Kevin T. Chin's Art Journal

Happy 2012 and new art!

2012-01-09T10:00:00.000-06:00

Happy new year to everyone! This year is looking to be very awesome. The new game I'm working on should be announcing pretty soon, I'll let you know when it does because i'm excited about it myself.

Lets start off with a painting I worked on last month. Yep I did art during the holiday! This was really fun to do. I've had this idea in my sketchbook for a long time coming about my Project Henshin series. Yes I know it's very Marko Djurdjević inspired. Big fan of his work. This was certainly challenging and ambitious and I ran into few snags and frustrations but kept at it and learned a bit about composition, lighting, edging and what does and doesn't work well for print media.

Next up, I think I'm gonna try the Pulp Art challenge over at ArtOrder blog. I'm really excited about that one. Till next time friends!

Happy Holidays 2011

2011-12-05T08:57:00.001-06:00

Hey everyone, just wishing you all a happy holiday. It's been one of those life changing years again and I've been pretty busy with work. I got a quick chance to do this years card and from then on I've gotten back my art mojo it seems. I've got a work in progress piece for Project Henshin right now, I'm really digging it. It's a very Marko Djurdjevic and ambitious. Challenging in a good way. I will post my WIP soon or maybe wait and work on it during my holiday break.

Epic Update 5 months late Echo Echo

2011-09-23T01:50:00.000-05:00

Good day to you. Wait that's a WoW npc saying isn't it? Anyways, it's certaily time for a blog update don't you think? Bunch of news. New job, new state? Whaaa?

Yep, I moved to Austin, Texas in May and started my new concept gig at Junction Point/Disney Interactive Studios. Really sad to leave Los Angeles and my friends but people do weird things when single, unemployed and running low on savings... So yes, I've met tons of radtastic talented people here, bbq is yum, and rent is...not like Los Angeles! Hoping to experience more adventures here for a while, I hope.

Oh art stuff right, I draw. Some old things that I never put up, some new sketches. Hoping to paint more but work has been quite busy. I've been doing a lot of sketching in my moleskin and at work on worky NDA stuff. My line art has certainly improved, maybe one day I'll post them but for now all I got is digital.

Some Henshin work

2011-04-21T10:51:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone! Exciting and hectic(but good) things are happening but I'll talk about that when I sign some papers :) For now here are some pieces I was working on while job hunting. I plan to do more key frame painting samples for Project Henshin and character/enemy designs catered for a more animated cartoon style which I think works well for the project.

Some more zbrush

2011-03-08T00:39:00.000-06:00

Going through some interviews and art tests since my last post. Also getting back into some zbrush and watching the tutorials again. Hopefully I get farther than I did last time and learn how to start with a sphere with higher polys or start with a zsphere model for bigger things than a head? Did I even say that right? Bare with me, zbrush noob art incoming...

Evil Picard?

Paint over of a rough 3d sketch. Wanted to see if that would work and it did its job, i'm getting the hang of using it as a sketchup tool for certain things. Just another tool to get things done right?

Environment sketches

2011-02-01T14:11:00.000-06:00

Just a quick update with some environment sketches I did last week. The job hunt continues and I just updated my carbonmade site with a ton of new work, too much to show on this blog type.

First post 2011. Txt fighter backgrounds

2011-01-11T15:36:00.000-06:00

Happy Holidays and yearly roundup art

2010-12-14T16:43:00.000-06:00

Hello again and happy holidays everyone! Some of you guys may have received this postcard but for the rest of you guys here you go. If you follow WotC Art Director Jon Schindehette's twitter or art blog Art Order, He recently posted my postcard and was inspired to put up a holiday art challenge for his readers. Awesome Jon, glad you liked the card. I had fun making it!

I just finished up an art test with a company so wish me luck with that. In the meanwhile, i found some unfinished images from 2010 that I most definitely will get back to finishing since I have all this unemployed free time. Project Henshin may return in full force since I'll be needing new portfolio pieces. Oh and there's an environment concept I did for another art test way back in spring, which I didn't get but here it is anyways.

And last but surely not least, Txt Fighter, an iphone/ipod/ipad project I worked on with Jason Hazelroth and a bunch of other talented guys is coming out this week. Please check it out. I did the background environment art.

And here we are again

2010-10-24T23:32:00.000-05:00

Haha, now did I say I got a job? Well I just got laid off from Killspace. Times are tough I guess. I don't want to get too into it, there were some management and money issues but I LOVED my time there working with some of the best guys I've ever known. We created a team that worked so well together without bullshit, it was amazing but we couldn't get that project signed.

The fight ahead of me isn't if or when I'll find a new gig but rather it's keeping myself pumped and inspired to jobhunt. I promise I wont lose steam like I did 2 years ago and fall into a funk.

Best wishes to everyone
-Kev

New job, cintiq and freelance game cover!

2010-06-03T12:45:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, sorry for the long delay in posts. Been a crazy long 2 months since trying to learn Zbrush and finally getting a cintiq at home. After a year and a half since the layoff, I've finally found a new gig at Killspace Entertainment as Senior Concept Artist (lead?). The projects are awesome and the peeps are great. This is going to be a blast. Thank you to everyone who stuck with and supported me during some very dark days after the layoff and struggling through this economy. You guys are the best.

