Nucleus Galley

Just stopped by the Nucleus Gallery and dropped off my paintings. Here's a snapshot of their nice and glossy 6x8 advertiser. So nice!!

Dr. Seuss Project

Two pieces commissioned for the upcoming Dr. Seuss Exhibit at the Nucleus Gallery. The name of the show is "Look at this, look at that. A tribute to Dr. Seuss" The show will be running from March 3rd to the 24th. Very excited about this show. I've come to really love Dr. Seuss' stories, and really looking forward to all the beautiful work that will be there!

Charcoal Drawing

This pieces was done last year for the Ghana Fundraiser. One of my personal favorite pieces.

Drawing from GoldenGatePark

Not often that I get to draw at Golden Gate Park. Here's a few from one of my most favorite spots in San Francisco. I always loved the pattern that the benches create. How they sit in this graceful arc, and the patterns they create. I don't know how to capture what I see in a little sketch. I must go back and try to find a way to capture the feeling. Maybe someday...

Ravenskye City? What is that?

I have been wanting to post art and talk about all the hard work that my crew have accomplished while working on Ravenskye City. Now, I feel like since the game is out(has been for several months now), I guess I can talk about what I've been up to!!

First the company. I started working at 6Waves Lolapps about 7 months ago, and I immediately started working on a new game called Ravenskye City. It's a casual facebook game. Before joining Lolapps(as it was called when I joined), I had no idea what facebook games were. Especially the word 'casual', 'mid core' and 'hard core' games. Didn't even know there were that many levels. I heard of Farmville, etc and Zynga of course, but anything else about social games, not so much. Lolapps was an up and coming company with lots of promising ideas, and what I liked about it the most was it's laid back culture. Also, everyone seemed to be smiling and having a good time. A great indicator of a good company. If you ever interview at a company and everyone looks stressed out, well, there's probably a good reason for that!!

So now, Ravenskye City. It is a 'casual social game'. The market is pretty specific too. When I started working on it, I had absolutely no idea what I was going to get into. Plus, they told me that the game is to be out in 4 months! I was use to working on a character for that long in feature films!! Now, they are telling me that I have to design something like 18 characters, a map that the game takes place on, and several unique sets! With lots of props! So even though I was really scared, I went full steam ahead. I feel like, looking back now, it has been a grace of some force out there that has blessed me with such a great team of artists. It's really rare to have a whole team of artists, game designers, programmers, and all the rest of the unique teams that make up a group that are involved in a social game world to all get along and all have the same goals!! I can go on and on about my team, but before I get too wordy and boring, let me just say that it has been just amazing.

There are several differences working on social games like Ravenskye City, and Feature Animated films. First, animated films takes a lot of people, especially 3D. We're talking several hundreds.
A game like ours, well, it's a totally different animal. I don't know the exact head count, but I think it's less than 40. We don't get to spend too much time iterating on anything, simply because we just don't have the time. After our initial release of the game, we were already developing content packs. It's basically new game feature that goes out every week. So my artists and I are continuously busy creating new art. We never got a wrap party like we use to on films, because our project never wrapped. It's actually just beginning. Maybe when the game stops making money someday and we have to shut it down, then they will give us a wrap party??!! Ha ha.

Well, I will try to be better organized and try to show some new and old art that I have worked on. But meanwhile, please go check out some art that we released to a community blogger who is a huge fan of our game. Click here.
You can see some art from my artists and me. Keep checking back. There will be more.

Intro screen to the Game

For Ravenskye City, one of first things the player will see once they launch the game in Facebook, will be the loading screen. I wanted to make sure that the art represented the adventurous spirit that the game and the characters were about. So what better way than to show the main characters about to embark on their adventure!

The idea started with a very rough sketch.
Then I roughed out a couple of ideas:


And once I finalized on the final composition, an artist and I worked on completing the final 'Loading Screen Art.' Hope you like it.

Game Art

This is one of the concept drawing that I had done at work. This is on the level called Interior. The idea called for a device that will eventually be fixed, and then it will be able to steer the island to where ever the player wants to go. I always loved this type of idea of bunch of random globes, etc, that really don't do anything but looks cool.

been forever since my last post!!!

