Still Life Study - Toothpaste & Mouthwash

Here's another one of those still life studies. Handling transparency and reflections are tough. Anyway, had to wrap it up quickly so I can use my green cutting mat for my Gundam!

Still Life Study - Nerf Maverick

Had to clear this quickly, so I'd have more table space for building my Gundam! Anyway, I probably bit off more than I could chew here. The forms were tougher than I thought and since this is a kid's toy, technically there should be no hard edges, which I didn't handle very well.

Process below:

Maasai Girl Study

Original photo by Jimmy Nelson. Check his site out for amazing photos of some of the most remote tribes. Really cool stuff.

This study was somehow a little tough for me. I'm not sure why, but it could be the harsh lighting on her face. Maybe I used my whites too early into the painting.

Still Life Study - Cup on Cloth

This was tougher than the Gameboy Advance SP. I'm not really good with smooth, curved reflective surfaces, Also struggled with the handle of the cup and painting cloth.

Process below:

Rembrandt Study

Another master study, this time of Rembrandt's Self Portrait with Beret and Turned-Up Collar. A bit too ambitious in trying to emulate his strokes.

Colour Study

Original photo by Stefan Grosjean.

These exercises force me to paint in colour straight away, hopefully forcing me to improve my colour recognition. I don't draw/paint girls much so this was rather tough, especially her face..

Process below:

En Garde Part 2

Another piece that has been in my work-in-progress folder for far too long. This one also received some feedback from the mentors at the Bali Illustration Workshop, reminding me of the areas that I really need to work on in my art and design.

I remember telling myself to be more a bit more expressive when I started this piece.

Take a look at my process below.

Still Life Study - GBA SP

Attempting a still life paint study, something I've never really done before.

Perspective's a bit wonky. Should have thought of that before I jumped into rendering.

Sargent Study

A 4-hour study of Sargent's Emily Sargent painting. I've never done a master study before, so this was an exciting first one. I may have taken longer than I originally planned, but I hope to digest some of his strokes and make them a part of me one day.

Portrait Study

Original photo by Claude Flener.

Will be doing more studies to get back to painting. This actually took me almost 3 hours. Struggled with finding a way to efficiently indicate the beads around the neck without actually drawing every single one. I enjoyed painting in the lines on the shirt though.

En Garde Part 1

Something that I worked on before leaving for the Bali Illustration Workshop. Touched it up after some comments from the mentors.

The workshop was great! It was also a big reminder that I still have such a long way to go in this art journey. Made new friends and met up with some old ones. Huge thanks to Alejandro Mirabal and his wife for putting such an event together. I hope there's more to come :)

Now, back to the grind for me.

Back to Work

I've been distracted, lazy, unmotivated and discouraged. On top of that, military obligations and freelance took up a chunk of my time. I'm hoping to get back into it soon enough..

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

And the lazy streak continues, so here's another quick study.

Children of Men

Still being lazy. Study of a scene with a limited palette, from the movie Children of Men.

Apocalypse Now

I'm afraid I've been rather lazy. Here's a quick study of a scene from Apocalypse Now. I need to do a lot of these. In any case, I cannot believe I'm meeting Joe Madureira later today.

Robot 7546 - Reventlov

Tried bashing some photo-textures to create yet another robot, which I have named Reventlov after reading some of Asimov's novels. No direct relation to the real R. Giskard Reventlov however. I started this by being particularly inspired by the designs of Elysium, but got deflated halfway. As always, I obsessed over silly things.

Non-Tactical Halt

This painting has been a work-in-progress for quite a while now. Had to seek some advice from various friends as I was stuck on numerous occasions. All in all, it was a good learning experience I guess. I really have to develop a more discerning eye for values. Thanks Nana and Jan!

Also, made the stupidest mistake of saving this at 1000px and overwriting my working file. I'm gonna have to repaint this at a higher resolution one day.

Another Disposable Bot

Another one of those silly bots. Every time I work on something, I realize how much I'm lacking in so many areas. Lots to work on..

Disposable Soldiers

Some robotic soldiers based off current DARPA stuff. This went out of control and took way longer than I would have liked. The results aren't satisfactory either.

Things always look promising in the thumbnail stage.

Covert Tactical Suit

My knowledge of tactical gear is pretty limited. Nevertheless, this was my attempt, inspired by watching the MGS V trailers way too many times. Tried to avoid rendering everything this time round and I guess the finishing looks slightly better this way, hopefully.

July has been a pretty rough month, financially and emotionally as an artist. Probably the lowest point of 2013. Times when you ask yourself why you're actually doing this. But I guess everybody goes through phases like these.

Nowhere else to go, but up.

Hanauma Bay, Hawaii

Another study of a place I found on Google Maps Street View. I'm amazed they even stuck their cameras into the water! Such a beautiful sight, I only hope I managed to capture the slightest fraction of its beauty. I do wish to see such things with my own eyes one day.

Particularly challenging, as I've never painted anything underwater properly before. Also while doing these studies, I'm still trying to find a process that works for me, as well as trying to push the scene in my own little way.

