Well it is that time of year again for Christmas joy and cheer. I just recently bused with one of my best friend/ "adopted sister" Meagyn from New York to Florida; it was a very interesting trek indeed. I'll be here visiting my family for the holidays. I'm really glad to see them, but I could do without the heat; I really miss the snow. Also here is a sketch of my latest work.
This is the sketch for my recent painting. It's of an adorable sea creature; isn't he cute? I have actually already finished this painting. However, I had a lot to do before I left New York and did not have enough time to scan it, so I figured I could at least show everyone the sketch for it.
This is pretty much how the finished piece looks with the exception of the bottom left corner. I also added a few things including: a tentacle sweeping in to help balance him out and what then became one of my favorite part: whales! These helped to show the large scale of the monster. And the whales are also adorable.
Well, that's all for now. I hope everyone out there has a happy holiday with those you love; check you soon.
Here is my Cinderella piece I did. The concept was to take the story of Cinderella and place it in a non-European culture. I chose to place the story in Japan.
I wanted to make sure, with this piece, not to just incorporate images of Japan but ones that were symbolically relevant. Such an example can be seen in the Sakura tree. Not only is it iconic for Japan but it has symbolism relevant to Cinderella. The Cherry Blossoms are symbols of femininity and for a cycle of change and rebirth. Which I think relates nicely to how Cinderella is changed by her fairy god-mother.
The most difficult part of this illustration was trying to find an appropriate translation for the fairy god-mother. At first I thought perhaps a very elegant looking female spirit. However, after doing research I came to realize that most times when a female spirit is represented they are usually evil spirits. So, I had to find another avenue of thought.
After a discussion with my friend I decided to look into animal spirits in Asian cultures. I thought of tanuki (raccoon), kitsune (fox), and dragons. Dragons seemed to be the best bet for they are symbols of good luck and intelligence. They also can be known to help humans. It still however didn't seem to fit as well as I wanted it to.
Then, as I was working, my friend Sujin called me again and recommend I looked up the Asian phoenix. In China known as Feng Huang and in Japan as Ho Oh, the Asian phoenix was, I think, the best representation for the fairy god-mother. Originally Feng and Huang were the names for the two separate genders of the phoenix. However, they eventually became fused together and refereed to more commonly as a female figure. It is seen as the feminine counterpart to the Asian dragon and as a symbol of good fortune. The Asian phoenix also carries with it the similar cycle of death and rebirth that the European phoenix has. Similar to the Sakura the Asian phoenix adds to the symbolism of rebirth that the story of Cinderella embodies.
All in all I really like how this piece turned out and I hope everyone enjoys it. Also Happy Belated Turkyday.
Here it is, my illustration for the first book in the Slayers book series "Slayers: The Ruby Eye". The illustration depicts the heroine Lina Inverse casting her most powerful spell the Giga Slave. The star icons around her are the symbols of the Lord of Nightmares, so no Lina is not Jewish, in case any of you were wondering.
Despite the troubles I had dealing with Painter and Photoshop I'm still really happy with the outcome. I did learn how to use a new brush, the glow brush. It is what helped me create the effect around the stars. I also added some traditional media in the background to give the piece some more texture.
I think what I liked most about this piece was the value structure I had as well as my color palette. Originally I had a very hard time deciding what colors I should use. At first my under painting was a deep navy blue. However, I decided to change it to a purple one instead. Good thing I did that, it really saved my piece. It allowed me to shift between the blues in the sky and stars as well as to the reds in her body. This way I didn't have to fight with my palette I instead made the purple under painting do most of the work.
Also, in case you were wondering the title for this post is part of the incantation for the Giga Slave. So in essence that is what she would be saying at that moment in the piece.
I would like to say more about this piece but it's almost 6 in the morning and I am very tired, and should go to sleep. So night for now and look forward to my Cinderella piece next. Nighty night.
