Cover: Infiltrating

Happy New Year everyone!! Hope y'all having great holidays.

It's the holiday seasons, but it really doesn't make too much difference for me. Eventhough I visit my brother in Northern California, I still take my work with me. I am so glad I got my TabletPC fixed right before I leave, so I get to do some work while I am there.

Transformers: Infiltration is getting ready to launch. I got around to connect the first 3 of my cover together over the weekend. I noticed my own technique has been altered a bit, mainly because I am trying new things, new ways to do things. Now that I look back on my first cover, I wish I have the chance to go back and repaint most of it, but that won't do any good now since it's already gone to the printer.

My sincere apologies to those fans SuperTNT and Super Patriot who has been asking about my other 2 projects and what happened to them, they are both being worked on, but there are things beyond my control. You should hear some update soon, I can't deny that I am taking advantage of the situation though.

Other: I broke my gallery

I killed it!! >_<
I was updating the software, and it didn't work. Now I can't go back to the old one. I'll just have to make another one from scratch..

Movies: Creature Legacy

Since I was a little child, I have always been facinated by classic monsters from the 50's, from time to time, I catch some of them on late night TV's, but somehow I've always managed to miss my favorite one of them all, the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Universal has started to release their classic monster movies in DVD collections, needless to say, I gotta get my hand on a Creature DVD collection.

The 2-disc legacy collection set comes in a nice die-cut window sleeve, very classic, and deserving so.


Taking the DVD box out of the sleeve.


First Disc contains the original movie, "Creature form the Black Lagoon" and the second Disc contains the next 2 Gill-Man sequels "Revenge of the Creature" and "Creature walks among us". They also comes with extras like interviews with the actors and commentary from film historian.

The original movies were shot in polarized 3D images, unfortunately, these versions are flatten version, I wish they would release the 3D version someday, the underwater scenes were beautifully shot despite being black and white, you can really tell the films were pushing for a lot of shots that would work effectively with 3D.

Watching these films is whole different experience, you have got to appreciate the kind of work that went into to making these films worked. I've never seen anything of the Creature other than still photos and toy figures, finally getting to see the Creature swimming in motion is nothing short of amazing.

Scribble: Prehistoric Lizard

I've finished my mechanical pteranodon for awhile, but never got around to post it.
Again, for those who are interested in supporting the cause, please keep your eye on Nic Carcieri's Autism Project. Besides getting the artbook that was contributed by numbers of well-known professional artists, there will be original artwork to be auctioned off sometime next year. Check Nic's blog for update.



Also couple of recent artsy sketches.
The link contain nudity, don't click if you are offended by this kind of stuff.
Girl A
Girl B

Scribble: Mecha Ptera

I've heard stories of women gotten into fight during Black Friday shopping craze. Now there's a part of me wish I was there to see it. Maybe next year I'll just walk over to the mall (there's one just 15mins walk from me) to see if I can spot any shoppers fighting over some small items, just for entertainment value.

So. I've decided to go with the mechanical Pteranodon. I think there will be a lot of people contributing female robots to the project, there's no reason for me to adding any more fembots.

Other: Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! and for those who are going shopping on Friday, GOOD LUCK!!

I was driving home passing Best Buy and the Mall around midnight, amazingly enough, the mall parking lot was full of cars, and there's long line in front of Best Buy. I never realize how crazy the after Thanksgiving shopping is, I mean I've heard of it, but never realize how much untill today. Thanksgiving shoppers have something in common with Star Wars fans, crazy!!

Scribble: flying lizard

Continuing my development on the robotic Pteranodon.

A very rough structure of Pteranodon spreading wings. There's not enough movement in the sketch for some reason. It looks more like it's posing for photo than taking itself to the air. Perhaps a different angle or better gesture will create more movement to the piece?


I really liked this pose, here it is "crawling" on all four in an ape-like posture. The camera angle will probably need to zoom out a bit more to show more of the creature to be effective.


Detail on the mechanical parts. Still not quite happening yet...


------------------------------
This is entirely different project. I am working on a cover for a vampire comic book.
A lot of the times, before I go into a full blown illustration, I would draw a small black and white value study, mainly to work out the composition and contrast. Then scan in the value study, blow it up to the finished size and use it as template for the final piece.
I am thinking the floor will have blood smearing all over it, but I am not good with blood, so we'll see how it will turn out, hopefully it will somewhat close to what I have pictured in my head.

Scribble: Weekend Mechanic

I was asked to contribute to a robotic themed sketchbook that will rise money for Autism Society of America, the deadline is coming up REALLY fast, so I have to get in gear and get that done.

I figure to have some fun and design some mechanical dinosaurus. Although technically Pteradon aren't dinosaurus, but they are my favorite when I was a kid, I didn't know any better at the time.

The design is pretty crappy, and the head is way too small on the full body drawing, but I just wanted to get some basic structure down for now.



