New Year's Times Square - painting

4:26 pm Eastern

Several movies and nights later, I finally completed the painting!
Originally, the color palette was a blue and orange, with hints of yellow and green but after playing with the hue/saturation settings, I started liking the purple/blue- red/orange color palette a little more than my original color selection. My original color palette was a more realistic color approach, whereas the purple,red,blue color palette was a more slightly symbolic approach. I don't know if it'll make sense symbolically for everyone, but the warms are for the warmth of being with family and/or friends during New Year's while the cools are geared towards the cold night for everyone, especially those who are at Times Square until past midnight.
I had to find references to see what buildings were around the clock, where the New Year's ball sits and fireworks shoot out from when it hits midnight. References were definitely my friend since I wanted to paint a different angle than the usual front & center, 1 point perspective at the center, approach. It was important for me to figure out what buildings and signs were at the particular angle and height I wanted. I took a bit of a simplistic approach and simplified a few of the buildings and their details but the general idea and hopefully recognition is there.

references for next digital painting for New Years

11:18 am Eastern

Hooray, I finally woke up before noon this winter break. That gives me more time to work on my next painting that I want to finish before New Years.

References:
2013 Times Square; possibly a photoshopped image since it's so crisp and rather flat.

New Years Time Square, unsure which year

New Years 2012, clock reference

New Years, unsure which year; fireworks reference

New Years, unsure which year; 2 hours to go reference if needed

The New Year Ball ; reference; I think it's the more recent one but unsure

Teens of Valor - Chapter 1 page 1

12:21 am Eastern

Page 1 was done in Photoshop, but I plan on doing the rest of the line work in Manga Studio, especially due to availability of rulers and ink lines...and a whole bunch of stuff like text bubbles. I might rethink PS for the text and possibly the text bubbles but I have to see what MS has to be sure.



I finally finished editing and adding details to that last panel on page 1. I think I might redo the chapter cover page as well. I'm thinking of the main character show in two halves, vertically. One is her human side, eye open, another is her super human side, eye closed. The other idea I have is in correlation to the chapter title idea I got earlier this evening. "Who are you?" Main character is in the center with a spotlight on her and surround her in the shadows are the people she first encountered. The latter idea seems more interesting and a little less cliched than the vertical half.

Notes for myself on comic details

2:50 Am eastern 

Page 1, bottom panel 

Need a lot of wires coming out of the transportation platform that go wrap under ( along the ceiling of bottom floor show from ladder exits/entrances)  and making a few leasing to control panel platform 

Looser sources running through walls or at least the columns 

Windows for wale and more doors shown through that window, hallway too and maybe a few people walking there too 

Page 2 , panel 1 

Need light sources , walkway light along either wall or on floor near wall 

Window within window ; show the inner section of interrogation room ; it's not close to the hallway , there's a small space between door and door of interrogation room 

Finally finished page 1 of the newest rewrite of my comic.

12:59 am Eastern

I was about to type 'pacific' again. I'm rethinking about using Manga Studio Debut to get those tones in...unless I just do a really detailed drawing without tone. But then I feel like it's too blank so I might have to actually tone it in the end. Regardless, page 1 has been roughed in; I still need to smooth out some of those values. Perhaps I'll color some panels in the future chapters... when I'm faster at it again.

Home for the holidays which means..!

3:17 pm Eastern

I was halfway through typing Pacific before I realized I was writing the wrong timezone. It's been an odd couple of days for my sleeping schedule; I think I'm still stuck on my Pacific time sleeping schedule. Hopefully I can fix it so I can wake up not so close to noon or go to bed so late...
My eyes are kind of feeling the effects of a messed up sleep schedule now...

I also need to figure out how I want to rewrite the beginning of my comic. The 3rd version, version I started over the summer, has it so it starts from the very beginning with how the main character arrives at the other world but I'm starting to think it's a really slow way to start the comic. I've read comics where the action starts relatively soon.

Samuel L Jackson - head hand study ( final WIP)

11:54 am pacific 

(I think in just wrote pm for my previous post. Oops! )

There are still a few things I'm not satisfied with with this drawing. I wonder if it's because I drew on the rough side of the paper instead of the smooth side...

