Happy holidays!

Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year! :)

It's been a busy time at work, so I don't have too much personal art to show lately! But I am learning a ton about modeling and animation. :)

Shark card in action!

I recently received this from Jay Wong, who was kind enough to send me photos from his wedding. I'm always happy to see my work in action (and it's actually my first time seeing it in print!). Best wishes for the newlyweds! :)

If you would like to use this card at your wedding, click here for more information! There is no charge for using it and I only ask you make a donation to a foundation involved in shark conservation.

An update: The possession and consumption of shark fin products is now banned in Toronto! There is now a call for a shark fin ban at the federal level. Please sign the petition here!

Convocation!

I'm finally convocating this week! I wanted to give some thank you cards. :)

thank you!

PaintTool SAI + Photoshop CS5

It might sound crazy, but as much as I draw them, I often have a hard time getting chibi proportions right (what "proportions"? lol)...

This is closer to what I really look like. Awww yeaaaaa :'D

Going to print these tomorrow!

one fish, two fish...

Another birthday card! This one's for my dad. :)

a fishy birthday

brown Sharpie + watercolours on paper

I used a different watercolour paper this time (Strathmore CP 600 series) and the surface seemed to be repelling water. Very strange behaviour... I still swear by Windsor & Newton HP 150 lb watercolour paper! I was just too lazy to cut the large sheet I have...

EDIT: whoa! Blogger finally updated their picture viewer? Looks a bit like Tumblr/Facebook now, but I like it. :)

Crabby

Here's a quick birthday card I drew for my mom! She really likes eating snow crab legs, so I decided to draw her a crab (snow crabs were a bit difficult to draw in a cute way so chose another species...).

This was originally the back, but I decided it was a tad morbid and didn't include it in the final card. :'D

untitled

Sakura brush marker + watercolours + watercolour pencils on paper

status update!

Sorry for the lack of updates! I am currently working at a biomedical animation studio and haven't had much time to work on personal drawings.

Hopefully I'll get some things in over the weekends. :)

derpy hands part 1

So I've come to the realization that I draw really atrocious hands. :'D
I've known it subconsciously for a long time, but never had the willpower to really confront it. Going to start trying now! It's going to be an arduous battle ahead...

Took some time to draw from my own hand and 3D models from PoseManiacs as a starting point.

My permanent facial expression while drawing these:

I intend to dedicate some time regularly to practicing hands. I'm pretty embarrassed because after modeling the skeletal hand in Maya and drawing a bunch of hands for my master's research project, I should have good knowledge of the hand structure. Yet it just doesn't really translate in my head.

Any tips for drawing hands would be awesome!

TnB: Taiga & Bani

Ahhhh, I can't stop drawing Tiger & Bunny! It's a severe addiction... I wanted to do something more stylized and not painstakingly rendered after doing those portraits. I just wanted to have fun so I didn't get hung up on details or refining for once! I've forgotten the joys of doodling! :)

タイガー＆バニー！

PaintTool SAI 1.01

Eagerly awaiting episode 22 subs!

Random: Wow, I just noticed how the art style is completely different in the last 6 blog entries. I am so bad at drawing consistently - I like changing it up! I never figured out whether this was a good or bad thing... D:

Black out the sun

I've been a huge fan of Darren Hayes since his Savage Garden days and Darren his new music video for Black Out The Sun is gorgeous! I wanted to capture the colour palettes and mood (and didn't even begin to attempt to capture the likeness of Darren...*sigh*). There was a bit of optical flare abuse in the video, so I wanted to include that as well!

Now all the love's gone...

PaintTool SAI 1.01 + Adobe Photoshop CS4

Okay, I swear I will fix my sleep schedule in two days...

fish

I felt like drawing at an unreasonable hour again! I felt the need to wash the animu out of my system lol! I forgot about these fish I drew about a year ago. I was going to paint them, but ended up subjecting them to major texture abuse instead. :'D

deadfish

Pen & ink + PaintTool SAI 1.01

Multiple textures from CGtextures

I...really need to fix my sleep schedule.

