This is the Big One

So I've finished the 'Winter Dragon' painting today, and it's a milestone for me.


It's the first painting I've done where I could completely ditch the drawing. I know that might seem trivial, but I've been working to get to that point for the past THREE years. Now I can say it's really a painting, as opposed to a drawing that has been colored. I definitely have room to improve from here, but little celebrations here and there are nice whenever something new is achieved.

I hope you like it!

Edit 7/16/2007: I've renamed the piece 'Winter Bunny'. That wascally wabbit completely stole the spotlight on this piece!

Well At Least I'm Getting Better

The first image is a rough digital paint treatment I did a few months ago. I ended up getting distracted with other projects and left it in the back burner for a while. Now that my Schoolism course with Bobby Chiu's almost up, I thought it'd be fun to do a compare and contrast. So the second image is my new color treatment, done this week, at roughly the same stage of completion. What do you think? I'm pretty sure I'm getting my money's worth.

If you're interested, check out www.schoolism.com. And no, Bobby is NOT paying me anything to say this.

And Now Something Disturbing

Another work in progress. No, I don't have an obsession with bondage.

Work in Progress

Still chugging along...and with Comic Con coming up, rightly so!!! So here's some new works of mine, roughly 60% done. Hopefully, I'll be able to post the finished pieces by next week. Till then, hope you like it, and let me know what you think!




PS: You don't think I have an unhealthy obsession with dragons do you? Naw, I didn't think so either!!

Kyoto by Night

No witty comments or interesting trivia facts today. So just check out the painting.

By the way, can anyone spot my homage to Stan Sakai, one of my most favorite comic book artists?

You Widdle Bad Puddy Tat!!!

He kinda looks like Sylvester doesn't he?
This is an old layout of mine that I took out last night and painted. If you're wondering the monster is called a Nue, which is a kind of Japanese Chimera (with a snake tail too!).

Redux

This particular piece I've redone for the third time now (the other two are somewhere earlier in this blog). I can never seem to be happy with it, and I will make it work if it kills me! (I should probably be more careful about saying things like that). So what do you think?

And yes, I've been on a black and white kick lately. Don't know why, but there's something about it that makes it so nice and moody to me.
This is a fake screenshot that I did for a game for a potential client. I usually don't like showing stuff done professionally on my blog so I can avoid legal drama, but this one got axed anyway so I don't think it'll be a problem. It's done in Flash, by the way.

I Am No Man!

The thumb for this one seemed to be a big hit, so here's the final. What do you think?Women in feudal Japan enjoyed remarkable rights and privileges, considering the time period. During the Kamakura period (12th-14th century by Western reckoning), they could inherit lands, file lawsuits against grievances and were expected to defend their homelands from invasion should the men be on military campaign. However, once Japan inherited Confucian beliefs, women became regulated to the subserivent gender.

In the history of Japan, there were a few 'women samurai', although the term would be incorrect, since the name samurai was gender specific to men. A more proper term would be onna bugei-sha, meaning literally 'woman trained in the buke (fighting) arts'.

Probably the most famous of the onna bugei-sha was Tomoe Gozen. Very little is known about Tomoe. She fought during the Gempei wars (1180-1185), and was either wife, concubine or female attendant to Minamoto no Yoshinaka. While most women of the time were skilled in sojutsu (the art of the spear), Tomoe was legendary for her skills in riding, archery and kenjutsu (the art of the sword). She was fiercely loyal to her lord, and was one of his most successful and respected senior Captains.

Minamoto no Yoshinaka successfully defeated the Heike clan at the Battle of Kurikawa (which turned the tide of the war in favor of the Minamoto), but tragically was betrayed by his own cousin, Minamoto no Yoritomo (who would eventually rise to be the final victor of the Gempei wars). Yoritomo sent his brothers, the legendary Minamoto no Yoshitsune and Minamoto no Noriyori to crush Yoshinaka at the Battle of Awazu on February 21, 1184.