This was the other Monster Engine piece that I did with Dave DeVries. It was another drawing done by my cousin Billy. He called this one the Pacmanosaur it apparently breathes fire, can shoot lightning from its head, and has a shield that can throw bombs.
Unlike the other Monster Engine piece what I did with this one wasn't a tracing of the original drawing but a fleshing out of the concept for the monster, with a rendering of it in my style. I decided to lay it out like a concept page, including not only my early sketches but even Billy's original drawing
The way Billy described his monster made me think of an odd frog like creature, so that's where I started with my sketches. Then I thought of how his shield and lightning cannons would look and thought perhaps a steam-punkish look would be cool. Thus I ended up turning Billy's monster into a steam-punk frog.
This is the last Monster Engine piece, I just finished my Slayers book cover so that should be posted in the next day or so.
No artwork to post today, this is more just an update on what has been going on and what is to come. After all it's been a very exciting, busy and historic week. Obviously the biggest news of the week is finally someone I voted for actually won an election, congrats to President Elect Obama. I vote in Florida not NY so many of the candidates I vote for usually have a snowball's chance in Hell, thankfully it wasn't like that this time.
I am however very unhappy that in California Prop 8 and in Florida Amendment 2 got passed. I was quite upset. I just hope they eventually get overturned, I'd like to see some of friends get married.
Any who enough with politics. Most of this week consisted of me being sick which has sadly set my schedule for my projects behind a bit. On Friday I spent the day in NYC, which also helped set my schedule back. It was really fun though despite still feeling under the weather. Met up with my former roommate and fellow Ringling grad Mark, who showed me around Central Park. Went to the Met, this being my second visit, and it is still an amazing place. The highlight of the trip though had to be going to the Society of Illustrators. It was amazing I had goosebumps walking through the halls, seeing work from Howard Chandler Christy, John LaGatta, and Norman Rockwell just chilling on the walls. Even got to go up to the third floor dinning hall and there were about half a dozen illustrators hanging and playing poker. It was definately a sight to see.
Also I recently submitted some work to the Society of Illustrators' Illustration Annual for the first time. Hopefully something will get in (knock on wood).
Stuff to come: I will be posting my final monster engine piece, within the next week. By November 20th I'll have my Slayers cover and a Cinderella Piece done. The Cinderella one is based on taking the story of Cinderella and placing it in another culture. Both of those should be done by the 20th and thus posted sometime after that.
That be all for now keep checking for updates.
Well finally was able to scan in my painting. Obviously it's a demon all scary and such. What I wanted to do for this project was a simple spot illustration that could be seen in books like those of Dungeons & Dragons.
This was done on illustration board and in oils. Actually it was done in my Holbein Duo Aqua water-based oils. Which are amazing to use by the way. It has actually been over a year since I really used my oils, and about three years since I painted on board. Needless to say it felt good to get back into it.
The reason I have been staying away from oils was because of my technique. Whether I use traditional or digital the most important aspect of my illustrations are my drawings. This is why digital has just been easier for me, for I get my tight drawing and scan it in and then paint right on top. With traditional what I used to do is take my finish drawing and make a small xerox of it. I would then place the xerox in a lucidiograph machine (basically a projector) and then trace it in colored pencil on a toned canvas. After I moved it made it though to get access to a lucy. So I just relied more on digital.
So when I went back to painting I decided to use an old technique that I haven't used in a very very long time. What I do now is make a full size or larger xerox of my drawing then I matt medium it to a board. While it's still wet I use a comb to make some texture. After that I cover it in a thin acrylic underpainting. So I bacically have what I normally had, an underpainting with a very visible drawing. This way when I paint I can choose to have my drawing show through in certain areas.
Also when I had to scan this in I learned the joys of the tool photomerge in Photoshop, thank you Suj.
That be all for now next image I'll post will be another monster engine piece.
The Monster Engine was created by an illustrator named Dave DeVries. The purpose of the Monster Engine is to see what a child's drawing would look like fully rendered.
