Champion of the Chariot *Finished*

Finished the chow! Its been a great challenge to get this one done. Mainly it was time management really but im glad to have pushed myself to sit through this even through times when I thought this was rubbish and was worried about the end product.
Today my colleagues taught me a tiny bit of anatomy and it got me very intrigued to study more. It was overwhelming again to think how much I have yet to learn and I felt small lol. But I know that I will become better at it if I put the time to practice that. Ive also been given a book on graphic design that Im gonna get into now that my Chow is done. My team manager thinks it will be beneficial for me to get into graphics not only for my personal development but for the work I do too. So I give that some time. I might be tempted to do more logo stuff then :P
Oh so much to learn!!!!!!!

Bday Bash!

OMG I just turned 23 just then! Erm... heres the first thing I did in my new age... little changes, Ive been fiddling around in a different direction (trying to add a background) but it didnt work so I went back to the original so theres just small changes atm... gonna get some sleep then try get this close to finished.

Hmmm Update!

Just a quick update of how the chariot rider is going. Had to pull myself away from Uncharted 2 to work on this today lol XD

Champion of the Chariot

Its been a while but I am going to attempt to enter something for the ConceptArt.Org's Character of the Week (Chow) weekly contest. The topic is of an Essedari - a war chariot fighter from gladiatorial roman times. I gathered a lot of reference for the armor and horses, there were times when I jumped in and wanted to just draw and paint straight away with little direction but in the end I had to take a step back and start again with some proper research. Anyway... I hope I can complete it in time for the competition's deadline. Annnnndddddd.... heres an anatomy study from a sculpture we have in the office.

Kung Fu Romance: Wuxia - Sammo

Name: Hong Sammo

Nickname: Cannonball

Age: 18

Rank: Blue

Favored Weapon: Butterfly swords, shield (on back)

Likes: Theatrical dramas, helping friends.

Dislikes: Rain, scary people, sleeping.

Quote: The only thing I can control is my happiness

Sammo is Sing's best friend and partner in crime. The two of them have been mostly inseparable since their youth with Sing operating as the leader and bringing the two into constant trouble. Sammo is a light hearted gentle lad who loyally follows Sing into whatever mischief and bad ideas he has. He is nicknamed Cannonball for how he used to play and roll around the floor when he was younger. But Sing is the only one that calls him Big Brother and looks after him when they were both growing up. Sammo's friendly nature means he is very gullible and often tricked but he owes his close friends for being there to defend him and has grown with ambition to be more independent so that one day he could protect the ones closest to him instead.
Outside of class, if he could not be found following Sing around Sammo works at the butchers with Butcher Wing who he has grown fond of. Wing helped train Sammo in the use of short cleavers in self defense which he translates into the twin butterfly swords in class. He also carries a big shield on his back which is a vital element to his turtle form which utilizes a lot of grounded maneuvers with a strong back. Rolling about in all his early days helped Sammo become a fighter who is light on is feet and proficient with flips, couple this with his shielded hind turns him into a human cannonball!

Late Nighters

Still trying to do some personal pieces after work. All that = a sleepy Ben most of the time :P But I keep getting the feeling I dont draw or paint enough hehe, but its damn fun yet sometimes frustrating so its all good! Bring it all on XD Also brought a PS3 recently too but Im trying to keep disciplined about how long I spend on it hehe. I remember quite a few people thinking that to be dedicated in art you have to have no social life. I would dismiss this idea, really I believe you have loads of time on your hands that might end up being wasted. You can always make time for things like art, its often the little bits of 'sacrifice' and time you take out to keep painting that I find pushes you beyond. And the more art/ work you get done the more time you have to relax and play. I did a lot of partying n all when I was studying but I also did the work too and worked into my spare time too so you really can balance the two. People studying medicine and engineering have to do their studies and long exams... why is art any different? Heck, I know people that sleep only 3 hours a night! We dont even need to read or write... we just need to paint!
Anyhoooo... heres something Ive been painting. Its still a wip. Progress has been a bit slow as I only had the night times to paint my own stuff. But its been good to work on one piece for a long duration as I had more time to look at it and analyze it and spot areas I could improve on and so this has been repainted a few times. But the results benefited so Im happy :D More to come... thats a promise!

Still Alive!

"I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS."
Hey guys! Sorry for disappearing for such a long time, just wanted to drop an update to say Im still alive :P Ive been teaching myself Sketch Up and dabbled in a bit of Illustrator. Its tough trying to pick up a new program especially when you feel comfortable with another one. Its quite a lot to learn but it just takes practice, just like I found with Photoshop really. Geez, I wish I still have a copy of my first Photoshop attempt to show you. Its quite nice to think back to those days where I was completely clueless about the program, it gives me hope that I can improve :D All it takes is just practice, though it is indeed hard sometimes it will definitely be rewarding! If you want something good, you gotta work for it. So for me it becomes a question of how badly do you want it? Soooooooooo... here are some models I made in Sketch Up. You might recognize the texture of that last one... If you do... give yourself a pat on the back! More updates on the way I promise!!!!!!!!! Ive been doing some arty things in my spare time but haven't spent much time on them cause of the day job of course... but some are almost ready to show so stay tuned :D
P.S. Jumping between programs with different shortcut keys is a biiiiiiiitch!!!!

Also check out Luis' work. Im proud of this guy cause he's working hard and learning art like a mentalist! All you need is the fire to just do it!

Heaven Shaking Event

Hey! Sorry again for not updating regularly. Just a wip for now. Need to finish a lot of these off, I have a few unfinished pieces stacking up that I need to give more time to. But this is prob the more refined one so it'll do for an update for now. I would be working on it tonight but Im trying to improve some of my work-work so this will have to wait again. People asked me how I did the mountains and grass... well... they are a blend of photo texturing, custom brushes, cut outs of old paintings and brush work. This might be a good stage to show people my process. I sometimes mash up textures to try create suggestions of details then tighten it up later. So in a way... its thumbnailing or sketching... and then add the values, form and details when I decide on a composition. This piece is getting towards the refining stage.
You know... a few months ago when i just left university I could not paint directly into Photoshop. I relied on drawing on paper and colouring the linework when its scanned. But now I feel more comfortable working this way! Just need to keep practicing!

Demon Lord

Finished painting the demon creature. As I said before, it was inspired by an episode of the Ghostbusters cartoon I remember from childhood. I sought through the internet to find the episode and took a screenshot of the ghost as he appears in the cartoon for you to see (second image). This guy appeared only for a split moment and just gave orders to his minions but it still scared me and my brother :P

Still Fighting!

Hey guys! I dug out an old wip that I didnt finish and reworked it a bit more. But I think I am falling out of love with it. So its back in the attic with this lol. There are elements I like about it but I feel like going another direction from what I was originally doing so I may create something new from this piece. More to come... Im still settling in my new location and so I have a few things to sort out but I will be going all art n painting soon! Really enjoying my new job, I dunno if you can say it is work! Its doing what I would normally do in my own time in a way hahaha! Im also writing a bit in my own time lil ideas for a couple of personal projects. Very rough stuff atm, though some of you will already know parts of the kung fu one. Im thinking how to find a balance of doing work-work, personal projects, and general practice and studies. Need to draw moooaaaarrrrr! Get your act together Ben!