Tuesday, August 18, 2009

boxer

This is from the recent Drawing Club session on Sunday. Bob had set up some interesting lighting. He flooded the model with three light sources, a cool blue (which looked purple on the model), a red, and a yellow. My original goal was to try out my new set of Doc Martin watercolor dyes (given to me by my buddy Eddie) but I only had time to do a quick ink drawing then had to run out. I added the color in Photoshop based on memory. I had this aquatinted color etching on my mind that I had seen previously and tried to replicate that look. I found it strange to emulate the spontaneity and random markings of an etching with a control methodical process in photoshop. Not sure if it was successful but it definitely was fun to try.

The drawing itself was done with a sharpen chopstick and FW acrylic inks. I find it to have plenty of action and holds a considerable amount of ink. It was the cheapest "pen" i had ever used...free from the commissary.




Sunday, August 02, 2009

noir.

I'm taking a photography class here at work and I'm learning so much...more than I ever imagine from a class entitled, "Travel Photography" This is influenced by one of our assignments in class.


Friday, July 17, 2009

Pacho

Luis "Pacho" Vega was kind enough to sit for a quick portrait painting during his internship here. He's a very talented young man and a very nice guy. One of the hardest working and upstanding person that I had the pleasure of knowing. Good luck, Pacho, in all your endeavors.

Monday, July 06, 2009

Pasadena

3 am... full moon and street lights.


Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Baden Powell

After having just finished a 17 mile hike to Mt. Baden Powell from Islip Saddle, Kelvin stop to admire the sunset.


Thursday, May 07, 2009

lumix lx3 test

I just bought a new Lumix LX-3 digital point and shoot camera. It's a compact fixed lens camera but not exactly a typical point and shoot. It has full manual capabilities along with a slew of many cool little perks...one of which is a 24mm wide angle lens (I'll spare all the geeky details).

Anyway, I wanted a small unobtrusive camera to play around with when I go backpacking or on vacation. It was recommended to me by Mike, our resident pro photographer. It seems to fit the bill. These were my very first set of photos taken about a month ago.

I was out and about running some errands when I noticed the low ominous clouds overhead. I rushed over to Griffith Park and went up my typical trail. I got very lucky with the cloud formation and the time of day. These clouds were so unusual for LA that it completely change the way I view the landscape. So far I am quite pleased with my new little purchase. I have been taking alot of pictures lately and I will post more soon.

















Monday, March 23, 2009

pastel portrait

From Bob Kato's head drawing class that he has here at work.


Monday, March 16, 2009

Klimt theme at the Drawing club long session.

I bought all these scrap booking paper thinking I was going to do something with 'em. Well, the Drawing Club had a long session (for painting) this past Sunday and the theme was Klimt...so I decided to break it out. This is basically cut paper, colored pencil, and a glue stick.



Wednesday, February 04, 2009

yosemite landscape

Here's some studies of Yosemite National Park from awhile back. I usually visit the park at least a couple times a year and I never get sick of it. However it is so majestic that it becomes such a daunting task for me to capture it. It becomes a matter of how well I can simplify. I'm going to string a few studies from different trips on this post just to show variety of approaches.

gouache on board.




ink and watercolor wash.



tombo markers




watercolors


Sunday, January 25, 2009

Saturday night I was at the Staple Center for the Margarito/Mosely fight. Although I was pulling for Margarito, it was still pretty exciting (however one-sided). The stadium was charged with so much energy... In fact, it was electrifying. So much so, that I witnessed at least 3-4 brawls just in the stands. Poor bastards paid all that money and never even got to see the main event. Overall, a great venue for a boxing match. We had amazing seats too...thanks, Vanessa!

In between the bouts, I would sketch a bit. Yes, Larry merchant appeared drunk the whole time.



Ring Card Girl. I really wasn't ringside as the sketch depicted. I was just using my super vision. Grrrrrr.



Tonight (Monday night) I went back to the Staple Center for a Clippers game. Thanks again, Van. The Clips lost to Portland. I sketched a little bit more this time.

