Happy Holidays

a little Holiday e-card I made to send to friends and family...

Dec 6-7 sketches

At Waves coffee again this weekend... arrived late. so only got 1 page.
but got some other sketches done from the photos I took of the Vancouver DTE. I'm hoping to get some of these painted on canvas. so these would serve as a study.

I recently moved into Gallery 221A, an artist collective also known as NOART, formed by Emily Carr students. It's a great place located in the Vancouver Chinatown area where food, transit, and other resources are within close proximity. I'm wanting to paint more so hopefully having a studio space would give me some motivation to start.

and I dropped by Basic Inquiry for a quick drawing session...

here's this weekends batch of updates.

Back to Waves

We're back at Waves Coffee this week... and despite the depressing weather, word of a Vancouver Sketchgroup book has be floated around the table today which kinda lightened up the mood. Woohoo! We've just been brainstorming on how to go forth with this little project since it's going to be a collaborative effort. I'm really looking forward to this. Anyway, today's sketches at Waves.

Café Deux Soleils Sketch

We decided to change from Artigiano's to Commercial Drive's Cafe Deux Soleils for this week's sketchgroup because of the pricey Vancouver downtown parking meters... Lighting inside was horrible... but it had a great atmosphere and lots of interesting people to draw. anyway, here are this week's sketches.

SFIV Inside cover art contest....

So here's my Street Fighter IV contest entry for the inside cover art...
dunno if it'll make it... but keeping my fingers crossed...

Basic Inquiry revisited

I was back in town once again... it's been like 6 months since I did any figure drawing... so thought I'd drop by Basic Inquiry for a quick gesture session.

Cafe Artigiano sketches

Attended sketchgroup at Caffe Artigianno's this week. Seems like the paneling thing has become a recurring theme in my cafe sketches... so I decided to experiment a bit with them. Thank you Sunny, for letting me try your brushes. The india ink pen was awesome. Here are this week's sketches.

Sketchgroup @ Studio 221A

Interesting Sketchgroup this week... Normally we'd have the sketchgroup at a coffee house, but this week, it was decided that we head to Studio 221A for the sketchgroup. Thanks to Jonathan for accommodating us. The interior setting was a nice change of pace from the regular coffee house setting. The studio was filled with things to draw. I could spend a whole day just sketching in there. anyway, here are this week's sketches.

Sketches @ Blendz Coffee

still had some momentum from yesterday's sketchcrawl so decided to meet up with a couple of friends to do more sketching at Blendz coffee on Granville and Broadway. This is actually a pretty good location for drawing since it's right next to the busstop and there are people coming and going, and waiting for the buses etc. but of course i didn't draw ANY people this time.. next time around. here were the sketches done today...

Sketchcrawl Vancouver

Joined the 20th Annual International Sketchcrawl in the cold and windy Vancouver. Location was on Granville Island. First time joining. Compared to the other sketchcrawls around the world, I guess our turnout was not as impressive. I think we had about 15 people? But it was great drawing on the island and got to meet a lot of talented new people around town. If the weather was a bit warmer and the sun was out a bit earlier i think our group could have stayed together a bit longer before splitting off into groups. Here are the sketches from the crawl.

Nike Air Flight

Another sketchbook paint session. This time of my Nike Air flights! about 1-1.5 hr study.

Still Life studies

Been trying to do some traditional painting lately.. so did some still life studies in my sketchbook... Thanks to Jonathan for letting me use his studio space for these and setting up.
The Gekkeikan Sake bottle was really intimidating to paint.

Egg Doodles

Something totally random... was thinking of making a banner... but might not use this after all...

Lock's Quest and Ibuki at PAX...

The Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) was this weekend and 5th Cell was showcasing Lock's Quest at the THQ booth, the game we finished not too long ago due for release on September 8th. Here's a shot of the setup.




What's cool about our setup is that you can bring your Nintendo DS there and download a playable demo of Lock's Quest to take home... and many did! lots of great feedback for the game so hopefully that would translate into sales. woohoo! "Bring your DS Down Load Demo Here".

