Kebaya girl

An experimental illustration. Tried to play with patterns and textures.

The subject is a Malaysian girl in a traditional kebaya. What race is she? Well, she's a Malaysian. =)

Oriental Masquerade

My entry for a small challenge on CGHub. This is the first time I ever participated in a challenge on CGHub, and I was really excited. It isn't a big competition or anything, but it is a good opportunity for me to challenge myself and do some experiment.

The theme is masquerade. I am inspired by the Chinese "bian lian" or "face changing" perfomance. It originates from Sichuan, and is a very secretive art form, as it is passed on only from master to apprentice or father to son. There is a story about a Robin Hood like hero who used masks to confuse the feudal guards when he was caught. So, in a way, the mask was used for survival.

My concept is, there's this ancient Oriental Kingdom where the government is corrupt and treats the poor badly. So a secret society/organisation was formed among the people, and they were scheming against the government. (Oh, boy, I really miss reading and watching wuxia stories!)

The masks that they wore identifies their different post/ranks in the society. The president/chairman wears the Old Man mask (middle), which signifies wisdom. The advisor/mastermind who schemes and plans strategies wears the Maiden mask (right), and the person is usually a woman, though not always. While the Beast mask (left) is for the leader who leads the members into the field, for example a mission or a battle. He is the "action guy".

The individual masks:

Old man mask

Beast mask

Maiden mask

Richie McCaw

Did this for rugby fans, especially All Blacks and Richie McCaw fans. Found this photo in a magazine, and I loved his pose and body language. Took about 7 hours in Photoshop.

Chinese flute

A photo I captured outside my house. I saw these beautiful red flowers near the gate, and saw that the green grass around it really creates a contrast in the colours, so I brought out my G Chinese flute, with its nice decoration and put it near them. And I finished the image by adding a short poem (I don't know the meaning in depth, but I do know it's about flute and nature, haha).

Domestic Dinosaurs

A speed painting of dinosaurs! Just a practice, took about 2-3 hours in photoshop.

I was inspired by the farming environment in New Zealand, which is absolutely beautiful. But instead of using sheep, which can be seen everywhere here, I used the long-necked dinosaurs (no, I don't know the scientific name)! This species is one of my favourites since childhood. So, I created a dinosaur farm LOL, for what use are the dinosaurs bred for, well, for their skin? I don't know haha, up to you to intepret!

Commissions

Having been caught in the monster of assignments for 3 years, I regret to say that this is probably the first time I did commissions seriously, and know what I am doing.

Here are the 2 commissions I did:

My piano

I have graduated!

My days ahead are still blur, as I await my takeoff to the land of milk and honey, but for now I am just filling up my portfolio, compensating the bad pieces that I would soon remove from my original portfolio.

Here is a new piece I did, to remember my beloved first upright acoustic piano, which I am about to sell off soon T.T

Hang Jebat

My semester is over!

I just can't believe I survived this sem! It was a total disaster for me. Partly because of my crazy schedule, maybe. Another thing is my lack of creative ideas. I'm still working on fixing that problem.

Anyways, this is one of my assignments for digital illustration. You have no idea what I'd been through working on this. I shed tears several times, and even regretted choosing this extremely hard topic - Hang Jebat. References were hard to find because you know, people hardly pay attention to history and appreciation of art and culture in Malaysia. Or maybe it's just me failing to get enough recourses.

I was on the verge of going insane, suicidal even. My dad came and comfort me, praying to the Lord for help. And, just like many times before, it worked. My God calmed me down and delivered me from the psychological tribulations. And that is why, this project is so significant to me for this sem. There is another similar case in another project, and it's coming soon in the next post!

Hang Jebat, the true hero. He fought for justice for his sworn brother Hang Tuah. People misjudged him of betraying the Sultan, but he is actually the truthful hero who dared to fight when others were blindly obeying the king.

robert downey jr.

I'm back with my 1st ever digital illustration! Er, 2nd actually. Okay, 1st, because the one I did during the holidays was merely copy. Anywayz, this is the 1st portrait that I completed using Corel Painter, with the palette knife tool (I have yet to research on how a palette knife actually looks like in real life, lol). Took about 6 to 7 hours? Because of some distraction, I started doing this assignment late, and ended up finishing it at 4 am...blek.....

Well, I know Iron Man 2 sucks (but because I loved the 1st movie, it's forgivable). Robert Downey Jr. acts in another movie here, called "The Soloist". I heard it's about music. I wanna watch it! See if I have time to catch it online hehe...

Enjoy!

Holiday Assignments

It's the starting of my 3rd year!!! I can't believe it. Now I'm in my final year, and I'll be graduating next year! Haha...okay, it's still a long way to go, even if I didnt fail any semester. So, this year I'll work extra hard, for this will be my last chance ever.

LCK, our lecturer, gave us some holiday assignments. I was prepared to finish them ALL. I was greedy. I wanted to do as much practice as I can. But. But it was really impossible to do so many, at least at my stage, as I discovered during this one month of holiday, that working on one artwork is no simple job at all. Planning, sketches, thumbnails...they are all more important than anything. I think LCK has gotten tired of repeating himself so many times. These were what he stressed on EVERY single time we visited him during the holiday.

Anywayz, it turned out that these assignments were forgotten by our lecs, and I might not even hand them in. That's not the point anyway. I'm happy I even made myself complete them. So I'll let you guys critique, if any of you visit this blog...

Street Race.
I don't have a strong concept here, really. My planning was bad. But I chose the background to be a bridge inspired by Penang bridge. And the explosion behind was meant to be impactful, while the focus is still on the front red car.


Fight Scene.
Sigh. I took 3 weeks to plan for this. And it became such a dragging work that I almost gave up doing it. I'm not very satisfied with the outcome either. Even with pages and pages of sketches, my planning is still not enough. I get what LCK means now.
I chose a kind of wuxia setting in ancient China. The dragon is actually the power element of the hero in the foreground, while the villain's power is the black smokey monster behind him.