Sketchblog Chris Chien

Environment Thumbnails

2012-01-31T16:08:00.001-08:00

Robh Ruppel Workshop Review

2012-01-26T15:33:00.000-08:00

Robh Ruppel study. Done in Gouache.

Last December I took a Robh Ruppel 1-day workshop at CDA. I'm a huge fan of his work. Here is an interview (Link). The workshop was more like a life coach session than a class on digital painting. Obviously it was a good workshop - otherwise I wouldn't have written about it.

From the get go, he instilled in us...

1) "Get rid of the notion that you need to learn more and more. The learning is in the doing.

Your results equal the effort you put into it.

Do not THINK you don't know enough. Don't wait. Drawing is an act. "

I'm definitely guilty of thinking that I need to learn more and more. I'm always trying to take classes at the newest art school. I make excuses for not making great work by saying... oh I just need to take a class on how to do that. That's all crap - practice is the best instructor.

2) No speed painting. More important to do things correctly.

Basically Robh was saying how retarded speed painting was. It doesn't look good and won't lead to much improvement. It's better to do things slowly and correctly. I had another teacher - Eric Gist - tell me "Don't get good at being fast, get fast at being good. The speed will naturally come."

3) If you don't clearly see something to do. Stop. Don't flounder.

So Robh works very slowly and methodically when painting. The idea is if you are not doing something that makes the painting better - leave it out. If it's not clearly improving it and you are just noodling.. you are probably making it worse.

4) Patience and Positivity

A lot of art students think that they suck. Robh advocates a mentality that's... "Yeah I wish I were better. but I'm working on it." It's a confident yet humble attitude.

Robh encourages students to "take the time to work through it and be okay with it."

5) Distractions and Focus

There's a lot of distractions out there. How does Robh manage to work 12-14 hours a day?

No radio. No TV. He just draws, makes food, exercises twice a day and sleeps.

Personally... I couldn't live that way. But now you know what it takes to make it in this industry.

6) Books Recommended by Robh

Hard Speed - Practice and Science of Drawing

Carlson's Book on Landscape Painting

Art and Fear

Robh Ruppel and me at Comic-Con. *blink!*

Sketchbook Update: Big Bear, Drunk Drawing, Swamp Elder

2012-01-26T13:58:00.000-08:00

Went to Big Bear this weekend for a Ski-trip. Except I didn't ski - I painted...

I painted this after I had a couple of drinks. I'm super lightweight, so it was a bit much for me.
The result is definitely much looser than what I usually do. Kind of cool in a way.

Drawing friends playing cards. Some of the kids got frustrated while playing "Mao."

Swamp Elder design I did while at a sketchgroup.

Nobody

2012-01-13T23:47:00.001-08:00

from today's sketchjam

2011 Reflection Video

2012-01-11T12:45:00.000-08:00

Just some boring personal stuff.

James Paick Study and Disneyland Sketches

2012-01-10T11:20:00.000-08:00

A look back at 2011: 8 sketchbooks

A good start...

A gouache study of Jame Paick digital demo from his Kazone workshop

Some gouache color studies at Grand California Hotel at Disneyland. I liked how these turned out.

The river house in New Orleans...

Concept Art 2011

2012-01-10T10:37:00.000-08:00

A look back on some of the freelance work I've done for clients this past year...

Ocean Themed Environments

2011-12-24T15:05:00.000-08:00

Lots of lasso tool this week. Working in a Robh Ruppel/ Dice Tsutsumi style...

apocolyptic

fantasy

greek

robot

steam punk

sci-fi

Forest themed paintings

2011-12-09T22:42:00.001-08:00

trying to paint slower and more accurately

Arctic themed paintings

2011-11-29T22:47:00.000-08:00

Underwater themed paintings

2011-11-25T16:55:00.000-08:00

Art is like a Sport

2011-11-22T20:32:00.000-08:00

I'm going to rack up my base mileage for my digital painting class with Mathias Verhasselt at Kazone Art Academy next term.

Art like a sport. This is especially true when you are learning a new style or technique. Robh Ruppel compares art to cycling (link). In professional cycling, you have to ride 100-200 miles per week before you can start thinking about technique. Similarly, Mr. Miyagi had the karate kid wax hundreds of cars before he started actually learning karate technique. And in popping, you have to practice hitting for hours on end before you can start actually freestyling (Poreotics video).

Task: Paint 12 environment locations in 6 different genres. 72 paintings total.
Schedule: 12 paintings per week for 6 weeks = 24 hours of painting/ week. (Estimated 144 hrs total)

Deadline: Jan 1, 2012

Objective: Just get it done. Use any technique, method, style.

Locations
1. Underwater
2. Arctic
3. Forest
4. Jungle
5. Ocean
6. Fire
7. Sky
8. Mountains
9. Desert
10. City
11. Interiors
12. Asia

Genre
1. Sci-Fi
2. Steampunk
3. Robots
4. Roman Mythology
5. Fantasy
6. Post-Apocalyptic

Sketchbook update

2011-11-22T10:20:00.000-08:00

World of Kong Study

Gouache Study - practicing wet on wet blending

Warcraft Study

Color Roughs

RGB Color Wheel.

King Kong inspired Jungle environment

2011-11-11T13:03:00.000-08:00

This is day 5 of my concept series. Today I continued to explore ways to produce a more finish painting in the digital medium. This painting is based on the cover of "World of Kong." Yesterday, I did a gouache mastercopy of that piece which I will post later.

I've made a set of brushes that I'm pretty comfortable using. I will be doing some figure drawing, plein air painting, and rendering exercises with my labtop in the following weeks to further strengthen my easy of use with the digital medium.

Warcraft inspired environment

2011-11-09T19:06:00.000-08:00

Going for something a really simple (albeit cliche) environment piece.

Tom Brown's Landscape Painting Class Review

2011-11-09T16:47:00.000-08:00

Recently I took a plein air painting class taught by Tom Brown.

First things first, the class was a great deal! 5 weeks for $90! A plein air painting class usually costs 4x as much. It was hosted by the Irvine Fine Art Center - a local community center.

Tom and I (above). Class Demo (below)

When I first started researching about this instructor, I noticed that he had a youtube channel full of instructional videos. This guy every lots of teaching experience! In addition, he sends out a daily newsletter that has a new painting EVERYDAY. This guy was pretty dedicated. How many people you know consistently paint every day?