Monday, January 19, 2009

sunsets

I have been trapped in my house for the past two weeks due to a nasty and stubborn cold. Today was the first time I was really able to get outdoors. So I decided to take a hike to Griffith Park because the weather was so very nice. Half the country is hit with severe cold but we are so fortunate to have wonderful weather in the middle of January.

Well the sky was clear today and I can probably see well over a hundred miles from the top of Mt. Hollywood. The sunset was spectacular. Everything was glowing orange around me as I watched the last rays dipped behind the ocean. The sky glowed with colors I could not describe. I went up with the intention to do some watercolor sketches but I had forgot my book. So I took a few pics with the iPhone but they always pale in comparison to the real deal. I soak in days like these and just feel so lucky to be alive

















Here's another sunset pic taken on my flight back from that studio up north. Notice the mountain ranges are all cover with snow. That's when we had that cold spell before the new year.





At first glance this might look like Hawaii but it is good old Glendale. View from the office. I try to take a the time to catch the sunset as much as possible.





Sunday, December 28, 2008

New York

This past November I finally took my first trip to New York. What a great city.


























Monday, November 24, 2008

alaska

In early September I took a backpacking trip to Alaska. Here are a few of my favorite pics.














Wednesday, October 08, 2008









Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Andy

Another sketch from the Drawing Club. Andy as the "Great White Hunter".


Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Steve the Merciless



Just f-ing around.

Friday, June 06, 2008

forrest card

lately I have not been able to arrive at "The Drawing Club" on time to secure a good seat. I ussually ended up sitting in the back of the room on the couch just shooting the breeze with Bob Kato (and raiding his fridge of ice cold beer.) Needless to say, I often attend these workshop but do very little drawing...at least not of the actual models. Forrest Card is one of Bob's assistant and would constantly be standing around in the back as well. These are my studies of Forrest as he wanders the studio floor.

Forrest is a talented artist that used to intern with us. He now works for an apparel company as a character artist. You can view his blog from the links column.











Saturday, May 31, 2008

Preschool, hookers and beer

Below is an excerpt from my friend's blog who is currently working abroad in China as an architect. His name is Vic. I always love his stories.



I’ve been taking Chinese language class for about 5 months now and we recently finished up the first series of beginning Chinese class. The first few months, my learning curve shot up and my ability to speak “survival Chinese” was a pleasant surprise. I was so proud of myself that I could get into a cab and get to where I wanted to go or order food and end up with something relatively close to what I ordered.

Well, since class just ended we also had our Final Exam. The Final was broken into three parts. Part one was an easy enough and was a “complete the sentence by filling in the blank” section. The second part was comprised of two essays that I pretty much hacked through but was seemingly acceptable to our teacher. Then there was part three, the dialogue with the teacher. First, I must give props to Neko, our language teacher. Not only has she been patient and very tolerant with me and the other goof balls in class (all we do is ask her how to say cuss words and make fun of all the situations we’ve experienced in China), she has made our class quite enjoyable.

After Neko and I go through part three of the Final Exam and after five months of blood sweat and a half ass effort on my part, Neko’s response to me was (as she rolled her eyes and shook her head in disgust)…”Victor you speak like a preschooler that can order hookers and beer…”

That said, on to Beginning Chinese: Part II. Hopefully I can do as well as I did in Part I.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

'Drifting'

Here's another piece from the show.

Monday, May 19, 2008

"One to Grow On" show





Hey all. I'm in a group show tomorrow night, May 20th, @ Galery 1988. Please come by if you get the chance. I will have new pieces about the innocence of childhood. Hope to see you there.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Carlos

This week's victim, I mean volunteer, was Carlos. He had an intense stare in his eyes because he was playing 'Grand Theft Auto' the whole time. I found myself very distracted and wanted to play as well.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Undead Kelly

Kelly was kind enough to sit for a painting session...so I took the opportunity to turn her into "Crying Undead Kelly." Hope she's not too upset @ me.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Joshua Tree

I had no idea what to expect but a couple of nights camping at Joshua Tree National Monument and my perception of the dessert landscape has changed forever. Why didn't anybody tell me about this place years ago!!! We had some fantastic hikes with awesome payoffs, experienced an explosion of color in the spring dessert, tromped through some completely surreal landscapes, listened to the coyotes howl at the moon, and stayed up late just to stargaze. I can't go back there soon enough.