This second one is just a doodle.

Scribble: Lack of update gives me the blue

I tried to post as much as I can, but time seem determined not to be on my side, and more importantly, I am lazy too. I wish that I could share what I've been doing lately, but I just can't. :p
Halloween being one of my favorite holiday, I am so bumped that I had to work, and didn't get to see some of my friend's kids in costume. Hopefully next year, I can take the day off to drive up north to see my niece. I heard she's a tinkerbell this year.

I don't get a lot of chance to sketch much any more, but I've managed to do some last couple of days.

This is Tien-Ding Liao, a lengendary hero in Taiwan when Taiwan was a Japanese colony. A lot of stories were told about how he fought against injustice of Japanese officials, and he was eventually hunt down and killed by Japanese police at young age of 20.


My friend has an adorable 2-years-old boy, who picks up any round object and call it "ball", then bounce it on the ground. He gets a kick out of throwing balls. Today I saw him pick up a small pumpkin and tried to bounce it on the floor. haha, good thing it was too heavy for him to throw hard, otherwise there would be some pumpkin guts all over the place.
I came home and sketched a little boy holding a pumpkin, the boy doesn't look like him though.


trying couple of different look for a girl that might appear in one of my comic.
Please ignore that boxy thing in the middle, that was going to be a Transformers design but it never went anywhere. He looks like he transformed from a lighter... 6_6

Scribble: Green Giant

Taking a short break to sketch this.

Tools: Robocar

Haven't have much time to update my blog lately. Having several projects at the same time is really eating up my time, even my sleeping hours have been reduced, not that I had much time to sleep before.


More cool toys! Check out these Toy Biz Marvel Legends action figures.
They seems to be taking a similar approach to the 18" Spider-Man 2 Figure, similiar type of joints. I couldn't find the size of these figures on the website. Although I prefer generic figures for references, but these are very beautifully sculpted. I wouldn't mind getting some of these guys.

Transformers#1 cover
The version in Preview and other news sites are a bit rushed. I reworked it a little bit to hopefully improved on it for the print.

Preview: Do you feel lucky?

One of the panel from upcoming Super Patriot: War on Terror #3.

The scene called for some crazy amount of guns that comes out of Super Patriot's arms. I was kind of going for something similiar to the scene in the movie Mask, where Jim Carrey popped out hold bunch of guns.

Robot in disguise

The relaunch of Transformers comic by IDW is almost upon us. Needless to say, I am very nervous how it will be receive by the fans considering that a lot of fans are very fond of the artworks from the previous publisher, and my take on robots are very different from Dreamwave.

Transformers: Infiltration #0 will be shipping in the week of Oct.19th with $0.99 price tag.

In this new series, some of the classic Tranformers will be updated with the modern day vehicles, such as the "Seekers" will receive a F-22 alternate mode instead of F-15 from the 80's.


The series will also be getting covers from Transformers fan favorite artists, such as Adrew Wildman, Guido and James Raiz.

Draw for a cause

Andrew Wildman, a long time comic book, concept artist and illustrator has asked fellow artists to get invloved with helping out poor children around the world with Draw the World Together. Many well-known and respected comic book artists has already joined the effort to raise fund by contributing original artworks for auction. Go to the website and read more about the cause, check out the artworks that has been donated, maybe some stuff you might be interested.

Music: More than a bird, more than a plane

I've been inspired by a lot of songs that are Superman related. "Kryptonite" by Three Doors Down, "Save Me" by Remy Zero and "It's not Easy to be Me" by Five for Fighting have found their way into my play list quite often.
"It's not Easy to be Me" I am particularly fond of for its lyrics. It must be pretty tough to be Superman, or to a certain extend, anyone that carries a heavy burden of having high expectation put on him/her. The song sounded a little sad, and I usually like sad songs.

Tools: Microman Material Force

The best alternative to the wooden manequin is of course the 18" Super Poseable Spider-man 2 action figure. Eventhough slightly exaggerated in anatomy, with 67 articulation points, it allows you to make just about any pose imaginable.
Since I work at both home and a studio, sometimes I even go to a local book stores or coffee shops to draw, carrying the huge and heavy Spider-man figure would be inconvenient and attracts unwanted attention. I found these Microman Material Force Series.


Here's a photo of the size comparison with my PITT pen and eraser. The female figure is roughly 3-3/4" and the male figures are slightly taller. With 30 points of articulation, they are as poseable as the Spider-man figure except the fingers, but the interchangeable hands are more than made up for lack of finger movements.Male figures comes with 6 set of different hands while female figures comes with 7. Female figures are usually sold with a set of 3 pack, small, medium and large breasts size.
Microman doing Kung-Fu


Some body parts can be taken apart


Here's a photo of hands that came with the figures, and a view from their behind
Highly recommended if you are looking for good manequin.