Flying Balloon Project

     This was one of my homework projects for ART 113. I like this drawing, however, it didn't meet the goal of the assignment. We were supposed to draw something representing repetition and effectively use negative space.
     I was a bit ambitious with this project. I made an origami balloon and box then strung them together to make a hot air balloon. As seen in the picture above, I then strung the balloon to my lamp (which was the light source) and adjusted the string to make different positions.
     Originally I had planned to draw the background with the lamp and curtains then create smudge lines to show a sort of wind picking the balloon off the ground, but that didn't work out. It looked really bad and I was getting lazy, so I tried to make something similar to the mark making project ,where I used many tiny marks to create foliage (but wind for this project instead). It ended up looking like the sky from Starry Night...
     If I were to redo this project, I'd change only a few things. I think the composition of the balloons would remain the same, but I'd draw them bigger to take up more space on the paper and effectively create negative space. I'd also leave the background white or tone it a very light grey.

Sketchbook 12 and 13: Cat

     Daily college sketchbook. Sketchbook 12 and 13: Cats. Charcoal. There are a lot of cats on campus. Someone feeds them every morning.
     #12 was a quick sketch that I completed at my dorm. I tried to show some line in the fur by erasing along the contours, but I think it just made it look weird, or maybe its the the drawing general.
     #13 is a simple outline, but I like it. I didn't have a lot of time to draw before the cat moved- and it did before I finished-, so i kept it simple and focused on capturing the different curves.

Sketchbook 11: Tree

     Daily college sketchbook. Sketchbook 11: ficus tree. Charcoal. Another ficus tree. This time i put more effort into shading. Again it ended up being focused too close.

Sketchbook 10: Koi

      Daily college sketchbook. Sketchbook 10: Koi. Charcoal. This was a bit difficult to draw since the koi was always moving amidst many more koi. I quickly sketched its basic shape then every time i saw a koi in the same position, I sketched in the details. So it's not really one fish; it's like a mash up of a few. I kept the background really simple; just a smooth black with lighter shades near the edges. I think it works well- there's a lot of contrast with the fish against the water. I shaded the tail a bit darker to put more of the emphasis on the head and main body of the fish.
     I was also experimenting with how charcoal works. If you apply a lot of pressure, it leaves a mark that cant be completely erased. This is true for lighter marks, but more pressure leaves a considerably darker mark. I used this to create the spot on the koi's forehead. It gave a feel that the spot was a part of the fish rather than a shade of charcoal applied on top. I don't know, it doesn't really make sense and the picture doesn't show it too well, but it was fun to try.

Sketchbook 9: Paper Crane

      Daily college sketchbook. Sketchbook 9: Paper Crane. Charcoal. Well, it's a paper crane. I know there's pretty much an infinite amount of things to draw, but I find it difficult to find something I want to draw. When I look around my dorm, I think "Soap bottle... boring, Cereal box... boring, lamp... boring, boring, boring, ARG boring...". To get around all the boringness I decided to create things to draw. Originally I made an origami water balloon, origami box, and a couple of cranes, then strung them together to make a hot air balloon with one crane in the basket and one above the balloon. I didn't draw that because it was sloppy and the wind kept moving it. A single crane seemed good enough. Later I drew a homework assignment with the hot air balloon. I didn't take any pics of my homework assignments before I turned them in so I'll have to post them much later when I get them back.

Sketchbook 8: Base of a Tree

     Daily college sketchbook. Sketchbook 8: Base of a tree with roots. Charcoal. I tried drawing a little differently this time. Instead of using a charcoal pencil to create outlines, I used the side of a charcoal stick to render this sketch. It's not as realistic as I usually draw, but I kinda like it. I'm having problems with proportioning, I didn't intend for it to be so close up; I wanted to get more of the roots in.