Here are some of the sketches from the trip. I couldn't paint at the "magic" hour so all the lighting was fairly flat. I decided to approach it with a different perspective and paint more of how i feel about what I'm seeing.

Spring colors and Joshua Trees.



Hidden Valley...a view of the actual valley after scrambling to the top of some of the rocks.



rockclimber.




on the trail.




dust.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Mr. Robert



Robert is a real nice guy. I hope he stays that way after he sees this.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Pin-up girl

from the Drawing Club. Gouache on chip board...then reworked with photoshop.


Wednesday, March 12, 2008

value study digital painting

here's value study of Andy from Bob Kato's digital painting class. Bob's a great artist and a superb instructor. He has a knack of simplifying a complicated idea into bit size pieces. I seem to learn something new in each of his classes.


Thursday, March 06, 2008

barf

Monday, March 03, 2008

paratrooper




Wednesday, January 02, 2008

pegasus



A painting from a previous show.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

On a not-so recent trip to SF.




Monday, November 19, 2007

quick study

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Jflinn gallery show on Nov. 10th



I appologize for not keeping current on my blog and not responding. I've been off trying new things and it seems to occupy most of my time. No suprise that I'm promoting my own show the day of. How pathetic, right? But anyways, I will be at the Jflinn gallery show entitled "The Strangest Life I’ve Ever Known". The exhibit showcases artists tapping into people’s fascination and ties to folk tales, oddities, myths, legends and mysteries. I'm mainly focusing on mythology similar to the previous show. This piece here is my version of the celebration of Baccus.

I'm honored to be shown with artist such as Matt Groller, Seth Drenner, Sue Blanchard, Ron Velasco, Thomas Broersma, John Quinn III, Thomas Lee Bakofsky and Jeff McMillan. The show runs from November 10th, 2007 through November 24th, 2007. The opening artist reception will be on November 10th from 7pm through 10pm.

Here's the contact for the gallery:
JFlinn Gallery
2950 A Randolph Avenue Costa Mesa CA 92626 Tel 714.708.3504
Come by to the opening if you can.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

digital alla prima





Just practicing with photoshop while painting a model. I think I used mostly the dry media brushes.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Guys guys show at Gallery 1988

So I was in another show at gallery 1988 last week. Been too busy and tired to post anything during that time. Thanks to all those that came out for the support.

I chose to have a running theme through my pieces...and the theme is Greek and Roman Mythology. I always wanted to tackle the classical themes. Here is is one of the paintings I did for the show. This is my version of Hercules and the Nemean Lion.





Wednesday, August 01, 2007

deviant

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Jeff McMillan has a blog

Hey, if you want to see some hilariously wonderful paintings, check out my buddy's, Jeff McMillan, new blog. Well, it's not new but I think there's a lame story to it.

His work always makes me scratch my head and wonder how this guy thinks. He renders very well and it's chalked full of bizarre and funny narratives that only can come from his deranged imagination. Certainly, there's plenty of artist who's work anchors on the strange and outrageous but Jeff's work seems to be genuine to me. His humor is who he is and it seems to be his reflection on pop culture, which just strikes a chord in me. Anyways, go say hi.

This first post is one in a series of belt buckle paintings.

Monday, July 02, 2007

bond girl

quick studies from a costume workshop (roughly 7-10 minutes poses)...the theme was the "BOND GIRL". I think the model was Italian and looked just like what I imagine a bond girl to look like...WOW! Bikini and guns, what a perfect combination.







Tuesday, June 26, 2007

stigmata

I'm in another group show at Gallery 1988 San Francisco this weekend.

thailand

Baby E.



Sunny Bangkok morning.



Trekking through the jungle



long boats



our guide

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

hiking up to halfdome

I'm aching for the great outdoors, again. Every year I would go to Yosemite at least 2-3 times. It's already June and I haven't visit once. This weekend will be the first trip of the year.