As for freelance, I did a box cover illustration for an Ubisoft title "Voodoo Dice" via Jeff Zugale and Famous Frames. Heres the illustration and the trailer they did with my art.

First dabbles in Zbrush

2010-03-10T15:03:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone, hope you all are doing great! OK, don't laugh. I've decided to start teaching myself Zbrush(well with help of some training dvds) I haven't gotten so far into the dvd yet, just introductions to some basics, I'll work along side whenever they introduce something new. So far this is my first model/tool or whatever they call it, only like 3 hours in. Just from a sphere, no zspheres or bone armatures yet though. It's um...a Martian Manhunter/Piccolo/Spock person?

Jordu Schell class recap: Mask molds and Maquette update

2010-02-16T04:05:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone, just posting some pics from my adventures into sculpting. Jordu's 5 week class ended this week but it gave me a great insight into the world of 3d and sculpting. That weekend we poured latex into our molds and the next day pulled them out. That whole night felt like Christmas eve lol, excited for sure. The mask came out OK, the latex seemed to pick up some of the plaster dust and there's some retouching to be done with air bubbles but I'll need to pick up a dremel tool to smooth out imperfections and eventually I'd be awesome if i could pick up some airbrush or PAX paint to give my mask some life. But my current budget and situation says different. One day.

As for my maquette last week we started our armatures and began adding super sculpey to them. At first using sculpey was a bit rough, lots of finger prints. But as the week went by it started shaping up. Even though class is over i'm still working it and hopefully be able to bake it when im done. No pics of the current version but I've started to add skin wrinkles and textures. Probably need to find some finer detail tools for the head but so far I'm feeling very good about it than a week ago. Confidence in sculpey medium definitely up. More to come...

Eh, maybe I'll stick with 2D :-p

Creature sculpting Day 3 and Vandal Hearts

2010-02-02T20:40:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone, just posting some pics from Day 3 of Jordu Schell's class. We finished up our head sculpts before lunch. Here are some pics of my clay sculpt...

Here's Mindy Lee's.

And some pics of the rest of the class. Thanks to Elise Choo for some of these pics.

Next we plastered over the clay and after cooling off we began digging out the clay. Having never done a mold, sad to see that clay go bye bye.

To be continued next week with latex masks!

Oh yeah, I totally forgot to post this last week. About a year ago I did some contract work at Technicolor Interactive on the cinematics for the newly released Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment game out on XBLA and PSN. They never did let me keep the artwork but you can see the trailer with a lot of the cinematics. Hard to really say what was mine because it was a team effort, everyone working on different parts like characters and environments, props for the motion graphic cinematics. I met some great friends working there and I would love work with them again someday.

Video Games | Vandal Hearts: FJ | Daldren Grey Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Jordu Schell Sculpture Class and ImagineFX issue 52

2010-01-29T14:59:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone, January flew by pretty fast thanks to freelance, job interviews and this creature sculpture class instructed by Jordu Schell, you may have seen a small indie movie he worked on lately, they call it "Avatar". Pretty stunning to see his sculptures and maquettes in his workshop. I'm taking the class with my friend Mindy, check out her work it's gorgeous. First project is a mask mold. This is a work in progress, should be done next week but I took some photos while working on it first day and during the homework week.

And finally, I'm featured in the FXpose section of issue 52 of ImagineFX. If you havent seen it already, check it out. A friend of mine, Brian Yam, is also featured doing a step by step environment as well.

Happy New Year and some art!

2010-01-04T02:45:00.000-06:00

Happy new year everyone! Hope you all had a great holiday. I'm ready for a fruitful 2010. Here are some new characters for the portfolio I worked out during the holidays.

edit- oh yes forgot to mention i used these parchment papers from photoshopbrushes.com

Cover Contest piece finished

2009-12-13T22:23:00.000-06:00

Hey there everyone, hope you're all having a great holiday season. I just finished up some freelance last week as well as my entry for the Imagine FX cover contest. Currently I'm available and still looking for new freelance and full-time studio positions in the film, animation and game industry and am willing to relocate. Working on some new concepts in the meanwhile, hopefully I'll post them before the holidays but if you don't hear from me, I wish everyone a happy holiday with your friends and families and see ya in the next "hopefully better" year :)

WIP update

2009-12-02T04:35:00.000-06:00

Quick update

Gobble gobble

2009-11-23T12:04:00.000-06:00

Good morning everyone and happy turkey week. The pace of life is speeding up and as always trying to keep up on job hunting, portfolio tweaking and networking. Feeling very positive about finding a new place to be at. Just a quick update on the ImagineFX cover contest piece. I think its coming a long very well, I'm open for critiques and suggestions. Have a great week!

ImagineFX cover contest WIP

2009-11-16T15:21:00.000-06:00

Here's a quick work in progress peek at my entry for the ImagineFX cover contest. I'm hoping to win for the Cintiq, being on the cover would be nice too :p

Concept- I wanted to use my Project Henshin story as a subject matter for this illustration. I knew I wanted this to be dynamic and action filled, something I would have fun painting and that showed excitement.

Thumbs

Abandoned comp and current comp after art critique along with a friends thumbnail composition sketch.

