Kung Fu Romance: Wuxia - Siu Lee

Happy New Year everyone! I hope this year will be a great prosperous time for everyone.
I'm in the process of relocating so I might be a while till the next update?!?!? Or maybe not :P
New version:
Old version:
Name: Fhun Siu Lee
Nickname: Heaven-Shaking Youth
Age: 19
Rank: Red
Favored Weapon: Three-Section Staff
Signature Move: Siu-Lee's Heaven shaking fists, Siu-Lee's Earth cracking feet, flying bicycle kick, reverse roundhouse kick, chain punch
Likes: Improving, training, fighting, showing off, wheatgrass juice, reputation, referring to himself by name, his master
Dislike: Losing, medicine, guilinggao, letting his master down
Quote: A man of determination must exert himself and strive to be a great hero.

Siu-Lee is one of the top fighters in the Immovable Fist sect. He can be found training hard for long periods of time and is very dedicated to his discipline. He is a proud fighter with ambitions to be the strongest fighter he can possibly become. Of all the students under Master Chiu, Siu-Lee is renowned for the swiftness of his attacks which maintains great strength. The sheer speed of the movements of punches and kicks are said to be so quick that they frequently catch fire. To harness this into an extra offensive ability, Siu-Lee has bandaged his limbs to preserve his fiery state. Part of his trademark moves are the Chain Punch of the Yim house and his bicycle kicks.
Siu-Lee is also known to be quite a short tempered man, especially if he loses a fight. He cares much for his reputation as the leading male fighter from Master Chiu's pupils. Sometimes his pride leads to him refusing treatments from medicine to heal himself of any kind of injury. He has been training with Master Chiu as his shifu since he was a child and has known Mei since those days though they were not very close Siu-Lee has developed an interest in her. This eventually leads Sing to see Siu-Lee as a rival even though Siu-Lee does not see him as a worthy competitor.

Kung Fu Romance: Wuxia - Master Chiu

Name: Master Chiu Chi Ling
Age: 64
Rank: Shifu
Favored Weapon: Bo Staff
Signature Move: Chi punch, razor leaf, axe kick, hook kick, snake bites into tiger slash, recycling energy strike
Likes: Teaching, tradition, meditating, spiritualism, discipline, helping people, tai-chi
Dislikes: Ignorance, laziness, dirty floors, gambling
Quote: Exert yourself everyday, be broad minded and far sighted

Master Chiu is the leader of the Immovable Fist sect. He is very protective of his adopted daughter Mei who is also her prime student in martial arts. As well as running martial arts classes he is also a well known doctor in his village with his temple being a sanctuary for those who are sick/ injured and the training grounds for his students.
His fighting style has him specialize in the 5 animal forms of Hung Kuen and Tai Chi Chuan. With Tai Chi, Master Chiu is accomplished with the "hardness in the softness" techniques allowing him the ability to use his opponent's forces against them and evade attacks by following the flow of their movements as if you are fighting a piece of paper caught in the wind. Master Chiu can also store up a large amount of inner energy, adding to that his ability to save energy by recycling those of his enemy gives him a great supply of chi to spend. These energy can be used in chi related attacks like the Chi Projecting Finger to healing others by passing his inner energy into wounded areas. Another skill he adds to his arsenal is his Dian Xue, acupressure point attacks that can paralyze victims.
Despite his tough exterior, the shifu of the Immovable Fist sect is not fearless. His wife can be just as intimidating as the master himself and even he dares not to cross her. He is fond of helping people and is fond of teaching his students. Though some are more challenging to tame it is much more rewarding to see those excel beyond expectation.

Stuck in the Airport

This was inspired by when my train was delayed by the snow and everyone had to endure a longer trip together (my journey ended up being 8 hours). But the thing was it brought random people together talking to one another and everyone was in this mess together. In a way it was what Christmas was about (kinda) it brought people together and we made friends and shared an experience!

400 Fists in the air

400 hands! Completed in 7 days whilst on my holiday :P The first 100 can be found in an earlier post. Lets keep intense!

Watercolour: Fishy

This is a watercolour I did for someone on the ConceptArt.Org forums. I took part in a Secret Santa event there and this was something I did for someone in Texas! It was great to paint in traditional paints again. I love watercolours, the techniques involved is so involving because you can actually interact with it and move paints around with your fingers rather than watch it on a monitor. Though it did take longer than if it was to be done digitally hehe. I did do some touching up on photoshop to paint up some contrasts I couldn't pull off in watercolours alone.
Oh yeah... I am back from my 'holiday' in Bournemouth. Great to see everyone again and also the new people on the animation course. Keep working hard guys! Its what it takes! There has been loads of struggles and failings on my journey so far but if you respond to them and keep pushing you will find your reward!