Here are some old pictures from a few years back where we packed up to Half Dome. We left the campsite (little yosemite valley) at 4:30 a.m. to be the first on the rock. Unfortunately, it was late october and the cables were already down. Nonetheless, it was still well worth it.


Here is Half Dome in the distance taken from near glacier point.




On the way up...this is where we stop and have breakfast. On the left is North Dome and on the right just outside the top corner is Clouds rest. What a beautiful morning.








View of Halfdome herself. I have been at the top only once. This time around, the cable were down.



from the valley floor at dusk.



Friday, May 25, 2007

Luchador

Here's a quick sketch of a Luchador done at the Drawing Club.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Pooh Bear

These two pieces were done for the Pooh's Eightieth Anniversary book awhile back. They were also featured in the "Remixing the Magic" show at Gallery 1988 last year.


Monday, May 07, 2007

Sushi of Naples

drawing while eating sushi...

Monday, April 30, 2007

"Trash to Treasure"

...another show from the guys from ISM. We were to pick something from the trash, garage sale, thrift store, etc. and breathe life into it again.

I found an old ukulele at a swap meet and thought it'll be fun to paint. it was pretty beaten up with parts missing. I sanded it down and just started drawing in one corner, letting it take me where ever it would go. I soon ended up with this image. It was so much fun, I'd do it again.




Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Joust v. 1.0-1.2

Here are my two pieces for the 8-Bit show. It's acrylic on untreated wood panel. I love painting on wood. It gives everything this warm earthy feel. I have notice that many people are also taken to this surface. It's becoming a trend of sorts (unfortunately for me).

The game I chose to re-mix was Joust. Loved this game as a kid but I absolutely sucked at it. I sucked at mos video games. My version is a bit of a mix between Medieval knights and WW1 flying ace samuria warrior dudes.




Friday, April 20, 2007

Another show at Gallery 1988 San Francisco




Well, I'm in another group show this weekend at Gallery 1988 SanFrancisco. It is the grand opening, so please come by check it out. These are the same guys who put on the "I am 8 Bit" show in L.A., which was an incredible event. I believe that there were about 1,400 that lined the streets to get in. They had media coverage from MTV, G4, Fuel, and others. I couldn't believe all this for an art show. I feel so grateful to have a couple of pieces in there. Thanks to Jon, Jensen, and Katie!

Anyways, I will also be at the APE con (Alternative Press Expo) to try to hock my latest stupid ideas. The rest of the Porcupines will be there representing as well. I think we have a table in the back corner by the bathrooms where they stick mutants.

Monday, April 16, 2007

I am 8 Bit



So i will be in the "I am 8 Bit" show in Gallery 1988 this Tuesday, April 17. It's a show remixing 1980's video games. I'll have two pieces in there...both of them are of the game "Joust". Got a sneak peek while I was dropping off the paintings and I promise it will be a really good show. So many good pieces.

Eric Tan and Jeff McMillan will also have their art there...That should be enough reasons to go, but I should mention that there's beer...beer! Anyways, I hope you all will stop by and say "Hi".

Tuesday, April 10, 2007



So finally my friend and co-worker, Eric Tan decided to put down the beer and put up a blog. Super talented guy who's work is not only illustrative but always so well designed. This is a silkscreen piece he did for our two man show last year.

Below is a rare sketch of him when he is actually awake at work. I had a one minute window of opportunity.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

sf

Recently I attended the Illustration Academy in San Francisco. It was an intensive week long workshop with lectures, demos and assignments. My main draw for attending was to meet some of the heavy hitters of illustration like Gary Kelly and C.F. Payne and just to spend an entire week up in the bay area. It is definitely one of my favorite cities.

Unfortunately the workshop lasted 12 hours a day with only a break for lunch and dinner. I would return to my room by 10p.m. and would then start my homework. It was a real dissappointment not to be able to see more of the city, especially without the heavy tourist weekend crowd. I did manage to sneak off one afternoon to do some of my own sketches and ofcourse sketch during the demos.

