My Mind Miners Don't Mind Mining.

Late night doodle

2012-01-28T03:41:00.003-05:00

Ah, these guys kept me up past my bed time. Usually they want me (and everyone else) asleep! How else are they gonna feed on our slothful energies? Ah well, at least it was fun zombifying through it.

I dunno about those tentacles or "feelers" draping off its snout, though.

Watch out for the Pufflyrump!

2012-01-27T18:51:00.005-05:00

A devious little critter that takes advantage of Nature's charms by looking cute.

When hungry, a Pufflyrump will scamper around looking for potential targets, usually any person or animal that is old enough to take care of the young or old. It stealthily creeps up to the target as to avoid detection (because it really isn't a helpless looking thing afterall) and when close enough it shows up by plopping itself down right in front of the target. It feigns helplessness by flapping around in circles and chirping noisily (albeit very loud too) in the hopes to garner affection from the target. If the target doesn't respond, then the Pufflyrump will pull in its outer body and retract its legs and use its mesmerising stare ability to weaken the target's will. If the target shows even the slightest resistance, then the Puffyrump will impose its will even harder as evidenced by the bulging eyes and puffed up appearance. It will not stop until the target succumbs to its mesmerising stare. Failure to do so will really deflate its ego, and loss of appetite will follow.

Dragon Warrior Drags on and on

2012-01-27T01:28:00.003-05:00

Gah. I hate writing something up for the blog. I just never know what to write.

Ok, here's a dragon warrior on guard. Guarding what? Some tyrant of a king? Some enchanted treasure? A magical fruit stand? All of the above? I dunno. Just looking tough, I guess. He's paid to look that way. Kinda like a bouncer.

Bald Headed Cluckerbuck

2012-01-11T07:46:00.004-05:00

This drawing took about 2 hours total from drawing to finish. Trying to go for speed here since I have a brand new schedule going and there's not enough time in a day to do everything I want to do. But it's working good so far. Tons of work overall but fun.

Year of the Dragon

2012-01-08T09:29:00.005-05:00

To those born in the year of the dragon. This is your year!

Finally got a new monitor. Now I can see things the way they're meant to be seen!

Try-hard-atops

2011-12-14T21:16:00.004-05:00

Scrying/Pareidolia.

Yesterday night while laying in bed with the night light on, I see this guy casually glancing over in my direction in the hallway. It's actually coming from a pile of cloth folded up and stacked on top of a little table neatly tucked away into the corner. It'll make sense to you if you consider how blind as a bat I am without my glasses so the pile of clothes blur into something else with the way the night light was shining on it. I wanted to get up and draw him down right away, but since I just got into bed, I was in no mood to get up. I was way too tired so I just forced myself to memorise what I can by breaking it down the shapes into colours, the shape of the creature and by using image associations (looks like this, looks like that..) to help me remember. I paid more emphasis on the colours and the lighting than the actual creature.

I'd say it came out kinda close.

Sketch Dump

2011-12-13T23:56:00.002-05:00

Some more randomness.

Slugclops

2011-12-12T23:39:00.003-05:00

I think it's missing a monocle and a moustache.

Warm ups

2011-12-11T23:24:00.006-05:00

Julia Cameron "The creative process is a process of surrender, not control. "

It looks like my inner demons are trying to come out. I think I'm going to start doing dark to lights on Photoshop first to warm up before drawing with pen on paper instead of the other way around. It seems to be less frustrating this way.

WIP Update

2011-12-09T02:49:00.001-05:00

Been working on a WIP from before. It can be found HERE.

Monster of the Day

2011-12-08T20:41:00.003-05:00

I feel so much better. This totally made up for my painting yesterday which left me quite frustrated.

Parts of the skeleton looks pretty mangled up but you get the idea.

And yet another Snailien

2011-12-07T17:13:00.004-05:00

Blah, just blah... Feels like I have a long ways to go before this guy is actually finished. But I'm so sick of it at this point that I'm calling it done. So there!

Follow your Bliss -- Joseph Campbell

2011-12-06T16:02:00.002-05:00

Dump'em-ber (december dump) Sketches

2011-12-04T22:13:00.004-05:00

Drawing is soooo much more enjoyable if you're not fixated on the outcome!

Heck, I didn't even like these drawings too much, but I felt better when I digitally fixed up one of them. It's forcing me to keep pushing through instead of saying "Ah, good enough." I can keep going but I caved in to the path of least resistance already. Tsk tsk...

Looking at it again, I can see every sketch above as a potential digital fixer upper. I tend to think of every sketch as "final" without touching it up any further.

December Dumpage

2011-12-03T23:45:00.002-05:00

And some more dRAWRings...

December Sketch Dump

2011-12-02T16:33:00.004-05:00

Scrap collection of various doodles drawn on envelopes with some minor alterations on Pshop.

Digi-doodle

2011-11-30T17:19:00.004-05:00

This took way too long to do something 'simple and quick'. Someone take an oar and smack me across the head with it, please!

Besides, I needed a pic for my deviantart profile to replace the dreadful blank space taunting me everytime I log in. Now, it will leave me alone in peace.

Old drawing plucked from here.

Random dumm dum

2011-10-15T04:57:00.005-04:00

Dumm dumm dum duummmmm...dumm dumm dumm duuummmm....da da da dee da da da dum da da dee duumm....da da da dee da da dum ...

Messed around on Photoshop for an hour or two to clear away the cobwebs inside my brain.

No plan, no story, no characters in mind, no intention other than just drawing for the sake of drawing.