Sketchbook 7: Sleeping Ducks

     Daily college sketchbook. Sketchbook 7: Sleeping Ducks. Charcoal. I was at the Japanese Garden looking for something to draw and saw these ducks resting under the shade of a tree near the pond. I rarely see them there so I took the opportunity to sketch them. They remained still for the most part which was nice, however the duck in the front rotated its head around like the one in the back before I could finish sketching. I didn't put much effort into the grass and the mound lining the pond- trying to cut back on time.

Texture Practice 2

     Another texture practice. Acrylic paint and string on manilla folder. This time I experimented with incorporating string into a piece. There was this tangled mess of string in my mom's sewing box and I figured it would have more use in a piece of art than for sewing.
     It was fun making this wacky face. Sometimes I like to take a break from smooth values, so it was really enjoyable to work with something simple.
     I think this practice played a part in making the Pipe Blow Out painting. It has the same blocking of color, exaggerated line work of facial features, and the way the eyes look outward.

Texture Practice

     Texture practice. Acrylic paint and tissue paper on manilla folder. I rarely incorporate texture into my works, so I wanted to play around and experiment with layering tissue paper in this piece. I tore a large sheet of tissue paper into smaller sections then adhered them to manilla folder with the acrylic paint. I used the paint as a glue rather than actual glue to get different shades of of color then painted over some areas for a more saturated effect like on the areas of black and the streak of red.
     I like how the tissue paper is somewhat wrinkly and has a texture that appears random compared to that smooth paint. I think it contrasts nicely with the face, although you can see some of the wrinkling on the lips and forehead. Overall, I like this piece, but I would change the face if I decided to redo this. It looks warped, especially when you compare the top half to the bottom, plus there's no real focus of the gaze. The eyebrows are too dark and defined as well.

Scare and Willow

     More office Labels! This time I was experimenting with gum wrappers. The first label has that creepy demon thing... I don't remember what I was trying to draw, but it ended up like that and I just went with it. Overall it's supposed to be like a drawing on a wall (brick gum wrappers).
     The willow label is a willow tree in an abstracted scene. I tried mimicking the way James Jean makes willow trees, he makes them so pretty *o*. Anyways, it's on a box thing with hearts and water on the inside. The idea was that this tree was growing off the contents of the box.
     Prisma color pencils, micron pens, and gum wrappers on office labels.

Ninja Kick!

     Yet another expansion of Do. This is the only label I've done to show action. A character is meditating on a lily pad and ninja kicks a frog as it tries to jump over to the same pad. That frog never knew what was coming.
     This label was the inspiration for Rana's Pond- a picture drama I created for an english project. Prisma color pencils and micron pen on office labels.

Blue Strawberry

     Ah I love this one. Anther work expanding off of Do. A cloud is happily raining on Blue Strawberry. Is Blue Strawberry blue because it is sad or because he is just blue? No body knows... but he is definitely sad because of the cloud. The moon just watches. I experimented with faces a bit more again- love the cloud haha.
     This was micron pen and watercolor on a sketchbook page. I like the coloring and the sketchy lines. Was definitely fun to do.

DoReMi

     I drew these after the original Do. I really wanted to expand on the big toothy faces and whimsical themes. The result: DoReMi. Prisma color pencils and micron pen on office labels. I never ended up sticking them anywhere because they just look so complete when they're together.
     Do is redone with the same theme as the original Do, but it's more complex. There are more metallic objects, more stairs, and the swirly things were pushed to the right. I think it's a better composition, but I will always love the original.
     Re is running over the skinny guy who has no name... I must give him a name sometime. Has those swirlies again, but as smoke from the wheel. Re's face is a bit different from Do's, the way the mouth is drawn is inverted and the eyes are circles. The skinny guy is just hilarious on his own. Look at that mouth, arharhar.
     I wasn't sure what to draw for the third label. Sean gave me some ideas to work with. Thanks Sean :P. The idea of Mi is like he's been pushed down a well, but Mi is so cool with his shutter shades  that he turns it into a dive like Superman. The inside of the well changes into a mysterious land. That is one mad moon.