Geeze time flies when one's having fun! I didn't realize my last post was like from wayback from 2011 APE.
So here; a little post. I swear though, I've been busy. Hopefully, I will be able to post some stuff from my work soon.

This is from today. A quick painting with my co-workers at Eddie Rickenbachers. In case anyone hasn't been there, it's this pub on 2nd st in San Francisco where the decoration of the whole place is antique motorcycle!! very cool.

APE update

Hi everyone. Thanks for coming out to APE and making this event one of my best experiences. I really had a great time out there with all of you. This was my first booth at APE this weekend. Here's a shot of the booth. Now, back to drawing and more painting, to get ready for the next one!!

Preparing to goto APE, 2011

Going to APE this year!! Actually, my first time getting a table!! Looking forward to it. All I've been thinking about in the last week or so is "do I have everything I need? Did I print all the stuff, and get the art book ready???" I thought I was close, then I met up with my friend Genevieve to pick her brain a bit to get some insight, and she gave me a list of things that I never would have thought about! It's like when you go camping and you forget the smallest thing, like the can opener, and it ruins the whole trip. Mine would have been like that! Thanks Genevieve! PHEW! I would have just borrowed from everyone and annoyed them! Now, I can look like a professional.

I"m not going to have a lot of items since(Ahem) it is my first dive into getting a table at a comic con! So I will have my one book that I got done a few months back. I first had it for sale at Trickster at this years San Diego Comic Con. That was fun!

So that gave me the confidence to try something new.

Here's one of the pages that have been working on. It's going to be in a new book as a compilation with my co-workers. We are calling the book "Lol Coffee Break". A little nod to our work, LolApps.

Here's the cover and the back:

We didn't have enough time to prepare, so the book really is a compilation, but I think it's going to be a good one. All these guys have a very unique style, and very talented! It will be, Mike Bear, Nate Berna, Roman Muradov, Brandon Pike, Elie Dahger, Jerry Tzeng, and Josh de Leon. As you will be able to tell just from our different styles, our collection is going to be very unique indeed. If I get a chance, I will post a few more sample pages from the guys, up until the beginning of the conference. It's going to be hot off the press too!

APE is this coming weekend. Oct 1 to 2nd at the San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center.

Oh, and did I mention that Genevieve will be sharing the other half of our table? She is an amazing artist! Man this girl can draw!

It's going to be good times!

SketchCrawl 33!

FYI: http://www.sketchcrawl.com/2011/10/ww-sketchcrawl-33/

At the con

Walking around the street and saw this.

Drawing from San Diego

Here I am in San Diego, finally. I arrived late last night with United, the no choice airline, and I let them beat me up a bit, but arrives safely in to San Diego. Now, I'm sitting outside Trickster, enjoying a glass of wine. The weather is beautiful, and there are tons of people here!! Anyways, a friend of my cousin, Jim and I were hanging out and he asked me for a favor and draw something for him for a buddy of his. This is Helena, thanking Bud for a job well done. Ha ha. Great job Bud!

Something new and exciting

Like many artists, I am one of those that have always wanted to do a graphic novel. But life happens and sometimes things just get in the way(not a complaint. I have been lucky enough to have gotten to work on some cool projects in my life), but nevertheless, somethings just are not do-a-ble, until you get a few things out of your system. Anyways, this is a new project that is in the works, and one of the aspects that I wanted to share is the story of these two young lovers. It's about a boy and a girl. They meet, fall in love, and along the way, other forces tear them apart, shit happens in their life, and one things leads to another, and this beautiful girl shoots up everything, including her love. The story is in the formative stages of writing, and I getting to do some fun drawings and paintings.
I'm hoping to have a few more images by APE. So please check back on my blog once in a while to watch out for updates. Meanwhile, here are some images.

Found my toy car on blocks when I got home today

I swore they told me this is a safe area to park!!

Additional news of late. My first self published BOOK!!