Dream

2011-09-29T01:19:00.002-04:00

I had a dream where I was looking through all of my artworks lately. By lately I mean, the ones I haven't drawn at all and yet they existed (perhaps on a quantum level?) as already drawn in the dream. I haven't drawn anything in months really. All kinds of wonderful stuff that I don't even recognise nor remember ever doing and yet, there was that feeling that they were all drawn by me. I had this quizzical thought "I drew these?" and then after noticing the volume of works laying before me, I thought to myself "Hey! Why don't I post these up on my blog?" Then I bolted up awake, all super-excited, as if I'm getting ready to go scan these artworks in and when I got up from bed, that's when I realised "Oh right... that was just a dream..."

Now, that, was a bit too weird for me.

Another day, another monster

2011-06-29T01:40:00.001-04:00

Monster of the Day

2011-06-28T05:57:00.002-04:00

A monster a day keeps the shrink away.

Flash from the Past

2011-06-27T22:37:00.006-04:00

I was looking through my older sketchbooks today and found some things that had taken me back to those nostalgic days. I feel somewhat overwhelmed at the thought of revisiting the past, and also, about scanning everything in from old sketchbooks, so I decided to pick these two vampire thingies out of them all. According to the sketchbook cover, it was dated way back in 1997. I'm not sure if this is right because we were doing sheridan college back in those days, so I'm thinking maybe around 2000 instead.

Anyways, I figure I wanted to show these because in a way, it would be like exorcising my personal demons by releasing them so I can let go of it (blockages and all) and move on. I didn't get around to doing anything worthwhile with this project for whatever reason(s) and so, it almost feels like a missed window of opportunity that presented itself at the time. If we don't do them, then someone else surely will! So then, it feels like I have lifted a Non-Disclosure Agreement in allowing it to be shown for the first (or second time with the following link at the end of this page).

Speaking of Non-Disclosure Agreements, how many of our personal projects have NDA-like policy written all over them? I know I have a couple of others that I want to keep secret for now but in time they will be shown. There are some already shown in public anyways, just not shown in all its entireity. Hopefully I don't let it fester long enough. How many have slipped by unnoticed over the years without showing them to the world, with only a select few privy to look at them? Maybe It's just another one of those fears that if we release these ideas out too soon, then someone's bound to steal them or do them quicker than we can and cash in on them. Or maybe keeping them secret really does give it some sort of motive power and releasing them to the world prematurely kills that drive to have it created in the first place. At any rate, they are fears that motivate us afterall, and even if they do get imitated or stolen or in whatever way you imagined them manifesting itself, then why should that matter anyways? We do what we do because we love to do them, otherwise we wouldn't be doing them.

Ah well, it's nothing new under the sun, adding a new twist to an old idea that became so overly cliche. So I don't really feel bad about it. At the same time I don't really want to judge it.

The way I look at it, all of these ideas are up there like floating around freely for anyone to pick up. It's probably part of the collective unconsiousness and they do get individually channelled from time to time.

About the drawings.

These drawings were based off a strange dream that I had. Vampires were a common occurrence in dreams as well as harpies and ninjas during that time. Sometimes they still are but they're not so common nowadays compared to back then. These were interesting dreams because it had nothing to do with me. It was like I took a backseat, grabbed some popcorn and watched a movie being played out in dream-time, and in this case, it was about a character who had shapeshifting powers, mostly of a jelly-like octupus of sorts so that he could ooze his way through crevices, ducts and tight spots that are otherwise impossible for humans to go through. He was an infiltrator by trade, dressed up like a ninja with a wet-suit of sorts stealing state-side secrets and things of that nature.

The setting takes place in an alternate dimension in a world war 2 era with vampires as the nazis. It then takes me to an area just outside a mansion owned by the villain of the dream, inside a forest near a cliff, with greenhouses nearby orderly lined up, (more like props to mislead surveillance) which leads to hangars underground with military jets with wings that curl up/folded up in tow. The hangars had loading docks that were more like the insides of a gun barrel that shoot out these jets that were fastened onto roller-coaster like tracks and levies. Their exit point is at the end of the cliff.

The object that the infiltrator planned on stealing in this dream is a living bio-book, paper and living material fused together to create some kind of sentient thinking machine. Inside it had all the secrets to the dark arts. The cover had a disturbing visage. As the infiltrator was stealing the book and putting it inside his backpack, it seemed to animate in a writhing-like way about its skin, sorta lip-syncing the words. It was saying something but I cannot hear what it was saying, as it was emitting a low frequency noise that only the main villain of the dream could hear, who is a vampire but more bat-like than man. It was his personal sounding alarm. I guess bat-like vampires could hear this sort of frequency, a form of echolation perhaps. He notices it and summons his vampire guards to go to his room to have it checked out. The infiltrator's backpack is also, for some reason, a living sentient thing which resembled a baby-fetus with its elastic-like skin able to accomodate objects inside it, or absorb it completely on some quantum level and convert it somehow, and for it to stretch out to wrap its arms around the host. It talks to the host, perhaps guiding him with the layout of the place as if its some personal GPS device..

Eventually amidst all the chaos and the action, the infiltrator makes his way through to one of the greenhouses and steals a jet to escape. The escape infuriates the villian so he summons his team of succubuses who are like trackers of some sort, and orders them to go after his book. They smile and their eyes light up, and the dream fades to black.

Another one of these drawings can be found HERE.

Dragon on Duty

2011-06-26T21:56:00.003-04:00

For some reason I was still thinking about the vancouver riots. The media is still nudging us about it, especially in light of the latest kissing couple. And while I was thinking that, this dragon here has been extra diligent in protecting his/her gold while the looters are still looting/rioting around (in mind).

How did the dragon guarding the gold thing ever got started anyways?