Do

     I'm going to be posting some of my older works. Most of it is stuff I do out of class because I freaking like to. They're usually my favorites as well.
     Did you see the three panel picture at the top? I don't know how you can miss it. Anyways, they're characters based of this little guy; the original Do (doh). I was wrapping my brothers math book with a paper bag and decided to leave my mark, lol. So, I came up with this and pasted it on the spine. It's quite whimsical and just makes me smile when I see it.

Sketchbook 6: Elephant Ears

     Daily college sketchbook. Sketchbook 6: Elephant ear leaves. Charcoal. These leaves are everywhere on campus, but for some reason I decided to go to the ones in the engineering building. When I got there I started sketching and noticed some guy on the second floor staring at me Like what I was doing was weird. He knew I knew he was staring too... was very awkward so I just left with an outline and shaded from memory. That's why it doesn't look real haha, but it looks nice none the less *_*. Such bold lines; I love it. I tried to to shade the dark parts nicely then do a bold highlight at first, but it slowly turned into smooth gradients. I guess it's just a habit of mine.
     Also, it's sketchbook 6 because I'll be skipping some sketches.

Sketchbook 4: Ficus

     Daily college sketchbook. Sketchbook 4: Ficus Tree. Graphite pencils. I really tried to cut down on time as you can see. Oh it's so ugly... I can live with it. Went from a realistic style with the other sketches to a style... I don't know what you'd call this. I guess it's more focused on form. Used hatching to show the curves of the tree, darker lines on the trunk closer to me. The leafy area sucks. I think having a darker background would have made this much better. I think this one was 1 hr. It started raining when I was drawing i-i.

Sketchbook 3: Laces

     Daily college sketchbook. Sketchbook 3: Laces of knee high boots. Graphite pencils. It's a drawing of the top half of one of my shoes. I intended to draw a full picture of both shoes, but I had some problems with proportions. So... here's some laces :D. Similar style to the previous sketches, though it has no reflective surfaces (other than the eye-lets), huzzah.This one took maybe 2 hrs or something like that. Still too long... I don't know if I'll be able to get the time down. Didn't shade in a black background like there really was, but I needed to save time and shading large areas of black with a pencil is a pain.

Sketchbook 2: Staplers

     Daily college sketchbook. Sketchbook 2: Staplers. Materials: graphite pencils. It's pretty similar to the first sketchbook in terms of style, shading and such. I tried to finish it quicker, but it was still pretty long- 4 hrs. I was too lazy to draw the wood grain on the table.

Sketchbook 1: Still Life

     Daily college sketchbook. Sketchbook 1: still life of glass vase with glass pebbles and sticks on cloth. Materials- graphite pencils. I went overboard with this first sketch. Although I like how it turned out, it took way too much time to complete for something that needs to be done daily. Approximately 7 hours of just drawing. The time also affected how I drew this because my main source of light was natural light coming from a window, so as the sun set, the way it reflected on the glass changed. I quickly sketched where the reflections should be, but I had to shade some parts from memory rather than observation.

Mighty Mugg Entry- Cursed Knight

     This is my Mighty Mugg entry for stage 2 of the Maplestory Mighty Mugg design contest. I decorated it as the Cursed Knight/ Ice Knight. I included some of the photos I took to show the stages it went through from beginning to end.

     When I was deciding how to decorate the Mugg, I first looked at what would suit its shape. The Muggs are quite bulky, so I decided not to decorate it as anything female, delicate, etc. I wanted to make the Cursed Knight or Ice Knight as it's mostly recognized as because (in my opinion) the Muggs are more suited for superhero type designs, although the Ice Knight may be more of a villain.

     After deciding on the Ice Knight, I already had some ideas that I knew I wanted to incorporate. One of those ideas and my most favorite was to use an LED light for the flame on its helmet. I also had in mind how I wanted to make the cape along with the fuzz and chain. I'm glad that I was able to complete it as how I imagined (which almost never happens for me :P).

