[link]

First time tryin,' Gotta experiment with settings and shit... I didn't realize how resource heavy the desktop capture is, so I have to adjust it. This will be a preliminary drawing for a later painting.

EDIT 7/8/11: Livestream is over, but you can still catch the recording on my livestream account. It's 2 hours long, and the audio is just me mumbling responses to people in chat. I explain some of my techniques and the history of the character but not really anything super important, I just did the audio so I didn't have to type answers.

Thinking of doing a livestream some time next week, for the first time. I might do one before this date to get the hang of it, but definitely aiming for July 7th officially. If this time is inconvenient I'll try again at another preferred time you guys suggest.

I have a poll for what I'll be painting/drawing, I was thinking of combining whatever the first two choices were. "Girls" seems to be a clear winner, so i was probably gonna be Girls+Dune or Girls+Dragon. Girls+Dragon will be... uh... a half-dragon hybrid? A Dragonborn? Girl riding dragon... I dunno. We'll figure it out. If people want a later time I can go later, but I probably can't go earlier. It will probably be for at least an hour. I may or may not talk, depends on how creeped out i am by hearing myself... I don't know what's preferred.

If you have any livestreaming tips or suggestions for what you want to see in the process (painting, drawing, everything?), feel free to share. I'm kinda new to this so I'll probably believe you.

So last week I made a journal entry about not getting paid for work I had done for 6 months, and not being on contract in order to defend myself. I asked if anyone had experienced this before, and I had an overwhelming response, thank you for your advice and support! I read all of them.

Pretty much the consensus was:
A) burn the guy and expose him for being an asshole all over the internet
B) just post the work I did and claim it as my own
C) be wary of exposing him and his company since I could be liable of damaging their reputation
D) Use the email conversation as a paper trail and threaten him with it

What I ended up doing was giving him an ultimatum that I would show the work in my portfolio and claim it for private use if he didn't send me money in a week, so I waited...

and I got paid! FINALLY.

Although, I am a little disappointed because I wanted to show people what I was working on... Then again, I DO like getting paid and it was a substantial amount of money.

Is there a moral to this story? I don't know. I mean, I did fuck up royally by not signing a contract, on the other hand I still made out with what I needed by threatening to use that lack of a contract against him. Dealing with smaller clients has proven to be difficult, but it gives me the opportunity to do concept work instead of illustration like WotC or Fantasy Flight usually want. I will definitely write up a contract for private assignments for future confrontation, don't make my horrible mistake.

So,

Silly me decided to do some art under email agreement that I would get paid a substantial amount of money for some concept work. Finished the task on time, sent it to them with an invoice, done. Private contract between me and a studio I guess, guy seemed legit. Alright.

6 months, I have seen no cash. The repeated reason that keeps coming up are "bank issues" concerning doing money transfers to and from Europe. The last time I talked to this guy it seemed like he was ready to talk to the bank, but nothing happened. That was about a month ago. So, I made a paypal account and charged him that way, tacking on the extra 2.something% that they take because I thought it was only fair for waiting this long, and would be a lot easier than a trip to the bank... you just need card info.

No response in three days! Now the only option I can think of is basically to threaten the guy that I'll have to use the work I did for public portfolio use. Since there was no signed contract/NDA, so neither of us are obliged to really respect each others' rights, really. I really don't like being an asshole though. What do you think?

vvvvvvvvNEW BLOGvvvvvvv
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P.S. Follow up question that I was also concerned with, should I call the guy out? Spiteful maybe, but I also don't want other people to get screwed over...

Yup, I finally joined everyone else and made a proper blog.

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I felt like I didn't have a proper place to dump casual sketches or work-in-progress stuff, I don't think DA or CGHub is really set up for that in a way that I want. No, I will not be neglecting DA or CGhub, I will just be able to post more non-finished stuff here. This will allow me to show you things that would normally never see the light of day as finished work, or show you how I make my images if you're interested. I already posted some new stuff, go subscribe! PLZ?

