a little peek...

... at my studio space. So far anyway. Nothing much, but hey.

how to steal like an artist: a guide

Just a little something I found interesting while surfing through the net through yet another sleepless night.

How to Steal like an Artist & 9 Other things nobody told me.

my monster

Finally.

After tearing my hair out over numerous designs, here's a monster whose design I'm incredibly happy with.

He's going to star in my series of work for my studio project.

florentijn hofmann

After giggling and being all giddy about that duck, I decided to loo up just who Florentijn Hofmann really is. Turns out the rubber duck isn't his only large scale artwork.

After flipping through his project page on his official website, I absolutely adore his work. Reminds me of Claes Oldenburg, except just more childish and fun.

It just encapsulates the innocence and joy I find in the innocence of childhood.

Looking at his stuff just makes me wanna' quit right now, throw the keys away and just be a kid again. Haha.

teehee

I like the duck. <3

(this billboard was located at Britomart Transport Centre, I hop off that place every morning to uni)

oh dear. oh DEAR.

From the previous post, I stumbled across a bloody delightful website called Vinyl Pulse, basically a hub for all things that's cartoony in all of its wonderful toy glory.

Oh dear, I've created a monster. I might bombard this blog with photos from Vinyl Pulse from now on.

That place is a throbbing hub of pure unadulterated INSPIRATION.

look at this delightful little fellow

While surfing round the net I found this delightful photo:

 I'm a HUGE sucker for anything weird and cute like that. Anything cartoon-like and such. Especially in tangible plushie form.

God, I feel like a kid that never grew up.

THIS little fella, I want to base my characters to have the same sort of goofy look.

cthulhu, what are you doing here

PREPARE FOR A MAJOR IMAGE DUMP.

Got quite a number of positive reactions from this. A lot of people find this far more successful than what I did with the marker + tracing paper duo.

edit: during crits i've been advised to look at different kinds of paint. the sort used for glass in particular. also, that i should realy get these cartoon characters to interact with the studio space a lot more.

i like that window idea...

i'm gonna' getchu

Heading off to get some acetate sheets really soon. Or, well, something really similar. Like, those transparent sheets for overhead projectors.

Just trying to get as close to what traditional animators used back in the days (well, they still use this, but hey).

Will post some pics of any interesting results.

okay, wtf

So I tried painting on those tracing papers that I used for my previous batch of drawings as how animators would've, but what the shit, the tracing paper suddenly buckled up and went all... wavy and all that.

I'm not entirely sure if you can see it from these pictures, but trust me, it's not pretty.

edit: got mixed reactions from this. some people said that they like the textured look the paint made. called it a 'good' sort of accident. personally, i'm not a fan of it.

but that's an interesting interpretation i suppose.

another random google search

Did a quick google search about traditional animation and found a picture of a traditional animation cel, according to a number of sources, they mainly use acrylic paint on inked cel sheets.

Maybe I'll give that a go...

gotta' get things rolling

Just some doodles and experiments I've been doing. Inspired by Foster's Home and wanted to look into my childhood and my strange penchant for daydreaming and constructing fantasy worlds/monsters.

an idea

Stumbled across an old DVD of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. I absolutely adore this show, not only as I kid, but even now.

Everything thing about the show is great, the premise, the character designs and just how innocent and childish it is. I always feel like I've been transported back a good couple of years whenever I watch this show.

It's great being a kid again.

Check out the first episode here.

western heights

This is taken from a bit of notetaking I did after taking photos of Western Heights:

"I decided to re-visit my old primary school for the concept of place; my memory doesn't go too far back, I can only recall memories only as far back as after my migration from Malaysia.

So I went to the school and took some photos, perhaps to help kick-start something. I'll see what I can come up with."

So here's a contact sheet of what I've collected:

holy crap

My last post was a whole month ago? Shit.

Seriously though, I've been working and collecting bits and pieces since my last post, so I've been busy (to tell the truth, I've forgotten about this blog lol)

I'll just upload all of my documentation, research and experiments that I've done/jolted down on bits of paper, so prepare for a huge dump.

the reason for tracing paper

I've been doing a tiny series of works where I overlay a selected number of photos of Western Heights with tracing paper and drawing over it (I'll upload a picture of them a little later, but for now, here's an example I found on the internet).

This is inspired by a process in traditional animation where people draw frame-by-frame animation by using tracing paper. 

While I'm really interested in getting into the animation business, I've never used this sort of paper in my whole life, so by giving this a go, it's definitely a new experience for me.

mini research: cory loftis

I was just browsing through the net when I stumbled upon an artist by the name of Cory Loftis, Lead Artist for Carbine Studios. 

I absolutely adore his work, it's like if Pixar and Dreamworks got really intimate and bore a beautiful offspring together. Definitely gonna' include him in my research and also my presentation (might scrap Yan Wei out if I have to, since I can't find too much to say about her to tell the truth).


Also found a pretty interesting interview with him.

'everything you do is balloons' by boards of canada

I remember referencing this music video by Boards of Canada in my first semester project last year (also a great song by the way).

I really like the 50s kinda' aesthetic, I'm a real sucker for that. 

It also encompasses the nostalgic feel I want my artwork to emulate, since it's based on my childhood (my experience in my primary school to be precise), 'kay, maybe not as rustic, but still, I want a 'yep, this is a couple of years old' vibe. 

Just thought I'd share; reckon it's quite relevant to my project.