Other highlights included being able to see alot of awesome playable demos, especially Starcraft 2! Left 4 Dead was cool too, got to play it at Valve a week ago. Also got to play WiiMusic and see WarioLand which looked amazing.

Dan Paladin, the artist for Castle Crashers, was a super nice guy. He signed ALL of my Castle Crashers figurines, which i'm very grateful for. I'm Gllad I picked them up because now they are all out of stock!

PAX was the second convention-type thing i've been to since the San Diego Comic Con. It was a bit smaller than what I had expected it to be after going to the San Diego Comic Con, but from what I hear, it's growing every year because E3 closed its doors to the gaming public and went strictly industry exclusive, so gamers who were looking for an opportunity to demo the new up and coming games came to PAX! It was a great turnout and look forward to next year!

On another note, I did see the Street fighter Tribute issue at the Udon Comics' Booth and took a snapshot of my contribution to this wonderful book! it's on Page 284! I was trying to find it at the Capcom booth during the San Diego Comic Con and gave up because it was waaay too crowded and people were in a hurry to buy stuff, so I didn't want to hold up the line. Pax was more laid back and I was able to just stand there and flip through every page of the book. Kinda wish I had my copy now! Here's the snap of my Ibuki from Street fighter III...

collab.

It was a pleasure working on this collaborative piece with Jimmy Ly. It started out as a rough sketch by Jimmy and we passed it back and forth a couple times before finally calling it done.

sketches

some starbucks sketches... of random ppl.

Sleep

random quick sketch i did before sleeping... haven't done any work for myself lately, and had the urge to draw something... anything....

RE: Sandiego Comic con.

Ok. so the San Diego comic con was AWESOME!!! I've never seen so many comic book/toys/game enthusiasts gather in one event. Crazy! Met lots of great artitsts and got to demo Street fighter IV! and to top it off... I got to meet Yoshitaka Amano. Yes I looked like a total fan boy even though i was supposedly there to promote a comic I worked on, "Lock's Quest: Source for Hope". The hour wait in line was totally worth it. I forgot the names of the people who helped me get my Amano books signed because we were only allowed one book each!!! but Thanks to Eddy, for helping me get a book signed, and the two anonymous people waiting in line without any books. Here's a personalized.... yes, PERSONALIZED sketch from Amano.




Regarding the Lock's Quest comic is an 8 page, nintendo DS box-sized comic based off of the game. The game hits shelves Sept 2008. It's the game we just wrapped up at 5th cell, so was pretty excited about that. If you want a copy of the comic, it'll be bundled with the game when you buy it. Here's the Coverart.

Esquires Coffee

Was back up in Vancouver this weekend and sketched this at Esquires Coffee on 16th & Oak. Nothing in particular.. just random armour stuff... the monkey in the middle was an accident. lol.

Mr. & Mrs. Potato head & fries...

joined up with the Vancouver Sketchgroup over the weekend before my Grad show at Emily Carr Insititute of Art & Design. I had never seen the campus soooo packed in all my 4 years there. Got to meet up with some fellow grads i haven't seen in a while. It was cool to see what everyone produced for the grad project.

Grad Project fin: Faith, Peace, Hope

So i've finally finished my grad project!!! pretty excited how it turned out. took me about a couple of weeks on and off. i was kinda getting sick of it after the first 2 weeks and waited another 2 weeks before picking it back up. tomorrow is the deadline so HAD to add the finish touches. Grad show is next week! I think I've pushed myself for this project quite abit. I normally don't paint..First time doing gold leafing.. and this is by far the biggest i've worked with painting in acrylics and experimenting with various pastes and gels. this piece consists of 3 panels each 2X5 Ft. done in acrylics. C&C welcome. now time to get some sleep...

Goodbye for now Vancouver....April 13 gestures

Welp, it's probably my last session at Basic Inquiry as I prepare for my move down south to my new home Seattle! Might drop by once in a blue moon.. but I look forward in seeing what Seattle has to offer!
I will be doing concept work for 5th Cell, a little independent gaming company I've been lucky enough to be freelancing for the past couple of years. Should be fun working there!

until then,
here's what came out of last weekend's session.
PS: I screwed up the date on these drawings. they should have said 13th. didn't notice until i checked the date today....