rook over here!

you can't make shit like this up...

2006-06-30T16:34:00.000+08:00

Titanic.... 2?

2006-04-19T12:03:00.000+08:00

Check out this movie trailer for a sequel to the hit movie Titanic!

okay, it's totally fake but it's so wrong it's kinda funny.

I miss Comedy Central

2006-03-23T17:10:00.000+08:00

comedy central spoof on GWB

I miss turning on the TV to channel 59 and watching Comedy Central. Now and then we'd get the specials -- Friar's Club roasts, spotlights on up-and-coming stand-up comedians, and some classic somedies too. Not to mention the Daily Show with John Stewart. That shit was goood.

what was the point of this post? Sure beats me.

have a Star Wars Valentine's Day

2006-02-14T16:46:00.000+08:00

check out the latest Photoshop Phriday from SomethingAwful.com!

here's a sample (click on pic for more):

XD

joke blogs

2006-01-30T20:40:00.000+08:00

first there was the Hulk Blog
and now... THIS

SFA3 character select - Guy

2006-01-30T20:21:00.000+08:00

so much for the fanciful idea :P
this was 100% done on PS + tablet, no pencil sketch/comp whatsoever... took about half a day, had a bunch of false starts. Hoping to improve on my speed over time.

New toy

2006-01-25T15:48:00.000+08:00

ok, I finally bought a tablet, it's a Wacom Intuos³... I sprang for the A4 size since I decided to really treat myself after slogging for 3+ years at my current job. Sadly, this purchase puts my plans for a PC back pretty far, and any plans for a PS3 even further.

The tablet's really nice, and hopefully it means that I'll be able to improve more since I'll be able to colour and do stuff at home, instead of sneaking in pieces during my lunch hour at work. And there's so much to learn that I find it pretty daunting -- esp for someone at my age, with my commitments (wife, house, full-time job totally unrelated to this field, bills, debts, etc). But in the spirit of the pursuit of excellence... I'm glad I took this step.

And now, onwards.

SFA3 character select - Vega + DevArt account

2006-01-19T16:42:00.000+08:00

been meaning to update this site a bit. Sadly work's been owning my sorry butt, and life... just got more complicated again. So it looks like I won't be able (read: have neither the time nor the energy) to add in Vega's tattoo and slim him down a bit after all :(

oh, and I finally went and did up my DeviantArt account.

SFA3 character select - Cammy

2006-01-04T14:59:00.000+08:00

Finally finished... she's in weird pose, but I kinda like it. I'm pretty happy with the colour job too.

SFA3 character select - Cody, Chun-Li + Cammy preview

2005-12-29T18:44:00.000+08:00

I rushed these out, so the colours are somewhat sloppy. Light source is inconsistent on the Cody pic. Overall I'm happy with how they turned out, but as usual I've to look at them in the morning to see if I develop any burning regrets ;P

I've also got a pencilled Cammy waiting in the wings... needs some work though. Trying something new with the funky perspective :)

oh yeah, the Turducken update will come later... waiting for Nickword to send the pic first.

SFA3 character select - Sakura

2005-12-16T15:19:00.000+08:00

tee hee

this pic is like 2 or 3 weeks late. Now I'm playing catch-up (again).

Here's an unfinished working pic of Sak I ripped from my sketchbook. It's more dynamic, but I couldn't get her legs to work out :(

I have grand ideas for the upcoming Guy pic, but it might just be too grand to even knock out given my level of skill and amount of free time >:P

SFA3 character select - Birdie

2005-12-12T17:13:00.000+08:00

Ripped this out of my sketchbook... I tried to do the body but it came out looking all scrunched (partially because I was trying to fit him into the constraints of the sketchbook, partially because I need more practice). In the end I was all, "ah, heck it," and ended up with the pic at the end of this post.

Christmas is coming soon... seems like the celebration with my in-laws will involve turducken. To be honest, I'm kinda curious and slightly apprehensive about the bizzare amalgamation of fowl.

