Friday 28 September 2012

Gamelan Sorceress


Did this about a month ago for a small Deviantart contest.

I was inspired by the traditional music ensemble instrument called gamelan. The gamelan featured here is the Malay Gamelan. As a Malaysian, I will not deny that the gamelan originated from Indonesia, but the Malay Gamelan has its difference from the Indonesian one. 

Anyway, it doesn't matter where it comes from. Let's just share each other's culture and treasure them because they are both rich and should be preserved.


I was going for an evil sorceress kind of character, with the gamelan as her weapon. I was thinking of the concept of having her playing all those mallet bells (which is usually played by a team) and that it would be kind of creepy.

Friday 11 May 2012

Meaning of Art

I just had to record this down.

After three years of technical art training, I was getting tired of what I was doing. All the fancy sci-fi concept art, environments, characters...I felt that it was all mere eye candy. I was disgusted. There is no meaning in what I was doing. People look at the final product, and so what? They are entertained, given visual pleasure and awe. Then what? They forget about it and move on to do their own things. I was on the verge of giving it all up and go into writing instead. Seriously.

But then I entered a degree course in art.

At first, I was overwhelmed by the amount of theory work involved. Inch-thick books, pages and pages of theorist' journals. When I started studying on some artists, however, I finally began to realize that art is something more than meets the eye. Particularly, when I chose Hayao Miyazaki as my subject for an essay assignment, I was fascinated by the depth he puts into his movies. His films are not merely for visual pleasure, though they are exceptionally beautiful, but they provoke people's thoughts, and both directly and subtly insert messages into people's minds.

That is what I want to do. Not just draw and paint blindly, thinking of technique, lighting, composition etc. I want to create art that has meaning.

And it took a whole lot of theory research just to realize that...

Tuesday 21 February 2012

Manga Studio


Recently I bought a program called Manga Studio and started using it for a comic project. It wasn't until I worked on some line work in Manga Studio that I found it absolutely incredible! The brushes here has auto correction and keeps the lines nice and neat even with your unsteady hands, unlike Photoshop, which makes me take ages just to get a curved line right. The way it helps you create straight lines is also MAGICAL!

I'm so glad I got this tool. It saves so much of my time!

Sunday 12 February 2012

New Portfolio

You would have noticed that this site has changed and is combined with my portfolio! Welcome to this site, and feel free to browse through my work. Remember to follow me and I'll try my best to keep you updated!