I met up with Dave DeVries and with him have done some of my own monster engines.
The original drawing I used is from my cousin Billy. Billy has not seen what I did with his drawing I hope he likes it.
More information about the Monster Engine can be found at its official website http://www.themonsterengine.com/openingpage.html. Also check out Dave's website http://www.davedevries.com/.
More Monster Engine work to come soon, as well as my traditional painting illustration (a bit late) so look out for them.
Also today it started snowing. It has been many years since I've seen snow it is extremely exciting.....YAY.
Got the drawing done for my Slayers project. The first image is a drawing of the character and the second is her with the magic waves and what not laid out.
If you have ever heard of the anime called Slayers you'll recognize that this is a drawing of the main character Lina Inverse. What you may not know is before it was an anime or a manga it was a novel series written by Hajime Kanzaka.
Slayers is without question my favorite anime, as well as book series. The story is what I think a great fantasy story should embody. Magic all makes sense, lots of comedy, and a touch of seriousness and epicness.
This illustration is done for the book cover to the first novel Slayers: Ruby eye. The image shows her casting the big epic spell the Giga Slave. I won't say anymore, for all of you who have not watched or read Slayers you need to do it NOW! I mean it.
This was really fun to draw I loved taking imagery that is normally done in a simplified anime style and convey it in my own. It's going to be awhile before I finish, I have some pretty ambitious ideas for color and rendering, but it will get done..... eventually.
I know I said I would post the traditional painting I was working on next I just need to get it scanned, but it is finished. If your wondering what I'm waiting for it's........................ THE DRAMA!
Well I finally got around to posting this image. Sorry it took me so long it has been extremely hectic these past few weeks.
What I wanted to do was an illustration that could be used for something such as a magic card, and I hadn't done a horizontal composition in awhile so I thought this was a good opportunity. Magic card illustrations being approximately 2 inches by 3 inches.
Originally I wasn't sure what I was going to do for this so I got some assistance I was able to get some shots in on a group photo reference session. The model Stacy had multiple costumes and poses. I ended up with a ton of shots. There was however, this one where she had this red reflected light from underneath and it looked so cool. So I gave her fangs and made her a vampire. As is apparently my nature.
She was a fantastic model, great to work with and she had really really good facial structure, it was very fortunate to have her for this piece.
For the trees I spent a day at the cemetery taking photos of trees. It was fun until I ended up getting lost. Then as I tried to find my way out the sky darkened and the wind which was strong at that point became silent. I then heard a bloodcurdling roar. Before my very eyes I saw the dead come alive. They started to burst from the graves. luckily there was an abandoned truck left by the groundskeepers nearby. There were no keys in it so I couldn't drive it, as if I could anyway. However in the back of the bed I found an extremely large set of hedge clippers. They worked very effectively in chopping off zombie heads or stabbing them in the chest, it was a nice multi-purpose weapon. I mowed down a few before I realized how lost I was and I started to become surrounded. At that moment luck was on my side as a bolt of lightning shot from the sky and hit a tree that collapsed upon then. This gave me the time I needed to escape. I was fortunate to hear the sounds of cars. Covered in blood and viscera I headed that way and low and behold I eventually got back to Comstock. I ran as fast as I could. I dropped the clippers off on the side of the road, and to my advantage the rain had washed off most of the blood. I ran up to the second floor of the art building to realize I was a half hour late to this figure class I sit in on. I then got out my drawing pad, I wanted to try and use pen and ink that day.
Ok that didn't happen but it would have been awesome if it did. I did get lost in the cemetary though, and was a half hour late. There was something unnerving about being lost on a dark and rainy day in a cemetery. I thought it deserved a good story.
Well that's that I have another piece done now and as soon as I get time to scan it in I will post. It is a traditional painting, which yeah has been a while for me, of a demon girl with red glowing eyes, fangs, dual-light, and in side profile. I know I've seen an image like that somewhere before hmmm...... ahh well I'll post again soon.
