3 days left in 2009

Good way to end a year....got lots of ideas in my head ready for 2010! It feels great when you're not in creativity block. Right now, I think I have about 5 solid pieces in my head/sketched out. So...let's hope 2010 will be a great year! Happy New Year everyone!
Here's a quick preview of one piece:

almost christmas!

It's that time of the year again, last holiday of the year until new years. Sigh, another year flew by! Anyways, want to share some videos.

First up is a nice/clever/spooky/clever animation video for the band "Ramona Falls" titled "I Say Fever."



Next, is a $300 short film that got a $300million contract. I guess we'll be seeing the one the big screen one day. This proves that no dream is ever too small.

15-5519

Pantone selects turquoise as the color of the year for 2010...and I dig it. Read the press release here.

finally finished

Time to stick a fork in this and call it done. Frame is almost complete as well and will post pics later.

Among the Tangle Lies Hope
19"x12" Acrylic and Ink on Paper

update

I think I'm 75% through. Gotta tighten up on some details, push the darks and lights and I should be done soon!

Donation

During breast cancer awareness month, I displayed this artwork to be raffled off at the restaurant. All proceeds of the raffle ticket sales were donated to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation of Charlotte, NC. With this art, I raised $280. I am content with the raffle sales but I was hoping that it would be a little bite more. But other than that, it was really fun displaying another artwork and talk to my customers about it.

Until We Meet
8"x15" Acrylic and Ink on Paper
Framed. 14½"x21"

I kinda slacked off on the frame and built it on the last day. For what it is, it actually came out pretty nice. Thought I would need at least 2 days to construct a frame. But this time, I bought an existing frame and I chopped it up to the size I want and reconstruct it. So it's semi-homemade :-D

Vote for my design!

entered my design for a snowboard design contest. I really liked the way how it turned out and I really think it's something people would buy, hahah. Getting ahead of myself. Anyways, please go here and vote for my design!!!

Much love!

Progress

Here's what I have so far after 2 days of work.



Sometimes I'll get too anxious about painting. And this time, I jumped straight to the ribbon/sash and lay down some details. Hopefully my values will be all right since I barely lay down the flats for the rest of the painting.

new commission

Working on a new piece now. Easy client and allowed me to do what I wanted. Just had to adjust a few minor details.

Original sketch.

Rough coloring to give me an idea what it'll look like.

She didn't like the hannya mask so I decided to take it off. So overall, it should look like the colored result. I haven't added the lotus yet.

Stephen Wiltshire

Stephen Wiltshire have a very impressive memory. Drew NY's cityscape after a twenty minutes helicopter ride touring the city.







images courtesy of DailyMail

wow

Nate Van Dyke's inking is intense. Very impressive from a self taught artist. As you all know, i simply love inking and outlines. Learn a thing or two from this video ;)

pretty much done

Doing this small piece for an idea that I have. Don't want to share too much b/c I dont know how it'll turn out :-P

Something to come

Complete

Finally completely finished with this piece. Spent 2 days building the frame and I am pretty satisfied with it. Few nooks and crannies that I'm not quite satisfied with but that's just me, always trying to be perfect. Learn through experience and hopefully it wont happen again in the future.
This piece was commissioned by a lovely lady that comes to the restaurant about once a week and I'm always her server. She asked me to do a piece that she wanted to give to her son and his partner. She gave me lots of freedom in terms of style and what I wanted to do. She only asked me that it's something asian and not the typical traditional chinese art. She also gave me a few pictures of her son's house and I was blown away by how pretty it was and how much artworks decorate his walls. And I feel at ease and easier to let go of this painting knowing that my art will be hung at a home that appreciates art.
After a few weeks of communication, everything was a go and lead to this result.








There were three main categories that I had to consider in coming up with this piece. Subject matter, color, and symbolism.
Since this piece is intended to be given to a son by his mother, I thought it was very appropriate to have the Chinese lioness and her cub as my subject matter. The pair literally represent mother and child but it also represent affection and life. It seems like the client's son means the whole world to her and she loves him dearly.
As for the color, the client told me she loves green/teal/aqua color range and that gave me the idea to represent the lions as jade. For the background, I wanted to do something that's very reddish/earth tone because the house that will be hanging this art is pretty dark, earthy, and some red to it. Pretty much very earth tone so it was too obvious for me to do it in that color scheme and it helps to pop out the green since it's on the opposite side of the spectrum.
For the symbolism, I decided to do water lily. At first, I knew I needed something to balance everything together. And in the early stage, I imagined my lions walking on water and the water lily automatically came to my head. And lucky me, half way through the painting, the client asked me to throw in some floral because her son's partner is a florist and she wanted the partner to enjoy this painting as well. To me, water lily represents overcoming obstacles, emerging of life and beauty. I'm not saying it was a burden for the client to raise her kid, but I'm sure there was a great obstacle for her to raise him to what he is today. Water lilies starts from the very bottom of the pond where nasty mud is the main ingredient. Through time, the sprout slowly swims through the water and eventually reaches to the surface of the water and bloom a beautiful blossom. What's ironic is that, something that starts from mud can eventually turn into something so beautiful. It's like the story of the ugly duckling turning into a beautiful swan.

