Dice Tsutumi (Toy Story 3 Concept Artist) Mastercopies

So as apart of my 500 environment project, I'm doing a mastercopy every weekday. This week's artist was Dice Tsutsumi (www.simplestroke.com).  I first saw his work in the Toy Story 3 artwork - really gorgeous use of color. He renders forms in a very solid fashion. Yet, his color and temperatures are very subtle. Love this guy's stuff. Will do more studies in the future.

I've been doing more color testing on paper recently. It helps me get more accurate and more harmonious color relationships. 

I got some advice from my friend Jason (www.jasonscheier.com) to make each sketchbook page like a portfolio page. Basically - pay more attention to the composition on each page. So, I've been using the color tests as a composition element.  Spending time to plan the composition in the beginning also saves me time when I'm uploading to my blog. I no longer have to crop, scale, move images to make it look more presentable. :)

Plein Air Painting at Spectrum, District & Marketplace,

Okay - this is what you've been waiting for! This is apart of the 500 environments. I've been going out everyday to draw and do plein air paintings. This is really fun, and I really enjoy being outside and listening to nature. Each experience is unique!  To find out why public painting is like a being a hot girl - check out my experience at Irvine Spectrum in a previous blog post! :D

Friday - Irvine Spectrum 

Thursday - Tustin Market Place

Wednesday - District

Tuesday - Lab at Costa Mesa and Woodbury Town Center

Monday - District (Daytime)

Mastercopies, Plein Air Paintings & Color studies

Did some more Greg Pro Studies. This guy is baller.

Plein Air at Woodbury Towncenter

This is where I go to LA Fitness and Trader Joes.

Color Studies. 

Transitioning from Limited to Full Palette.

Scene at Irvine Blvd. A rare undeveloped portion of the street.

Feeling sad and moody that day, channeled feelings through painting.

Danny Gardner studies. This guy is really baller too. Link to Originals.

Sketches - Trip to Pittsburgh, PA

Finally a REAL update with drawings. Some sketches I did during my trip to Pittsburgh 2 weeks ago. I wrote about my trip in a previous blogpost.

500 environments!!!

So tired... finished quota for the week! Will post tomorrow!

So last month - I made a post saying I was going to do 1000 environments. To initiate the project, I set out to complete 500 environments in 10 weeks. Once I break it down, it doesn't sound too bad. :)

--> 100 environments every 2 weeks.
   --> 50 environments every week.
       --> 5 days a week, 10 environments a day.
          --> 8 sketches, 2 paintings

Today I was at Irvine Spectrum. There were a lot of people there on a Friday night/ afternoon, so I ended up meeting a lot of cool people!

Now I know what a hot girl feels like at a bar. When I was doing my drawings, I could feel a lot of people checking me out (my drawings.. not me). Occasionally some people would approach me and we would have some good conversation.  I met a Spectrum employee named Danny, an Art Center graduate named Julie, this little 5 year old British girl named "Elena," this Greek arm wrestling dude - Nick, and a group of teenagers who were really enthusiastic and friendly - "Sophia and friends." Some kids would straight up go to me and be like "WOW that's cool!" Others kind of glance at me really quickly, hoping I wouldn't notice them. Or, a lot of people just gave me a sincere compliment and politely let me continue my work. I actually kind of enjoyed the attention because it gave me a lot of positive energy to draw. But as I got friendlier, there was this annoying dude who gave me coins and pamphlets in his attempt to sell me on his religion. He really irritated me, and I had to ask him to leave.

Overall - it was really fun to meet so many cool people.  Most people were really friendly, some were shy and awkward, and there was the occasional prick.  Even though it was fun getting so much attention, it was also distracting.

But honestly - that's the beauty of plein air painting for you.  It's an encompassing experience where you get to listen, see, smell, and interact with the environment you're painting. It adds character and a story to the painting. :D

Cool New Stuff on Etsy - Golden Frames!

Hey check it out!  Now all my paintings on my Etsy page come with these cool black frames that have this gold foil lining. Looks SICK right? I even took the time to photograph the paintings with a cool spot light that I rigged just for this photo shoot. 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/chrischien?ref=pr_shop

I've gotten a lot of requests for the cafe painting which sold out really quickly, so I decided to go back to Woodbury Town Center to do another one. Voila!  :)

The New Me

Last week I visited my college: Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. I was there for 5 days. I was pretty nervous before my flight; I was pretty anxious to see how my weekend would turn out. My experience was nothing close to what I expected. I actually didn't spend much time with old friends.  I wasn't planning on working on Booth - but I did. That ended up being the most memorable and fun part of my weekend - and meeting the new generation of ASA Board.

Day 1 Wed - Get to Pittsburgh. Tired. Meet new ASA board. Check out Cages/ Midway. Sleep.
Day 2  Thurs - Work on Booth. Opening Ceremony is today. We get an extension of 24 hours.
Day 3 Friday - Work on Booth some more. Full-out Capacity. Judging is today.

Day 4 Saturday - Meet friends with lunch. Awards Ceremony. ASA Board Dinner. Carnival Party.

Day 5 Sunday - Family Brunch with Mentees. Fly back to California. 

Those 5 days of Carnival made me realize that I've been lying to myself. During these couple of days, I was working 12-14 hour days, pushing my physical and mental boundaries. I ended up making a pretty good contribution to the Booth. I realized that this strenuous lifestyle made me fulfilled and happy. These is what I do for FUN!

What I've been doing in California is basically working 4-6 hour days and getting tired. That's bullshit. I thought that was I was my limits, but that's such a lie. I'm capable of so much more. I love working on something for 8-12 hours a day. I love being outside and getting a lot of sunshine. I enjoy the healthy benefits of physical labor. I love working hard and accomplishing things. 

Here's what you will expect to see on this blog:

- 1000 environments

- Super awesome website update (chris-chien.com)

- Cool and Abundant works on my Etsy shop (http://www.etsy.com/shop/chrischien)

- New Youtube Channel with really interesting videos

- Better artwork and more of it overall

Here are some goals I've laid out for myself:

- make my life more exciting and accomplish a lot more shit (train 12-14 hour workdays)

- wake up earlier (6am - sleep 10pm), be more focused, have a stronger mental and physical frame

- put yourself out there, take risks, get rejected (MAKE MISTAKES!)

- really know and do what you want and go for it

ASA Booth 2011: Toy Story

ASA Board 2011: Great meeting you guys!

 

Game Room Clutch Team 

Design, Production & Installation - something that usually takes 3 months was done in about 24 hours. 

Kiva Han - one of my favorite places to eat.

Deactivated Facebook - Round 2

Hey guys - gonna be deactivating my facebook again. This time it's gonna be for 2 months. 4/21 - 6/21.
Last time I deactivated my facebook, a lot cool things happened - like my etsy shop. In these next two months I'll be putting up some cool youtube videos, running another update on my website, and continue to post more paintings on my blog.

Plein Air Rocks - lots of them.

Turtle on a Rock 

Plein Air at Cal Tech

 Jackson Sze Mastercopies - my landscape painting instructor.

Plein Air at Vasquez Rocks

Plein Air at Vasquez Rocks 

Blowing up Rocks - Freelance Piece.

Movement Lifestyle Booth

- Pictures coming soon -