This guy does landscape paintings as a job - it's his lifestyle. In contrast, when you take a landscape class when an industry professional at CDA or Red Engine - those guys are only doing landscape paintings as a supplement to their professional work. Tom's heart is really into his work. It's like taking a class with Bob Ross!

Some of my work from the class...

One of the differences between gouache and oil is the way you premix color. In this painting, I premix all my colors so I have a solid color palette. Then I just block it in. I fiddle with some edges and shapes, and it's done! It's not the way Tom teaches, but it's pretty fun way to work.

Digital Plein Air

2011-11-09T15:45:00.000-08:00

Okay - so I can paint digitally about the same I can paint traditionally in terms of plein air. And if my environment paintings don't look good, it's not because of my lack familiarity with the digital medium, it's probably because I'm just not good at painting concept environments. Problem identified! :)

Science Experiment gone wrong

2011-11-08T21:31:00.000-08:00

Day 2 of my concept art series...

based on a plein air painting I did on a raining day.

Tomorrow Land Concept Art

2011-11-07T22:01:00.000-08:00

So this week I'm going to doing a series of conceptual art pieces. Just racking up some base mileage.

Today I did a concept of Tomorrowland if it were real. I used to think those simulation rides like "Star Tours" and "Back to the Future" actually involved a flying car. The first time I went on "Back to the Future" I preyed that nothing would go wrong as we went back in time and hoped not to be eaten by a dinosaur. haha.

Man... I really don't like digital I have no idea how to get fine detail with the brush...

Figure Painting - color study

2011-11-01T13:31:00.000-07:00

In this painting, I was focusing on color. I premixed all the colors with a palette knife, and slowly tiled them in. I made sure the colors looked good on my palette before I went to the canvas.

Just to let you guys know, I've been working on this new artist lifestyle blog (link) that focuses on the character of being a very dedicated artist. In theory, it's a blog not just for painters and designers, it's a blog for any person who is working on their artistry: musicians, dancers, designers, etc...

http://artist-lifestyle.blogspot.com/

Plein Air Oil Painting - Tom Brown's Class

2011-10-26T11:17:00.000-07:00

The following 3 paintings are master studies of Tom Brown. I'm taking his class in Irvine right now.

This is an original done on site at San Juaquin Wild Sanctuary. Great place.

Tony Stark Gouache Painting

2011-10-26T11:14:00.000-07:00

New Avengers trailer is out (video link) I love it!

Tony Stark aka Genius Billionaire Play Philanthropist

Sleep deprived Model & Plein Air Painting

2011-10-17T14:18:00.000-07:00

I think a lot of times when we are figure drawing - we take the model at face value and draw what we think and project our assumptions of who the model is. Last saturday at Courbet Art Circle, we had the honor of having the gorgeous Krystal Pistol model for us. At first glance, you see her bright red hair, her dayglow green tube top, and the blanket of tattoos that enveloped her body. However, after talking to her - what you realize is that she is a hard working single mother of 3 kids who was up since 5am this morning. During the 5 hour figure drawing session, you could see that she was really tired, struggling just to stay awake.

For those of my friends who were at Northwood, Art Center, Carnegie Mellon - you know what it's like to be working with only a couple hours of sleep. Everything aches and everything hurts. This was the feeling I was trying to express in this drawing.
I'm sure you can relate.

Full Figure

Some plein air painting. I don't think it turned out that good - but the teacher seemed to think it was really great. That honestly really troubles me. I'll be doing a lot more of these guys and hope to see some improvement.

Pochade Box

2011-10-14T22:08:00.000-07:00

I made a Pochade Box based on Tom Brown's design.

Instead of aluminum, I made mine with blue acrylic. It looks pretty sick.

I almost don't want to go oil painting because I don't want to get the box dirty. lol

My workplace - table saw, drills, pliers...

Plein Air Painting, Environment Sketches, Figure sketching...

2011-10-14T21:54:00.000-07:00

Painting of a friend - photo was taken couple months back when it was sunny. Now it's getting cold...

Series Painting - Noon

Sunset

Night and cloudy morning

finished "busty anime girl." study of alien 1452

Drawings from Dr. Sketchy's (facebook photos)

Drawing at Disneyland

RGB Color Wheel

2011-10-08T16:53:00.000-07:00

I was at Irvine Sketch Jam yesterday, and I was talking to my friend Sherwin about using RGB sliders in Photoshop. He was teaching some things that really helped me understand how to properly use RGB. Thanks man.

1) First of all... primary RBG colors are Red, Green and Blue.

2) Complementary colors are different also! If you look across from the RBB color wheel, the opposite color of red is cyan, Green is Magenta, and Blue is Yellow. To get yellow, you need to have a complete absence of blue light.

This color wheel above took me a lot of time to get right. I didn't eyeball the colors, I had the sliders mathematically correct on what each of the numbers should be. It was really tricky to shift the values of the colors while keeping the value exactly the same. I did some research on RGB color wheels, and I found this online (http://daleroose.com/web_design/color_chart/rgb/) . It's a great resource - even though you should do some preliminarily work before you can understand what it's saying.

Numbers for Colors
Primary
Red: 255, 0, 0
Green: 0, 255, 0
Blue: 0, 0, 255

Secondary
Cyan: 0, 255, 255
Magenta: 255, 0, 255
Yellow: 255, 255, 0

Tertiary
Orange: 255, 128, 0
Yellow-Green: 128, 255, 0
Green-Cyan: 0, 255, 128
Blue- Cyan: 0, 128, 255
Blue-Magenta: 128, 0, 255
Red-Magenta: 255, 0, 128

Controlling Values
This is tricky. Changing values on primary/ secondary colors is slightly different from changing the value on a tertiary color. The max on a color channel is 255, and the minimum is 0. There is no negative.

For a primary and secondary colors, increase the slider by 50 points raise the value by around 10%. This is pretty exact. Red is 255, 0, 0. To make Red lighter, add 50 points (255, 50, 50). To make it darker, subtract 50 points (205, 0, 0).

For tertiary colors, the principle applies, but the added lights need to be proportionate.
Orange is 255, 128, 0. To make it lighter, raise the Blue channel by 50 points, BUT raise the Green channel by ONLY 25 points. This is different since the Green channel is around at 128, you need increase it by a smaller amount so the ratio of Red, Green and Blue light stays the same.

So I'm just figuring this RGB thing about. If anything is incorrect, I apologize in advance - feel free to let me know about any inaccuracies. Thanks!