This is a sketch of one of the characters from my mythology. She is Irreidia the goddess of destruction and sister to the character in the last sketch, Korvek. She is the main character that will be in the first comic I will work on. This drawing was originally done for a test comic page. However, the page did not turn out as well as I would like. I did really like this sketch of her though thus I posted.
What really made this drawing work was the reference. The model was excellent at posing, she had a great shift to her hip that added a nice curve to the figure. Also to replicate her outfit I had the model clip a t-shirt around her waist, and to my great benefit the wind picked up. I was able to get a shot of the "skirt" actually billowing up. It was the coolest accident that ever happened during a photo shoot. Which added a great deal of movement to the drawing.
That's all for now I have a new illustration that will be up soon.
This is the other sketch I did over the summer. It's of my character Korvek. He's a god in the world I created Orum-Ah'zra. I have a large painting I did of him but I wanted to make a better drawing, thus I created this. I ended up thinning out his face as well as his overall body frame. All in all the character design stayed the same.
The reference for this piece were the pictures I took for the original. I used my friend Keita as the model for Korvek.
Korvek is the God of the Abyss (Hell), the element of storms, and the Preist of Chaos. The purpose of the stole drapped over his shoulders is to indicate his title as Priest. He also wears a crown of copper colored bones and horns as a way to show how he rules over the Abyss. There is also an eyepatch over his left eye that has a mouth on it which he uses to suck out the souls of his victims. Generally not a nice guy. He's one of my favorite villians from my stories.
I first comic I plan on making has him as the central villian. Currently I am working on a test page for the comic which should be done in a few weeks. The page will depict him fighting the main character of the story, his sister Irreidia.
I think this drawing turned out really well I am quite proud of it. I think I may do similar drawings of all the gods from my mythology as a series. Who knows if I have time maybe I'll paint all of them in Painter. But for now here's the sketch I hope everyone likes it.
Here's one of the sketches I did over the summer. Just finally got time to a scan it in so I could post it. Just another drawing I did after I searched for model photos online. I tried to switch it up a bit by having light clothing with darker skin. The blue lead I use is not really fit for full rendering so I had to just lightly render.
I do like how the folds in the shorts came out. The way the blue pencil works always seems to give me a really nice line quality. I highly recommend giving it a try if you haven't. It's perfect for a prelim sketch that would then be finished on the computer.
Well it has been awhile since my last post, mostly due to lack of internet over the summer. However, it shall no longer be. I am in New York with a constant stream of internet and also meaning a constant stream of new art. I have some sketches that I did over the summer that will get scanned in this week, as soon as I do I will upload them. I can't wait to get some new work going to share with all so keep a look out. That would be all for now but more to come very very soon.
line work by
JULIA "SUJIN" CHOI
coloring by
JAMES STEVENS
character created by
YOSHITOSHI ABE
Finished my first collaboration with Julia "Sujin". She did the line work and I did the coloring. The drawing is of the character Reki from the anime Haibane Renmei. We did this as a practice piece to see how well we can collab. Thus being the reason we just went with a simple fan art.
The combination of her stylized line work and my painterly coloring style turned out really well. Since this piece ended up looking good we've started to plan our next collab. Sujin is going to start working on a comic book page for me to color. If the finished turns out well we plan on starting on fully finished comic books. We plan on switching off on the stories as well as even writing some together.
Our collabs are still in the early stages but hopefully we'll work well together and soon will be able to start making our own comics.
Well I finally finished this personal piece. I was procrastinating on it for far too long, but it's finally done. I finished it last night while watching Empire Strikes Back. The best Star Wars movie.
It's a digital piece done after I drew a sketch of my best friend Suijn, the original sketch is in my first post. I set up a flat burnt sienna under-painting in Photoshop then did the rest in Painter.