All in all, the experience was great...I love the demos but wanted more personal interaction with the illustrators....for me just to be around the rest of the team from here and the U.K. office was the highlight of the trip. Here are some of my sketches from the trip.




The instructors: John English, Gary Kelly, Anita Kunz, Chris Payne, Sterling Hundley, Brent watkinson...
Mark English and Andrea Wicklund were also there but not in the drawing.



During the Gary Kelly demo. uber talented guy but works intuitively. Hard to get a full understanding of the decisions that he made.



Sneaked out to sketch for myself during a lecture. It was a beautiful afternoon. I could not resist.
Walking down a steep hill and found an interesting alley. I envision all the old noir movies when stumble acrossed this.



Academy of Art Building. The Acdemy of Art has several buildings spread through out the city. This is one where the Illustration Academy was held.








An ode to Stefan Kardos, a fantastic artist and a great guy. I absolutely love his drawings and his sense of design. Lately, he's been drawing old cars. This is my homage to him.



A painting done from a sketch. This is looking down California St. where China town borders the towering buildings of the Financial district.




early in the morning from my hotel window. I was working on my color comps from the night before so I still had my paints out.


I added on one more day in the city after the workshop so I can get a chance to spend some time outside the classroom. This is my view from the new hotel room. It had floor to ceiling windows. Unfortunately, the rest of my time there was overcast, cold, and wet. Everytime I busted out the sketchbook, it would start sprinkling on me.




The Redroom at the Clift Hotel. Modern and swanky...$9 for a beer...but it was a belgium ale.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Zorro

These were done with the amazing Winsor Newton Series 7 brushes...It can load such a ginormous amount of liqiud and yet give such a consistent tip, that I feel I can extend a line for miles...and miles...and miles.

Heavenly to use but my pocket book did take quite a beating. I highly reccomend it for ink, watercolor and gouache. I have a few but I always feel so unworthy that I hardly ever use it. Lately, I would take it out while preparing for a painting but ended up grabbing for the $2.99 piece of sh*t brushes. Pathetic!

This week I'm off to San Francisco to attend a workshop. Should be fun. I'll post some sketches of the city soon.





Wednesday, March 07, 2007

20 min. poses. acrylic on chip board. Ron Velasco lent me some of his paint to use today...colors I normally would not use but it became a good exercise for me to really focus on controlling the temperature and value on a very limited palette.


Friday, February 23, 2007

oldest working model in the world...not sure if it's a good thing.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

quick studies


Wednesday, February 14, 2007



Monday, February 12, 2007


Sunday, February 04, 2007



another study in Gouache on cardboard. The model brought a hat with her and insited that it would be a nice touch of color...at first I thought it was silly. In the end, she was right. I think it made the whole painting. I like the color and the shadows it created.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

pub paintings

I brought my laptop with me to Lucky Baldwins to paint one evening. I was fortunate to find a nice quiet corner where nobody knew what I was doing. By the last painting, I was completely smashed.






Tuesday, January 16, 2007

king

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

le chef.

Thursday, January 04, 2007

sherlock holmes...a study from one of our workshops. gouache on brown board.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Mister Schroeder, the master.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

the incomparable Eric H.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

I need to excercise.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Luis-Zapata

My senior vice president as Zapata. Posting this is probably not a good career move.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Tiffany

Tiff is a friend at work. I did this one awhile back. I think it was during a big group b-day lunch for her.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Me by John Quinn

This was a drawing of me by John Quinn. He drew it during a life drawing class quite a few years ago. I eventually drew one of him and we traded. I definitely got the better end of the deal. I'm so honored to have an original drawing from John (and of myself no less).

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

dog days

Drawings from an animatic I've made for my friend's wedding video.






Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Ryan's Blog

my buddy Ryan at work just put up his photo blog. I think it's worth checking out. This is one of his pics.

the bow bow room

wandered in a small bar in Chinatown San Francisco. I think it was called the Bow Bow room. The smoke filled room was full of character. I was intrigued by the guy in front. He never looked up except to order drinks. He was there for quite ahile and suddenly left. He tried to skip out on his tab. I sketched this on site and later redrew it on wood to paint it.