Ron Lemen Outdoor Figure Painting Class - Review

2011-10-05T20:00:00.000-07:00

Recently I took a class with Ron Lemen at Studio 2nd Street (http://studio2ndstreet.com/). I found out about this place by seeing their Booth at Comic-Con. I had a pretty good experience there. I think it's a really underrated art school. I'm going to promote it and tell you why.

1) Classes are $225 for an 8 - week course. This is a great deal. Classes of this caliber costs $400-$600 at places like CDA, 3Kicks, and LAAFA.

2) Low student to teacher ratio. There were only about 7 people enrolled in the class I was taking. An average of 4-5 students show up to class. One week there was only 2 students. I got lots of great feedback, personalized lessons, lots of questions answered...

3) Ron is a great teacher. In class, we painted a model outdoors. The picture below sums it up. He is really analytical and technical. He gives really full explanations to things. He knew that I invested a lot of time and money to drive down to take his class, and he would explain things to me like there was no tomorrow.

Ron Demoing in my sketchbook

Notes and Diagrams that he used to explain his concepts.

Ron's color theory is really really good. I thought I already knew a lot about color, but after this class - I realize I know nothing.

Did you know the order you mix your color matter? There is an order of operations for mixing color... just like math.

In addition, Ron's knowledge extended to the chemicals and minerals used in the paints and how they interacted with each other.

Ron's Gouache Demo. I feel like Ron really wants you to learn. The class was primarily taught in oil. However, I would show Ron gouache paintings that I do on my own time for feedback. Ron decided he wanted to teach me a lesson about using that medium, and told me he would do a gouache demo for me the following week. And, he did.

Photo of the model.

4) Last but not least, Studio 2nd Street holds a monthly sketch jam. There is music, pizza, wine, and lots of people drawing. And.. it's free. Check it out!

Nathan Fowkes Head Drawing Workshop Review and Notes

2011-10-05T16:44:00.000-07:00

This blog post is way overdue, but it's never too late to make a post about one of my favorite artists. I've had the fortunate opportunity to attend two Nathan Fowkes Head drawing demos. One at Comic-Con, another LAAFA. Instead of going over his technique - I'm going to talk his philosophy and artistic mindset. He already has many tutorials in his blog (http://nathanfowkes.blogspot.com), so I won't bother with that.

Nathan Fowkes demo at the LAAFA Booth at Comic Con

These are notes that I took during his LAAFA demo. When he was drawing, he constantly emphasized getting the "biggest simple shape." Even in the drawing process, he would really simplify things, using a circle for the eye socket. He used the Riley method during his lay in - which is a method that unifies a lot of features of the face.

Any activity and detail should work with the simple shape instead of against it. When drawing any detail on the head, he made sure that it accentuated the statement that the head is a sphere.

For example, the hair of the model had a lot of detail and strands. In the drawing, he simplified the highlights and the strands. There are many things he left out. Now, take a look at the red cloth the model was wearing. It looks different in the drawing. Nathan purposely simplified the folds and changed them so it would read better in the drawing. If the detail does not emphasize the simple statement of the drawing, you should either leave it out or change it.

Notes for Head Drawing workshop at LAAFA

Nathan wouldn't be afraid to leave things out or sacrifice detail for the greater effect of the drawing. See the turquoise bun that the model has under his head in the photograph? It was completely left out of the drawing. He studied the model and explained that if he were to draw that in, it wouldn't really read. In the short time that he had, he decided it wouldn't be effective to try to draw that.

Nathan told us: "SACRIFICE SOMETHING GOOD FOR SOMETHING BETTER."

I think it is not only a good drawing philosophy, but also a really good life philosophy. In today's hyper-speed society, there are so many things to do, see, hear etc... Young people these days need to balance school, work, friends, jobs, parties, sleep, health, relationships etc... You can't have it all. BUT, you can make a conscious decision to sacrificing unimportant things for the important ones.

Digital Sketching 2

2011-10-05T16:08:00.000-07:00

So this stuff is pretty bad... but just getting some practice in.

Doing some photo overlays...

Digital Sketching

2011-10-01T21:28:00.000-07:00

Right now - my goal is to work on some digital sketching and really figure out Photoshop.

Here I'm figuring out Luminosity, Brightness, Saturation, A & B Sliders. I'm working in a very slow and methodical way. I'm trying to figure out the relationships of different colors. I had a lot of fun doing this and I definitely learned a lot.

I wanted to do an exercise to practice my digital painting. It's crap. I realize that I can't really control my lines and create the shapes I wanted to.

This is another portrait exercise to practice my digital sketching fluency. It's a little bit better, but still pretty bad.

I wanted an exercise to just practice my ability to accurately make lines and shapes. I decided to draw the alphabet in 3D. I made this typeface up in my head so it's pretty crummy. Regardless, I think it's a pretty good exercise. I felt like this was my first successful digital sketch. Before, I used to always sketch on paper and scan it in. But I want to have the choice to sketch digitally if I want to.

This typeface is Helvetica Bold. I did the same thing except I had the letters all facing the opposite direction. As you can see, it's much better than my first try. It's a lot of controlled and a lot cleaner. I'll try another digital still life tomorrow and see if it's any better.

It DOES NOT STOP! - Plein air Paintings, Charcoal Figure Drawing, Sketchbook

2011-09-21T19:45:00.000-07:00

Encinitas Beach. Class at Studio 2nd Street was canceled because of the massive blackout the occurred the day prior - but the painting DOES NOT STOP! I walked down to the beach and painted some plein air paintings.

At Mission San Ruis for Erik Gist's Outdoor sketching class.

Was at Catalyst Art Studio in Westminster for a figure drawing workshop. The model didn't show up (seems to happen fairly often with these guys). But the painting DOES NOT STOP! I didn't want to waste a trip since I already drove there, so I painted my car in the parking lot.

Some studies from David Palumbo (http://www.dvpalumbo.com/personal/2010.html)
He draws these girls on receipts in his art book. His paintings are super dope.

Katrina at Courbet art circle. Really hot model and super nice also.
Courbet is my favorite place to draw. (http://artcircleus.com/home.html)

Katrina full figure.

Drawing workshop at Watts Atelier. Friday Nights - $20. Was sitting next to Jeff Watts. It was awesome watching him draw - like getting a free demo. I was referencing his technique was I doing my own drawing.

This is the lay-in I did prior to filling in the shadows. It's just drawing the edges and using the shape to explain form.

Another drawing from Watts workshop.

JJ at LCAD workshop $15 - 5 hrs at Laguna Beach.
One of the best deals in terms of money/time to rack up your mileage.

Using Line to show gesture and suggest form.