Why would it even care about monetary things? Perhaps dragons know about the weaknesses in humanity's heart so it puts gold there as bait since people will greedily gravitate towards it. It sure is a lazy way of catching your own food by having them go towards you.

Or maybe it's just another one of those metaphorical type of things. About blockages that we need to break down in order to get at something. About a huge resevoir of latent potential hidden deep within us with some powerful force guarding it, to prevent us from accessing that potential.

Speed Paint -- sorta

2011-06-23T01:29:00.000-04:00

All Photoshop CS-whatever.

I normally hate drawing on wacoms but painting dark to lights is a totally easier approach than drawing. For me anyways.

Well it did started off as a quick speed paint. Zooming in to refine some of the details took longer than anticipated. So, I don't know, maybe this process took an hour 30 minutes total. Sloppy slow paint is more like it.

Harpies ... again?

2011-06-22T10:34:00.006-04:00

Trying for a silhouette style.

Vulture Grim Reaper cont'd

2011-06-21T21:20:00.005-04:00

Well blogger's "add image" function seems to be not working for me, or the service is slow/down at the moment. So I'll just re-link yesterday's post here for reference.

Edit: Added text due to CapnG's comment about the vulture + grim reaper combo.

About the vulture grim reaper creature. Now that I think about it, it reminds me of a few combination of all things Grim Reaper and a dash of Froud's Dark Crystal. But mostly early childhood/early adult memories of a certain Gundam character with a sickle, a certain Eldar Exarch of Warhammer 40k, and the Grim Reaper(s) of the earliest Castlevania games that terrified us in the dark with their 8/16 bit pixelated goodness on the NES/Super NES. Then mix their essences together with bird-like creature in a bird creature world and voila~, a vulture grim reaper is born.

Maybe that's all what ideas are. A recombination of ideas already seen and done before, made anew to give a fresh new perspective on it. Go here if you want to read about the Words of Wisdom, which is an art history type of blog that sometimes include essays, transcripts of lectures, excerpts, and quotes of other famous or not-so-famous artists. That link above talks about ideas in that kind of way.

Anyways, as for vulture/grim reaper character, it reminded me of the infamous photo of a vulture on the ground waiting for a crying baby to die. Was probably one of Time's all-time famous photos or perhaps from National Geographic. It was about the (on-going?) starvation crisis that a country in Africa was going through. I don't remember the source but I'm hoping that most of you know of it. Google Image search "vulture looking at child".

It makes me wonder what a vulture goes through while watching something die before eating it.

Does it know from first hand experience of the most graceful ways of dying? I mean, sitting there watching its food dying takes a while, repeated each time per meal, over the course of a vulture's life, so it logs up a lot of time watching things die. One experience might have the vulture thinking "oh, how embarrassing. I wouldn't want to die like that." And maybe it has witnessed some amazing displays of grace and is so moved by that, so that it also knows how to act in a similar way when it comes to their turn to die. This line of thought also brings up a certain passage of a certain religious book that a friend brought up to me about how angels would violently rip the wicked soul's body out of the carcass with the feeling akin to that of being thrown through a bush full of thorns, while tenderly helping the good souls out of theirs. So I imagine sometimes maybe vultures do the same to their meals. That it eats the most graceful ones' flesh so tenderly while violently ripping another animal's flesh up if it had died embarrassingly.

Or does its stomach grumble as it sits there impatiently for it to die, while anticipating the wondrous taste of rotting flesh without the slightest sense of empathy?

After all vultures do wait awhile after something is dead before eating it. Is it out of respect for the dead, or to make sure that it's finally dead? Does it terrify them to eat something that's still alive when the vulture thought it was already dead? so is that why they wait, to be doubly sure?

Or do they wait and see souls leaving first, giving them a go-ahead signal to eat it on some mystical level?

Or because they savour the 'smell' long enough, or when it's fermented enough like distilled wine almost as if it's just right before eating?

Well, you get the gist of it. This is probably one of the good sides to over-analysing things to death. There's all kinds of ways of seeing into a character by asking questions like these. Then it's just a matter of choosing which one you like the best and going with it.

Another Sketch Dump

2011-06-20T03:13:00.005-04:00

Here's a bundle of sketches from over the last few days.

Some More Snailians

2011-06-20T03:08:00.003-04:00

Col-erase blue pencil, bic pen on paper. Slight touchups on Photoshop.

Jogeetv Scrying

2011-06-17T20:52:00.005-04:00

I took a screenshot over at Dax + bro's show when it was just starting out tonight. I keep seeing a bunch of different images every time he randomly darkens/lightens the piece so I decided then and there that a screenshot snapshot would be one way of recording what I see. That way, I can draw whatever that I saw at that moment in time before his image changes completely.

This is just one such image that I saw. It's a crab looking creature with a really stiffed arm claw on the far right. I didnt want to change it too much because I liked the texture it had. I didn't add too much of what was already on there anyways. Just a few lines here to suggest the shape, darken some bits to shade it and then added a few white to highlight other parts. Pretty simple and fast.

Also, the way he was texturing the piece up so fast with his brushes like that would simply kill my computer. It's an old computer in dire need of upgrades. =S

Screenshot is also 72 dpi so I didn't want to spend too much time dabbling in it and getting carried away.

Feather Brained Cont'd

2011-06-15T16:56:00.004-04:00

I was staring at this piece for a long time and then it occurred to me to add another bird creature to the mix in an attempt to tell a story of some sort. I'm not sure if it really helps here at all but the idea of another creature of its kind itched my brain. Had to scratch it before I could even go to bed yesterday night. I also dabbled with the colouring as well but that's not turning out too well. So, I'll just show the black and white version for now.

Feather Brained

2011-06-14T23:56:00.004-04:00

And yet another bird creature.