I used to have trouble in Painter trying to figure out how to get it to properly replicate oil paints, since I normally work in oils. Then one day Octavio Perez showed me one of the most amazing things ever. The best way to replicate oils is to actually use one of the pastel brushes, round x-soft pastel 30 to be exact.
To make the pastel brush work as oils the settings have to be changed. The resat is set to 9%, bleed at 73%, jitter at 0, opacity at about 12%, and most important is the grain must be at 100. By changing the grain it makes the pastel brush nice and smooth while the resat, bleed, and opacity allows it to blend like oils, although depending on which part I am working on I adjust the opacity. It's not the only brush I use but it is the one I use most often, while working. I'll mention some of my other brushes when I have better examples to show of how I use them.
On a final note I'd like to thank Sujin for posing and for all the really helpful crits.
Here's a new sketch that I did this past Sunday. I really had a lot of fun working on this. I slightly modified reference I found online of a singer/model. I used my .9 mm mechanical pencil with, obviously, my blue lead. I've really been enjoying using my blue lead lately. It, for some reason, just really creates a look and texture that I really like. The only problem with it is that this type of lead for some reason is really hard to erase. I was tempted to use my regular 2B lead as a prelim sketch and then go over it with my blue lead, however I always think that a color lead should be used as the preliminary sketch otherwise it looks odd. So I just end up trying to be careful when I first start to lay out with the blue lead, since I like solely using the blue lead.
The drawing was started at about maybe 2 AM so I guess it was technically done on Monday not Sunday, but eh semantics. I ended up finishing the drawing around 6 AM. Started watching the second season of Venture Bros on DVD got finished just when the last episode was over. I was hoping to get to bed earlier, but I got onto such a roll that I figured the sleep deprivation was worth it.
Well that would be all for now. Soon I hope to start working on my collaborations with my best friend Sujin. Once I get some of those done I'll get them posted.
illustration was created by
JIM CHEUNG
This post is a bit late in relation to its subject matter but unfortunately I've been busy this past week or so. I had just seen Iron Man for the second time and I must say it is still the best damn super hero movie I've seen. It was perfect. The story's build up and continuity was superb. The special effects and designs were amazing. The cast exemplified the characters faultlessly. It was so good that at this point I hold it in a higher regard than the first Spider-man. Although, that may be due to the bad attitude of Toby Maguire and the atrocity that was Spider-man 3. It also helps that I am a big fan of the direction that Marvel is taking with its movies. They are casting actors who care more about the role and less about their ego and also having them sign contracts for multiple movies ahead of time.
Edward Norton is casted as Bruce Banner for the Hulk movie coming out next month, and when he was signed on for it he actually helped them rewrite the script. This way they were able to sever all ties to the Hulk movie by Ang Lee, which was a very good idea. And hell Iron Man is scheduled to make a cameo in the Hulk movie. I just love how Marvel is now treating its movies like its comics by having crossovers with consistent cast members.
I know this post seems like a tangent from my personal art related posts, but hey I figure I'm in the entertainment business and will start working on comics of my own soon. Thus the adaptations of comics today seems quite relevant to me and my work.
To update what my plans are for this upcoming year, I am off to New York, Syracuse to be exact. It's been years since I lived in the north, not since my early years in Jersey. I can not wait to see some snow again. Well thats all the update for now it is late and I am tired.
Well finally I started my own blog, I know it's about time I entered the online world and started to converse with others, but better late than never.
I plan on using this blog to update any sketchbook drawings or concept ideas I have. I figure this may help me get over my procrastination issues. So the first thing I'm posting is a sketch that I did a while ago that Is almost done being painted. Painting to be posted later.
Well that be it for now I'll make sure to post consistently.
Well it is that time of year again for Christmas joy and cheer. I just recently bused with one of my best friend/ "adopted sister" Meagyn from New York to Florida; it was a very interesting trek indeed. I'll be here visiting my family for the holidays. I'm really glad to see them, but I could do without the heat; I really miss the snow. Also here is a sketch of my latest work.