Some studies from "Vogue" Magazine

Took some of my friend's facebook profile pictures and drew them.
It's more of a candid, realistic feel than you would get from "Vogue" magazine.

Drawing at Barnes and Nobles with my friend Dan C (http://soulkarl.tumblr.com/).
Really great comic artist. He drew the guy in the bottom left corner.

Was at Santa Ana last weekend. It turns out the figure drawing workshop at Coubet Art Circle was canceled because it was Mexico Independence Day and there was a huge event huge on. Again - the drawing DOES NOT STOP! Instead, I walked about to the carnival event and drew gestures for 3 hours. These are some of my favorites.

Busty Anime Girl, Outdoor Environment and Figure Painting, Figure Quick Sketch

2011-09-06T14:19:00.000-07:00

Work in Progress - Alien1452 study (http://www.alien1452.com/)

Outdoor Sketching and Painting with Erik Gist (Watts Atelier Class)
Balboa Park, San Diego

Outdoor Sketching and Painting with Erik Gist (Watts Atelier Class)
Antique Steam Engine Museum

Outdoor Figure Painting Class taught by Ron Lemen (Studio 2nd Street)
Oil Painting

Outdoor Figure Painting Class taught by Ron Lemen (Studio 2nd Street)
Gouache Painting

Outdoor Figure Painting Class taught by Ron Lemen (Studio 2nd Street)

Figure Quick Sketch ;) - LCAD Figure Drawing Workshop

Oil Paintings, Nathan Fowkes Workshop, Zhang Lu Studies, Pencil Broad Stroke Environments, Megan Fox & MORE!!

2011-08-16T10:20:00.000-07:00

Been super busy lately. Started a new job at Disneyland, classes at Watts Atelier and Studio 2nd Street in San Diego, Nathan Fowkes workshop at LAAFA and Comic-con. Finally got a chance to catch my breath to make a post.

Zhang Lu studies (http://zhanglu.deviantart.com)

Nathan Fowkes Portrait Workshop

Catalyst Studios - Westminster, CA

Rose at Courbet Art Circle - Santa Ana, CA

Outdoor Portrait Painting at Studio 2nd Street (http://www.studio2ndstreet.com/)

Portrait Studies for Oil paintings above

Megan Fox and other foxy ladiesss

Pencil Broad Stroke Technique (Ted Kautsky Style)

Outdoor Sketching with Eric Gist at Watts Atelier

More Environment Thumbnails

Environment Thumbnails before work at Disneyland

Rothik Art Haus - Dr. Sketchy's Figure drawing workshop

Burlesque Model - Dr. Sketchy's Figure drawing workshop

ASA Toy Story Video - FINALLY DONE!

2011-08-03T11:55:00.000-07:00

Hey guys - I'm finally done with editing this video. It took me about 2 weeks of post-production work - but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

This story takes you on my trip to Pittsburgh. The video contains little vignettes of my journey to visit the Spring Carnival Event at Carnegie Mellon University. My trip was nothing what I expected - it starts off kind of bitter, but it turned out really sweet because I met a lot of new friends.

Toy Story Video Teaser

2011-07-24T21:03:00.000-07:00

Couple months ago - I went to Pittsburgh to visit my ASA friends. I'm making a video documenting my journey. This is a little preview of what I'm working on.

Figure Quick Sketch, Portraits, Gesture Drawings

2011-07-20T10:55:00.000-07:00

Hey - I just wanted to take time to say thanks to everyone who reads my blogs and sends me comments. I'm honored that you take the time to look at my artwork. I feel like I've been growing a lot recently - artistically and as a person. Once you toss aside your ego - and get rid of inhibitions - you can have limitless potential to do what you really love.

Recently - I started to do some full figure drawings instead of just doing portraits. I'm always up to challenge myself. I'll probably tackle some full figure paintings soon.

I also tried to do a portrait of my friend this past week. It's much more difficult than drawing a model. The likeness has to be so much more on point. If the drawing looks great and it doesn't look like your friend - ultimately it's a failure. So it's a really great way to challenge yourself. :)

Practicing Figure Quick Sketch - Inspired from the Stuff at Watts Atelier (http://www.wattsatelier.com/)

Head Drawing Class Review (Continuing the Fred Fixler Lineage)

2011-07-10T22:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday concluded the 10 week Head Drawing course taught by Glen Orbik at 3Kicks Fine Arts Studio. It was a really great class.

He is a what I would call the "old school teacher" - back when a teacher was also your mentor and friend. Glen always stayed after class and talk to you and look at your work. He was not concerned with you learning his specific technique - but rather you learning the fundamentals and applying them. He always brought in various art books every week and encouraged us to learn and study from other artists.

In- Class Demo

Originals and Photographs of Fred Fixler's work

I expected an analytical, step-by-step approach to head drawing. However, Glen's teaching method was more about the art of balancing the 2D/ 3D aspects of drawing (2D refers to using shapes - a more painterly method. 3D means using construction - a more vis com/ ID method). Prior to this class, I trained almost exclusively in one method - 3D drawing: Vis Com, Analytical Figure Drawing. Therefore, learning how to draw using 2D shapes and embracing the art of balance - rather than relying on the methodology of construction - was a huge challenge for me. I realized that was there was not one right way to draw - but many different ways - and it was my job to make those artistic decisions.

Glen's job was to incessantly challenge you. I would always be learning a new way of thinking and seeing every week: losing edges, idealization, reilly rhythms, construction, shapes, values, composition. Just when I thought I was getting the hang of the lesson last week - Glen would give us another mountain to tackle.

Over the course of 10 weeks I learned many new tools and techniques. Now, it's time for me to actually put those tools to use, learn and create great work! Take his class if you have the chance - I highly recommend it.

Originals of Fred Fixler's Work

Full-size Illustrations done by Glen Orbik and Laurel Blechman

More Head Painting/ Head Drawing (Reilly Method, Glen Orbik, Asian Girls, Gesture Drawings)

2011-07-10T21:40:00.000-07:00

Woah - it's been a while since a posted! Got a new job recently, I have been really really busy. It also means I've accumulated lots of good stuff over the weeks to show you guys.

Naila at Courbet Art Circle

Preliminary Study for Painting

Paul at LCAD workshop

Preliminary study for Paul. Doing a lot of Reilly rhythms on this piece. Going for a Leyendecker look.

These are some photograph studies. where I'm paying attention to the bigger shapes. Instead of copying the photo, I'm studying, interpreting and designing the shapes on the photographs (even changing things to make it "read" and "look" better.