Yonshinaka and his clan were defeated, but what became of Tomoe Gozen is unknown. Some say she died alongside her lord, but only at the cost of many of the enemy. Others say she fled from the battle with the head of her lord to deny the enemy their trophy. Some say she threw herself into the sea or became a nun. The mystery and intrigue surrounding her life only added to her legend.

The Office

An old (and a bit dramatized) sketch of my office. Can you spot (a) a literary reference, (b) a movie reference and (c) a Cold War history reference?

Backgrounds

Stuff done at the office. Enjoy!

First attempt. Still getting used to painting in Flash.
Second attempt. Got some inspiration from Finding Nemo.
Third attempt. Hopefully the strongest of the three.
Me trying some dramatic lighting.

Some New Thumbs

I've started my online class digital painting class with the talented Bobby Chiu. It's probably going to take up the lion's share of my time, so I doubt I'll be able to post a whole lot in the way of new digital paintings until I'm done. This is because for the most part, our class paintings are based off of Bobby's drawings, so they're his property, and if I post them as mine, it's not just illegal, it's plain low. To learn more about his work and class, check out www.imaginism.com and www.schoolism.com.

In the meantime, I'll be doing thumbs for new ideas that I plan on taking to finish once I'm done with Bobby's class (and hopefully, my digital painting skills will be improved). Here are some right now.




Now for fun (and to find out how good-or bad- my design skills are), leave me a comment and tell me what you think is going on in each thumb (Knowledge of Japanese samurai culture and Games Workshop games is recommended.). The first one to get all three right will get some sort of prize. Maybe a sketch or something. Just please get it right quickly, or I'll be depressed.

Jack-Jack!

Thought I should bring up the awwww factor on my blog and how can you go wrong with Jack-Jack from The Incredibles?

From the Sketchbook

Below are some subway sketches I did on the way home from work. I am happy to announce I haven't been caught or confronted by any angry commuters since that last incident.

And here's some sketches from a day at Tibbetts Brook Park here in Yonkers, NY. I grew up going to summer camp here.


I figured it's a good place to draw children from life (probably the ultimate challenge in life drawing since you feel like you're trying to draw the wind). I think one woman caught on that I was drawing her baby niece, but she only smiled. I guess she was happy to see that someone was capturing this everyday but precious moment on paper and preserving it.

Yes, I'm Still Here

Been very busy taking animation design tests. Lots of drawing and whatnot, but I can't post it here because of confidentiality and all that jazz. I have been able to steal away some time for my own work, so here's the roughs for my contribution to Illustration Friday for this week. The word this week is 'polar'.

I'll explain more about the subject matter later. For now, just check out the roughs, let me know if you like it, if you hate it, whatever. Thanks!

If You're Not Making Mistakes, You're Not Making ANYTHING

Thank you Grant! His comment on my last post was exactly what I needed to hear! He reminded me of Tony Christov's 1-2-3 principle. Quite simply, it's the idea of first read-second read-third read. In a good illustration, you want three main elements, each with distinct levels of importance. My problem with my previous post is you couldn't tell what was most important. So with that in mind, here's the original.


And here it is again after I was reminded of the 1-2-3 rule.


See the difference? On the first attempt, you couldn't clearly see the rider's silhouette, thus destroying the readability. The main culprit was the combination of the dragon's body being far too dark and contrasting considering how far away it was and the ambient darkness. By reducing the amount of darks everywhere except the dragon's head, the samurai and the dragon's neck (the 1-2-3 elements), suddenly everything makes more sense.

I hope this post clearly demonstrates the importance of design and composition. All the draftsmanship and detailing in the world can mean nothing if your painting is a big muddy mess.

The other thing it teaches me is that I've been doing too much in a vacuum. I will cut myself some slack since I've moved away from San Francisco (and my community of artists) and returning to New York (where I have yet to reestablish a community). Doing all my work on my own with practically no feedback until after I've finished results in frustration and needless work. From this point on, I'll be sure to start posting thumbnails, etc. more often.

The image of the artist as a lonely, tragic (and mentally questionable) recluse is romantic and all, but for our purposes, useless and self-defeating. Art is not just a profession, it's community.