Bic pen on paper.
DigiColoured on Photoshop.

EnvElope

2011-06-13T01:37:00.003-04:00

Drawn on the back of a bank envelope. DigiColoured on Photoshop.

Warm Ups

2011-06-12T00:42:00.004-04:00

Well I decided to warm up by referencing from people photos and then adding feathers to them in the end to make harpies. I fleshed out the pose that I wanted and found a matching photo to reference from, mostly for the torso/head/face. Realism is pretty damn challenging.

Edited:

Updated with an attempt at drawing a background for this character. Perhaps they have launching pads throughout their world and a place to bird-feed/check their mail. =P

Howdy

2011-06-08T02:16:00.002-04:00

He (or she, I really can't tell) is trying to reach out to everybody. Give him/her a chance.

Sketch Dump

2011-06-06T02:36:00.004-04:00

The top 3 drawings are from 2006, the bottom 2 are recent.

Friday Fright Night!

2011-06-04T00:16:00.003-04:00

Was drawing this gross thing up while watching bro and Dax draw their DC characters on livestream. I totally recommend it. They got me fired up to draw when I wasn't feeling up to it. 'Twas fun! And that is what it's all about.

If I can remember to do this, I might do up a 1 hour monster thing every friday night while they do their livestreams.

Harping about Harpies

2011-05-31T22:14:00.005-04:00

Everytime I see beautiful women painted in art, harpies and sirens always alights upon my mind.

The top one is just my attempt at drawing an old woman as a harpy. The bug eye and the gnarled hands kinda reminds me of the witch in Snow White. Or maybe that's Cinderella?

A little tidbit about the old woman harpy.. Back in her day, she had a voice that was to die for. She was a rising songstress in the Harping Harpist Full of Harpies Orchestra until an unfortunate incident one day left her vocal box strained/shattered. Who knows how? They won't say. Now she just screeches incoherently and snatches the villager's pets/kids out of spite (or for food).

Another W.I.P

2011-05-27T23:35:00.006-04:00

Edit: Dec 8, 2011. Wow, it's been months since I last worked on this WIP haha. And, it's still not done. Still gotta get the feet in there, the rest of the wings and the hand. Maybe add a weapon too, I don't know. Then touch up the rest of the background as well. Hopefully it will get done soon.

WIP Alt Version

2011-05-25T04:11:00.002-04:00

Ok I got carried away, but in a good way. I wanted to copy/paste a portion of the work since my working file is about 100 megs which was slowing my computer down. It had like, 30329 layers. I was only working with 2 at the moment so I transfered it onto another file and well, it's head was missing since I was working on the torso and arms. Wanted to elongate the torso and I kept going with that. Some other shapes suggested itselves and yeah, so now it's got a new head and shoulders.

Kinda like this version better but I will finish the other one too.

WIP Update

2011-05-24T22:45:00.004-04:00

No idea if this is going to stay but I'm liking it at the moment. Some bits are confusing to me and bugging me atm. It's pretty tough to work this way with blurry splotches, especially looking at it up close from the initial roughs. It's really taking some time to refine the shapes and the lines even further. Either that or I just work sloooow.

There are some floating limbs that are undecided but it's there to be worked on later. We'll see how this ends up as I'm pretty determined to finish this piece.

This post continues from here

May Mayhem

2011-05-23T00:03:00.009-04:00

I think I am deeply disturbed by those "cute" dogs.

Messing around with Pareidolia

2011-05-21T00:41:00.003-04:00

This is what happens when I stare at something for too long, either from something I'm working on or something I'm looking at. It usually ends up spawning another idea.

Sometimes I do random copy/paste sections from various works of mine to create something new for fun, to generate ideas or to create chimaera-like creatures. However this one was a little planned because I did see a snailien-like creature in the first place.

Take yesterday's digital speed paint of the bird creature top left for example. The numbered boxes are individually copied and pasted onto another new file to create what you see for the middle and far right sections.

By copying and pasting, this exercise makes it easier to isolate and see new images seperately to give you a better idea of what you're looking at. In the box numbered 2 is a face, very vaguely what appears to be teeth and there is also an eye way up there too. I darkened some bits, added some wetness on the gum/mouth parts and white outlines somewhere to punctuate things a little more and so on. Then I got busy with the shell and that's all I got for now.

Chirpa Derp

2011-05-20T01:08:00.004-04:00

A not so speed paint that started off as a speed paint. Still a long ways to go before it even looks finished. At this point though, I'm already hating it.

Coming up with titles is hard

2011-05-19T01:02:00.004-04:00

Bic pen on paper, touched up on Photoshop.

What is the stork creature saying at top left?

Thought Du Jour

2011-05-18T17:49:00.002-04:00

"The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. No big laboratory is needed in which to think. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born. That is why many of the earthly miracles have had their genesis in humble surroundings."

— Tesla

Keep up with the shower thoughts, people!

Some Plant Creature

2011-05-18T01:17:00.004-04:00

Angry Franken-food plant creature?

Another envelope drawing with some Photoshop love. The last one there with the helmet had the head copy/pasta'ed and flipped upside down to create the new visor look. The teeth part of the visor has part of the hair cropped off. Can you see the upside down face on the helmet?

Sketch Dump

2011-05-17T23:56:00.003-04:00

Bic pen on mostly envelope paper. I gathered a few days worth of doodles and decided to put them all together as one big post.

One drawing is a partial collaboration by Joverines. It got me thinking of mailing doodled envelopes to random addresses around the country or around the world to have people doodle on them as part of a collaboration of sorts. Then they in turn send it out to another random address and on and on it goes. Inside the envelope will have instructions. It'd be interesting to see where they all end up.