Suckerpunch was horrifail by the way, you might just want to download it and skip to the CGparts (half are good). I mean ya, it has some fap potential if you wanna sit there and selectively pause panty shots, but really this has no redeeming value, not even as a corny Grindhouse sort of thing. I get the plot, but really it's an enigma wrapped in a puzzle enveloped in a crepe as to how they watched the whole thing, EDITED IT, and then sat back and said "this is finished, audiences will be able to follow the story." From a conceptual standpoint, I thought some of the designs for the enemies were sort of lackluster, even though they were supposed to sort be cliche fantasy-combat enemies. I won't blow the story, but it was just so bizarre how they tied in the fantasy parts with what was going on in reality. My appreciation for this Director has diminished a little, this just felt like he was hobbin' his own knob with some fantasies he had and didn't deliver an actual film.

Man, I am still hungover from all the after parties. 'Played so many games, met so many friends, met so many new people! Fantastic. At one point, there were developers from Big Huge Games, Turbine, Tencent, 38 Studios and Riot hanging out in one bar, really industry and nerdy + booze. A particular highlight was meeting the Riot Team for the first time, the guys behind League of Legends, they were a lot of fun and hosted a great party! I also watched the Costume Chaos contest, fun to see League of Legends cosplayers for once, WHILE playing. Lastly: Omega Jenga was epic. Anyone else go?

Also, Since the last post I started by new job at 38 Studios. Once again, I'm doing work that will put me in purgatory for another 2-3 years before my projects can be shown to the general public... heh. With the job move, I will also physically be moving to Rhode Island in April. It will be rough leaving the city, but I lived there for four years in college so it won't be totally alien to me.

This new Journal Skinning thing is genius btw, I'm gonna change this shit up all the time now. My thanks to all the individuals that know this skinning stuff better than me

More work on the way! I got plenty of personal and contract stuff that can pop up before my projects are released.

An Online art magazine called Creative End contacted me for an interview. Supahstah! Honestly it's only interesting if you want to know more about me, and that's quite a shallow pond to swim in. If you're into that stalker thing, here it is:

[link]

I put up a poll recently about what people would be most interested in seeing next from me. Since I am leaving Tencent Boston and heading over to 38 Studios (a company that is interestingly ran by comic book entrepreneur Todd McFarlane and baseball player Curt Schilling), I will be having a month of free time to do whatever I want in January, which I will probably spend painting. Soooo fill it out and it will give me a direction to head in for my freedom month. Thankies!

I celebrate by finally finishing a painting for once: Sacred. I got an embarrassing backlog of these things.

Japan was awesome, took thousands of pics up in the mountains. Too bad my photography is equally embarrassing so it's unlikely you'll see any! I spent most of my time in Aomori, and a day 1/2 in Tokyo. It was lots of fun!

Anyone ever use Wacom nibs and use them for so long they form a sharp edge and start scratching your cintiq or pad surface? ya, it happened to me. Don't let it happen (My cintiq intuos 3 at work, thank god, not my personal one!).

Lots of things have been happening recently...

First, THANKS FOR THE DD! recommended me and was the one who gave it to me. Thanks a lot guys! The piece was Dune: Birth of a God.

Second, NY comiccon was pretty awesome. Highlight: watching work, he said he thought ' hair was cool. Probably cuz it kinda looks like catwoman's.

Third: I NEED YER HELPZ. I am going back to HK for a week, but I'm also going to JAPAN for the first time for the second week! I have most of the trip planned, but I will be in Tokyo for two days and I wanted to know if you guys had any recommendations. I was thinking first and foremost that I have to go to the Studio Ghibli Museum. Any suggestions?

the new zone for Lord of the Rings Online was released so I'm going to start posting some concept art I did. I had started to paint with a colorize process, so the work looks different from stuff I had done for them before. I liked the method but I have abandoned it lately.

Getting into doing some more "digital inking" sort of stuff and I need to find some brushes to work with, for photoshop. I am on the look out for any brushes that simulate pencil and inking.

The one that is particularly hard to find or make for me is a brush that simulates a sumi brush for doing wetbrush comic-type work, a la Lone Wolf and Cub style or (insert awesome brushwork manga here).

If anyone knows these brushes existing somewhere, please share!!!







Please visit a very dear to me , she is new and promises to post more art.