Holiday Card 2009 and The Chinbot Process Blog

2009-11-09T02:28:00.000-06:00

It's that time of the year again and I wanted to share with you my holiday card. This year I actually printed my card as physical postcards to send to my friends in the industry and family. It was certainly a learning experience and glad to see that printing access has become cheaper and cheaper since I left college. Overnightprints did a great job I have to say, I caught them during a postcard sale too. If someone didn't get a postcard by now I probably didn't know you're address, sorry. Lemme know if you want me to send you one. I've also created another blog dealing with all the illustration process so please check it out for a in-depth look at how I created this piece. Happy holidays everyone...

http://chinbot.blogspot.com/

New Carbonmade, Iphone app and some wallpapers!

2009-11-02T02:37:00.000-06:00

Well, we've survived the zombie apocalypse, reached the safe room and its back to work. And what a great way to start the day by checking out my new updated carbonmade site. I'd love to hear your thoughts and definitely please let your art director friends know too because I'm looking!

http://kevinchin.carbonmade.com

Oh and for you Iphone/ipod touch users, please check out this game app that I did some illustration work for. I did the title screen and the hi-score/ level up screens. Definitely pick up the lite version to see the art and demo the game!

Ink Balloons Lite version

...and don't forget to pick up a wallpaper for the kiddies before you leave. Please let me know if you like them or what other art pieces would be great for wallpapers, I'd love to hear. Have a great day everyone!

You people sit tight, hold the fort and keep the home fires burning...

2009-10-15T12:21:00.000-05:00

Batman designs

2009-10-05T14:27:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, its been a month since the last post. Been working through some things but here is some brand spanking new art inspired by the new Batman game that recently came out. It's so good that its got me excited and making pieces for the sequel for it! Here are a few images from the first pass character designs and an environment I worked on. Going to start on second pass details for the characters.

Business cards and sketches and turtles

2009-09-04T15:05:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, its been a while so I thought I'd update the blog. During the summer I was busy doing some freelance which was awesome but now its back to sending resumes and portfolios. So yeah thats what I'm doing mostly these days. It's been almost one year since things hit rock bottom both relationship and employment-wise, I know everyones been having a rough time with the latter though.

Anywho, here's some recent sketches, some from the ashcan book I was planning on making. Oh, and picture of the new business cards I ordered at overnightprints.com. They do a good job, all you need to do is upload your files and they do the printing, genius!

Update of sorts

2009-08-10T16:33:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone, just updating the artblog with some Project Henshin stuff and random sketches. I'm working on an ashcan saddle stitched sketchbook for a local comic convention coming up this fall. Also thinking about doing character sketches at the con of whatever characters, superheroes, anime or even your personal mmo characters. Anything's cool. Also thinking of selling prints as well but I'm not sure which images to sell. Any recommendations are from you all are appreciated.

Oh and yes, its my rendition of the gold ranger gasp not gold ranger. My homage to my favorite design from back in the day. I had a fanboy jump on my ass for calling something power ranger like but not looking like a cardboard box robot. So, its a thin line to say ranger i guess, transforming-superhero-mechanical-suit-people! My version he isn't a hero either...yet. So go figure.

From the hidden archives

2009-07-29T23:06:00.001-05:00

Some old things I dug up from my hard drive from pre-fun park days. Jeff, Miguel, and I cranked out some amazing things back then. This is some of the work that never made it, I still think they could have turned into something, it was really fun.

Another tease

2009-07-22T01:32:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, here's another desktop look at what I have on my plate for my personal project. Lately the freelance has been happily rolling in finally and well bills will get paid so that makes me a happy boy. Things are getting closer and closer to a big thread of Henshin art!

Project Henshin Unit-02 and Megazord designs

2009-07-07T02:53:00.000-05:00

Another update, this time the leading female suit design and the big one. The Henshin Megazord.

2009-07-05T14:54:00.000-05:00

Reposting this message for my friend Jason and his soon to be wife Kam to spread his message, so please check it out.

"Hi everyone,

I’m excited to announce that my fiancé Kam and I are releasing a Dollar Campaign to raise money towards the cure of the disease HIBM. As some as you may already know my fiancé Kam is afflicted with HIBM, which is a progressive muscle wasting disease which can lead to total disability within 10-15 years. We both work very hard for the non-profit organization ARM (http://www.hibm.org/arm/index.php) which is dedicated to curing this debilitating disease.

With ARM we have created this dollar campaign with the hopes of raising 1 million dollars to enable human therapeutic trials to fight HIBM. We are asking for two things: First, go to WEBSITE (http://www.hibm.org/arm/dollar:home) to donate $1. Second, send this email on to all your friends and family.

In the Internet age, reaching one million people in that amount of time is surely do-able. If you are interested in becoming a bigger influence in this campaign, host your own dollar collecting campaign in your community, church, workplace, among your friends and family and donate what you've collected as one donation. Or you can post this story and image on your own blog and Facebook page. The more people we can reach increases the awareness of HIBM.

HIBM (Hereditary Inclusion Body Myopathy) is a progressive and debilitating muscle-wasting disorder caused by a gene defect. It touches those between the ages of 20 and 40 and, although progression is slow, it typically leads to total disability within 10-15 years. Studies suggest that HIBM may be easier to cure than many other disorders or diseases, the only limiting factor is funds.