The hand still seems too big but that may be because of value. And I have a distracting black outline of value around the finger tips. But I was able to take away a lot from this study. 

Miyazaki Hayao - portrait ( final WIP)

11:52 am pacific

It's completed! The nose is the only issue as far as I can remember from the group critique. I can't get it just right yet; it's either too round or too pointy. 

I'm really happy with this piece as well as my growth in my Analysis of Form class. 

Perspective comic- final project for perspective class

2:15 pm pacific 

Ugh, wow I was sleepy... I kept yawning for the first hour of class and kept falling asleep the past hour. Luckily I got out of my class early so I could kinda dooze off outside of class. Unfortunately I can't really sleep since I still have another class/final today, in about an hour. 

I'm glad we had class time to finish up our final project for perspective class since I didn't plan on spending time on it outside of class due to cleaning and packing before Thursday's flight back to NJ. 

While I didn't get an A or a B on it, not like it's be possible since A level work at the Academy of Art would be super perfect drawings, I was still fine with the grade I got; it was consistent with the grades I've been getting this semester (C,C+, B- and maybe B range). 

Since I got out of my first class early, I spent about 2 hours just randomly sketching. It started out with me planning out a background image for my blog that I plan on setting up for my comic, which I plan on restarting over winter break. Then my mind kinda started to drift off and the sketches were a lot looser and I actually dozed off. Luckily I was able to catch myself each time, to prevent myself from falling asleep completely and missing my next class. 

I really wish there was a page break option on the blogger app. Better yet, I wish the weebly blog could be exportable... 

Spirited Away mandala - edited version , final WIP

8:04 pm Pacific 

Disclaimer: I don't own the images for the outermost rings (bathhouse and the tunnel gate); they were posterized from the original and I painted them in with the "background" colors of my color palette. 

Unfortunately, I can't recall who painted the original tunnel gate image (but it is searchable via Google images). The bathhouse image looked like it was from the movie itself. 

Unfortunately, the first version was too off center, as I mentioned in an earlier blog post, so I was able to repaint the whole mandala this weekend. I finished it last night actually and then completely forgot to blog about it! 

You can't see it from the photo due to the light from my lamp bouncing off the photo but I've added some line work on the painting as well. The background (outermost ring) and parts of the dragon as well as Chihiro got some line work. 

Color and Mood study - final WIP

8:01 pm Pacific

Disclaimer: I do not own this artwork/drawing; the original drawing credit is to Kotaki Kekkai. This is simply a color and mood study for my Color and Design class.

I completely forgot to make a post about the completed painting when I finished it.... I think Thursday night. However, here it is! I'm still unsure about the foreground colors; I tried making the shadows cool but I don't know if I added enough blue (well, technically ultramarine). Midground colors look muted though so that's a plus. 

Miyazaki Hayao - portrait ( WIP 4)

10:50 p pacific 

Wow, I've been typing Miyazaki too often to the point that I skip that first A...

Anyway, I'm getting closer to completion! Or at least I hope so/ think so. 

Looking at the image now... I get the feeling that that left sleeve ( image left) is a bit too dark? I'll have to look at the reference image to be sure. Everything else at the moment is reading , which is a huge plus. The reason I'm saying that is in my mind, if it reads, edge control does exist. 

I'm really happy with people's comments about how it looks really great ! 

Spirited Away mandala - edited lines again, final lines

11:04 am Pacific

The previous edit was too off center and awkward especially Haku's (the dragon) shape. If I have time this weekend, I plan on re-painting this but we'll have to see how much time I have with 3 other finals. Though now that I'm playing out schedules in my head, I really only have 2 finals I need to finish this weekend, aside from Color and Design, which I may need to repaint the shadows to make them cool (instead of warm).
Ok, things I should do , in this order:

Fix the shadow issue with Color & Mood study for Color and Design final, before Monday morning.

Get Miyazaki portrait 90% done , before Monday afternoon.

Get Samuel L Jackson portrait done, before Tuesday 

If time permits:

Repaint Spirited Away mandala, before Monday morning.

get any previous assignments to higher level for Analysis of Form class, before Monday afternoon.

get previous head study for Figure Drawing done, before Tuesday.