T&B: Kaburagi T. Kotetsu

Finished procrastinating on packing drawing Kotetsu while listening to his dorky character song lol! I'm not really satisfied with it but I think it's time to move on. I've had enough of Tiger & Bunny portraits! I had a pretty difficult time with this drawing - not used to drawing older men with darker skin tones. And that hand! And that watch! And that hat! Ugh! I'm too ashamed to admit how long this took me... Might have to give him plastic surgery later. :P

This one is supposed to match the Barnaby I drew earlier!

Kaburagi T. Kotetsu

PaintTool SAI 1.01 + Photoshop CS4

Although I really enjoy drawing Barnaby, Kotetsu is actually my favourite character from Tiger & Bunny. You just can't help but like the guy. Two days until ep 22! :D

WIP T&B: Kaburagi Kotetsu

I tried so hard to fix my sleep schedule, and it lasted about three days...  I decided it was time to attempt a drawing of Kotetsu from Tiger & Bunny to go with Barnaby. I just couldn't get into drawing Kotetsu's hair - not curly/layered enough for my tastes! ;) 

I was discussing with some friends about drawing speed and I think I'm a really slow artist. This is where I'm at five hours in (from blank canvas)... I expected this to be done in less than three hours. :(

That hand/arm is giving me a lot of grief (and just noticed the strange colour difference from his face haha...)!

Shall continue at a more reasonable hour! 

Shark-loving couple!

Finished the new shark card! I must thank the enthusiastic engaged couples who have contacted me about using my shark card for their wedding. This wouldn't exist without their support. :)

I wanted to make it as close to my original shark card as possible (yes, I reused the border and background :'D), but I quickly realized it's hard to draw the same way you did a year ago!

If the text is too small to read in the picture, I am basically allowing couples to use this illustration for free as their wedding card, etc. as long as they show me their commitment to the cause. :)

Terms of use and instructions on how to get the high-res file from me after the jump:

Summer's end

Ahhh drawing always keeps me up late at night! Here is a rather ominous looking summery illustration. :)

summer's end

Sakura microns + Photoshop CS4 + PaintTool SAI 1.01 

Paper texture from CGtextures.com

(I'm totally going to look at this tomorrow and want to tweak it, aren't I? :P)

Anyway, I should get back to the shark card soon. Hope to get it done in a week!

T&B: Barnaby version 3

EDIT: half a year later... I repainted his face again lol. I can't even tell if I'm making it better or worse anymore, but I thought the proportions looked a little better like this. Until next time... :'D

Barnaby Brooks Jr.

PaintTool SAI 1.01

I ended up spending the night giving my Barnaby illustration more plastic surgery and refining the CGing. I think school has caused me to become much more obsessive persistent with reworking my art. Okay, someone take this drawing away from me, I'm probably going to want to tweak it again in a few days... :P

Revised gag version because I just can't take Barnaby all that seriously (especially after episode 19 :'D)!

"Kotetsu-san... Why did you bitch-slap me? *weeps*

It is Saturday, but the subs for episode 20 aren't out yet... Sadness. D:

WIP: new shark card

The details are taking a while! But I wanted it to be clear the people are the bride and groom this time around. :)
Still some ways to go...

I'm going to apologize in advance to whoever uses this for their wedding cards - the reds are not CMYK-friendly at all. B-but I really enjoy painting in RGB mode. Yay for screen displays?!

WIPs & doodles

Doodle sketch for new shark card that will be freely available to couples getting married who are against shark fin soup! I plan on fleshing it out this Sunday. :)

Tiger & Bunny has hit the point of being an addiction lol. The show's just too good and they keep ramping it up with each episode! I must admit I first liked Barnaby's character design for jokes (I mean, look at that hair!), but it's really grown on me. Barnaby's hair is so time consuming but it is my favourite thing to draw right now. :D

I had all these test render times of like a minute or two during the last couple months, and I never figured out what I should be doing during those short intermittent periods. This is what happens when I'm left to my own devices... 99% of the drawings are really bad but I thought I'd share more evidence of my obsession lol! ;) 23 pages and counting hahaha!