Thank you for your support,

Jason Hazelroth"

Preview for next week

2009-07-04T17:35:00.000-05:00

Here's a sneak peak at some things I'm doing for Project Henshin that should be done by this week. Fun things. Working through the holiday weekend because well I gotta keep hoping one day I'll get struck by employment, but its lunch time. Taking a break.

Warcraft "Fan Art"

2009-06-13T16:31:00.000-05:00

Enjoy, I had a blast working on it.

Fantasy Armor Designs

2009-05-21T22:31:00.000-05:00

A brief detour from Project Henshin, I wanted to do some armor designs for my portfolio. Plate mail, leather/fur, and cloth designs. >.> It's not like I played a Paladin/Rogue/Mage before...ever...in an MMO game...from that awesome company. OK I did.

How many are there? Lets kill em all!

2009-05-08T15:12:00.001-05:00

There always seems to be a plentiful amount of cronies or goons to fight in tokusatsu sentai shows for sure. My concept would be zombie astronauts and civilians, or rather bits and pieces put together after the alien invasion. I wanted something scary and leathal to civilians but fun for the rangers to battle and not exert too much effort, they are of course just mindless zombies. They also extend their apendages like Mr. Fantastic somewhat and almost turn into a massive wave of darkness at some points of the story flooding the rangers in epic battleness. Also, i could help but make murloc sounds while working on them lol. The big boy up there is more of a tank version patroling down the streets reigning terror and processing up more bodies for assimilation. And I reworked the hangar bay shaft scene to show the goons infiltrating it.

Some environments WIP and 3d sketches

2009-05-01T18:25:00.000-05:00

Here are some environments I've been working on using the process of blocking in objects and shapes with Google sketch-up and painting over. I'm still getting used to it. I'm open to critiques and advice when it comes to the environments or ideas on my personal project. Puttys, more enemy commanders and Series-2 rangers are coming up. I'm trying to switch back and forth between the needed environments and the characters that I enjoy working on.

Still here

2009-04-28T16:41:00.000-05:00

Still here, still working on personal project, still job hunting, unemployment's run out i believe. I went to the Street Fighter Nucleus gallery show this last Saturday and met up with many friends and artists there. One of which i talked to about the industry and how were all in tight spots these days and to keep the faith. It's been almost 8 months since the lay off and the job posts have just started to come around but I have been sending for a long time. On some days cant help but think about the dark things but yes, keeping faith and hope in myself has become a valuable attribute lately.

More to come.

Mecha-Zord hangar bay using Sketch-up

2009-04-22T15:21:00.001-05:00

I thought I'd try to use Sketch-up for my environments and It turned out well I think. You really cant tell but it helped get past the perspective mental roadblock I usually get when working out rooms and environments, I think I could get used to Sketch Up. Anyways, here's another piece for my Project Henshin, a decommissioned Mecha-Zord hangar bay. yeah, thats just a preview of whats to come baby.

Project Henshin has begun!

2009-04-20T02:48:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, I just wanted to post these pieces up from my Darker tokusatsu project. I wanted to start with something that sets the tone of what i wanted. Imran helped me out with bringing that feeling or emotion home right off the bat so I did a painting setting the mood and where the story begins. The soldiers of the future failing and dying, their leader the valiant Henshin Red-01 stands alone with his comrades dead who knows where battling other evil forces, armor broken and unarmed from his mono-fiber plasma katana. Perhaps facing his final enemy with no backup and energy running low in his Plasma Polymer Alloy power suit. This is the tone, dark and death, but there's hope. This is the end of those poor soldiers but it marks a new beginning where new heroes will appear but the world has changed blah blah blah, have i got ya?

Ok sorry, that was just me thinking outloud lol. Well, you get where I'm going and hopefully you enjoy it because I certainly enjoyed thinking and creating more content for this project. Most of those sketches are work in progress.

Just a tease

2009-04-18T19:12:00.000-05:00

Just a tease of whats to come next week, this weekend I'm having some crazy fun coming up with some ideas for Project Henshin. Wait till you see the mech battle. I'll post the suit designs fully when I get a chance to paint them. I've got a few portfolios to get ready for some studios and that take precedence, at least i think. How have everyone been?

Small update and some environments

2009-04-12T22:42:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, some more samples and some updates and touch ups on previous ones. Added an alien planet environment and command room where the main characters hangout i guess. Still working on the suit and helmet designs, those will be up this week for sure after I start sending out portfolios to companies first with this new work I have. Wish me luck.

Project Henshin: Bio-EX 06

2009-04-08T22:49:00.000-05:00

Some more samples I was working on this week. Part of my personal project for a more serious and darker tokusatsu style franchise. Very much inspired by designs from Keita Amemiya. This one is a bit video-gamey with the "weak spots", I'm playing a bit too much RE5 and Dead Space maybe lol. But yeah, it would be a boss character for the good guys to battle. Designs for the good guys are still to come, the suits designs are very important for the project and I'm going through a lot of itterations (dare i say...variations). Environments and Suit designs are on the list though so, more to come!

Also, apologies to all the comment posters in old posts, I never got any notifications that there were comments. Especially on the Garo artbooks.

"Warning: In case of Civil Defense Sirens..."