Visual Journal

2011-05-10T16:30:00.003-04:00

Every morning when I wake up, I would just wake up but not get up from bed. I'd just lay there for awhile and imagine while my mind's still fresh from dreaming. I'd take the time first to recall any dreams as I can, and then sort of fall back to sleep somewhat this way to semi-lucid dream what I want to imagine next. Sometimes this fails and I fall back to sleep again, but when it works, it gets me back to seeing things visually again like the way it was back in childhood. Eventually you get excited enough to get up from bed to draw it all down.

Usually I have a topic/theme (i.e birdmen, snailiens are the most frequent themes for me) that I want to imagine the night before just so I don't waste time thinking of what to imagine. The more time you think in words, the more awake you become, and the harder it is to get back to that dreaming state of mind which thinks in moving-pictures. This isn't always art-related as sometimes I use this time to find solutions to current problems or find answers to something philosophical in nature, etc.

This activity also helps to get back into daydreaming as well which is where this drawing comes from. Daydreaming is something that I haven't done in a long time since I was a kid and something that I had problems getting back until now. They're coming back slowly in brief glimpses, a little flash of insight showing me some creature's skin with all of the textures, or just the colours, or even the way it moves. I reckon it's just a matter of time before this develops into a waking dream.

The above is not the greatest drawing ever but it's something I had to jot down quickly onto paper before I forget. They are perhaps... working ideas to be worked on later. And as per usual in my case, later means never. But at least it's all there!

Anyhoo, it all happened during a funeral at church. I couldn't hear a damn word the priest was saying so what's there to do? Daydream? Yeah, kinda. I kept staring at random props at the altar, at the statues of angels, all the way up to the stained glass images (which is where the ant thing comes from), to the candles flickering nearby, until something sets me off to lalaland.

That weird turkey bodied, shakespear'ish looking head figure drawn above was from staring at the way the sunlight was reflecting off the pew. The colour of the pew, the texture of the wood with its wavy lines all helped to form that image. I really didn't do it justice though, but it amused me with its bastardised shakespearean monologue. If the priest was speaking in latin, then perhaps that is where that monologue was coming from. Perhaps at a subconscious level I was hearing it. After awhile the silence was getting to me and tired me out, so I stopped daydreaming to recollect what those visuals I had were about, just like recalling a dream. I numbered them and memorised them as best as I can with the details to draw them later on.

Annnnd, there you go~

Best of Both Worlds

2011-05-06T13:21:00.002-04:00

If this isn't out yet then it needs to hurry. That is all.

More of the Same

2011-05-03T17:42:00.002-04:00

Playing around some more with sn@ils-inspired creatures.

Cyborg bird? Cybird

2011-05-02T20:19:00.003-04:00

Photoshop

Playing around with dark to lights again to shake up the rust in my brain.

Inside the Artist's Loft

2011-05-01T19:24:00.009-04:00

There really ought to be an artist version of Inside the Actor's Studio but with interviews of artists from all over the world instead. Possibly with a similar atmospheric setting on campus or maybe with a gallery theme, with similar engaging questions, and substance over style.

It's really hard to pick out any favourites from that show, but I personally love the one interview with Jim Carey in it. Nice final words at the end too, which I feel speaks for all of us and not just for the actors themselves.

part 1
part 2
part 3

Thoughts of No Return

2011-04-30T16:15:00.003-04:00

One day after watching a few standup comedies on television, I had this thought while showering...

Why are there so many Jewish comedians?

Then it hit me. It all goes back to the Old Testament to the part where Abraham had 2 sons, one from his wife who sired Isaac at 90+ years of age, and the other from his egyptian concubine who sired Ishmael. Abraham's son, Isaac, means "to laugh" and "wisdom". Those two traits are ideally what makes up a comedian.

His half-brother Ishmael would always be the one mocking him. In essence, Ishmael was history's first recorded 'heckler' while Isaac would be the one standing up (for himself?) with his self-deprecating humour.

Now that we know a little bit more about Isaac, how about the time when Abraham was told by voices in his head to go sacrifice Isaac to the altar? Can you imagine if Isaac was a bit like Woody Allen being his neurotic self, talking to his father on the way there? Can't blame him for wanting to sacrifice him.

Envelocrodile

2011-04-27T02:19:00.004-04:00

Bic pen on Envelope
Coloured on Photoshop

Quick doodle, quick colouring.

Scrying Warmup

2011-04-06T23:59:00.004-04:00

Now I did this out of boredom and ended up having some fun with it. I did not expect it to result in anything post-worthy at all. Sometimes I like to look around, browse through something visually abstract in order to peel out images from out of nothingness to generate some creativity. Probably the best way to go at it (at least it works for me) because that can get the creative juices flowing which in turns gets the enthusiasm going. Motivation comes after action afterall.

Top image is something I've drawn as a result from staring at my Firefox browser decorated with a Persona (2nd image down is a screenshot of it) for a long time. I keep looking at a specific corner (as shown by arrows on the screenshot) every time the browser loads up or during lulls in surfing.

For Firefox Personas, go here
Credit also goes to elreviae of deviantart for feeding my soul with the inspiration.

I dunno the technical term or artsy fartsy word for an activity somewhat similar to cloud watching, so 'scrying' will be the word that I'm using for now. Note to self, I really need to write up a "What is Scrying?" section somewhere on this blog soon to avoid repeating myself.

In the end, it doesn't really feel like my work because I'm using someone else's to create another piece. But some parts I could isolate and be happy with that and call it my own. But for now I just love the way it turned out, armour and all, minus the face. I don't care for the face but I wanted it to be a centaur'ish type of creature to begin with.