\

T&B: ivan

Ahhhh I have neglected this blog for so long! I handed in my final animation for school recently (though there are still some tweaks to do)! So now it is time to draw some animu and dang, am I ever rusty! I gave him plastic surgery a gazillion times but it still doesn't look quite right... Ah well, I've lost patience and copped out with another portrait. :P

ivan 

Photoshop CS4

This was originally supposed to be Barnaby from Tiger & Bunny (the most underrated show of the season!!), but the more I worked up the face, the more it looked like Ivan/Origami Cyclone to me so I just changed it... But I'm not really much of an Origami fan. Must draw Barnaby next! :)

Sharks in our oceans, not in our bow(e)ls!

I have become a bit of a shark conservation activist recently, and I had the pleasure of creating a couple of quick illustrations for Shark Truth, a nonprofit group based in Vancouver, BC, that aims to educate Chinese communities on the environmental issues surrounding shark fin soup, promote awareness, and ultimately, put an end to shark fin consumption in Canada. These illustrations will be printed and used as signs in a photo mob. Credit must be given to my friend who misread "bowls" as "bowels", which led to the creation of the second illustration (Hey look! I sort of used my medical illustrator skillz! lol)

Sharks in our oceans, not in our bow(e)ls!

Photoshop CS4

Recently, California introduced Bill AB376 to ban the sale of sharkfin soup. Some Chinese communities have expressed anger at a proposed ban of shark fin consumption, crying "racism" and touting that shark fin soup is part of the Chinese culture. However, they only represent a part of the Chinese community and many of us support this bill. The team at Shark Truth has been working hard on creating a "mob photo" to submit to the California government in an effort to ban the sale and consumption of shark fin and to demonstrate that the Chinese also support this move.

Here in Canada, a ban on shark fin sales and possession has already been inplemented in Brantford, Ontario. The Scarborough Councillor is now also proposing a city-wide ban. So let's get this show rollin' in Toronto!

For more information on why shark finning needs to stop, visit the website for the Sharkwater documentary.

If you would like to use my illustrations to help stop the soup, please feel free to email me for permission. Please include details on how you plan on using the illustrations, etc. 

Still to come on the shark fin agenda: Wedding card for free use. I haven't forgotten! The sketch is already done (scheduled for August). :)

Bunny!

Sorry, not the cute, fuzzy variety. :'D

I got kicked out of my school building today because the janitors needed to wax our hallway. Perfect excuse to give in to my intense craving for some smurfing animu-drawing!

This is Barnaby (nicknamed "Bunny") from Tiger & Bunny, a surprisingly good anime this season. It's set up as a hero show and the plot is pretty predictable, but the great chemistry between all of the characters keeps me watching!

Barnaby Bunny!

Adobe Photoshop CS4

I tried to CG with the brush I normally sketch with. It was a nice change of pace. :)
EDIT: Did a bit of colour and blur tweaking.

Here are a couple of alternative versions. I ended up inking the original sketch and tried my hand at cel shading! I never really do clean lineart, so this was an interesting route to take!

I think this last one is probably my favourite, which makes me really sad because I spent considerably more time on the rendered version!

Copic multiliners + Adobe Photoshop CS4

Texture from CGtextures.com

Back to Maya tomorrow!

New website!

It's been a month in the making, but I'm finally ready to launch my new website for my medical and scientific visualization portfolio! I really wanted to showcase my work based on projects so that I could include my process and any additional images that are related to the final piece. I really love it when artists post their process so I hope you will enjoy looking at mine! :)

Anyway without further ado, click to visit my portfolio !

About the design - I ended up matching it to my current blog layout. I drew a lot of inspiration from squidfinger's simple, but effective website, North Kingdom's archive page, and of course, this blog layout template.

