Beach day

Guache.

League-Themed Gnomon Figure Session

That was so much fun :)

sketchin at LACMA Samurai exhibition

inflight movie studies, and samurai armor sketches

adding Appleseed to "movies i can't even watch while stuck on international flight list, after Transformers2.

LACMA samurai exhibition tiday was rad, though.

Kari portrait study

In honor of Kari, Grant, and Tori leaving Mythbusters, one of my favorite TV shows.  I'm not usually into celebrities or stars, but I see her as a great role model in perfectly treading the balance between being a "normal girl" and a badass geek who blows stuff up.  More people like her is what we need in terms of breaking the gender-role assumptions.

Portrait study

Speed study from photo.

Artist outing at Malibu

Guache + toned paper.

pre xmas life drawing

yarrr

Pointy rocks

charcoal heads

Once again, I find myself in an incredibly lucky situation.

I've been feeling stuck when it comes to drawing.  I hate my drawings for being safe/stale, yet shy away from pushing it so far into stylization that it would become cartoony.  It's more of a mental block than anything.

Right at this time, they got a kick-butt instructor for our usual wednesday night life drawing session.  The instructor is an old-school commercial artists who stresses the needs to make people look attractive.  Having my head firmly stuck into the realms of realism, I disagreed inwardly but decided to give it a try.

Then it finally clicked.  Knowing what the ideal would look like does not take realism away from me.  It gives me more freedom to push things one way or another from the idealism, and allows me to capture the essence of people.  Pushing shape design is the only way I can break out of my current stalemate against myself.

Glen Orbik, you are such a badass.  Thank you.

what's a pencil sketch

pencils.. they are like photoshop paintbrush tools, except with more pressure sensitivity levels :|

Watercolors

Did a few watercolors with mom when she visited.  It's nice to be able to share this hobby with my mom.

I think working smaller is helping me with watercolor a little.  I still screw up a lot, but at least now I can tell where I screwed up, and can think of ways that may work better next time.

Last Ourdoor Painting Group of This Year

San Juan mission was a pleasant surprise.  It didn't look big at all from the outside, but the inside features surprisingly beautiful ruins and some nicely laid-out courtyards.  The slight overcast lighting also worked really well.  The low angle of the winter sun was perfect for painting.

What's a "paper"

A couple of traditional stuff from this month and last.  Thanks a ton to Oliver for letting me hog the white chalk after stealing a sheet of brown paper in last night's life drawing session.

watercolor at the beach.  Messed around with it on photoshop a bit more after I got home and got the 2nd image.  Watercolor is such a difficult medium!  It's fun but it feels like a struggle, especially after getting used to the pin-point precision and control in digital painting.

Feel more alive and awake today than I have for the past half week.  This wave of flu got me pretty hard.

Self portrait

 Haven't done a self-portrait for a long time, so I guess it's about time.  Actually tried to set up lighting and keep the compositional tips from Marshall in mind.  This one took 2 hours and I now have a stiff neck, haha...

Pretty happy about how this turned out.  Not as good as I was shooting for, but it's my best self-portrait to-date.  It actually looks like how I see myself.