I guess the proof of the ~~pudding~~ turducken will be in the eating. Expect a verdict after 24 Dec ^_^

SFA3 character select - Adon, Blanka

2005-11-27T15:01:00.000+08:00

Adon and Blanka. Rushed these out because I was really falling behind (thanks to bronchitis, work, and fatigue), but still had fun. Adon's just being his usual cocky self (although ppl have asked what happened to his legs?), while I decided to have fun with Blanka's f+KKK hop... ferocious facial expression + tiny watermelon = silly. The wife says I should add a final panel of Blanka munching on some melon :)

I skipped over Sakura for now, I'm not happy with any of the preliminary sketches I've drawn so far.

SFA3 character select - Sodom

2005-11-08T16:44:00.000+08:00

Q: wth is "DIE JOB DEATH CAR?"

A: Sodom is an American who wants desperately to be Japanese, and he spouts Japanese all the time. Unfortunately he's not very good at it, and it kinda comes out as gibberish.

"DIE JOB DEATH CAR" is a bastardization of "daijoubu desuka," which translates to "are you alright?"

SFA3 character select - E.Honda

2005-11-02T18:14:00.000+08:00

goofy looking Honda.

trying something different. drawn & coloured directly into PS... no pencil sketch beforehand.

I sure could use a tablet :P

wedding anniversary

2005-10-29T10:49:00.000+08:00

2 years this Tuesday. Time does fly when you're having fun :)

EDIT: OMG you have to check THIS out. It's just so wrong. lol. (Courtesy of SA.com's Photoshop Phridays)

SFA3 character select - Dan Hibiki & E.Honda

2005-10-26T18:17:00.000+08:00

kinda rushed :P

WIP - grim reaper

2005-10-17T15:34:00.000+08:00

open request on SRK

SFA3 char select - Charlie (Nash JPN)

2005-10-10T17:54:00.000+08:00

somersault!

whoever thought of this move must think Charlie has nuts of steel... he's basically doing a mid-air split and nailing the other guy with the heel of his boot.

Doing a split? Painful.
Doing a split so fast he gets speed lines? Masochistic.

SFA3 character select - M.Bison (Vega JPN)

2005-10-04T14:52:00.000+08:00

I couldn't decide which one works better, so...

SFA3 character select - Sagat

2005-09-29T15:42:00.000+08:00

what immortal hand or eye
dare frame thy fearful (a)symmetry

SFA3 character select - Akuma / Gouki

2005-09-24T15:05:00.000+08:00

me being overly ambitious.

SFA3 character select - Ken

2005-09-21T16:12:00.000+08:00

winding up for a punch or a kick, I dunno...

SFA3 character select - Zangief

2005-09-19T14:40:00.000+08:00

flex & pose

Mangaka05 submission

2005-09-13T10:10:00.000+08:00

I rushed like hell to get this done.
end result? Image is oversaturated... overly red and the green guy stands out way too much. I would have done it earlier but I got stuck on the concept stage and I had a gazillion other deadlines to meet before I could think about this.

t'was a good learning experience though.

SFA3 character select - Gen

2005-09-03T13:56:00.000+08:00

hyakurenkou

SFA3 character select - Rose

2005-08-22T13:45:00.000+08:00

SFA3 character select - Rolento

2005-08-15T17:20:00.000+08:00

boom

for the SFA3 character select drawoff on SRK.

alternate version HERE (original colour job is more apparent in this one)

round two...

2005-07-19T15:07:00.000+08:00

Now that the SRK T-shirt design competition is out of the way, I'm looking towards the next competition: Mangaka'05.

This one will be hard... the prizes (open category) are great -- $800 store credit @ GameScore, possibly the most reasonably priced video game retailer in Singapore. My main motivation? Winning this competition is the only way I'll get to own a PSP, XBox360 or PS3 anytime soon :P

That being said, competition will be really stiff. I frankly don't think I can pull this one off, but I'm trying anyway :)

btw final accepted versions of the SRK T-shirt design:

card

2005-07-06T15:39:00.000+08:00

some changes, as requested:

I feel like a bicycle...

2005-07-05T11:51:00.000+08:00

...y'know, two tired (too tired).

I guess I should keep to one bad pun per entry, but I really do feel tired. Tired tired tired. Couldn't sleep last night, ended up watching ECW One Night Stand on Channel 5 -- I didn't even know it was on until I channel surfed into it by accident.

