Monday, December 25, 2006

On the road


During the Christmas break I hope to spend a bit more time on my painting. I want to take this oppurtunity to flesh out a narrative, not just a life study. Had lots of fun painting this one. Trying to nail down an effective process based upon research and discovery. Also, I found that it helped to listen to the animation podcast while I painted. http://www.animationpodcast.com

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Angel


"What's in her hands? Why do her wings glow? What are the tattoos mean?" Those are excellent questions. And I can see by you asking them that you are indeed an astute and profound individual. Thank you for your time.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Drawing session


I attend life drawing sessions from Don Lagerberg an instructor at Cal State University Fullerton. He is one of those instructors that you remain friends with for a lifetime. About 5 of the artists who attend bring their laptops to paint with (something unheard of 9 years ago when I first met Don). The set-up was intended to be Ceres and the pigs, but I didnt have time to paint the pig, so now she's Selene, goddess of the moon.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Faerie Painting



Took a session at Bob Kato's Drawing Club along with the concept guys at work. Theme that night was Faeries. I thought that I would paint one of those sketches. Not sure if the sketch is better or the painting.....or if any of them are that good to begin with. Haha.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

The Light Beacon

Sketching for fun. Want him to look big, but didn't want a busy composition. I could add birds I guess.

The Viking

He's a viking and he does viking stuff and attends viking night classes.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Qix: The most addictive game ever

I know that this is my art blog, but I just had to share Qix with the world. This is perhaps the most addictive game ever. As my buddy Chris puts it,"Qix is about as tense as Resident Evil 4". And he's right. As elegant as Chuck Jone's "Dot and the Line", this game brings with it the adrenaline of a hunter trying to cage a bengal tiger. You play as this tiny diamond that draws lines to box in this unpredictable creature called Qix which moves with the grace of an eel. All the while these "Spark" creatures are patroling the surface area of the boxes you've made. Avoiding the Sparks and preventing the Qix from killing you mid-box-drawing, you have the additional choice of either moving quickly for survival or slowly for additional points.
From an artistic standpoint, it is the subdivision of space personified. As you would break down a composition for analysis, so are you breaking down this arena against Qix. The end result is a screen of right angled squares resembling an etch a sketch board. Like chess, you must outsmart your foe, one who is larger and faster than you.
Strategies to do this include drawing very thin finger-like boxes to subdivide the arena until the Qix falls into one of infinite compositions you can draw. If solely interested in gaining 75% of the surface area( the minimum amount to pass the level), one could divide the arena into quarters using a cross shape. I prefer to draw a series of small boxes in hopes that the Qix will accidentally fall in thus allowing me to gain my high score of 99% of the area ( the maximum one can achieve). I've also seen compositions such as the spiral and the pitchfork used effectively against the Qix. You can actually play Qix on the following site http://drunkmenworkhere.org/201.php?action=play
However, to truly enjoy the game, one must play this with a joystick.

Monday, September 25, 2006

Secret Agent Frank N Stone: A cautionary tale of woe


Long ago, I had this idea for a Frankenstein comicbook. It took me way too long to get my abilities up to snuff to realize it. Come to think of it, I'm not sure if I could do it justice these days either. When I was getting my master degree I thought I'd finally get the chance to make it a reality. Ironically, the same summer, there came a ridiculous number of Frankenstein themed comicbooks ( Mark Wheatley's Frankenstein Mobster and Steve Skroce's Doc Frankenstein amongst the popular ones.) So suddenly this somewhat original idea of a Secret Agent Frankenstein's Monster became old hat as if I was hanging off the coat-tails of these other Frankenstein comics. (As opposed to the coat-tails of Mary Shelley, James Whales, Boris Karloff, and Ian Fleming). Just a cautionary tale of woe of dreams unrealized. Here is the cover to the Sketchbook ashcan I made and the proposed cover to the first issue of the comic. I'll be the first to admit that the finished pages of the first issue weren't all that great to begin with, so hopefully, this will be all anyone ever sees of this project.

Weekend Drawing Group


I mainly draw backgrounds and environmental studies at work so I attend this weekend drawing group. It's about the only chance I get to draw the figure. Here are a couple of the studies. They took a couple hours give or take.

Monday, August 28, 2006

La Senorita

Fun drawing. Thanks to reference from www.characterdesigns.com.

The Twins



Playing off of stereotypes. It'd be cool to see identical twin Chinese guys. As for the costumes and the ponytails, this is a western. I might have just set my people back 100 years with this sketch.

The Englishman


playing with shapes. Thinking about sharp-shooters of the old west: Guys that could shoot the fleas off a dog with their pitsol.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Bartender


The bartender in the storage cellar.

Friday, August 18, 2006

Victorian street scene.


Inspired by a Dover Book called, "Camera Work" to paint this scene. Perhaps some big city slickers can populate the wild west too.

Native American


Warrior.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Daniel Cheng's first post




Painted these quick. Lots of fun.