Aye Hasegawa - Dope dancer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nzaDiGbx-I)

Left is a Zhang Lu study. Right is a Korean girl from makeup ad.

Stacy Walker at 3Kicks Fine Arts Studio

Head Figure Quick Sketch

Gesture Drawings - Anime Expo, Barnes and Nobles. Working on Basic shapes.
Doing studies based on stuff I read in a Mark McDonnel's book (The Art and Feel of Making it Real)

More Head Drawings and starting to do head painting!

2011-06-24T07:57:00.000-07:00

Rebecca at Courbet Art Circle - 1st figure painting I've done in a while.

Preliminary Sketch

Ballerina Clown at Catalyst Art Studio

Short Poses

Girl at Courbet Art Circle

Quante at 3Kicks Art Studio

Karl Gnass Workshop at Animation Guild

2011-06-24T07:47:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday - I attended a "Expression, Character and Story" Karl Gnass workshop at Animation Guild. I decided to try it out because the 5 hour workshop was only $60. l. It sounded like a great deal, I heard good things about the school, and it fit my schedule.

The models were terrific. They held very dynamic poses and facial expressions for 8 minute poses. These guys were true professionals - not many models are able to accomplish such feats. In addition - they constantly changed costumes and props to enhance the character of the pose.

The workshop was mostly drawing with lecture material sprinkled during breaks. Karl talked about the expression, character and story. He advocated empathizing and embodying the expression from within instead of seeking to capture it. When drawing from 2 models, he had us get the gesture of the two models instead of drawing each model individual. This advice was particularly effective.

"Where we going?"
beginning of workshop sketch

3 min facial expression poses

dancing

pygmalion

riding cowboy! last sketch of workshop

More Juice

2011-06-22T15:36:00.000-07:00

I've had a crazy idea recently to really rack up my drawing mileage. It's more than just projects and paintings I do here and there. It's a plan to change my behavior. My plan is inspired by 2 movies and 1 magazine article.

Limitless: In this movie, there is this dude that takes a pill allows him to use more of his brain so he becomes super baller.

Lesson:
You have more potential than you are using.

Adjustment Bureau: In this movie, this dude defies God.

Lesson:
If you want it bad enough - go get it.
Whether or not you do it... is whatever... but you gotta go balls out and risk everything if you really believe in it.

Harnessing the Power of Feedback loops: In this "Wired" article, the writer suggests that you can change your behavior using feedback loops. Corporations like Facebook and the police do it to you all the time.

Currently I'm working a system to change my sleep cycle so I sleep early and wake up earlier (10pm - 6am), and to increase the number hours that I draw a day.

High School work at Art Center (2004)

The PLAN

Currently, I spend 10-15 hours a week on drawing. It's not bad, but I'm honestly not producing any work with the passion I used to. I have much more potential.

I plan to increase my drawing hours to 15-20 hours a week. This roughly is the number of hours I spent on my Art Center class in high school. Getting these hours in require discipline, but yield respectable results. By July 15, 2011 - I want to be at this stage.

Booth at Carnegie Mellon (2008)

Afterwards, I want to increase to drawing/ painting to 20-40 hours a week. This is how much time I spent on Booth in college. While this seems like a lot, this is a standard work schedule for average people. The hours will probably seem grueling, but I would be making work that I would be proud of. By September 1, 2011- I want to be at this stage.

Eventually, I want to hit 40-60 hours a week of drawing/ painting/ designing. This is a lofty ambition, but you don't get anywhere by dreaming small. In fact, this is generally this workweek of an industry professional, if not more. By January 1, 2012 - I want to be at this stage.

Head Drawing & Figure Quick Sketch

2011-06-17T09:38:00.000-07:00

Asian girl from hair magazine

Marcie at Courbet Art Circle. The hostness brought a birthday cake for the model. Really thoughtful.

More magazine drawings

Trying out the "Figure Quick Sketch" style

CDA, Red Engine, 3Kicks, LAAFA, Watts, Animation Guild, Animation Academy

2011-06-14T15:27:00.000-07:00

I always wanted to draw and paint really well. Recently - I realized that my dreams could all come true. There are tons of great art studios in the area, offering thousands of hours of class a year! Concept Design, figure painting/ drawing, plein air painting, animation... it's all here in LA. Over the next 3-4 years, I'm going to dedicate myself to fulfilling my dream. This opportunity was always in front of me, I just never realized it.

- Concept Design Academy (http://www.conceptdesignacad.com) $510
- Red Engine (http://www.redenginestudios.com) $355 - $595

- 3 Kicks Studio (http://3kickstudio.com) $480
- LAAFA (http://www.laafa.org) $50-695
- Watts Atelier (http://www.wattsatelier.com) $375

- Animation Guild (http://animationguild.org) $180-$300
- The Animation Academy (http://theanimationacademy.com/) $325

So far I've taken classes at CDA, 3Kicks and LAAFA. CDA has a great learning environment and quality service. The only downside is that it's so darn popular and the classes are so full that the instructors may not give you as much personal attention.

I've also taken class at 3Kicks. While it's right next to CDA, the studio space is much smaller and attracts a fewer number of students. However, the quality of instruction is still great (only 4-6 people in my Head Drawing class with Glen Orbik).

I've only taken one workshop at LAAFA - a Nathan Fowkes color class. But by the vibe and the work hanging from the walls - I already know that these people are really serious about their work - they don't fuck around. There's a large variety of workshops and classes at LAAFA and they have some really gangsta artists like Steven Houston and Nathan Fowkes.

My plan is to alternate my studies between foundation and digital painting/ design classes. Take some figure painting then environment design, some plein air then some entertainment design, some figure drawing then some character design. I plan to really strengthen my foundation in painting/ drawing, and apply that technique towards conceptual art.

New portfolio website

2011-06-12T22:28:00.000-07:00

Hey guys - I recently introduced a new layout to my portfolio website. To date - this is version 4 of the website. www.chris-chien.com

The concept is to be able to browse through the website with minimal clicking. On the front page, you get a comprehensive preview of the entire website in just a couple of seconds. And, when you click on the individual section - the images auto-scroll in slideshow mode. I'd love to hear what you guys think of this new format.

The content is not 100% complete - but if you have any comments or suggestions regarding aesthetics, content, usability etc... I'd love to hear what you think so far. Please leave your comments below, or email me directly at xpchien@gmail.com

Thanks!