2009-04-06T04:19:00.000-05:00

Giant robots vs Monsters...oh yes. Not only a fan of sentai but kaiju as well! The sketch designs may be used as offspring of the larger monster ala American Godzilla or Cloverfield. More on this to comeand maybe some more fun stuff! Stay tuned...

I like Super Sentai

2009-03-09T02:20:00.000-05:00

Things have gotten pretty busy here. Freelance and contract work. Still looking for that full time gig. After my time is done at Technicolor I'll be on the hunt again. Hopefully more places will be open to looking for concept artist by then.

Some Sentai fan art in celebration to watching their new series Samurai Sentai Shinkenger. I'm kinda excited and I would love to be hired to design one of their shows one day. Kind of a dream of mine.

career update

2009-02-27T01:05:00.000-06:00

I just started my 1 month contract gig at Technicolor Interactive Wednesday. I'm excited and the project is pretty neat and am interested to see the end result. I've met some really cool people working with Scott Seeto, Yoriko, and Jeff are pretty awesome. I posted a mix of digital sketch and a traditional gouache painting from hangin out at the beach.

And I come back to you now...at the turn of the tide

2009-01-26T20:14:00.000-06:00

My apologies to everyone. It has been a very long time but its time I fully returned to the passions that made me happy before my ex-girlfriend. Making badass art. Not quite my new years resolution but yeah something like that, anything to help me move on from my losses last year.

Some news on different fronts. I've decided to open myself up to doing commissions for people's Warcraft or DnD characters or fan art for their favorite shows. If you are interested please email me and I'll send you my commission info. I'll also be making a post soon on my deviantart as well about it so hit me up there as well.

Here is a piece i did for the CGchallenge Steampunk Myth though I missed the deadline because of many happening in RL. Also added some new figure drawing images.

Hello and Good Day

2008-11-13T17:54:00.001-06:00

Ok here goes, well thanks for hangin' in there with me for all you guys still visiting. Going through some rough times right now, not only did my Ex break up with me but I was laid off my job at 7 Studios a few weeks after which, is a double whammy of first timers. Thank you to all the people out there that are supporting me, I love you guys even if i cant show it sometimes.

Well, I wanted to post some new work from a game I worked on at 7 studios, the game was recently released in DS version in October and Wii version in Decemeber. Its a little different but it was really really fun to work on. Some of it never even made it into the game.

In the meanwhile I send resumes out. I am thinking of accepting art commissions on my Deviantart and Sheezyart pages, I havent decided or figured out my format yet, probably do a few to test the waters. If you are members please take a look see.

-Kev

Does drawing heal the soul?

2008-09-24T15:55:00.000-05:00

So....hey, I recently was dumped by my girlfriend. I don't want to sound emo or whatever you "normal social party clubbing" people call it but its my blog and my thoughts. I apologize for being absent so much during my time with her, but its time to get back to business since I have nothing else to go back to. I went to figure drawing after work because I thought it would get my mind off her, not sure if it worked. Felt really good to draw life again, haven't done it in 2-3 years.

2008-08-20T13:56:00.001-05:00

Some sketches

2008-07-24T19:57:00.001-05:00

Here's some doodles from the past few weeks. Been doing a lot of that lately with ink pen. I really do miss using physical tools to draw. Working on the guy on the right as of now for a painting. Some freelance might push it back though, duty calls though.

Seven studios deck of cards art

2008-06-23T17:01:00.000-05:00

Few months ago the artist at my company decided to do some art for a deck of playing cards. Eventually it will be printed and we all get copies of the deck which sounds cool. Here are my contributions. Other than that not much other news except that one of my games has finally been announced. Fun Park for the Wii, well actually "Six Flags Fun Park" but I want to say that it was an original game before the "intergration" of the license. So our guys did put our hearts and soul into working on an original game. More to come on that game as it is released.

Exotique 3 Book signing at UCLA campus April 27th

2008-04-21T12:11:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone, I'll be signing copies of Ballistic Publishings "Exotique 3" (which I am featured in) at the UCLA campus for the LA Times "Festival of Books" fair on Sunday April 27th between 1-4pm at the Hi De Ho Comics booth (Booth 318 Near Royce Hall+UCLA Library) There will be copies of the book there to buy from what I've been told. Also if you want bring your Warcraft cards I've done and I'd be happy to sign them as well. Hope to see you there!

http://www.latimes.com/extras/festivalofbooks/index.html
http://www.latimes.com/extras/festivalofbooks/eventmap.pdf

Dominance War complete!

2008-04-11T20:28:00.000-05:00

Fun Fun

2008-03-08T21:37:00.000-06:00

A little fun this week, a good battle. "But the war has yet to come"...Dominance War that is. I'll get on that next week. Zzzzzzzz

Dominance War ideation sketches

2008-02-26T20:28:00.001-06:00

yawn It's 2008 already? Dang...

2008-02-04T22:30:00.001-06:00

Hey all, It's been a while since i last posted but I'm back and there's plenty things for me to talk about. I recently did a piece for my old Chinese Fairy Tale project i worked on back in Art School. It's of Yen Wang, a god of death in Chinese mythology. I really enjoyed working on older projects that made me want to paint and draw back in college, I don't think people in the industry do it enough outside of work, perhaps a lack of inspiration or passion. I need to find more of this because it really helps.