I am also so very personally tired of the Lord of the Rings Balrog's flaming hair/weapons type of cliche as well, but I ran with the idea anyways so as not to squelch any creative juices during the process. The editing of all things can commence AFTERwards.

Migraine March to May,Meep Meep!

2011-04-05T02:18:00.003-04:00

Ink on paper w/ editing/touchups on Photoshop

Ahhhh feels good to be back into drawing again. Finally got a nice break from the constant headaches so I thought it'd be a good idea to get something drawn inbetween the down times. Yeah, it's not over yet. I fear that they will never end but oh well, what can you do?

Creature Feature

2011-03-09T16:06:00.003-05:00

Two weeks straight of headaches going into the 3rd with no sign of letting down. All the demons + monsters in my head are getting maniacally restless and needs to be let out. So I ended up drawing a few escapees to keep my head from asploding. So far, no mess!

A Few Chicks

2011-02-10T16:33:00.003-05:00

Finally swatted those monkeys off my back! Feels so good and yet it's still proving to be quite a conundrum as far as drawing goes.

I'm still in sitting in purgatory over this whole drawing thing. How do I get back into it and why should I keep doing it? The feeling is lacking and at times I feel like I'm forcing it out of habit without any emotional attachment to it. That's not a good sign, at least not for me anyways. I need that 'special something' to go on with, without that 'special something' there is no point to it. Call it a spark if you will, passion, love or desire. Drawing, sometimes I hate it, sometimes I miss it. I don't always love it so it's very hard to keep on keeping on with this whole thing.

I know the writing sounds pretty dim. It's just the way I feel about it hence the lack of updates over the last few months.

I need something like a comeback. Perhaps a new way of thinking, or feeling, or rediscovering is in order.

Thought Du Jour

2011-02-04T10:04:00.004-05:00

"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."

--- Thomas Edison

“If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search... I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor.”

--- Nikola Tesla

So, after reading Tesla's quote should Edison's quote be 1% genius, 9% perspiration? 90% theory + calculation or something else?

I like turtles

2010-11-25T23:43:00.002-05:00

I wanted to finish up with yesterday's post but it wasn't working so I decided to try something else, something different and paint it with colours this time around. This took about 3 hours. Still got some more to do yet.

Some Bird Doodle

2010-11-23T23:05:00.005-05:00

Ahhh finally the fun comes back. A work in progress.

I'm starting to realise that this is the way I gotta draw from now on as I had minimal frustrations with this process. Gotta throw in some of the scrying process into the mix as well. Then drawing on top of that to solidify your shapes and so on instead of the other way around, which can look screwy at times. At least that's how it seems to work for me... =S

Partial Scrying of a Snailien

2010-11-12T23:24:00.003-05:00

After spending the entire day drawing with fruitless results, I get this one when I have given up all expectations and decided to scribble a bit before going to bed that night. I love how my muse shows up whenever I'm tired. I was looking at a towel and saw this drawing on it. Stared at it for awhile to memorise it, then drew it from memory.

Some days it comes easy, but most days it's a struggle. A never ending battle against the tyrant Ego. Sometimes you gotta bore it to death in order for it to leave you alone so that the right brain can come out to play. Or in this case, too tired to even stay awake that the Ego had already fallen asleep.

And the process will repeat itself all over again. Gotta keep on keeping on.

Slow Days

2010-11-09T23:42:00.003-05:00

Just a quick sketchy sketch of some Snailiens.

Dragonspiration

2010-11-06T23:54:00.003-04:00

Keeping the whole page to a dragon theme of sorts, as inspired by the artwork from "How To Tame a Dragon" from dreamworks.

Something fishy again

2010-11-05T01:05:00.005-04:00

Finally got back to scrying again. This one was off a towel. The textures of the towel suggested the lines and the shadows of the folds suggested the shapes.

It was a tricky session as the shapes were very subtle. It seemed to change shape every time I look back at the towel. To avoid losing track of it, I had to rely on blind contour drawing to get most of it done, really slow. Once I got the segments down I look back at the drawing to fix it up.

The uncoloured parts is the throne where the king sits which also was in the shape of the fish but with wires and tubes at the back, as if its inside a spaceship or something.

Fish hats remind me of mythology all over again, about Sumerian priests wearing fish hats, Oannes as one of the Fisher Kings, dogon tribes meeting fish-like aliens that taught civilisation everything it knew, as well as the Jesus fish symbol which to my theory represents the Age of Pisces that it was in.

Hats of fish, before that, of bison. And the last post was a cat fish creature (either pirate or fisherman) as well. Other than that, I have no idea how to interpret this information. Oh well, not going to overthink it. =P

Fishy Mcfish

2010-11-01T22:00:00.004-04:00

Nothing fancy, used references to warm up with, at least for the fish head.

Happy Halloweenies.

2010-10-30T23:15:00.004-04:00

Sketches drawn while watching Saturday Night Hockey double-header during commercials and intermissions.

Buncha-whachamacallits

2010-10-28T22:29:00.005-04:00

I wanted to do some scrying but nothing showed up so I ended up with this drawing for now.

The 'normal' drawings of the 2 old geezers at the far right are referenced from the local paper as a warmup process. Although the process of drawing these were fun, I still don't get it nor like the overall piece. Oh well, whatever. =S

Latest Dump

2010-10-26T07:19:00.005-04:00

No sleep, no peace!

2010-10-20T22:57:00.006-04:00

Ah, there's no end to this painting at all. I worked on this for 8 hours straight without any breaks, and then some more after I woke up. It seems too awfully long for a piece like this. I wish I worked faster.