Monday, October 30, 2006

yosemite in october

I took the ink drawings I've done in Yosemite and toned them on the computer. Just playing around with textures to get a nostalgic look. this first one was just outside the town of Oakhurst on the way to Yosemite. Miles and miles of farmland dotted with oaktrees....right now the landscape is all golden. It's the real California gold.

This is a painting of the gorge in Rainbow Falls. We took a bike ride down for 15 miles and hiked a couple to the falls. This was my view as I'm eating my lunch.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

just got back from an extened weekend in Yosemite...wish I was still there. will post those drawings soon but here is a little sketch.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

el matador

croquil pen and ink. I got into inks for awhile...pens, brushes, sticks, fingers, whatever...I loved the ink!...at least for a little awhile.







Wednesday, October 04, 2006

i.f. "quiet"

This is a painting I did for a gallery group show called "Remixing the Magic" at Gallery 1988 (last year). Artists were invited to re-interpret Disney characters based on their experiences and influences from the Disney films.

"Jungle Book" was one of my all time favorites. What I remember most was the blissful contentment of Mowgli and Baloo as they simply live off the land and the bond they have with each other. I chose to depict that quiet moment between the two as they past the hours away by the slow moving river in the late afternoon. I thought this would be appropriate for an i.f. post.


Tuesday, October 03, 2006

bar sketch on site with my laptop. I was using Painter 8 which I do not like anymore.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

go go girl





Watercolors from "The Drawing Club".

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

i.f. "phobia"

Clowns are my my phobia...in this case, Corporate Clowns. Acrylics on paper...Moleskin sketchbook. First time using it. I love this skechbook.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

"Mr. I"

An old illustration test based off Paul Rogers poster for The Incredibles.


Saturday, September 09, 2006

life drawing


Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Illustration Friday: Safe


Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Another one bites the dust!

This is a friend of mine who just got married. Everyone around me is going down.

Thursday, August 31, 2006

scoundrel

hold it right there, partner!


Sunday, August 27, 2006

ahoy

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

"Match"

This is my entry for illustrationfriday.com. The theme is "Match". This is my first time submitting something there. It was a fun excercise. It was reccomended to me by Nicolette Davenport. BTW, check out her new webite. I think it's pretty cool.


Friday, August 18, 2006

kung-fu brother

This is was done awhile back from a Drawing Club session.







Monday, July 24, 2006

'eads

These are heads from various sketches. I was just playing around with different photoshop filters. I have many many sketchbooks of just heads. I will be posting them soon.











Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Los Zorros













Saturday, July 08, 2006

green st. hotel

one last little painting and then I'll post something different. I love this little historic 'hotel'.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

mobile station

Sunday, July 02, 2006

The Huntington Library



Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Fairoaks and Green st.

another midnight painting.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

the Rialto

This is an old theater in South Pasadena. Oil on board...painted while I should've been sleeping.


Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Jay

while watching TV.

Friday, June 16, 2006

the Undertaker



Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Suicide Bridge in the rain

I was taking cover underneath a freeway overpass.


Thursday, June 08, 2006

melayn...figure drawing

Had alot of problems trying to upload images the past week or so. Any one else have problems?

anyways, here are 5-7 min. figure studies. tweaked it a bit after the session.



Wednesday, May 31, 2006

wedding photography

I did some wedding photography on the side for a little while, thinking it was going to be fun...free reign to shoot people and places. It turned out to be one of the most stressful project I ever picked up. Not how I wanted to spend my weekends. I've only shot about 6-7 weddings and vow to never do it again.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

plein air

Trying to get back to painting outdoors. I was given a 6x9 pochade box by a friend awhile back and I didn't even know what it was. After he showed me a few of his paintings, I was determine to learn how to paint. I then forced myself to paint a small painting a day for a complete year...an ambitious goal I have never achieved. I've managed a little over a hundred paintings until winter came around...bbuurrrr. I'll post some of those soon.