Struggles

Whaaaaaaaaaa! Ive been having one of those moods where I feel I have a looooooong way to go yet :P The reason has something to do with looking at James Jean's work, especially his sketchbook! Geeeeez I feel utterly dwarved by how much he draws! Its a good thing though, doubt keeps you striving to improve so you are not too comfortable :P Anyway... the first image is a wip. I hate it at the moment so Im just gonna do something else and give it a rest. Number two is somewhat a failed piece too :P But I thought it would be good to show, Im trying not to shy away from my bad drawings as I sometimes wish I documented my old failings so I could check back on them and see if I improved.
The last couples pages are the first 100 of the 400 hands Ive been challenged to draw by a fellow artist on ConceptArt.Org. Its great to have people to draw with like that, especially when they are crazy and intense too! Anyway... gonna be gone for over a week... cya then!

Little Fighters

A watercolour painting! And a lil wallpaper thingy... a lil present for the festive period :D I'll be going to Bournemouth for just over a week so there may be no updates during this time! Ho ho ho!!!
Coming soon... 400 hands done within a week

Kung Fu Romance: Wuxia - Mei

Name: Chiu Mei Ley
Nickname: Mountain Flower
Age: 19
Rank: Red
Favored Weapon: Sword
Signature Move: Blossom rainstorm, triple front kick, flying sleeves, jumping snap kick, hook kick, roundhouse kick
Likes: Playing the guzheng, shopping, her garden, sweet dumplings
Dislikes: Show offs, bullies, snakes
Quote: A hero must be of self help
Mei is the beautiful and powerful adopted daughter of the master of the Immovable Fist sect. Because of who her father is, she is raised disciplined and strict. She is the top student in her class, a specialist in kicking techniques and one of the few students of her sect to be able to use qing gong. She can also perform the Flying Sleeves skill which enables the user to project forward their sleeves over a large distance as an attack. The projected sheet of fabrics move with such speed and force that they are capable of slicing up a bamboo tree. This technique can also be applied to her dress. When Mei turns quickly she is able to slash with her dress like it was a sword making it both an offensive and defensive maneuver.
Her beauty often draws in a lot of unwanted attention but is slowly turned by Sing's sincerity and innocent charm. Eventually she catches the the worse attention around...

Kung Fu Romance: Wuxia - Sing

New Version:

Old Version:
Name: Chow Sing Si
Nickname: Mop boy
Age: 18
Rank: Blue
Favored Weapon: Iron Mop
Signature Move: The Buddha palm, boomerang mop, mop grab, sleeper's morning call
Likes: Singapore vermicelli, sleeping, fighting
Dislikes: Training, studies, ginseng, being beaten
Quote: Jiayou! Aja aja fighting!
Sing is a lazy martial arts student of the Immovable Fist sect who often dozes off during class and when caught by his teacher often ends up spending his time sweeping up and doing other chores as punishment. Having more time play fighting with the mop during detention than using a bo staff in training he developed a unique specialism with a mop as a weapon! A special Battle Mop later is forged for his use.
His lazy carefree personality also leads to him learning the fighting stance the Sleeping Disciple from the Beggar sect, which involves the fighter fighting in an unconscious state. This unconventional style can throw off enemies and is deceptively dangerous if done well. Eventually he is taught a secret legendary move called the Buddha Palm by an ailing master he helps out. But such an expert move requires rigorous training to perfect, something our character here needs to practice more of, which is why the success rate of this skill is very low!
He is suddenly able to sharpen his focus and fighting abilities when the girl of his dreams Mei is watching, bringing a new level to what he can do in the attempt to impress her.

Kung Fu Romance: Wuxia

A new chapter begins!
Kung Fu Romance: Wuxia is a re-imagination of my grad film Kung Fu Romance. During the production of the grad film I kept day dreaming of back stories and expanding on the little story and world. For KFR Wuxia I am trying to shift the theme to something a tiny bit more mature and different so here the characters might appear older and I hope I can introduce all the new characters I have been thinking about. Wuxia is a genre of chivalric martial arts heroes often battling against big corrupt forces. The setting is quite fantastic with supernatural feats performed and various spirits creeping up a few times. I am still playing around with different stories that goes on in this world but I hope to illustrate some of the scenes to show you all!
A different challenge rises over the horizon, there's a fight to be won, a new chapter begins! With bold spirits and iron nerves we walk on! As we brave through our darkest storm with our blood and sweat we write our dreams and the future. So raise your head, raise your brush and fight on...

Deity

This is spawned from an experiment. I scanned in a watercolour (which I will post up at a later date) and did some touching up with Photoshop. I enjoyed messing with the watercolour painting so much I decided to manipulate it further to create a new piece. This is the result!
Oh... and another thing... I like making lil teasers for what Im working on next so here is a new one for you! I cant decide if I want to post it up just yet or wait till I get more work together for it...