     Working on this was very fun, but did come with its challenges. Painting in the body and armor went pretty smoothly. I only had problems with how I was going to paint the waist because it's stick thin in the game. I decided to just paint the sides of the Mugg darker to create the illusion of it being at least somewhat thinner. My biggest problem was finding an LED to light the flames. I don't have any experience with electronics- even with the aid of tutorial videos, I wasn't sure how to fit all the components inside the flame without the light being too high or too noticeable. My dad helped me out with this. He had this head strap sort of thing that had an LED light on it for when you work in dark areas like the light on a miner hat. He took it off for me and removed the plastic dome lens to make it less bulky. I was able to set it on the top of the Muggs head, securing it with superglue and clay. You can turn it on and off too :D.

     Materials used: white primer spray paint, acrylic paint, glow in the dark paint (for the face), matte spray finisher, air dry clay, pom poms, gold ringlets & brads, black thread & fabric, wooden dowel, LED light, white tissue paper, and superglue.

Unfinished Sketch

     This is a redo of a sketch I made on my math book cover. I still haven't finished it, hopefully I will someday.

Woodblock Water Color Practices

     Drawing/ painting 2. These turned out well, but I left out the writing on the bird one. We had to practice replicating images from woodblocks to get used to the style for the final project which was a woodblock picture that incorporated something modern. I don't know where my final went, but it was a Mt. Fuji landscape with cranes and fog- I painted in a train for the modern part.

To Open Lift Seal And Tear

     Drawing/ painting 3 final project. Stencil, spay paint, acrylic paint. It started so well with the stencils, then I got to the right side and it just turned into blah. Thank you David, Darin, Juvi, Kelani, and Collin for letting me stencil you.

Lemur

     Yes, it is a lemur. Drawing/ painting 3 cubism project. I think I was a little too constructive with all the shapes, but I really like how it came out. It took a lot of time to shade each individual part. The background is somewhat down scaled compared to the lemur- I think I would do more shading if I could redo it.

Pipe Blow Out

     Directive studies project. Stencil, spray paint, acrylic paint and ink. I had fun with this project. I liked making the face and using a straw to blow paint across the canvas although it was quite tiring. I originally planned to paint hands on the instrument, but ran out of time and opted to leave them out.

If You Knew Me

     Expressionism project for drawing/ painting 3. I kept bouncing from one idea to another for this. I think I spent more time on the smoky swirly things in the background than anything and could have done better with the anatomy of the girl. The body looks a bit weird.

Tortoise

     Another sketchbook for either drawing/ painting 1 or 2.

Bag and Shoes

     Drawing/ painting 1 sketch book project. I still didn't understand that there were different types of pencils at that time and ended up doing the whole thing with an HB pencil. I think this is good for one of my first sketchbooks, but if you've seen the actual bag I used for the subject matter, then you'd notice a glaring mistake- the bag is black. I don't know how I drew it as an entirely different shade, but it worked somehow.

Seeing Music

     Directive studies project- acrylic paint, color pencil, ink, and water color. This project was such a disaster. It started out pretty well and I had a few ideas that I knew I wanted to incorporate like the gold fish plant and music box, but the execution got sloppy. I think there's just a few too many random things on it. Stop looking at it.

Skater

     This was done a few years ago, I think for drawing/painting 1 or 2. It's an ink painting of speed skater Krysia (original photo taken by Ted Szukalski). I was so thrilled at how well it turned out especially after running into a few problems while working on it. For instance, while I was painting in the faint shadow on the ice, I accidentally dropped a dark splotch of ink. I tried water it out which kinda helped, but it was still too dark. I then resorted to white ink to cover it up, but the white ink was whiter than the paper, so I painted in all the ice with white ink.

Willow

     Directive studies project. Acrylic painting on paper board thing. I wanted to do something different so I tried to use a softer palette of pastel colors this time. The tree is a bit squished up at the top, but I think it alright overall. I can't remember why I even chose to do this- maybe just to experiment.