Kung Fu Romance: Wuxia - Sammo

New Version:
Old Version:

Name: Hong Sammo

Nickname: Cannonball

Age: 18

Rank: Blue

Favored Weapon: Butterfly swords, shield (on back)

Signature Move: Cannonball tackle, turtle-shell rotation

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!

Demon Wip

Hey guys a lil doodle just to show Im still alive and intending to keep updating this joint. Ive relocated now and spent a few days working at Blitz games studio. Really enjoying it there and Im settling in a bit. Of course, I cant show the things I produce at work so I will just update with things I do outside of the studio.
Anyway... the art... I will try finish this off but its a demon based on one that appeared in the ghostbusters cartoon that frightened me as a kid. I will work on it more...

Zombified

Happy New Year everyone! First painting of the year done! This was for the AIB art blog, the theme was Hangover :P This was fairly quick (quick is a relative word but this was about 2 - 3 hours I think). Its easier to do portraits than full figures in my opinion, there is less to work on and so you can spend time detailing things (though I could have gone in and did more), and its easier to do zombies or other creatures than humans as you have more license to go wild. OK... moving out tomorrow... I'll talk through the process a bit for you...
1) This is a wip of another painting Ive been working on. With not many defined forms in the painting I took this as a basis for a new painting. I had to manipulate it a bit, putting an overlay gradient on to change the background composition into some sort of erm... gradient! And using colour balance to shift it all to a bit of green so it will look a bit more sickly to go with the zombie feel.
2) Quick sketch to get the structure of the drawing down (the foundation for the painting). Hinting at what the colour is. Not too worried about values just yet, when I figure out what colour things are I can add value and the final colours afterwards.
3) Added a side light. Its something I havent done much but seen it used well a lot of times so this was a new thing I tried out. Every piece I do I try to do something new and so learn something from it. Also started to paint in some values.
4) Painted in more values and blended some colours. For example... the cheek close to us. If it was as sharp as it was in the previous step it wouldnt look like its curving like a cheek.
5) Upped the contrast. Painted the drool/puck with a brush and then duplicated that layer and fiddle with the blend option till a satisfying result comes up.
6) This is the easy fun part. The painting is pretty much done. But you can play around with different settings to see what happens. I found a colour balance that made a more dynamic skin tone and so I went with that but erased into it to not effect the background. I also changed the silhuette of the neck a bit more. Then I add a smart sharpen filter and a noise filter. And we are done!