Rough sketches

Some really rough environment sketches.

Just wanted to do some practise. I might explore further, and refine either one, but we'll see which one will work.

Steampunk Nutcracker

My entry for 2D CharacterFORGE challenge in CGHub. We were required to draw the Nutcracker in a machine suit.

As a child I watched The Nutcracker in a cartoon movie, and it was one of my favourite stories of all time. Recently a movie entitled "The Nutcracker in 3D" came out, and OMG, it's the most disgracing thing that's ever happened to the Nutcracker story! They butchered it and worst of all, they turned the charming Nutcracker prince into some stupid wooden puppet character. Don't these guys know that visual effects is not everything? It's cool to know that they did so poorly at the box office =P

Anyways, still experimenting with styles. Referred to Tatsuyuki Tanaka's work for this. His work is awesome!

Details:

Orthographic view:

Castle in the Clouds

This painting took longer than I should =S. It was actually a topic in CGtalk, and it was supposed to be a 40 minute sketch..lol...and I wanted to do some practice on drawing buildings, but I took tadddaaaaa: 2 weeks! and couldn't stop my itchy hand from adding too much detail. I should really change my painting style T.T.

I posted 2 colour schemes, because I like both and can't choose between them. Well, both have different kinds of moods, sometimes I like the warmer one, sometimes I like the cooler one. Which one do you like best?

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