Also, I'm entering the Dominance War contest, this year they're doing a separate concept division so I'm pretty excited about that. The subject matter is right up my alley. I'll update with sketches as soon as possible.

If that's not enough a large group of artist from 7 Studios have decided to collaborate and create a 52 card deck of cards with our art on them. I'm doing 3 pieces and need to get them in by April which is when Dominance War ends too, so i'll be a busy bee until then.

Seasons....GREEtings?

2007-12-09T15:41:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone, just wanted to send you all a happy holidays this season. I did a little holiday card after work this week to send out to my contacts. I might as well put it up on my blog too. So yeah, I'm heading back east to Michigan this holiday, very excited this year for some reason. I'll be around, maybe add another entry but I'm focusing on packing my bags and getting everything ready for next week or so. But I hope everyone has a good safe holiday and see you next year!

March of the Legion released

2007-12-04T13:35:00.000-06:00

Hey guys. I'm fairly sure its safe to show this now. The card set came out last weekend and bad scans of the cards have been on the internet and eBay for a few weeks. So here are some cards I did in April/May 2007 for Upper Deck. Looking back at these I definitely feel I could have did a better job in quality. I've learned a lot since then thanks to freelance and studio experience, especially working on my current project at work. At any rate here they are, hope you enjoy. I've definitely learned from these pieces.

Update

2007-11-21T19:43:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone. Just a quick update. I'm about to start my 4 day weekend but I thought I'd share some images from my desk at work and the things i engulf myself in daily. I recently picked up this badass artbook on Gil Elvgren the pin-up artist. That's his book in the corner of the photo. I also started collecting these little anime figures. No idea what its from, probably something i don't want know but I think they look pretty bad ass.

As for art, this is my latest. I had a really old sketch I did for a possible character design during the early pre-pro phase of the game h'm working on. Apparently the style wasn't suitable so I just kept it on my cork board for almost a half a year. I decided to paint it up last week.

Also, the day after Thanksgiving i think that ImagineFX magazine issue 24 comes out in the States if you are interested. Me and my Concept Director Miguel Lleras will be in the DVD gallery.

Garo Artbooks have arrived!

2007-11-12T02:19:00.000-06:00

Just received my package of Garo art/design books straight from Japan. Man this stuff is nuts! One book details the characters armor designs and production sketches. The other deals with the Equip and Prop figures thats are insanely expensive and hard to find. It shows closeups of the toys and detail put into the figures. Also they have a guest artist that does "kit-bashing" and he creates these little scenes from the show but its incredibly detailed and amazing. I'm pretty happy to get these books!

Happy Belated Halloween

2007-11-05T15:05:00.000-06:00

Rawr!

ImagineFX DVD

2007-11-02T11:46:00.000-05:00

Hey guys, just wanted to post this up. It's a few screen shots of the DVD that comes with ImagineFX magazine issue 24. The one that Miguel and I are in. They've seem to have butchered my descriptions but that's cool I guess. I've got a bunch of paintings that I've been working on but never had time to finish, perhaps this weekend I will do just that.

PS- Thanks to Doug for letting check out his copy of the magazine. Subscribers get it once its available where bookstores will get it 2 months after the UK release. So thanks!

Published at last! Summer '07 recap and more!

2007-10-18T00:50:00.001-05:00

Ok, well its been a long hard while over the summer. I hope everyone has been doing well. I've been busy doing cards for World of Warcraft Trading Card Game (which should be coming out in November in the "March of the Legion" set) and working at 7 Studios on our new original IP game. Very exciting hard work going towards there. I'll try and give the low down on things thats been happening...

I have great news for everyone, As some of you may know, my piece "Onuwen" will be shown in the prestigious new Ballistic Publishing art book Exotique 3 and now the webpage is up and running for people to preview the amazing art in this book. Check it out, theres a flash flip through preview. It's quite an honor to be amongst these gods of digital painting. Here's the link: http://www.ballisticpublishing.com/books/exotique_3/index.php

Second news, on October 23rd, the newest Imagine FX issue will be out in the UK and hopefully the US. My concept director Miguel Lleras and I will be featured in the DVD that comes along with that issue as FXpos'e digital artists. We'll have a gallery on the dvd and small interview with it. I haven't received my issue yet but I'm sure its going to be sweet. So look out for it at Borders or Barnes and Noble!

Thirdly, they've finally come out with Napoleon Dynamite screenshots for the Nintendo DS and PSP. Yes, I know, my company<3 movie games. http://kotaku.com/photogallery/NapoleonDynamite

That's all for now, here some speed paints i've been doing lately in Painter. I've come across a pretty awesome thing in Painter where you can adjust the pre-set brushes and make things work the way you want it. I've got so that I can make a circle brush act like photoshops but have the functionality of the oil brushes in painter without the crappy scratch marks. This in essence creates the ability to paint like photoshop but pick up surrounding colors just like real painting. This is also helped by putting the layer I'm working on to "pick up underlying color" which means that it will blend and pick up anything i have under that layer without affecting those layers. This was pretty awesome today as i was doing some of these paintings, it was like i was back in school actually applying paint and moving it around and blending colors on the fly to create new ones. Good times, I have to learn more about the inner workings of Painter.