- Chris

Head Drawing - 2D Shapes and Head Construction

2011-06-12T22:20:00.000-07:00

These are more head drawings. Recently, I've been focusing more on designing 2D shapes. The construction and 2D shapes go hand in hand - and I've been trying to balance the two principles.

Singing? Seriously? - Just trying something different.

2011-05-31T16:44:00.000-07:00

Head Drawing - Glen Orbik/ Reilly Method

2011-05-31T08:26:00.000-07:00

17 Hours of Figure Drawing this past week. I've attended workshops at Courbet Art Circle, LCAD, 3 Kicks, & Catalyst. Why?

Recently I've been taking head drawing with Glen Orbik at 3Kicks Studio in Pasadena (http://3kickstudio.com). Only 6 students. SIX!!! I've been taking class for 4 weeks so far. We've covered basic construction, using shadow shapes, and basic Reilly Rhythms last week.

"Have only 4 values, but all the edges you want." In Glen's demos, he puts down the placement of the features, blocks in the shapes, and continues to refines the shapes and edges until he gets a more finished piece. There are at most 2-3 values in the piece. He works with a limited value range, and spends most of his time organizing the shapes and edges.

This minimalistic method of drawing really coincides with my philosophy of living life: "Cherish what you already have, don't chase after things you don't need." The 2-3 values are all you need to render. The artistry is in the design the shapes and the choices you make.

Courbet Art Circle - Santa Ana, CA (http://artcircleus.com/workshops.htm)

Steve - Catalyst - Westminster, CA (http://www.artsupplywarehouse.com/catalyst.php)

Mark - 3 Kicks - Pasadena, CA

Roseanne - Courbet Art Circle - Santa Ana, CA (http://artcircleus.com)

Jessica - LCAD - Laguna, CA (http://www.lagunacollege.edu/news.php?id=3)

Obsidian Entertainment - Irvine, CA

10K VIEWS!! THANK YOU!

2011-05-14T08:47:00.000-07:00

Wow guys - I finally hit 10,000 views on my blog!!! This is very cool. Thank you for everyone who visits my blog. lol I started this blog all the way back in 2007 (4 years ago), and started consistently posting in 2009 (3 years ago). But, I think it's only been this past year - after I graduated from college - that I really started to really take my art seriously and focus on getting better.

As a thank you, I'm offering a 20% off coupon (Coupon code: THANKYOU) for all my blog visitors for my Etsy Shop. All my original paintings come with a deluxe cardstock frame and FREE SHIPPING. This special deal will only last one week - so get it while it lasts! :)

Thanks!!!
Chris Chien

Urban Plein Air and Dice Tsutumi Study

2011-05-13T21:53:00.001-07:00

These are paintings that I snuck into last week's blog post, but since they are new to the blog, I felt that they also deserved a proper introduction.

Plein air at Woodbury.

More Dice Tsutsumi Studies

Greg Pro Week

2011-05-13T21:44:00.000-07:00

Week 2 was Greg Pro Week (www.gregpro.com). You've probably seen a lot of studies I've done from him before. This week was supremely difficult. Some of the paintings were super detailed in terms of content and took a really long time to paint.

Plein Air Paintings WK2: Pools, Parks, Cozy Houses, Plastic Girls & 1950 Sex Icons

2011-05-13T21:34:00.000-07:00

These plein airs are from last week. I've been really busy, haven't hide time to post. I actually don't my work from this week isn't even that good. I missed my sketch quota on some days, but I made sure to get my pleins airs in.

I actually took a break from painting this week. I've been a lot of freelance work earlier this week, and also doing a lot of plumbing and painting on my house.

I have this really cool idea to get really good color theory today. It involves paint swatches from Lowes. Stay tuned!

Monday Night- Painting the Pool. Cool colors...

Tuesday - Irvine Regional Park.

Wednesday Night - Painting my room. Too busy to go out...

Thursday - Painting Mannequins at Irvine Spectrum.

Friday - AMC Theater at District. Painting Marilyn Monroe.

Dice Tsutumi (Toy Story 3 Concept Artist) Mastercopies

2011-04-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

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,

2011-04-30T15:17:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-30T14:54:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-30T14:41:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2011-04-29T23:17:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-04-27T16:41:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-21T10:46:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-21T10:11:00.000-07:00

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.

2011-04-09T22:29:00.000-07:00

Turtle on a Rock

Plein Air at Cal Tech

Jackson Sze Mastercopies - my landscape painting instructor.

Plein Air at Vasquez Rocks

Blowing up Rocks - Freelance Piece.

Movement Lifestyle Booth

2011-04-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

- Pictures coming soon -

Nathan Fowkes Landscape Studies

2011-03-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

Doing some Nathan Fowkes Landscape studies. These are fun.

A watercolor copy for my Chinese Painting Class. Slightly different style. I will be doing an actual "watercolor" one soon.

1000 environments

2011-03-19T22:47:00.000-07:00

So couple months ago - I had this idea to do 100 environments. Today, during the Nathan Fowkes workshop, I had a great idea - 1000 environments!

The point would be to let me experience a variety of subjects and styles:
1) environments for games
2) animation
3) science fiction
4) fantasy
5) urban environments
6) landscape painting
7) amusement parks
8) environments with crowds
9) environments at night

Instead of doing 1000 environments straight, I would sets of 100. Each set having it's own theme of subject matter and style of illustration. One idea I liked was to do mastercopies, but copy each illustration about 5-10 times using different ways to break it down: loose contours, abstract shapes, simplified greyscale, color studies, lighting variations, and color variations.

So that will be my first set of 100. Yup. My goal is now real. I just have to do it. Mileage.

More Plein Air paintings.

2011-03-17T12:40:00.000-07:00

This week has been a little better. I think I'm getting the hang of the color painting process. I'm painting smaller, which helps me focus on the bigger shapes. It also speeds up the process so it feels more spontaneous.

Greg Pro Study

Old LA Zoo

More Paintings

2011-03-12T10:03:00.000-08:00

Whew. This week has been exhausting for some reason. Working on more paintings.

Plein Air in Color!!

2011-03-05T22:57:00.000-08:00

Greg Pro Plein Air studies

Greg Pro Jurassic Park studies

Color Studies

Plein Air Paintings

Scott Christensen Study

Art Agent - George Lin Art

2011-03-02T16:59:00.000-08:00

Hey guys - just today I've opened up shop to George Lin Art. For those of you who don't know, I've taken up Chinese painting recently and George is my teacher. He is really a talented artist who has exhibited his work all over the world. However, he is a old man now, and going out and selling his work has become harder for him. He doesn't really speak English, nor uses the internet. Basically - your grandpa.