Damn! 47. Shame, shame... Paprika and Perfect Blue are probably my favorites of his, they rank among my favorite anime films that I tell anime noobs to watch so that they can appreciate the artform. This guy really knew what the hell he was doing, so sad to see all that knowledge disappear.

More work's coming, doing some collaborations and freelance that I could probably post soon...



P.S.

Please visit a very dear to me , she is new and promises to post more art! She is the Sakura in the cosplay photo I have.

I got the new Cintiq 21UX! this is the first cintiq that I've owned so she's my new baby now. Makes my grey 21WX at work feel like a Ford Focus! Naw, I'm kidding... double the pressure levels isn't that much of a change, just enough to be noticeable, and I might even use the side interface for once because of this radial dial thing. It's like sticking your hand into a glove of lotion, and painting with a stick of soft butter against crystal glass. That's the feeling.

Please visit a very dear to me , she is new and promises to post more art! She is the Sakura in the cosplay photo I have...

I'll try to post more frequently, this new cintiq is going to motivate me to work more at home for sure.

Rest in Peace, Frank Frazetta. Your influence cannot be measured.

Can I get rid of stacked deviations? It's hella annoying...

My slender hands, annually mangled by 5 hours of gonging for Chinese New Year Celebration, recovered barely in time to finish another painting before the end of the month. This new job sure is taking time away from my personal work time, but I do figure drawing every Monday so i don't feel as bad. Who is the wife, and who is the mistress? Business or pleasure? WTF? Blaaaawwjhaljfhalgjafg. Ok gnight.



Happy Year of the Tiger, lassies and gentiles.

And Merry Chrismahannakwanzikah to yoooooou! On another note, I am officially a quarter of a century as of Dec 31 2009. I feel old, ugh. Gotta work harder.

To all the people that I watch, and that's a lot of people (roughly over a thousand), I am very proud of you! I have not seen any AVATAR fanart in my deviation box. Hold out! Resist! If it's really not that hard to do so, good for you.

I should post my "Christmas/New Year" image that I did, although I'm late to the party. I'll get to it, it will just be sort of a "Winter Solstice" image rather than a holiday image now, heh.

Holy crap. See that movie now. It is a concept artist's wet dream come true.

Don't come back to me being all "It's just 'Dances with Wolves' as if the 'Trail of Tears' never happened" or "yeah, I already have 'Fern Gully' on VHS," 'cause I know you're lying. While the story may be the same, it will impact you in a very different way than those films do.

Thank you Jimmy, you didn't fuck up like that Michael-whatever guy.

And here comes the influx of Avatar fan art and cosplay... wave after wave after wave after wave, populating DA like a goddamn outbreak of crotch itch... I feel it coming! Here it comes!!! AAAHHHHHLKFJ:ALDKJL:ASKDJhlkgjashglkmgn........................

Wow, DD? Thanks rydi1689 and ArtisticAunJuli for taking interest in my work! I really appreciate it. Man, it had to hit me at my utmost peak of inactivity... Now I'm embarrassed. :/ I literally have a completely flooded activity list- I normally try to take the time and comment on every person's page that watches me but this is too much. Thank you everyone for visiting my page, and all the comments +watches!

I'll try to be more active! I started this new job a couple months ago at a place called Tencent, so I've been preoccupied. Also, I play way too much League of Legends.

In other news, I got a piece into Spectrum 16 which is out in stores, so if you like books of artwork go check it out!




If you'd like to watch me paint, click here:

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UPDATE: video link now works.

Go here:

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My friend Pete from Turbine is compiling some tutorial videos and asked me to submit one. So here it is! I warn you, the video is like 40 minutes long (the actual painting was like 5-6 hours and i sped it up), and I am talking almost the WHOLE TIME (boooooooring), so you might want to get a sandwich or something to endure it.

It is a recording of me painting the figure in St Alia,( [link] ), but not the background. I painted that after. I end up talking about my entire painting process, design decisions and mistakes I make along the way. Who wouldn't want to see me fuck up like, 10 times?

Forgive me for rambling or terrible editing, this is my first time to do this sort of thing. I'm literally talking off the top of my head, so. Ya.

If you have any additional questions about the video please ask me.