier job because his/her turn around time was 4 hours.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Blue Pencils W.I.P.
Just came back from Dallas! There's so much work to be done this weekend. I haven't been doing any blue pencil sketches lately due to an overwhelming work load. So today I got inspired and did some catching up. Will post more soon.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
New Blue Pencil Sketch
School has finally started and its great to be back at SCAD. Will be having an extremely busy schedule this quarter but I am excited (1) I'm having classes with all my awesome sequential classmates (2) I've the opportunity to get to know more students from other departments in two other collaboration class that I'm taking. Meanwhile, I continue to explore my style and art. My great friend Jorge has been giving me lots of tips and advice on drawing. check out his great art.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Baltimore Comic Convention Aftermath!!!
I just got back today via a 20 hours train ride on Amtrak. (7 hours of breakdown and delay) But despite that, I'm extremely happy. Having come back from my first tabling at a convention, I feel fired up, inspired and passionate. Baltimore Comic Convention has been the best ever comic con for me. Many thanks to Marc Nathan, Brad Tree, the staff from the Baltimore Comic Con team and Matt + Suzanne from the Mike Wieringo Scholarship. Without them, I would never have the opportunity to come to the convention as a guest with so much fun.
YES, FUN.
This convention has changed my own perspective on my artwork, given me more faith and confidence and also showed me how much I wanted to become an artist. It also showed me that I like to talk to people, or should I say I can't stop talking to people. I really like love the industry. I've always been on the other side of the table and even then, I would dream about having my own table and the coolness of being able to draw for others one day. Never did I know that I'll be sitting in a convention without leaving my chair the entire day. (Besides peeing and going to the con auction.)
Me with Matt Wieringo and his wife/my new "sister", Suzanne Wieringo
Once the show opened, my buddy Eryk and I sat down and got our first con sketch. The next time we got to stand up and walk, the convention was over. We were having so much fun talking to people and sketching all day.
Pre-show before the crowd came in. That's my booth right there!
Throughout the day, people who bought the 2012 Baltimore Comic Con book would drop by to get signatures from us. It was like a treasure hunt because with X amount of signature, you will be given a free print. The best thing is, it gave me and Eryk a lot of face time and people would come talk to us about our work. For me, I was always a huge indie comic reader and I would ask the crowd what they've been reading. The conversations would then switch to other subjects and suddenly, I found myself talking about life with complete strangers. During day two, I lost 30% of my voice and even then, I felt compelled to just make that connection to try and know more people. I was like a baby exposed to life and I wanted to know everyone and what comics, prints or originals they bought. At one point I was talking too much and I forgot to finish con sketches. (^__^) I wished I had taken photographs of all the sketches I did.
Zombies!!!
There's always room for a batman and some Chibi avengers.
So many great couples from the con. We were all laughing, joking and chatting away a midst the busy convention. I wish the con would never end. If only...
Funny story. The lady love my original ink drawing and the husband asked for the price. He hesitated but decided to buy it for his wife and as he was about to pay me, I gave him a discount. I told my pals about it and they all asked me later, "Why did you do that?"
I love doing this sketch, 2 by 1 inch rocketeer fan art.
Each day after the convention, we would hang out at the hotel bar and talk to other artists. It was great because the hotel we were staying in, Hyatt Regency Baltimore was beside the convention center. It was like a mini party for me as I catch up with friends and my idols on how well their day went by. It was also at the bar where I learn about convention tips and tricks from the pros.
Silly me trying to take a picture even though I know there would be reflection.
Eryk trying to text his lovely wife Kate. Or maybe he was texting someone else. LOLx
All in all, I had an extremely enjoyable time at Baltimore Comic Con. I got to know more about Mike Wieringo after talking to Suzanne and seeing Matt doing con sketches made me really happy. Matt is a great humble guy and both he and Suzanne have been working hard behind the scenes to get the Mike Wieringo Scholarship going. They have help made Eryk and my education possible and I can't thank them enough. If you could spare some donations, please visit http://www.ringoscholarship.com/. I also wished I had stopped and close up shop earlier at my booth to go walk around and talk to others. I thank many of you, including artists who dropped by. Next time I'll really keep my promise and go to all your booths! I also regret not buying 3 prints that I saw during the con. Alright, time to sleep.
This collector won the auction for my artwork! I told him all the secrets and Easter eggs in the drawing. He is an awesome awesome guy!
The 2012 Baltimore Comic Con Year Book. I think this is the first of its kind. I am so honored to be in the book with all these amazing masters.
My final colored submission beside Frank Quitely's piece. His and David Peterson's illustration were my favorite.
I bought a Mike Wieringo print and donated some money back into the scholarship! How could anyone ever resist or not buy this right??!!?!
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Poster, Auction Piece, Con Sketches.
Extremely excited and nervous for my first convention at Baltimore Comic Con. 2 days to go!!!
Matt Wieringo, Eryk and Me will be at table 1907!!!
Monday, September 3, 2012
Summer Updates + SKETCHES!
Hey everyone, decided to do some blogging and sketching today! Summer finally ended and I manage to get some breathing room. The workload was pretty insane and challenging yet fulfilling in a great great way. I met many talented game designers while working on a confidential game project for MICROSOFT STUDIOS. (How I wish I could show the cool stuff we did!!!) I was the Art Director and lead concept artist on the project, hopefully in the near future I'll get another opportunity to work with these awesome talented guys again. A big shout out to, Jack Mamais, our project director and a personal mentor/ father figure to me who worked on games like Far Cry, Crysis and Mechwarrior 2. You can image the tonnes of stuff I've learn from him.
MOVING FORWARD: I've got a couple of projects going on in Fall which I can't talk about right now. I haven't decided to do all of them because what I wish to accomplish in Fall is to work on my Travel comic and kick start it on Kickstarter. The other cool thing I want to mention (Yet again) is the fact that I'm an invited guest at Baltimore Comic Con and I'll be there doing Con sketches and selling prints. This is "officially" my first time tabling in conventions and my main goal is to get to KNOW YOU! Yes, if you're going Baltimore and you are a comic reader, I'll just like to know you as a person and chat with you. You don't really have to buy anything in my booth or get a sketch if you don't want to. Hopefully we'll make a good connection. So See you in Baltimore!!! Also my awesome buddy, Eryk, will be there. Here's an article about us going Baltimore Comic Con. A million thanks to Matt Wieringo, this is only possible because of THE MIKE WIERINGO SCHOLARSHIP. Without them, Baltimore would not have been possible.
Here's sketches for the day!
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Friday, August 17, 2012
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