The Proper Way to Kill the Dragon, Save the Princess and Still Come Out Alive

Yay, finally something to post! I've been so busy with animation tests along with my website. The annoying thing about animation tests is that you work so hard for no compensation, and on top of that, you can't even post the work you did because said work is now property of the studio you're applying to. The really kicker is that the company said thanks but no thanks. Well, back to square one.

Anyway, this was a piece I started a while ago, but finally just finished.


I think it came out okay. I'm worried it has issues of readability. I'll probably continue to touch up on it, but I really wanted to just post it already. Let me know what you think.

My Web Site

If you're wondering why it's been a while since my last post, here's my answer: my website is finally updated. It needed a complete overhaul, and that included switching from Dreamweaver to Flash to make it. Updating a website takes long enough; having to learn Flash as you do it doesn't make it any easier. Let me know what you think.

www.piyastudios.com

The home page probably needs some further decorating, but I'm just not sure what to do with it yet. Writing one of those 'Welcome to my site, look around' messages seems so silly. So if anyone has any ideas, I'm in your debt.

My New Card!

Well, my new business card came in yesterday. What do you think? It was done by PS Print in Oakland, CA. (www.psprint.com) This is my third card with them, and I've always been pleased. Thanks to everyone for their help and opinions in designing the card!

Yet Another Dragon

So I spent the good part of today trying to figure out a new design for my business card. The trick is, when you're still a young artist without an identity, anything you come up with for a design can be good today, outdated tomorrow. Sure Frank Frazetta's the barbarian fantasy guy and Peter DeSeve is the NY Times Magazine cover guy and Adam Hughes is the comic book good girl guy, but who the hell is Piya????

So for now, I'm just sticking with a dragon. It's pretty much all I've drawn since oh, high school, so it's as much my identity as I'm going to get right now. Now I didn't want to go a do the biggest, scariest most badass monster I could make, but I just wanted something with sensible character design.

I noticed that the collaborative dragon design I came up with for Joni to paint was pretty well received, but I didn't want to go paint that if she's already doing it, so I just took it, made some changes to it, and here it is! Basically I just made the wings and antlers a bit bigger but it's pretty much the same thing. I usually don't like chubby dragons, but the very voluminousness (yes that's a word) gives the creature such character. The face I made slightly pig like because 2007 is the Chinese year of the pig. It has the body of a European type wyrm, but the face of an Asian dragon because I find they're more expressive. Finally, I gave it classic dragon colors. Hope you like it!

Why NYC is So Great for Illustrators

Well, I had a (gasp) productive day today. I first hit the Metropolitan Museum of Art (or Met to us locals) with markers and Bristol Board in hand. I usually don't do color sketching, but having seen Alina Chau's sketches, I felt I should try. I would've tried watercolor, but it's banned at the Met (but oil paint isn't-go figure). So below are some of the fruits of my labor.
Obviously, this came out of the Armory Room.


This is the Met plaza. My light markers managed to die on my right on time, leaving me stuck with only the 60%, 70% and 90% darkness. So I was pretty much forced to use very dark cast shadows, making the scene look very sunny, when it was actually overcast. Another artist saw it and actually liked it better than my other sketches. Kind of interesting what happens when you're working under less than ideal circumstances.

After the museum closed and I got booted out (the hard way), I picked myself off the street and headed to the Society of Illustrators Gallery. I heard there was some sort of drawing workshop. First off, here's some drawings from it.

The 2 on 2 Jazz Sketch is one of those things that can only happen in New York. For $20, we had two models for 3 hours of life drawing.

In addition to the fact that the sketch area was covered with orginal paintings from the likes of Rockwell, Cornwell and Leyendecker they even had a live jazz band to entertain us (hence the name). Pretty good value for the money if you ask me. I know I'll be making the Jazz sketch as often as I can from now on. I know I haven't done enough life drawing, but in addition to that, the Jazz sketch is just one of those experiences that very few with ever really have the privilege of knowing. And to all my friends and fellow artists living on the West Coast and thinking of moving to the Big Apple (you know who you are!) consider this post as another reason to move!