"Houston, we have a problem...."

I did this one at work for fun for an hour or so before I went home. It was a good break from work stuff. Enjoy!

Friend or Foe...I don't know

I wanted to sketch a ninja tonight to make myself feel good, but it somehow became a swat guy, and then it went to a samurai. I didn't know what i wanted, but to paint a character. Here's what I ended it up with.

Harry, Larry, Chad, and Norm

It's been a very long while since I drew character related stuff. There are a couple of reasons for this: one is that I'm not very good at it and secondly I should stick to environments for my own good. ;) That's not to say I won't post some up in the near future! Well, you have to start somewhere. Practice makes perfect.

Anyways, these quick sketches were inspired from playing Gears of War and angler fish. Also, I decided to use a pencil! No offense, but the pencil rules anyday. BTW, this is not the "rad" image I promised earlier. That's still brewing right now. Enjoy!

Fine Art

My buddy Stuart challenged me or should I say "dared" me to place a fine art piece on my blog. Specifically, a nice orange dot placed on a page. Well, knock yourself out bud! Enjoy! :) BTW, I ran out of orange markers.

I will post something soon. I'll come up with something really rad. Promise! Or you can call me Matilda. My apologies for not updating regularly. Work has grabbed me by the balls lately. :(

Pan's Labyrinth

Wow, this is an amazing film on all levels especially on the visual side. Definitely worth checking out if you're a visual artist.

Getting it out of my system

I've been having a bad slump this week at work so I wanted to get it out of my system. Not really happy with this one, then again I didn't spend much time on this(thanks a lot xbox 360!) :P I'm going to put it up anyway. Only round brushes were used for this excercise.

doodles

Since it's been really busy at work, I didn't have time to draw a nice picture so I did a sketch of my family with my right hand for fun. Brings me back to when I was 3 ft tall.

ship doodles

Got bored watching a movie and ships floated into my brain.

Resistance: Fall of Man - Concept Art

Here are paintings that have been done for Resistance: Fall of Man. It was fun working on these paintings along with an amazing environment concept team. Kudos to Kinman Chan, Rolf Mohr, Darren Quach, Roland Tamayo, and John Wu for inspiration.

Back from the dead.....

Yes, I am back after three months of "sabbatical". It has been so busy at work that I had no energy to keep up the blog. However, this week sparked something in me to start it up again. Thanks Stu for kicking my arse back into this.

Since Resistance has been out for awhile, I've always wanted to show one of the myriad matte plates I worked on for the in-game cinematics before post effects were added in.

Mr. Ed bought the farm

A sketch piece I did awhile back which never saw the day of light.

It was a great vacation, but my Wii can't be found!

Hello friends,

I apologize for not updating the blog for a couple of weeks. We had just returned from vacation and no computer was to be found on our trip. During the vacation, I had started a Wii-quest which ended in absolute failure. The Nintendo Wii is nearly impossible to find! Although, a few of PS3's were seen at several locations. This has been driving me nuts, but life goes on. I don't want it...it's just a console...mmmm..hmm (denial sets in).

Blogging will continue next week once I get my head back into work mode. 2007 will be a busy year! I have been posting some past work on CGtalk and other sites as well and have been very well received so far. This year will be a full push ahead for my goals as a professional artist both inside and outside of work. I will post future works here as well. Stayed tuned. Thanks for your support.

Track Day at Buttonwillow Raceway

Driving fast and doing it legally is one of the favorite things I love to do when I'm not painting or drawing. Last weekend, my buddy John and I went to Buttonwillow Raceway to attend a racing school. The weather was overcast but it didn't rain as forcasted. Overall, it was a really fun day. We were really tired after a whole day of intense driving. It finally did rain when we drove home.
There was a photographer that took some really nice shots of the event. I used a sample that he took of my car turning a corner in the first photo above. The rest of the crappy ones were from my camera. His photos are really good and his website can be found here:

www.caliphotography.com

Enjoy!

Imaginary Spaces Art

Here are three images from the Imaginary Spaces show.

Sketch Tutorial

Hello again. Here's a sketch I did in value for fun and practice. I actually feel more comfortable sketching in black and white because you can really pick out subtle changes in tone. This is a favorite excercise I like to do. I should really do more of these after looking at Robh Ruppel's blog. Damn he's inspiring!

Above are images of various stages of how I usually start a sketch. The idea here is to block in the the big shapes initially (A). In PhotoShop, I usually do everything in a single layer. Don't worry about getting everything perfect. Just keep it loose. "Loose as a goose" is a good thing to tell yourself I guess. However, you're still in control with where you place things except with wider scope if that makes sense. The important thing at this stage is to establish composition and perspective if you're dealing with a complex scene. Like Mr. Mullins put it, "it's a controlled fall."

Once you're happy with the composition, you want to establish the light source. In this example, I established it early on from the left. (B) From here on details will gradually come in, but make sure to keep your comp in check. One thing I like to do is to flip it horizontally often to see if anything is off. Comp D places more detail into the scene and refining some areas. At some point, the comp will have to be readjusted (in my case) because I painted over too much in an area or I needed to fix the composition.
A good analogy to getting a sketch like this down to the end(subjective) is like fishing. You want to keep the line loose when you get the initial bite and then reel it in slowly into the net. Better yet, it's like waiting for a polaroid photo to come into focus. Nonetheless, take your time to observe the details and relax.

Japanese Tea Garden

I started making stuff up not remembering the exact details. I think it'll hold up though. Perhaps I'll do more with those trees on the left later. This is a fun excercise for the night. Got to sleep now. Nighty night

Imaginary Spaces at Gallery Nucleus

Gallery Nucleus wil be hosting another show from December 16- January 8, 2007 hosting a myriad lineup of artists. The subject matter will be involving environments.

A few of my friends and I have been invited to participate in this show. It's definitely an honor to be part of this show. Please come by on December 16th and see what's in store. See you there!

Stow Lake - Golden Gate Park

Color Study of Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park using various brushes( 1 hr).

The New De Young Museum

This is a sketch from behind the De Young Museum. This was quick and dirty (30 min). I'm experimenting with different brushes this time around.

Here is some more info on the museum: http://www.designbuild-network.com/projects/de_young/

Blogs of San Francisco

Hello, I'm back again from 9 hours of driving in traffic from my hometown San Francisco. I can't believe how amazing this city is everytime I go back home. The city has new renovations which I recently discovered this weekend. I definitely want to move back when the time is right. There is something about the Bay Area that has "soul".

Well, I couldn't wait to sketch this first piece because I thought this building was something out of those concept paintings that Sparth drew out. It's the new De Young Museum. The building is a sculpture itself which I think sticks out in the Golden Gate Park area.

I will be doing blogs based off my trip up there last weekend. Some will be from memory and some will be re-interpretations from reference. Enjoy.