Enjoy!

Commissioned Work

14"x21" Acrylic and Ink on paper

Framing

So I am finished with the painting and I spent the day making a frame and here are some pics I want to share with you all.

Here's my ghetto saw table. Constructed a somewhat stable table and bolted an electric hand saw underneath the table. And I am scared of this thing.

Used shoe strings to grip the trigger "on." The saw is plugged up to a socket with a switch, this way, I can just switch it on and off.

Finished sawing the pieces.

This is what the frame will look like in profile view (pretend the piece of wood sticking out is the glass panel.) And I used a "3 piece" design instead of a "one piece" design. One piece is MUCH sturdier but takes forever to saw (consider i'm using a ghetto, non-adjustable saw table). 3 piece is easier to construct but not as sturdy as one piece b/c I'll have to use glue and screws.

Corner clamping.


And this is what it loos like when it's done clamping. I also put screws on the corner of the frame to screw them into each other. Next step, fill holes and cracks with wood putty and sand them smooth.

Here's a completed corner. Filled with wood putty and sanded down smooooooth. Perfect corner.

And it's done! I got it primed and will be spray painting tomorrow.

Progress

Almost done. Just have to finishing inking and punch out values and highlights and we'll see what else from there.

Side work

A piece I am currently working on. Don't know how much I've completed but I think I still have a long way to go. So far, I'm just letting the paint brush doing the thinking and my hand following trough.

Happy Birthday, Mom.

A little present I did for my Mom's birthday.

Finally...

I believe I am finally finished with this piece.

Without You I'd Be Lost
22"x30" Acrylic and Ink on Paper

w00t!

As you all know (And I'm referring to the 3 followers I have) that I work at a fairly nice Chinese fusion restaurant. Well, about a month ago, a food critique from Charlotte Weekly came to review our restaurant. This was his second visit and I had the pleasure to serve him both visits. To cut the story short, I did one hell of a job taking care of him and he wrote a nice little article on the restaurant (5 out of five stars!) and I was very surprised he mentioned my name a few times...more than my manager AND the restaurant itself, hahaha. Anyways, you can read the article here.
BUT!!! The most important thing. When the photographer came to take pictures of our food, I was making some small chat with the photographer and got him to take a few pics of the bull stencil artwork that I have hanging in the restaurant and the editor end up using it as the background. w00t w00t!!!

Day 5 & 6

Probably the...

...coolest house I've ever seen.



What's more impressive is that the house was completely constructed in seven days, plus the couple of years planning...but still fast! The concept behind this house is the use of balance and counter-weight. Pretty much, if you remove two points of support, this house would fall apart.
Clever Spaniard! More pics here and also watch the video at the end of the link.

Day 4

If you noticed, I skipped Day 3 and that is because I spent day three messing it up and repairing it. It was frustrating at first but was able to recover it. Sometimes you just gotta learn when to fold and back away.
Anyways, this is what I've done on Day 4: Water surface, shirt and arms beneath the surface. Pretty tricky trying to lay down the right color. Technically, my technique is wrong...I'm suppose to lay down alllll the colors first and then go into details. This way, it would give me a rough idea of the overall value, tones, hues, etc. to help me picture the overall painting better and it would help me make the right color choice. But...I dont like doing that, hahaha. And I'm the anal type of guy that have to finish one section first before I move on to the next one.
I know I'm working slow, but I want to give myself plenty time for this piece. I usually rush my previous pieces and end up not liking it that much. For this piece, I am actually enjoying it and I am very happy with the way how it turned out so far.
At this point, I am about 65-75% through with the painting stage. Just have to paint the fish, jeans, and the underwater atmosphere and then I'll be done. After that, ink!!!

Ergh!

I really messed up on my painting for Day 3 so I'm not gonna update for that day. But, I fixed it and I just wanna take a breather from that painting for a bit. Did a quick sketch, instead. Although I really need to get more sleep. Been lacking on that department for the past couple week.

Day 2

So far, I am enjoying myself painting this piece. Lots of details and tedious tasks, but it's what clears my head.
Now gotta do the hard part: water surface and underwater painting...sigh.

Day 1

It's 4am and here's what I got so far. Yup, this took me alllllll day to do. Wanted to take my time and I am very satisfied with how it turned out so far. Definitely worth the time spent into it. I'm pretty much done painting the tree. The face is probably 50% through. Just gotta add more hues, values, and highlights to it.
Day 2: hopefully will have the face and Mr. Octo completely done and maybe the shirt.

JR...

...proves that even the smile of the poorest girl can be just as grand as anyone else.

Aghh!!!

Bored...so did a quick sketch.

To come...

Painting

15"x22.5" Acrylic and Ink on paper

A Better Look