Miyazaki Hayao - portrait ( WIP 3)

8:31 pm pacific

I finally went from vine charcoal to charcoal pencil and eraser!

Color and Mood study - (WIP)

11: 29 pm Pacific

Big note: I do not own this drawing! This is purely a color and mood study! Actual credit goes Kotaki Kekkai! If I did have anything to own, it'd just be the gouache painting job and the color palette. 

As a final for my Color and Design class, our choice for the "final" was between a Color and Mood or a Mandala painting, with the other painting due the week before our final was due. I figured I'd spend more time on the Color and Mood painting so I decided to have this as my final.

Miyazaki Hayao - portrait ( WIP 2 )

8:07 pm pacific

As the final for my Analysis of Form class, we have do render a portrait of a person*.

* Frankenstein counts

I chose Miyazaki because I really wanted to, either digitally or traditionally, draw and render a portrait of him. I'm really happy with how much progress I've made, both on the portrait and within the class. My instructor even commented saying it looked like I was having fun, which in my book and possibly her's as well, is a good thing! I've still gotta darken a few things and sharpen other things, such as the glasses, but I'm really happy~ 

Pokemon Month on Facebook 2013 - Blaziken fan art

4:56 pm Pacific



I don't know if it's still a thing, but a few of my friends still do this; on Facebook, December is Pokemon Month. The original "rules" I heard of the first year I did this, which I think was at least 2 years ago, was something along the lines that you had to change your profile picture every so often though I forgot the interval. Last year I digitally drew and painted Cubone as my Pokemon for the month and this year it's Blaziken. 

It's rough mostly because I was trying to go for a slightly minimalist feel but with natural brushes... I don't think that really went well together.
References were a bit of a trouble as well since ...let's just say that the Internet has really strange people. I was only able to find 3 good Blaziken references before I didn't want to see more of those strange...interpretations anymore. Another subject I was trying to find references for was jumping out of smoke but with the keywords I was using, I wasn't getting the images I wanted.
"Jumping out of clouds " gave me sky diving, "cartoon jump through cloud" gave me cartoon panels of clouds, "pop out of clouds" gave me pop-outs of clouds and so on. I ended up trying to use my visual library from manga I've read, either from panels or covers. 

Sleep and myself and rambling

9:14 am pacific 

Well, I had to wake up at 7 am this morning, when I don't have class and worn typically sleep in so my body can rest after 4 days of early classes, especially my Wednesdays since I wake up at 6:30am. The reason why I had to get  up early was because my roommate asked 'her biggest favor' of me to help her with our school's shuttle system since she's never been on any of them before and the one time she did, I had to accompany her then as well to the same stop. Her destination for her class field trip was a 15 minute walk from where the stop was since none of the bus stops are closer to the studio she had to go to. The bus stop itself, if we were to walk it from our dorm, was 15 mins as well. By car, the studio is 5 mins away; by ou school's shuttle bus, the stop was 10 mins + the 15 mins it'd take to walk to the studio; I didn't check how far the studio was from our dorm but considering how our dorm is at 2nd and the studio is between 9th and 10th, I didn't dare to check.  

Originally I told my roommate that is stay on the bus when it arrives at the stop she needed and that she could walk from the stop to the studio since it was a very straightforward direction , down the street until 9th (or 10th based on perference ) and then up until Bryant ( the street the studio was on). Apparently she thought I said I'd walk with her to the studio instead of my original plan to stay on the bus as it loops back to the stop we got onto the bus at, bringing me back to our dorm around 8:20 am. Nope, because I had to walk to the studio with her and then back to the stop, and wait for the next bus 8:45 am) which didn't stop at the stop we got on at but rather another stop, due to routes, which was a 8 min walk away, I didn't get back to my room until 9am. And now I can't  even fall asleep. A least it's warm in the room. 

Miyazaki Hayao portrait - WIP 1

7:07 pm pacific 

For my final for my Analysis of Form class, we have a head portrait of our choice; my choice : Miyazaki. 

Perspective comic page (Layout planning, roughs and WIPs)

3:17 am Pacific 

I apologize for the length of the post; I was going to separate out the images, either by planning and roughs or by each panel but the latter seemed too much separation while the former would have been my plan if I didn't need to get to bed and sleep. 