I've been tired of my Flash website for quite some time, but didn't have the time/courage to pick up html/css/php. I finally felt up to the task last month and managed to finish my site by stealing the code off Julie and Bea with the help of some friends. I also learned a lot about why web designers/developers rage about IE all the time. IE really enjoys breaking everything. So much so that I considered turning back to Flash. I've managed to IE7&8-proof my website, but please use IE9, or better yet, Chrome or Firefox to view my site with all its css3 drop-shadow goodness! ;)

Here are some of the earlier iterations I started back in December 2010:

I love textured backgrounds but realized what a pain they were. I also decided to change things up a bit and (reluctantly) went for a lighter palette this time around:

Anyway, feedback is most welcome! Feel free to comment here or send me a message on my contact page. :)

Teddy bear wedding :)

I'm happy I had a bit of time to draw a card for my dear high school friend's wedding! I haven't drawn much - let alone paint - lately. So I made quite a few blunders in the process and the illustration ended up a lot tighter than I would've liked. I've forgotten how unforgiving water media is!

Congrats to Kitty & Danny!

watercolours, watercolour pencils, white gouache & Copic multiliner on W&N hp watercolour paper

(sorry for poor photo quality, didn't have access to a scanner D: )

I always make cards without thinking about the envelope... so I had to make a sketchy one out of a generic brown envelope. I tried to make up for it by adding some decorations. :)

1. I tried out different bear drawings - was trying to find the most charming one. :)
2. I got carried away and ended up drawing everything with watercolour pencils (Steadtler)...
3. ...which was a big mistake lol! The colours got a bit dirty as a result of all the mixing and that brown pencil looked fine when I tested a small patch, but looked horrible in the real deal! I ended up adding a lot of watercolour to balance out the colours.
4. I often add a warm glaze over the painting to unify the colours a bit more.
5. This is the point at which the painting started getting too tight. Is this what medical illustration has trained me to do? :P
6. I often find myself asking the same question at this point in the process (aka I never plan properly beforehand...). Should I line it with markers or leave it as is? Looking back at this shot, I probably should've left it alone and lined it with brown col-erase. I have this bottle of brown ink that would've worked really nicely, but I haven't been able to open it with my weak hands/arms for several months now. :(

surgical tools revamp

This isn't a exactly top priority project but I figured it'd be nice to have a good render of my old surgical tool models for my new website. :)

surgical tools

Autodesk Maya 2011 + Adobe Photoshop CS4

I was messing around with MIA materials in Maya and this is the best I could come up with for a metal texture (I think I used the copper preset blended with some chrome and satined metal). The cloth texture could use some serious work too (more imperfections and variation, etc.) but as always with these procrastination tools side-projects, it's time to move on for now!

I apologize for not updating my blog - I've been working on a new html/css website that will be launched soon (hopefully)! I plan on adding process for most portfolio pieces, but as I can't write as freely (aka ramble) as I do here, I might still retroactively add things here...

junk o:

I finally get a chance to draw and what happens? I produce junk. That's how it goes, I suppose. :B

untitled

Photoshop CS4

sleepless

I've been feeling a bit listless and unfocused these past couple of days. Deadline extensions are truly both a blessing and a curse! I also haven't been able to kick my terrible sleep schedule since I stayed up trying to render out coffee a few nights ago. Days like these I really miss living in downtown Toronto. I miss picking up late nights snacks at the 24 hour Metro and browsing used books at BMV on the weekend. I feel so cooped up right now! :(

So I thought a quick doodle might help ease the feeling...

untitled

PaintTool SAI 1.01 + adjustments in Photoshop CS4

EDIT: P.S. This is supposed to be a girl. <-- hilarious because usually anime artists comment, "by the way, this is a boy" in reference to their girly boys, never the other way around. 8D;;

late night coffee

I actually don't drink coffee, but I came across this CGsociety thread last night and it piqued my curiosity. The thread houses an excellent, in-depth discussion about how to create a coffee shader in Maya using mia_x material. If you know me personally, then I'm sure you're not surprised at how I obsessed over this inconsequential, minute detail... After many, many hours of fiddling, this is what I've come up with:

I also took the liberty of populating the desk with random items! My coffee shader is still not as good as some of the ones in the thread, but I think it's time to move on (aka MRP is beckoning me)...

This sort of contributes to my MRP (5 seconds worth?!) and I'm learning so this shouldn't count as procrastination, right?!

EDIT: And yes, this shall be cold, stale coffee because I'm not willing to attempt steam right now lol.

return of Gintama!