It all started from a doodle drawn on the back of a bank envelope (as shown) while I was waiting for tea to boil. It was the only drawing I liked all day so I wanted to post something to keep up with the dailies. By the time I scanned it, I was already fiddling around with it when I meant to scan it, post it on the blog and then go to sleep. One hour went by and then another. I've been up for 24+ hours and then forced myself to sleep around noon. I couldn't sleep afterwards. Then once I did manage to sleep, I only slept for a mere 5 hours. Fun. My sleeping schedule is so hopeless. So I woke up, got up, painted some more and now I'm pretty sick/cranky of this piece. Still looks like a long ways to go but ah well. Eff it.

Alien Jackolantern

2010-10-18T23:43:00.005-04:00

WIP2, top sketch. So far, trying to push it out further. Determined to finish this piece for its sake. Yesterday's painting is a bit different because its not truthfully a dark to lights experience. Its more of a fixed experience where the lines are already there and I'm trying too hard to be accommodating to it when all along certain forces are screaming inside me to change it, that its not the way to be, or that line is out of place or the 3dness is off or for some other reason. But it looks like I'm still too accommodating to it, too fearful of losing the image that I have set out to paint because I really don't want to deviate too much from the original. Well, screw it! =P We'll see where it goes tommorrow.

The sketchbook page was as far as I wanted to take it before quitting after an hour or so. It was drawn too big anyways taking up the entire 11x17 page. Rendering it would take foreverrrrr so I decided to take it up with Photoshop instead. Hopefully this will get done tonight.

Singed Sunflower meets Spawn?

2010-10-14T17:09:00.004-04:00

Playing around with Hallowe'en card ideas...

Homunculus Hijacking Humungous Hemp Hosts

2010-10-13T21:16:00.007-04:00

How a wandering nature spirit seeking to find its own expression in life, commandeers a pumpkin into a living sentient plant creature.

The visage of the pumpkin itself gives inspiration for the form the nature spirit wants to give to its host. If its a frightful look, as usually the case before the days of halloween, then its first impressions will determine the hosts' final material form and 'nature', that of light or dark. With that in mind, the nature spirit beings its work by implanting itself within the pumpkin's core to metamorphosize into a living jackolantern.

Jacko

2010-10-13T20:52:00.005-04:00

This piece suffered from a mental fight within me. At first it was starting to look like a super-villian with a costume idea. I didn't want it to go that way since my Ego wanted to keep it to a jackolantern theme. So you can see half of it as a villain in the making with the other half trying to go for a jacko vein to it. Now its a twisted mess of either version.

Little did I realise that costumes/superheros/villains go well with halloween. So I should have been more faithful with the original idea in the first place!

Punkin' Pumpkins Pillaging Pennsylvania

2010-10-12T22:43:00.007-04:00

Continuing with the Jack'o'lantern theme for the annoys. Each drawing took about an hour and a half or so. Slightly edited on Photoshop.

Muro Drawings

2010-10-12T04:45:00.005-04:00

Using a pallette of limited colours and the whole '8 bit' goodness teaches us to work with less to create more. Learning with new ways of thinking or broadening your thinking despite these limitations set before you. That's what muros are for me.

These are all screenshots of the muros I've drawn over the last few days at deviantart. I thought, what the hell ,why not post them all on the blog to keep track of them? That way, it's a good way to see how far they've progressed over time. Already seeing some repetitions here with the creepy blood-splattered theme. =P

In a way, muros remind me of "Mario Paint". =S

Hellowe'en Time again

2010-10-11T05:08:00.005-04:00

For this experiment I took an earlier drawing and started messing around with the transform tool. First it starts with cloning the batch o' mini-heads on the left, then another batch beside it, and another on top of that. Rotated them all to get the right angles, etc. I kept thinking "okay, that's enough...time for bed" which of course got delayed into a "oh wait, what if I cloned this piece here? and put it here? or wait, how about here instead? OoOooh..." and on and on for 2 more hours. Then I covered it by drawing on top of it, to reconnect severed lines, fix corrections wherever necessary as best as I can to 'hide' the cloned pieces. Except for the "arm" which is really part of the croco's jaw. =P

Of course I can just easily draw it all from scratch, but with this type of experiment it can open up new doors of seeing.

The surprise for me comes with the discovery of the croco head in its belly. I originally wanted to make a big opened stomach-mouth similar to Bishamon from Darkstalkers. The rest just fell away to reveal more croco features as I went along.

Hunger calls: Updated WIP

2010-10-11T01:55:00.004-04:00

Started working on the merman type of creature by smudging all the lines to get all warmed up with the process. After I have done that, I went over with a paintbrush at 25% opacity to smooth it out even more. So far so good.

Some of the facial features are getting a makeover. You'll notice the cheekbone area being changed which at this point is still not finalised. Hopefully it doesn't deviate too much from the original drawing.

Original drawing here

Hellowe'en Time!

2010-10-10T23:18:00.008-04:00

Remember kids, say NO! to bio(technology) foods! They just might eat you instead.

Actually I might keep up with this theme and do a jackolantern sketch every day from now on until Hallowe'en. Or maybe forever if it's too much fun.

Yeah...

2010-10-10T23:05:00.004-04:00

Sometimes no matter how bad it gets, I keep going with it for the sake of finishing it and to make it look as best as I can. Although I really do need to put some more effort into the hands. =/

The one on the left was the first drawing of the day so I just went with whatever comes to mind. No judgements whatsoever. It's best to save the critical process for the editing phase. If it ever gets that far...

Those two are not meant to be interacting with each other.

Likes long walks at the Beach..

2010-10-10T00:00:00.002-04:00

Cthulhu / Ganesha or both. Or other? Take your pick.

Hunger calls

2010-10-08T23:44:00.004-04:00

11x17 computer paper
red bic pen (not that good for desaturating!)

