The stork (Final, for real...)

Ok, I lied.. real final.

Final version of the stork image.

Process: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=163267

Recent stuff

A quickie and a longer piece for two online contests on conceptart.org.

Life drawing in Austin (2009-06-22)

Been doing life drawing but never got around to take pictures. Took some pictures of today's life drawings.

And then there was the zombie slayer...

It's been almost five months since I started working, and going to work everyday still feels... fun. Now and then I bitch about some headache moments, crunch time, and stress. But overall, I still look forward to going to work each day.

I've been using my personal time painting for work, and also have been relaxing a little now and then. I'll have to remember to keep painting for fun though, otherwise I'll probably eventually forget what this is all about.

Did this painting relatively quickly, for character of the week on conceptart.org. The title is "Erica the zombie killer."

Doodles

Finished a couple of freelance projects, and I'm back to painting for fun in my new-found spare time :)

Been doing life drawing weekly, but I can't find the card reader for my digital camera, so no pictures :(

Life drawing in Austin (2009-03-09)

What better way to celebrate my Birthday than spending the night doing life drawing? :)

Life drawing in Austin (2009-03-02)

Life drawing in Austin (2009-02-16,2009-02-23)

Yet more life drawings. I think this'll be a pretty regular weekly thing :) Love the models so far. The music in the background can sometimes be questionable even to my very inexperienced ears, but there's nothing an ipod and headphone can't solve.

Feeling very happy most of the time... It's nice having a place in the world, earning my own bread, and having a goal to go after still.

Life drawing in Austin (2009-02-09)

This is the first time I've joined a life drawing group in Austin, and it was a solid experience. The model was excellent, and it was extremely nice to have a room crammed full of artists there drawing together.

I started out kind of lamely but eventually warmed up. I'll definitely try to be there every week.

chow146: queen titania

Frankly, I just felt like having fun and make a good painting, so not much thought went into the character design.

I had zero planning for the background either. It's one of the rare lucky moments where it just kind of happened, without getting into the way of the character. Hopefully it's a sign that I'm improving, on top of the luckiness :)


One-hour photoshop exercise, done fore CA.org's daily sketch group, topic being "Tiny Alien Bug." I'm pretty happy with how the cat turned out, given that I had never successfully painted a realistic cat, much less from imagination. I think the Jason Chan speed painting demo download I bought today was well worth the $15.

CHOW144: The Siamese Twin

Many a heedless traveler misunderstood Mia and Tia. They often had no trouble recognizing Mia as the gun and Tia as the support. What they did not realize was that while Mia also served as the sight, Tia served as the brain.

Blog repurposed

I am fortunate enough to have a foot in the door, so to speak. I'll be using this blog to post my "finished arts", good or bad, until I have the need for a real portfolio site again.

Real Portfolio Is Up

Thank you for stopping by here! I am graduating coming December, therefore I have set up my real portfolio at www.grace-liu.com. Please check out the link for the newer updates. Comments are appreciated as always. Thank you very much for your time!

Over the summer

Over the 5-week break in the summer, I was lucky enough to have a concept art internship at Gearbox Software for an unannounced title. The internship was short but a lot of fun, and I emerged from it incredibly motivated. The art director kindly allowed me to put a couple of my concept works in my portfolio.




I spent most of the summer nights practicing gesture drawings and participating in forum challenges for fun. I focused on characters because I don't have many character concept pieces.

I found myself working better if I spend a little time up front and think about the scenes and emotions of my character.

Misc. concepts

These are some of the concept art pieces I did since I last updated this blog. Some of them are for game pitches we did in class, some are personal projects.






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Directed Focus Study

For this term, one of our four classes is essentially a 2-month project of our choice. I chose concept art. A bit overwhelmed by the sudden, almost complete freedom, I chose to depict a new world built upon the ruins of what we know as the "modern world". I went for a different, more cheerful tone from the often gloomy genre of post-apocalyptic settings, as the dwellers of the new world are completely occupied with their own lives without much idea of what happened or who lived in the destroyed world. The history of the past world is more of a novelty topic to be discussed in lazy evenings in taverns and bars.

Meet Aura the treasure hunter. Her most recent quest for lost artifacts from the forgotten age took her to a dwindling tourist town built upon impressive and mysterious ruins. She is confident and tough. She prefers action over words, but when she does speak her tongue can be sharper than her blade.





Aura's weapons and vehicle, pieced together from old parts and other random stuff. The vehicle is powered by a lawn mower engine. It's a little faster than walking and a little slower than jogging. However, it does carry a good amount of weight.






The town she found herself in held many wonders and mysteries. She quickly found a small tavern that suited her. When she is not exploring the nearby ruins or wandering the streets barely populated with the last of tourists she likes to listen to the tails of the bartender. Nothing fends off the chill of the desert night like a roaring fire and a few mugs of ale.