Process:

Manturovo, Russia

Decided to do a quick study of someplace else, so I took a trip on Google Street View. Not even sure where this is exactly but my guess is it's in somewhere in the region of Manturovo, Russia.

Hazy Night

A night study, making me realize they're a lot tougher than day ones, at least for me. Way too many sources of light and they boggle my simple mind. Hope I extracted some understanding out of this. I loved how the light beams cut through the air in these hazy conditions.

In other news, the smog has decreased in these parts, thankfully. Process below:

Hazy Afternoon

Another therapeutic session, while trying to keep the strokes simpler. This was yesterday afternoon, when the haze wasn't as bad as today. On a brighter note, at least I didn't have to define the buildings in the background!

My lungs are starting to hurt a little.

King Arthur and the Knights of Justice

Accuracy aside, these were largely inspired by an awesome cartoon I used to watch as a kid (King Arthur and the Knights of Justice). It was about a high school football team that went back in time and became Knights of the Round Table with special powers.

Doing 3 variations of something just like the good old school days, I realize how slow I actually am. Took way too long on these, going the slow route via linework. But I think it was a fruitful exercise, especially since I rarely do these armour things. Glad to have some feedback from friends on these and realizing how far I'm lagging from everyone else!

On a side note, I've always been impressed by John Liew's work so I tried to achieve that level of finish and detail. Despite missing the mark, it was a good gauge of how far I can push right now.

Watch the awesome introduction sequence to this cartoon here.

Temple Ruins

Trying to apply what I've learnt from all those studies into an imaginary scene. Not the best of attempts, but I think I learnt a thing or two here.

HDB Morning View

I think I'm really enjoying these studies. They're slowly building up my painting confidence and they're actually rather therapeutic. I feel really calm doing these, trying to understand what I see as well as paying attention to my thought process along the way.

Anyway, if you're from Singapore, you probably share a similar morning view. Made a process GIF below since all my layers are neatly intact.

Landshark Hoverbike

Here's Flint Cooper's ride; the Landshark. It's a standard-issue hoverbike for marshals of all sectors to traverse the peculiar terrain of our yet-to-be-name planet. Played around with some broken planets/asteroid field in the distant background and adding a little bit of green for peculiarity. Not sure if all that worked, but I've already wasted too much time on this.

Anyway, I think my entire approach to image-making doesn't seem efficient. In fact, I always feel it's wrong. I gotta rethink my process and finishing.

CPF Building Alley

Another one of those studies. Sometimes I'm not even sure if I'm doing the right stuff lately. My head is filled with a million doubts.

Just gotta forge ahead, I guess.

Cosmic Girl

Another character in my Space Cowboy universe, this here is Miss Magnolia Cassidy aka Cosmic Girl. She's a spy who sometimes has to partner up with our protagonist, Marshal Flint Cooper. I'm having some fun with these, especially since I'm not familiar with the Western genre.

If my motivation doesn't die on me, I might expand this further.

Bestway Exit

Another short study while trying to understand some of these brushes. I better get back to some proper work soon.

Bestway Building Stairwell

Just saying farewell to the hard round brush and graduating to the other fancy stuff. Now if I could only wield them better..

Fighter Aircraft

I'm quite a fan of Scott Robertson and this is my attempt at making aircrafts like him. I've been watching a lot of his videos lately and I urge you to do the same if you're keen on vehicles (http://www.youtube.com/user/scottrobertsondesign). I truly appreciate the effort he puts into each of his videos and the books he has published. Safe to say I'm pretty disappointed that the vehicle design workshop in Singapore was cancelled. I hope they do reschedule!

With regards to this plane, it was designed with more of a game setting in mind, something like those arcade top-down shooters. Do pardon the seemingly non-working mechanics. I will need to enrich myself with some aviation knowledge.

Merfolk Sketches

I think I'm beginning to realize that my approach to art is a little uptight and stifling, partly because I do not have enough confidence in my painting abilities. This makes my process very rigid and slow. I do want to learn to be free, using confident strokes to define form and in turn generate more ideas.

I need to do more sketches like those found above. Pardon the rather immature designs, I was having a bit of fun.

Return of the Space Cowboy

Technically, this is the first time I'm doing a Space Cowboy but I just needed to sneak that Jamiroquai line in somehow. So with this guy I tried deviating from my usual direct top down lighting and also tried to push the render a bit more near the head area. I believe I've never used so much rim light before. I probably spent more time than I should have on this.

Also went the safe route and did some linework beforehand, seen below. Fleshing out this sci-fi western world might be pretty interesting. Perhaps I'll call him Marshal Flint Cooper, of Sector 13.

Radio-Controlled Recon Bot

I guess this one is in the same vein as Sgt. Killbot McJoy from the previous post. While playing with thumbnails earlier today, I somehow decided to develop this little guy. I enjoyed rendering him a lot, and I thought this bot had some personality somehow.

During the process, I kicked myself for subconsciously adding parts from Kow Yokoyama's mechs. Tried my best to come up with my own solutions, albeit being a tad simplistic at it.