I was staring at my blog banner for awhile thinking of what to draw next until I begin to see/scrye this image drawn here. It really wasn't done on purpose. It just happens. Gotta love it when it works like that.

Treating this as a working file, to be thrown on top of the other working files that needs finishing. Zomg. =S

Creepy and Cute?

2010-10-07T20:02:00.002-04:00

Going for a creepy and cute approach to maximise the appeal.

However looking back on it, I think its partly inspired by my dog who earlier in the day woke me up from my sleep by having her leg involuntarily kick me repeatedly. For hours.

Annoy Sketch of the Day!

2010-10-06T22:23:00.006-04:00

Original sketch is in red. I edited the final one on Photoshop using mostly the transform tool to stretch/resize various parts with copious amounts of cloning.

Annoy!

2010-10-05T18:13:00.004-04:00

11x17 computer pager
bic pen

Yeah, got back into doing the "Annoys" again! I have to say that this was the most fun I've had drawing in a long time. I enjoyed every minute of the process easily getting into the zone thoroughout. I've been drawing/staring at it up close for 2 hours straight. Still not done with the entire shading process but the pen was sputtering out of ink so that was a sign for me to slow down and take a break. =P

Perhaps it's just getting back to my roots again. Who knows. I want to keep this up every day like the way it was meant to be back then. Hopefully I'll figure out a way to make sure it works daily without falling back to the usual rut and typical slacking.

Some things bug me slightly. The hands and one of the foot really irks me. But I figure I might colour it later and fix the hand/feet from there. Gotta update my deviantart with some fresh paintings. It's been awhile.

I must give credit to an exercise called "The morning pages". It's about writing 3 pages worth of streaming-conscious type of writing which must be done daily. It's from the Artist's Way site, the link can be found here but I must warn you as it's in .PDF format so it might be a long load for some viewers. You can go to this link here instead to get a general idea of it. I usually have the PDF link as my bookmark as that is what I usually go back to reading every now and then to refresh on my objectives. I totally recommend this exercise for anyone who struggles to open up their creative flow. Not only does it open you up creatively, it also teaches you to be less critical with everything.

Space Thug --- Updated

2010-10-04T23:31:00.003-04:00

Ok, so, after I posted earlier I thought about the Snailien thing a bit further and saw that it could be more of a caterpillar type of creature than a slug. I really wanted to get away from the typecast thing this time. It's still sci-fi so they could easily be integrated with that world anyways.

Space Thug

2010-10-04T16:51:00.006-04:00

A doodle while waiting for things to cook, about 15-20 minutes or so. My hunger seems to be channelling my muse these days.

I can't tell if that is one creature or two as my thoughts shifted immediately once I drew the head/torso part with the gun. The slug was there as if I had nothing else to go on with. Maybe a "Snailien" tried to merge with it, or come out of there.

Must all slugs of mine become Snaliens? I feel like I'm typecasting them already. =S

Sleepy Skelet-ember

2010-09-29T15:11:00.002-04:00

Skeletor's long lost distant cousin? His lesser-evil twin brother? I don't know.

Drawn on line paper with a bic pen while boiling noodles. Touched up on Photoshop slightly.

Fall Sucks.

2010-09-23T00:32:00.004-04:00

Yep, persistent issues annoy me. Oh well, got an 'annoy' out of it. Yay.

Sleepy September. Its officially Fall season naow. =(

2010-09-23T00:19:00.005-04:00

For this one I tried to fix up a bad drawing, forcing myself to make it better instead of just giving up on it and doing another random new sketch. I kinda like how it turned out despite some persistent issues that I need to address asap. I know it's gonna bug me later on. Also, left some stuff undone because I r lazy. Yes, I know. Stop looking at me like that.

Also copy/pasta is fun. Used it for the back scales and the stomache parts and for the tail off-camera. It's a good way to experiment and see some interesting patterns or whatever.

Head(ache) Fun.

2010-09-22T17:14:00.003-04:00

Figured I'd draw something backwards, from dark to light this time around. It's not as frustrating compared to the normal way of drawing so it's a nice break from the old ways. Still not easy to do though. I like it easier, thank you very much.

I hate fighting with this piece.

Sleepy Septembererer

2010-09-22T03:12:00.005-04:00

Inspired by Zain and Bro tonight.

Digitally drawn for about one and a half hours or so. Still got a long ways to go. Possible W.I.P. Screw it.

Something Sombre (for) Sleepy September

2010-09-15T18:27:00.004-04:00

Ten minute doodle on a newspaper corner. It's about all the drawing that I can stand at this point...

Bic pens + newspapers go hand in hand. There's something about the texture of newspapers that bleeds LOVE (albeit cheap love) for bic pens.

Sleepy September Two

2010-09-11T01:38:00.005-04:00

My Ego's pretty mean. It should not be tormenting my inner Ego-slayer like that.

Sleepy September!

2010-09-10T01:35:00.002-04:00

Digitally drawn. Not to be continued. Evar...

August Apathy Too

2010-08-06T21:36:00.003-04:00

And yet another fungal expedition yielding secrets from within the inner catacombs of my mind.

August Apathy!

2010-08-03T19:33:00.004-04:00

Oooooh, it feels so good to finally get this drawing thing out of my system.

Bloop de whoop

2010-05-11T23:58:00.000-04:00

Doodle Fail

2010-05-10T23:55:00.002-04:00

Another one of those creatively dry run type of days. I look deep down inside and find nothing to work with, NOTHING. Ah well, gotta keep your head down and keep drawing I guess.

Only liked the hair really. Here's hoping tommorrow will be better.

Mmmargarlargle

2010-05-05T22:42:00.002-04:00