Keita Amemiya is awesome!

2007-10-14T06:05:00.000-05:00

I know its pretty late, around 3:30 am. But I was traversing the interweb and discovered the name of the guy i pretty much owe my teenage/adulthood to in terms of artistic inspiration.

Keita Amemiya was unknown to me but his work has etched itself in my artistic backlog since I've seen Kamen Rider and Zyu Rangers (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in U.S.) He was the primary Director/art director on those shows. Later he would become the Character Designer on one of my favorite game series of all time Onimusha. Working on Onimusha 2, 3, and Dawn of Sorrows. Now his latest and greatest is a show instantly got hooked on and now i know why. Garo is perhaps one of the best Japanese Tokusatsu (Japanese live action special effects shows) that I have seen and the quality in his character/monster designs are top notch.

Here's some of his work in art/toy form from a Garo artbook, which i plan on getting once I save enough money.

I would love to one day be as prolithic as this character designer from Japan.

CCS Alumni Profile interview

2007-09-27T20:51:00.000-05:00

Check it out, my first interview/profile! Done for my art schools Alumni section of their website. And here's something i been working on just a taste of whats to come.

http://www.ccscad.edu/alumni/alumniProfiles/entertainment/&profile=131

A Merking for a Day..on ImagineFX that is!

2007-09-10T21:35:00.000-05:00

Just an update on my art. Apparently one of my pieces was showcased as the "Image of the Day" on the website ImagineFX.com . Thanks to Angie Lai who stumbled upon it!

It'll only be there for a day so I went ahead and took a screenshot.

some sketches

2007-09-04T19:46:00.001-05:00

CG Challenge- Frazetta homage-ish Pt 1 sketches

2007-08-27T11:52:00.000-05:00

Heres the starting sketches for the CGtalk contest themed "Strange Behavior". My idea is based around it being a Frazetta-esque painting but instead of John Carter its a nerdy gamer guy with the busty babe in his arms defending against the monsters. Except everyone including the chick has baffled looks and confusion. The nerdy geek will have a headstrung confident "I can kick ass" face on him raising his "guitar" and "glove" in the air.

Girls Girls Girls! and a mountain

2007-06-28T13:08:00.000-05:00

Hi there, another quick post. I know i havent been posting much and for good cause. I been too busy making art yays! Let's start off with the latest and greatest. This piece was originally for a friends RPG gaming character but I got carried away. I just submitted this to the Exotique BallisticPublishing artbook. I'm hoping this gets in.

Heres a painting that I can't remember if i uploaded or not but it goes with the theme of this post :3

And theres this one which is hilariously old but i found out i can show it as long as i don't say where its from. What can I say...shes big.

and for something random, heres a painting i did a while back of an Chinese mountain environment with some temples.

Fantastic Four 2 art online

2007-06-27T01:17:00.000-05:00

Hi there everyone. I just found out I can now show my work I did for my company's game Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer for the Wii and Ps2, which just came out to stores. So I'll just put up some of the better pieces. For the most part, I did a lot of production work that is pretty down and dirty art for this project. A lot of sketches and things that the modelers needed the next day because the production schedule for a "movie game" is so tight.

New stuff ZzzZZZZZZZ drool

2007-03-29T00:31:00.000-05:00

Wow, i wish i was doing that right now, sleeping i mean. But a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do. To say the least my mind has been on my art for the past few weeks ever since i saw God of War 2. The work in that game is simply phenomenal and inspiring. Here are some new pieces i've been working on for the past week for a certain good cause... I feel most of them are done but could use a little more love. Perhaps i will go back and touch them up, yes. But for now, i wanted to show them to you. Below is a creature design with the idea of knocking opponents back with its attacks but also its garish appearance. It's stance is like an ape by default so its more beastial than intelligent. This is the first time I've painted a character in monochrome on purpose and I must say it helps you figure out whats more important. Take out the color and sometimes you can definetely focus better on the form and rendering. Below that is a head variation and some shape explorations for the creature i painted. Also, i have two environment paintings i did recently.

Next few weeks i'll be workin on a freelance job, dont think i can say what it is yet but its a good after hours freelance gig. You nerds out there should appreaciate it.

"If you were a hat, I'd call you haber-dashing."

2007-03-15T21:45:00.000-05:00

Heres some new pieces I did for my own portfolio after hours. The first one is from my ongoing (until i publish it) personal "Chinese Holocaust" story i want to make. The second piece is me playing around with the new Painter X i got. Enjoy!
P.S. I need to do more environment paintings.

New work

2007-02-08T20:29:00.000-06:00

Heres some new stuff that I wasn't able to show for a long long while but now i just got word that i can show it online for my personal use. I can't tell you where its from though just enjoy what i been doing last year.

2007-01-10T03:17:00.000-06:00

Something new, I promise I'll update more :)

You really cant see any of the details and blogger wont let my image go any bigger than this. Im gonna have to find a way to host images at any res.

Old Merking of the Sewers

2006-11-19T18:30:00.000-06:00

New "character of the week" painting i did on the conceptart.org forums.