This particular painting was of a historical house in Pasadena early one morning. (It actually started to rain on me.)

water soluble oils on illustration board. hated to carry around turpentine.

Monday, May 22, 2006

life drawing

from the archives... charcoal on smooth newsprint.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Alien Girl

more stuff from the Drawing Club...the theme was Trekkie alien girl. Ink and cheap watercolor on very cheap cardstock.





Friday, May 12, 2006

Richard Schmid exercise

I was watching a demo on head painting by Richard Schmid (on VHS no less.) I've heard about him by many artists over the years but never had a chance to read or watch any demos. A friend finally let me borrow a tape. I decided to follow along using the photoshop, occasionally pausing on the model to catch up with him. I tried to let go of what I know and approached the painting as he did. It might not show in the painting but it was an interesting excercise and I think I've learn quite a bit from it.



Even though he was painting in oils, I thought some of the techniques translated on the computer. I used a dry medium brush with "other dynamics'' on to have the opacity set to pen pressure.



I also discovered that if I open another file to mix my colors, it's almost just like having a pallete in oils. I would drop in colors that I was used to in traditional paintings and mix them in that file. For instance, I 'squeezed' out some Alizarin Crimson and scumbled White and a bit of Yellow Ochre over it to get the skin tone. I just sampled my colors from there.



I would double check my values by occasionally toggling between the B/W and color mode.



There's alot of good things in the video, I highly recommend it.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

funky fashion chick

Hand drawn then taken to Illustrator.






Monday, May 01, 2006

Yosemite Pics


View of Half Dome from Glacier Point. The tree in the foreground is actually 3ft. tall.


This is the view right as you enter the the Valley. It's absolutely breathtaking and far more majestic than any picture can capture. I've been here so many times but with each trip, I'd see a different perspective. I saw the light hit the trees earlier but had to wait for quite some time before I was able to take the pic.


Mist Trail

Sunday, April 30, 2006

country road

Photography is one of my favorite hobby and I will be posting some from time to time. I used to experiment with any camera that I can get my hands on, from Nikons, Holgas, Brownies, Russian Lomos, to the ancient Polaroid field cameras. Basically anything I could find at a swap meet (that I can afford). I switch to digital because I was going broke trying to buy film and developing the prints. I took these photos while wandering off the main road on a camping trip.


Friday, April 28, 2006

I love the rain

Living in southern California, one just don't see many rainy days. I cherish it when it comes for a visit though. We've been getting some sprinkles here and there but not enough to get excited about. Although the clouds have been particularly dramatic the last couple of days.

I drew this a while back and it always reminded me of when I was a wee lad. I would often come home from school dripping wet from playing in the rain. Some memories are so vivid, it seems like it was just yesterday.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Figure study

More figure drawings. Gouache on paper. 10 min. poses.




Tuesday, April 25, 2006

AAAArrrrrrggghhhh!

Here's a quickie drawing of a priate.


Monday, April 24, 2006

post 9

Sunday, April 23, 2006

#8

More guoache on board. Sorry about the glare in the pic. It was just a little too big to scan. Trying to post something everyday...at least for awhile. Now I'm off to a Sunday painting workshop and later I'm going to meet up with a brilliant designer friend, Eric Tan. We are about to start another collaborative project.


Friday, April 21, 2006

post #7

Lisa. gouache on chip board. 1 hour.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

#6

I did this one while watching tv. It's suppose to be Snoop Dog.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

"the comedian"

Andy as "the comedian". Sketches from The Drawing Club, a costume drawing workshop with an emphasis on story and character building.

ink and white correction fluid on red card stock.







Sunday, April 16, 2006

my brother larry

This is my brother Larry. I did this digital painting on location with my laptop and a wacom tablet using photoshop. He used to accompany me when I wanted to go painting at night. The only stipulation was that I had to finish by the time he's done with his cigar.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Cowboy John







Thursday, April 13, 2006

2nd post




something old something new, this is old.

Monday, April 10, 2006

1st post





Hello! I have now joined the blogging community. YEAH...but I don't know what to say. Anyways, I figured I'd post a few sketches of my friends to start. post more real soon.