I have no idea what possessed me to draw this during deadline week. Actually, staying at school past 1 am regularly and staring at particles might do it... Anyway, here is another fanart of Gintama. After a one year hiatus, the new season of Gintama returns this Monday. I'm actually super excited, so I thought I'd draw something to celebrate! :)

april 4th

PaintTool SAI + Adobe Photoshop CS4

Looks kind of different from my usual stuff. It's oozing animu-ness. Ah well! It's not quite how I'd like it to be and there are a bunch of mistakes, but it is now 5 am and I must get back on track with school stuff tomorrow/today! 8D;;

It all sort of snowballed when I pulled out my tablet to do a quick stress-relief doodle (I was dismayed at how dusty my tablet had become from neglect):

snazzy!

PaintTool SAI 1.01

Shark finning card in the paper! :)

Hi everyone! I just wanted to share that my  "Say no to shark fin soup" illustration created for my sister's wedding is in The Globe and Mail today (page 2 of Life section)! A reporter initially emailed me about the guests' reactions to the absence of shark fin soup at my sister's wedding (which I deferred to my sister, naturally) and everything kind of came together this way.

I think it's fantastic that there is growing awareness of how cruel and unsustainable shark finning is, and I'm happy my illustration can contribute to educating the public. For more information on shark finning, be sure to check out www.sharkwater.com.

My work encompasses a variety of styles, but if you're interested in seeing more of my cute card designs, please visit my portfolio on Carbonmade. :)

UPDATE: I'm planning on creating a new card for free use by couples getting married! The only requirement is that the couple will make a donation to WildAid or any other legitimate organization involved with shark conservation (and of course, boycott shark fin soup at their wedding). Please look forward to it!

small preview!

I am currently working on an 8 second interstitial animation depicting actin filament assembly. Here's a preview image for now! I'm using Autodesk Maya 2011 for modeling and animation. I did a pretty hack job in After Effects - need to render out the depth map properly...

Ahhh the next two weeks are going to be craaazy! But I have quite a few things to share from this term. :)

hiatus

Hello all! Sorry I haven't been updating my blog recently. I'm trying to get through a crazy term right now, so I will be back soon to retroactively add to February and March lol! :)

quadruple dose of animu

I've developed a bad habit of not finishing what I started (when it comes to non-school work anyway)! So here's a batch of not-so-refined works and WIPs:

I generally tend to avoid fanart (unless for anime convention purposes...) but somehow that's all I've been drawing recently! B-but Gintama is just so goooood!

ginpachi-sensei~
PaintTool SAI + adjustments in Adobe Photoshop CS4

WIP: (Does Professor Layton count as animu?) I definitely plan on finishing this...eventually! I can't wait until the next game - Professor Layton and The Lost Future was so incredibly epic! I had the Curious Village in mind when I was drawing this, though. :)

PaintTool SAI 1.01

WIP: I haven't decided whether to fully render this in colour, or go for flat b&w.

PaintTool SAI 1.01

And finally, a quick chibi doodle for a friend! And yes, I enjoy super blinding yellow backgrounds.

Adobe Photoshop CS4

I must admit, I've been running away from reality (read: school) a bit recently. I need to get back on track starting tomorrow! I also need to retroactively add all those projects I finished in February here...

sukonbu princess

I decided I deserved a break after a long week full of deadlines. :)

sukonbu princess
PaintTool SAI 1.01 + adjustments in Adobe Photoshop CS4

This is Kagura, from one of my all-time favourite anime, Gintama (its punchlines come straight out of grade school humour, but I love it...) . I'm trying to use SAI whenever I'm not doing school things. I've gotten so rusty at it! But I find it pretty amazing how we're capable of remembering shortcuts in so many different programs (thank goodness for procedural memory?!).

Will post school things when I can bring myself to open up the files again to save out images!

(PS. Any Gintama fans out there? Waiting for April 2011!!!)

I ♥ red fundoshi!

This drawing is dedicated to the most passionate red fundoshi proponent ever. Check out their fabulous video!

red fundoshi + megane FTW!

PaintTool SAI 1.01

This is what happens when Joyce gets fed up with rendering kidney tubules and staring at dots for her info visualization project (more on those later). 8D;;