Repainted

Wasn't too happy with the last one so I repainted it. Hmmmmmm Still not too happy but I think its easier to just start again next time. Think I learned quite a bit off this. Gotta keep remembering to stop making things blurry, I somehow get my distances looking that way. Must get some more decisive strokes in there and what happened to my lighting?!?!?!?
In other news... I am going to be a concept artist for real now! Im excited and pumped up for it. I want to develop more and more!!!! No way do I want to stand still!!!!!! This is realizing part of a childhood ambition. I remember years ago when I first picked up a Wacom tablet and saw the artwork by professionals. I could not imagine myself painting digitally and felt really dwarved by the other artists around. I still do! I just got to keep trying to improve and one day I will get there!
Also I want to thank the following people for helping me out, advising me and being a great support just because they are great people:
Mark Tompkins, Tori Davis, Tim Holleyman, Ben Newman, Jon McCoy, Kan Muftic, Adam Clark, Andrew Ley.... and for inspiring me: Bobby Chiu!

Snowy Pass

Something I was asked to do. Was painted in gray then with colour over the top. I'll need to get some less blurry edges in there in the future. Anyway... stay tuned! I have an announcement to make soon...
Oh and Ive also added a few links to the side for a selection of some of my favorite artists if you are interested in viewing them.

Maid for the AIB!

Heres something for the AIB art blog. Yes its final here! A blog for the AIB family to hang out! Heres this week's theme: French Girls.
Check out the rest of the activity here: Link!

Post # 100 = A tutorial

Heres a quick tutorial on the technique I used to make the buildings in my painting lately. Ive been painting without any tricks or shortcuts for a long time but Ive started to try a few different things which is a big help. So try experimenting with the program and it will add to your arsenal of different ways to paint.
With step 6 my general philosophy about designing environments is to break up the regular shapes by overlapping shapes which also helps with depth and the illusion of 3d space. A scene like a city or street is tough in that way because buildings are quite a mechanical shape and sometimes very regular so to make it interesting I try to cut into the shapes and pull more shapes out of it (like you are sculpting into it). This way that regular shape looks more complex and less like a box shape and more like a building. Thats what I try to do anyway, hope you can take something out of that. :D

WtV - Guardians

Another piece from my personal project. The two characters here are defending each other from an unseen enemy. Though one of them seems to have taken more of the blow :P
Originally I wanted to paint something a bit gory and then I decided to set it in my personal world. So thats 2 birds with 1 painting!

Kung Fu Romance Site

This was what Ive been working on. Took a bit of time to get everybody's work together but I think its all done now! Of course the film isnt on there yet :P

Kung Fu Romance

Wips

Wips! You may notice a very similar composition in these two. It cause they started out as paint overs and doodling on top of the same base. Dunno if they make much sense yet...

WtV - Mother

This is a character from my own imaginary universe. The idea was started by a nightmare I had back in 2006. This character didn't appear in the dream, actually she's a recent addition into the idea but is quite an important figure and so merit the honor of first character to be visualized. She is an evolved half human conscious being. The rest of her profile is top secret :P

Tech Designs

Teaser

Under construction...

Urban Skies

Wow! An update?!?!?!? Yeah I know... long overdue... so here you go! This was born mainly from a technique I wanted to try. After looking at other artworks by other digital artists and trying to analyze how they did what they did gave me some ideas of what technique they might have used. I saw one painting of a building which looks like it was painted with it's windows masked out which was what I tried with this one. I made a custom brush as a stamp that masked out a building with windows cut out of it, and locking the transparency allowed me to mask it while working on the windows underneath that layer. Then you can duplicate the building mask and set it to multiply and offset it a little to create the shadows/ undersides! Yep, Im trying to learn more shortcuts :P

Kung Fu Romance Online

Hey everyone! I'll get back to updating properly when I can. Just wanted to let people know that you can probably watch my grad film 'Kung Fu Romance' online temporarily as it is in an online festival right now. Follow the link below to view the film let me know what you think of it :D

LINK

Note: You will need to register with the site to view any of the films there.

Hmmmm... you know Ive been thinking of creating more artwork from the KFR world so you can expect more of that!

Twin Horror

I forgot about these. Some quick sketches for the Halloween idea.

Self Portrait Day

Well... yesterday was International Self Portrait Day according to the ppl at ConceptArt.Org. This was my attempt. Ach! I dont think it turned out well but I'll show you my failures too. It takes many failures to be successful so Im trying not to be afraid or embarassed by them :P

Within the Vessel

.:A lanosrep tcejorp morf eht dnim taht thguorb uoy gnuk uf ecnamor. A dlrow taht sah neeb ni tnempoleved ecnis 6002. Erad uoy kool dna revocsid tahw si nihtiw eht lessev:.

Halloween Project

Part of a project Ive been working on... Ive joined forces with a few artists and one thing we've been working on is a few characters for Halloween! At the top you can see the different contributions and my character complete with sketches and some progression shots. We'll try get more for you in future too so stay tuned :)
Check out the group's work here!

HELLoween Special!

When the graveyards are filled and
there is a big waiting list for
accomodation in Hell. The Prince of
Darkness devised a gruesome scheme
to release some of the unwanted back
into the human world for Halloween.
To save space, a number of the dead
were bunched up together to form one.
Confusedly born into the world again
this chap can harldy understand how
to walk which makes crossing roads
an especially dangerous thing when
it would trips over again and struggle
to hurl itselves back up. So it just lies
there waiting to be road kill
and another its trip back to Hell!