Thumbnails with varying perspectives, point of views and camera angles.

roughs from around a week ago, before Thanksgiving weekend, where I got an idea and put it down on paper.

references for Perspective comic page

3:03 am pacific

I had to print screen the word doc I had all these images on since these images were all from Google Image search. This was unlike my previous reference materials post where the images, with the exception of 1 -2 images, were all from deviantART.

Spirited Away - mandala ( WIP 2)

11:11 am pacific 

It's matted and hopefully compete; the photo isn't that great since you can't see the value differences between the top right fold and bottom right fold. ( fold = 1/4 section) 

This is a first ; completing a painting within the same day as I started...

... give or take a few hours for my other class. 

This week's, as well as next week's classes for my Color and Design class, class was a work period so we had roughly 5 hours of work time. I was able to trace both paintings' posterized photo onto illustration board and paint about 10% of mandala. I planned on having my mandala done and turned in the upcoming week and spend the rest of the time I've got available working on the final image/ painting ( aka color and mood). The way the last two assignments worked was the upcoming week would be one assignment and then the other assignment would be due the final class. 

It surprised me how much I could get done tonight to the point where I stays up until 3:30 am ( pacific time) finishing up the presentation portion of it. All that remains is the label on the back that I need to print. I plan on waking up early form can get access to the Mac lab in one of the Academy's buildings and print out the labels without the 10 cents fee and then after my class tomorrow, I'll go to another building to copy without the fee as well. Saving myself 30 cents, oh yeah~! 

I'll post a blog post with the painting image later today or sometime this week.

Spirited Away - mandala ( WIP )

10:25 pm pacific 

I almost forgot to mute the mushrooms colors again; I did that on my rough. 

However, I'm getting pretty far in the amount of hours I'm spending so far! 

I just need to keep this pace and then I can get the matting down, which reminds me I need to go print those labels. I should go to that printer at one of the buildings that doesn't cost anything to print especially because of the size I need  . 

Samuel L Jackson - head hand study WIP 3

5:10pm pacifiic

The nose and mouth area is a little better, compared to the last WIP update I posted. I also darkened a large amount of the areas. 

City Block - 3 point perspective edited

12:14 am Pacific

The spacing was really off for that third building from the right; there weren't that many sections. Additionally I added more buildings in the open space in the top left and center top/ right of the drawing. Originally there was a hot air balloon there but my instructor told me that, that open space is still the ground; there is no sky if you're looking down. I had completely forgotten about that until he reminded me so! 

Still life - both of them WIP 3 and more...

11:44 pm Pacific 

I'm changing up my posts' formats this time; instead of making separate posts for each WIP, I decided to put them together in the same post. It's not a large difference (or at least as much as I can recall) so one large post rather than 2 posts is fine. 

Still Life: Objects of Personal Interest WIP 3

Still Life - Objects selected by instructor WIP 3

For both I mainly darkened the darks (thus eliminating the grayness of the drawing) and sharpened the edges. I'm not too sure if I sharpened the edges enough; they still look fuzzy up close but that might be the paper's texture getting in the way...

City block - 3 point perspective

11:51 pm pacific 

I drove myself crazy with all the spacing but I think it was worth it. 

To the attic - 2 point vertical perspective

11:49 pm pacific 

I fixed the hair and table leg a a well as the boxes in the attic. I had to change the ceiling light however. 

Sewer - reflection perspective edited

11:45 pm pacific 

I had to fix the lamp and the right sewer grate. In addition I used references to create a more realistic underside of the pedestrian bridge. 

Still life - objects chosen by instructor ( WIP )

10:48 pm pacific 

The reason I titled this as objects chosen by instructor is because just that; there were 5 setups in the class and this was one of them. 

It's extremely fuzzy compared to what it should look like, this is mostly, if not all, baca use everything was all in vine charcoal and I only just started to go over  and sharpen things with my charcoal pencil, kneaded eraser and fingers. 