I just finished working on a self published book titled "Paper Sword". I am very excited to share it on the blogsphere! I will be selling copies of it for the first time at San Diego Comic Con at a PopUp store that my friend Scott Morse will be hosting simultaneously during the SDCon. His store will be called "Trickster". Awesome name!!

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/scott-morse-trickster-san-diego-comic-con-110516.html

He generously offered a space for my book. Thanks so much for the opportunity Scott!!

Then, I will also, hopefully, be getting a table at APE right here in San Francisco this October!  We're on a waiting list!! But if we it does work out, I'm planning on possibly having another book, along with "Paper Sword".

And as a last note, I want to give props to the printer Ken, and his company KENESS. He is a local SF printer, and he did a great job with a quick turn around. I really liked what he did with the Ghana Art Block Auction catalog, so it was a no brainer!

Anyways, below are some crude late night pictures of the book itself. I promise, the original looks way better! The book is a small collection of work that are on my blog, but I wanted to get some of my favorites into one place. Especially when it's actual real PAPER! I love real paper!!

The First Grader

Been a while since I've posted anything! But how time flies when things are busy. I just started a new job so it's just been that. HECTIC! But I did manage to log on tonight just to post something really special. I want to spread the word on a movie that I had the privilege of watching at a special screening in San Francisco. It's a movie about an old man in Kenya going to school for the first time to read and write. It was a very touching and heartwarming story about this man and the people he has touched through his determination. Based on a true story. I think you will like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns030fCDorE

Color sketch of the robots

Once the Munkyfun guys liked a concept and a design was approved, it was on to a tighter sketch, and some color concepts. Here's some of them.

Robots

Recently I got a chance to design some fun retro robots for a game company in San Francisco. The company, MunkyFun, hired me to try some robot concepts for a game idea they have. While the game is still in development, here's a peek at some fun robot concept art.

Ghana Art Block auction update

The Ghana Art Block auction was a huge success. Thanks Rachael and everyone involved for organizing such an incredible event, and thank you for inviting me and letting me contribute. I was very honored. I am especially happy that some of the proceeds will go towards helping the victims of the Japan earthquake.

Here's some photos I took at the event.

Ghana Art Block Project Update

Hi All. This is an update to the Ghana Art Block Project. Recently the organizers announced that they got sponsorship through AOL and Digital Domain and that they are also going to publish a book! I was very excited about that. Anyways, 1f anyone happens to be in LA or NY on the show dates, please go check out the art work and support this worthy cause!

http://www.artblocksghana.blogspot.com/

http://www.picturebookproject.com/PBP/home.html

Dreaming of stars in the night sky

Some new work done for a children's book idea. Really love the process of learning about using minimal amount of words, and marrying that with a picture that work with the words to tell a story. This was a good learning experience for me. I hope to be working on a book someday soon. I only tried the cover concept and one of the interior images. Also added is the concept sketch of the little girl character.

This is the character study page. She's modeled somewhat after my little girl. I was trying to capture her sense of adventure, curiosity, and child's playfulness.

MotherHenFundraiser

Here's the other fundraiser that I donated some art to. FYI. It's coming up this weekend on the 20th. 
http://www.themotherhenproject.org/

This is just a personal thought. I don't like to espouse too much personal opinion on the internet, but I wanted to say something.
I was thinking about donating art to help a worthy organization, especially something like this. And I came to the conclusion that what ever this event does to help people and children in need, will only spread positive and meaningful energy to those people that it touches. And in turn, it will help me grow as a person, and as an artist. So it is a bit selfish on my part. But I like to think that this is not only benefiting me. It will hopefully benefit others. Especially children.
So, I really appreciate this opportunity. Thank you Alison for organizing this.

My submission for the Ghana Fund raiser

I finally finished this. I had gone through several ideas, and finally settled on this simple idea. I love the idea of a  kid going out for a walk with her dog, and not having a worry in the world. This makes me think of home. Or the idea of having a home. 

This is the link to the organization and their mission. Very cool.

http://www.picturebookproject.com/PBP/home.html
http://artblocksghana.blogspot.com/