I'm trying to getting his paintings more exposure here in the US. Anyways, please take a look. He has really cool use of color in his pieces. Here are some hand selected favorites that I've chosen to upload to his Etsy store.

Etsy - online store

2011-02-21T19:13:00.000-08:00

Hey guys. I've set up an online shop at Etsy to sell some of gouache painting I've been doing. I'm doing this mainly to learn, experiment and have fun. If I make any money along the way, that would be cool also. Please take a look guys!

More Gouache Paintings

2011-02-21T17:36:00.000-08:00

Greg Pro Studies

Bringing Romance Back

2011-02-20T17:28:00.000-08:00

I'm deactivating my facebook account for 1 month as an experiment. It's February 20th today, and I won't be using facebook until March 20th. When you close one door, 3 new doors open. I wonder what new doors will open for my social life and work. Who knows, maybe if things go well, I'll just quit Facebook permanently.

More paintings

2011-02-19T12:26:00.000-08:00

Greg Pro Studies (http://www.gregpro.com)

Rainy Day Plein Air

Some exercises painting girls

Nurse having lunch

Cloudy day at Panera Bread

Rough Sketches

Gouache Paintings

2011-02-14T15:53:00.001-08:00

Landscape Painting at Irvine Park

Scott Christensen Master Studies

Environments from Life

Eaton Canyon

Eaton Canyon with Paintover by Jackson Sze

Nathan Fowkes Color Workshop. I paid $170 and drove 1.5 hours from Irvine to LA to learn from this guy. I thought I was dedicated for driving that far, but the first dude I met at the workshop drove here from Tennessee. Other people flew here from Seattle, San Francisco, Toronto. Holy crap. 1.5 hours is nothing.

Nathan talked about the different emotional perceptions of color. He talked about how limited the values are in a painting vs real life. He covered harmonizing colors. He showed us his exercises for doing color studies. We used two colors as a base and created very abstract color compositions. Finally we did a painting of a costumed model with multiple colored lights. The one above had a yellow and a purple light. I think I got the color theory part of the workshop. But I'm really limited by my experience with the gouache medium.

Therefore, I decided to do some basic drills. I can do this all day with marker, but it's a lot more difficult with gouache. The value range is much less finite. And the paint changes value after it dries.

1st attempt

2nd and 3rd attempt

Sketchbook update

2011-02-10T11:39:00.000-08:00

HW for Landscape Painting with Jackson Sze @ CDA

Figure Drawing at Nucleus

Some of the hottest models I've drawn.

Magazine studies

Marker color studies around the neighborhood

Coronal Del Mar Beach

Environment sketches. Photoshop Overlay

Mega Man studies I did for the tribute book.

Zero

2011-01-31T15:45:00.000-08:00

So the first Mega Man drawing I did was so bad, I had to do another. I finished this in about 8 hours - starting from yesterday. I missed hanging out with friends last night to work on this, and I woke up at 5am this morning to finish it - turning it in at 10am this morning, right before the deadline. But -- it was definitely worth it.

The process of creating this piece was fun and innovative. It was a mix between photoshop, and traditional "Tony-Yao-Saturday-High-Triple-Canson" style rendering. While I have about 8 years of experience with the my tried and true "maker/ colored pencil/ pastel" combo, I have only about 1-2 years experience working with Photoshop and painting digitally. In order to work as effectively as I could - I invented a new style of working: I would draw a sketch, scan it and tweak proportions in photoshop, print it out - do greyscale in marker, scan it - work on it in photoshop, print and do values in marker and colored pencil, scan and finish it photoshop. I was surprised how well white colored pencil shows up on printed paper. It was definitely really fun. I personally liked how the piece feels "traditional" and "digital" at the same time.

Mega Man Fan Art

2011-01-29T17:56:00.000-08:00

Trying to submit art for the Mega Man Tribute Book. This was my attempt at Mega Man. Gonna try a pass over zero later.

Marshall Vandruff Composition Workshop

2011-01-22T06:22:00.000-08:00

Hey - in the beginning of January I attended a Marshal Vandruff Composition seminar in Brea, California. I'm just going to post my notes and thoughts about the workshop. So... 1) I understand the material better as I write. 2) For people thinking about taking his workshop or 3) You are too cheap to take his workshop and would rather read my notes instead.

Basically in this workshop, Marshall lectures for about 12 hours over 3 days regarding various tools you can use to get a better composition. Listening to him talk is entertaining because he uses his expansive vocabulary to deftly describe the most abstract artistic concepts. He also finds the need to sprinkle a music reference about Chopin, Beethoven, Schubert every 25 seconds. During the lecture, you will often find yourself making thumbnail sketches from master-studies that have had the "gaussian blur" applied over them in photoshop. This is honestly a good exercise. Frankly, I probably wouldn't have had the patience to do this myself - so if you have time to do blurred out composition studies for 12 hours, you can skip the workshop and save yourself $120. Just kidding, his lecture is seriously pretty good.

Composition - this is the "Design." These are the numerous choices you make in your illustration regarding how to use line, tone, shape, form, value, color, etc... Composition is separate from mastery of a medium or how well you know perspective and anatomy. There are tools you can use to achieve a better composition.

- Tools & Concepts -
Use Metaphors and Touchstones to imbue abstract qualities into your composition.

Consonance - Use motifs, rhymes and echos to make your piece look cool. It is mesmerizing.

Balance is a tool critical to achieve contrast. You can use it to push two opposites very far and achieve high contrast. But only with proper balance - will it look good.

Dominance is the concept of having a primary read or a focal point in your piece. Make one thing more important than the rest to state your message clearly.

Light and Dark Massing - use this to achieve a clear read for your piece. It can serve to clarify or obscure your subjects. Generally - it just looks good when you mass.

Contrast - "Name your dominant quality and surround it with your opposite." It really amplifies your message.

Continuity - this is how you lead your viewer's eye around the page. You create paths in the painting.

Rhythm and Pattern - this is how your painting "sounds." How do you want your painting to sound?

Transition and Counterchange - This stuff is naturally cool. Just do it. Transitions are like gradients and stuff. Counterchange is when opposites reverse. Light and dark to dark and light. There is beauty in irony.

Well... chances are you have no idea what I just said. But its okay. If this stuff sounds interesting to you, you might enjoy his seminar. He is teaching again. http://www.marshallart.com/seminars/info/index.php

100 environments: Mission Accomplished!