Still life - objects of personal interest ( WIP 2)

9:47 pm pacific 

I'm glad I took a picture of the WIP I had last night... well technically this morning, but I disgress; it turns out the back yoyo stick was too light even in light and the top cup of the yoyo was too light as well. In addition, I tried smoothing out the background even more though now I'm worried I have too much charcoal in my background again. When I was shading in my drapery #2, I had way too much charcoal in the background then too. I need to ask my instructor about a good in between amount. 

Still life WIP 2: 

The actual image : ( or my reference) 

Head and Hand study - Samuel l Jackson ( WIP 2)

9:44 pm pacific 

Lits of work on this today; I spent a good amount of time darkening everything. I'm a bit worried about the nose and mouth area; I'll have to ask my professor / instructor for advice. 

Objects of personal interest - still life WIP

1:52 am pacific 

Still life - objects of personal interest , which contain my Chinese yoyo , sketchbook , yoyo stick and sewin kit. 

I had so much charcoal on my fingers from blending, especially during the background and managed to get a bunch of charcoal on my jacket sleeves too... At least I haven't done my Thursday laundry yet so that works out. 

... I still need to buy a few groceries when I wake up tomorrow as well as work on my head and hand portrait study for another class. 

Head & hand study portrait - Samuel L Jackson

7:52 pm pacific

The weeks are winding down to the end of the semester and that means finals! 

For Figure Drawing, the final is a head & head study of an elderly person. At the moment, I just finished adding the first layer of charcoal pencil on top of the previous week or two of vine lines and compressed charcoal cross contour. 

Spirited Away - mandala - colored rough

1:45 am Pacific

One of my final two assignments in my Color & Design class is the mandala. After listing several ideas and themes down, I finally narrowed down to Studio Ghlibi and ended up choosing Spirited Away since that was the one movie I knew best [from Studio Ghlibi] with Howl's Moving Castle as my personal second best known Miyazaki movie. 

References linked on my blog post: http://lillianchenartworks.blogspot.com/2013/11/mandala-theme-spirited-away.html

I'll be painting this in later this week or this weekend with gouache. 

Mandala - theme: Spirited Away

11: 04 pm Pacific

One of my final two assignments in my Color & Design class is the mandala. After listing several ideas and themes down, I finally narrowed down to Studio Ghlibi and ended up choosing Spirited Away since that was the one movie I knew best [from Studio Ghlibi] with Howl's Moving Castle as my personal second best known Miyazaki movie. 

I originally drew a smaller thumbnail version without references, unless you count my memory of the movie. For the full size version, I had to get references for things such as the paint on No Face's mask, the bathhouse and the tunnel and its statue. 

Next I need to digitally paint this in the color palette chosen and then paint 1/4 of it in gouache. I'm planning on finishing the digital painting part of this tonight if I can so I can get this printed and painted Thurs night  / Friday. 

Still life and the troubles set-up brings

 I found out after 5 days after my original set up on the dinner/kitchen table, that us have to move my set up due to the dorms' monthly health and safety inspection. It's super strict this month; stove must be clean, nothing on kitchen table except food, etc.

It kind of made my heart sink knowing it'd have to reset it and wish I had set it up on my desk even though our instructor/professor to the class mentions dinin a spot where it wouldn't get interfered with often, which was in my mind, was the floor due to housekeeping and my desk due to me working on assignments. 

The new set up location:

The original set up location:

To the Attic - 2 point vertical perspective

Self portrait - edited and completed

1:35 am pacific 

The first painting didn't receive a high mark as I hoped for. The reasons were the spiral was conflicting with portrait orientation. The original spiral was horizontal on a vertical picture plane. The original yoyo was too separated from the rest of the painting so I added more blues to the orange. In addition to the spiral direction / orientation, the values were too inconsistent. The overlay had to either be all darker or all lighter than the values of the rest of the painting. I don't know for sure if I got the corrections needed fixed but hopefully it looks improved! 

Sewer - reflected perspective, line art

Hopefully this pencil lines are clear, well visible, enough to see online. Inked lines are the 'real world' while the pencil lines are the 'reflected world'. 

I wonder if I've improved my line quality ..? One reason for the bad line qualit in my previous line arts could be I'm not applying enough pressure on the pens? Therefore many of them such as the 08 or 05,03 are showing up rather light. 

Abandoned subway - 2 point shaded