After this, i think im gonna start working on the side project i wanted to do for a while. I've asked the guys at work and my good friends from art school if they wanna join in, you know, add to the pot. So well see how it all goes. I'd like to make a book as good as that "Skillful huntsman" book to sell maybe at conventions or something. I know we can do it, we have the skills. Its just the hookups and connections with the "right" people.

Long time

2006-11-05T23:41:00.000-06:00

Well, its been a while, haven't posted anything for a while. I found myself in a slump but after seeing the work of Steve Houston, amazing figure drawings and sketchs. I was inspired beyond reason. I think this is what i needed. Heres a quick painting i did for the "Creature of the Week" at the conceptart.org website. A 20-30 min figure study, and some sketches to break in my new PC Tablet which im loving.

Blizzard Fan art contest

2006-09-15T21:48:00.000-05:00

So this is what i been working on for the past few weeks, when i had the time. The detail in this low res verison doesn't quite do it justice but you get the point. Oct 9th is when they'll reveal the winners so lets cross our fingers.

Back to Action!

2006-05-31T11:23:00.000-05:00

Hows your weekend? My memorial day weekend was alright, got to paint and hang around my lonely apartment. I tried to get out when friends wanted to hang out with me. I did a painting of the outside of my balcony apartment too with Art Rage program. Still getting the hang of that. I was planning on doing concepts for a book i started to read, Neuromancer, this weekend but i never got the chance to finishing any sketches, just some rough thumbs.

Get to da Choppa

2006-05-24T02:21:00.000-05:00

heres a quick one i started during the morning, played a little in the afternoon and finished when i had free time.

painter essentials 2

2006-05-23T11:39:00.000-05:00

here some low res sketch i did yesterday at the end of the day. Inspired by the one artist i saw with awesome life paintings. But, this was just from the head, started off as just playing with the brushes.

whos that lady?

2006-05-22T12:07:00.000-05:00

some doodles during work on saturday of this korean star that i found out on Kineda.com

2006-05-14T16:33:00.000-05:00

this week was pretty crazy, e3 and all that.
heres a quick one on Saturday.

under the sea....

2006-05-07T21:14:00.000-05:00

Went to the zoo the other day and saw Finding Nemo the other day, so it was bound to happen.

2006-05-01T12:40:00.001-05:00

Finished this piece, ultimately though its a failure. the perspective i wanted i couldnt get cuz the riders would be completely out of the picture. it was a nice attempt and i should learn to not try and make grand images cuz im not ready to make them.

Samurai Freeplay

2006-04-21T02:17:00.000-05:00

Hey there, havent posted in a while. Actually i havent done anything personal in a while. This is just a freestyle speed painting i did. Just tried to quick and speratic(sp?). Hard round lines with pen pressure to give the gloppy paint look alla Mullins, tried to use the least amount of other dynamics function as i could. Began as a Samurai Champloo inspired painting(listening to the soundtrack all day at work) but became its own thing, im fine with that.

Art Rage Part 2

2006-03-20T14:03:00.000-06:00

just another quick one today.

Art Rage is all the Rage

2006-03-17T20:52:00.000-06:00

Heres some quickies i did with ArtRage 2, the program definetly got way better. I think i'll buy it cuz the price is pretty cheap. It emulates oils really well, i had fun. It definetly brought back the days of doing it traditionally without buying the paints.
First ones a Baroque style painting. Donno who it is, im not even religious. Just came to my head when doing an oil painting demo for Jeff. Second one is pirate-iffic. Arrrrrrr.

i guess this is postable

2006-03-16T13:53:00.000-06:00

Since this freelance gig never went anywhere and i didnt get paid for it.

underpaintings

2006-03-14T20:27:00.000-06:00

heres some cahracter paintings of my two riders, the boy and the warrior on horseback in my CGtalk contest illustration.
I wont even show their fronts in the illustration so this is just to get a understanding of the character. a little thing i liked to do back in college with my assignments.

again, not finished with these but i got a chance to work on it some more. lemme know what you think, be honest.

Journey Begins?

2006-02-27T21:55:00.000-06:00

Just joined the CGTalk CG Challenge XIX: The Journey Begins. This should be fun. I'll be posting my WIP stuff at this thread.

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=322613

The Rescue Effort

2006-02-26T18:00:00.000-06:00

Speed painting using the Sparth technique from the Gnomon Workshop. Its really helpful to get shapes you'd normally noodle forever and ever.

maybe old stuff?

2006-02-14T13:17:00.000-06:00

just something i was working on before i my life changed turned upside down and i traveled back and forth between Michigan and California. I will surely miss the sheltered life of Michigan.

you may have seen this, im just putting something up for update sake.

old school

2006-02-13T14:52:00.000-06:00

who you gonna call?

2006-02-12T01:23:00.000-06:00

might work this up some.

VS. Card Art

2006-02-10T21:24:00.000-06:00

Man some of this art from VS card game are really sweet. I'm headed down to Newport Beach this weekend for the Pre-release Xmen set event. I wonder what stuff they're giving away.

Heres some of the cards i was talking about.

Bloggin', mainstream style, sellin' out

2006-02-09T11:58:00.000-06:00

First post, wooo. Well, this blog is specificly for my art post and ect, when i can get a chance to do personal work . Just for myself you guys to check out. But who know who else is watching.......

well, heres just a sketch on a sticky pad i may work up.