2011-01-08T13:39:00.001-08:00

I originally set out to draw 100 environments to gain confidence and spontaneity with my compositions. I definitely I've gotten more loose and confident to just lay things down. In the future, I plan on doing more finished drawings, color studies, and some night studies. I was originally planning to incorporate color studies in this series - but it took too look for the purpose of this project. Definitely look for color environments that in the future. This journey will be amazing!

Day 7: Markers, white color pencil + ball point pen

I was really trying to have strong tones and minimal lines in the environments to the right.

Day 8 (even though it says 7): ballpoint + 3 shades of marker

Day 9: graphite + ball point (+ marker is some)

I was trying a new technique. Graphite is really my weakest medium. I learned I had to really be solid with my solid with my shapes in order for it to read well.

Day 10: Marker and Ball point again. My favorite combo!

These were drawn during a lecture over the course of 3 days. I really learned to capture people's gesture. I also learned that I had to crop must closer in order to make these compositions work.

Some gesture drawings from a Japanese Magazine

100 Environments

2010-12-29T23:15:00.000-08:00

Hey guys - this is project I started. 100 environments. 10 environments a day for 10 days (actually 9 - but 10 just sounds cooler). The whole point of the exercise is to build confidence. I'm using different mediums to exercise different ways of drawing and seeing things.

Day 1: My House. Black Marker ONLY.

Day 2: Shopping Center - Tustin Market Place.

Medium: Black & Grey Marker

Day 3: My Living Room

Medium: Ball Point and Grey Marker

Day 4: Color studies from Life and Magazines

Medium: Markers and Colored Pencil.

Day 5: Irvine Spectrum

Medium: 3 Tones of Marker & Ball Point

Day 6: Park by My House

Medium: Graphite Pencil

Some thumbnails of the Atlantis paintings I did.

Atlantis Exterior

2010-12-17T16:01:00.000-08:00

Atlantis Interior

2010-12-16T19:42:00.001-08:00

Pokebooth WIP

2010-12-16T11:29:00.000-08:00

need help on the charizard.

Descano Garden Paintings

2010-12-11T12:16:00.001-08:00

Night Club - Again... and Veggie Grill

2010-12-10T18:48:00.000-08:00

Haunted House Painting - Horocruxes

2010-12-07T18:20:00.000-08:00

I was inspired by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for this painting. In the movie, Harry is going around destroying Horocruxes. For this painting, basically - the dude is capturing the demon spirit from that dragon statue. It's somewhat similar to Harry Potter. I was also inspired by Jackie Chan Adventures - for those of you old enough to know what that is. :)

Let me know what you think guys. Critiques welcome. Seriously.

Pokebooth painting WIP

2010-12-05T21:36:00.000-08:00

I've started to use this more paintery brush in photoshop after my friend Kalen gave me a demo. It is awesome. I feel like I'm Craig Mullins - even though I'm not.

Environments - more WIP

2010-12-03T19:39:00.000-08:00

Nightclub - WIP

2010-11-26T15:39:00.001-08:00

Brush Holder - Step by Step

2010-11-26T15:30:00.000-08:00

Some of you guys probably remember the brush holder I made a while back. My mom liked it so much, that she asked me to make one for her calligraphy teacher as a Christmas gift. So here we are again!

Cut pieces of wood

Drill Center Holes - This part was HARD

Round Corners

Glue and Clamp

Fine sanding and stain wood

Another one!

Night Stand - REFINISHED!

2010-11-26T15:18:00.000-08:00

My dad built this nightstand for me when I was about 8-years-old. Recently, I decided to awesomize this piece of furniture and give it some new life.

- I sand it. I start at 80 grit.

- I bevel out corners.

- I sand until I'm wet-sanding at 600 grit. Super smooth.

- I stain it with teak oil. Super shiny and luster finish.

- I replace the wooden knob with this cool metal one from home depot. More stylish.

- Original -

- Finished! -

Super Shiny

** These pictures really don't do the new finish justice. You have to feel the wood to appreciate the level of finish. If you are ever at my house - you gotta check it out! **

BZ Booth - Can't Stop Won't Stop

2010-11-26T15:06:00.000-08:00

Hey guys - I meant to post this really cool project on my blog a while back. This Booth was created for a company called Boogiezone (www.Boogiezone.com). The Booth debuted at the "Enkore" Dance competition which took place around mid-October. For this project, I created concept drawings and was in charge of designing and constructing the life-size cutouts. Special shout-outs to Elm Pizarro, Kalen Chock, Stefanie Hyunh, Dave Koepke, and Jeff Losaria for being great people on this project.

Self Adhesive Paper

Gator board - like foamcore but with cardstock backing. Super hard to cut.

The usual - 2x4s

Test assembly in my garage

ASA <3 - can't stop won't stop.

Environment Sketches

2010-11-20T11:51:00.000-08:00

Restaurant Sketches - Veggie Grill

Reference

Environment Sketches - Irvine Regional Park

Top/Down Angles

Sketches from Week 6

LA Arboretum

Haunted House Painting

2010-11-17T20:43:00.000-08:00

Haunted House. Asian Style.

Club

2010-11-17T15:05:00.000-08:00

This is a rough paint-over on one of my previous sketches. I want to get into digital painting create some really polished pieces for my portfolio. This pieces doesn't look finished, but it's a good step for me to start getting used to the tablet and digital painting again.

I know the perspective on the rough is messed up and stuff. But I didn't quite notice that until I almost finished. I'll catch it earlier next time.

Haunted Samurai House

2010-11-06T19:01:00.001-07:00

HW for CDA class.

Exterior

Interior

Thumbnails

concept club

2010-11-05T19:40:00.001-07:00

Environments - Greyscale

2010-10-29T20:08:00.001-07:00

Historical Building Project

ALTAR

2010-10-22T13:37:00.000-07:00

HW for "Sketching for Environment" class. I designed a church that has been converted into a nightclub. I call it "Altar." Good old CMU times.

Interior and Exterior Views

Exterior Studies

Based on First United Methodist Church in Palo Alto, CA. Built 1894.

Interior Environment

Grand Central Market, and Bradbury Building. Photo Reference.

Borders & Santa Monica.

I started watching this Korean Drama called "Cinderella's Sister." It's supposed to be a modern adaptation of the fairy tale, but I'm on episode 2 - and I'm still having a hard time seeing the resemblance. Very korean though.

Environment Sketches

2010-10-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

Taking Sketching for Environment at Concept Design Academy.

Homework this week was to draw from film and your desk.

Community

Various locations

Glee

My house