It was quite heavily censored, in typical bizzaro Singapore censorship board style. I guess our local censors don't want us to watch a wrestler lighting a lighter-fluid-doused table, but though it was fine to see one wrestler powerbomb another throught said flaming table.

I guess I shouldn't be complaining seeing how they allowed us to watch a PPV on free programming (even if it did start airing at midnight on a Tueday morning), but such decisions make me wonder if these cuts are made because of censorship issues, or so they can show the essential bits and therefore squeeze in more advertisment time.

and, oh yeah... latest tweak on the T-shirt design.
Nina's leg fixed and more details to the text. I think the type is less eye-catching now though :(

plus something I whipped up while messing around in PS:

nina in

2005-06-29T12:42:00.000+08:00

heihachi out

2005-06-26T22:40:00.000+08:00

Heihachi's on his way out... someone else is taking his place in the design... and I'm working hard to make him/her/it (yes, because to be ambiguous about Tekken you need to factor in their fighting grizzlys, pandas, and kangaroos) look somewhat like the official art, and man is it tough.

dead tired. Was expecting to be mobilized this weekend, but nothing happened. I should be thankful, but right now I just want to hit the sack.

Burger King's got a new mushroom swiss Whopper(tm) and methinks the wife and I will give it a shot tomm :)

more changes

2005-06-23T19:20:00.000+08:00

nothing to say... I'm tired. and I've loads to do :(

changes

2005-06-21T17:48:00.000+08:00

The SRK crew seem to see some potential in my design, but they want to make some changes. A change in colour scheme is one, and the other... was not entirely unforeseen :)

One of the doubts I had about the GGPO design was that Ryu looked too benign. Well, I think that fits his character to a T, helping up a beaten down opponent. But I've always had this lingering suspicion in my head that a more bloodthristy theme would have served me better.

Turns out I was right... They want Ryu looking like he's gearing to kick some ass.
And the GGPO concept was rejected in favour of just having the name of the event on the design (which, on hindsight, makes sense -- who really wants their event in a small font size and playing second banana to something some T-shirt design guy thought up :)

.....

For a short while, I felt a twinge of disappointment that my vision of sportsmanlike competition was being asked to become another group shot of various fighting game characters.

It's weird, because part of me loves coming up with stuff and cherishes their existence. The other part of me sees myself merely as an executor, whose purpose is to meet my client's wants/needs (that's the designer in me speaking). Anyway, the designer in me took over pretty quickly, and the changes were made.

Such is the fate of the designer.

done for now

2005-06-15T14:31:00.000+08:00

*phew*

I'm finally done with my T-shirt design for EVO2005.
Criteria are as follows:

No more than four solid colours (no gradients allowed)
No usage of copyrighted artwork
Usage of "Federation Wide" typeface recommended

I took a long time (no thanks to my unfamiliarity with Illustrator) but it's finally done. And all I can say is... I feel a sense of disappointment.

It's not just the "morning after" syndrome that I get with all my work either -- where whenever I revisit something I've just completed I find myself hating something or other about it. In this case, I've utterly, totally and completely deviated from my original concept: That the crowd is being viewed from the perspective of someone knocked down on the ground (which thus justifies the "GGPO" theme).

Too much focus on the process and not enough focus on the objective. Next time, I should fully comp it out before vectoring... that way I'll be less likely to get lost in the process.

here's the thumbnail for the back design:

as a result of the loss of focus (which IMHO was the best part of the design), I came up with this alternative:

I still like the front design, at least. I'm happy with the star-shaped negative space (although the perspective on the text could be better).

(g)looming

2005-06-11T09:50:00.000+08:00

15 June is fast approaching...
NO TIME NO TIME NO TIME!!!

I need more time to work on this.

Hogarth

2005-06-10T09:45:00.000+08:00

I recently checked out Burne Hogarth's "Dynamic Anatomy" from the library. I've been painfully aware of the lack of anatomical inaccuracy in my drawings for a while, so I finally decided to do something about it.

People I know (fellow SRKers SFMC & Dreaded Fist amongst them) swear by this thing, so I finally decided to check out what it had to offer. So far (from my cursory glance through the volume), I've found it to be loaded with useful rules of thumb for drawing. There's a brief art history lesson on the depiction of the human figure over time which brings up pleasant memories of my art history classes back in Drake.

I need to find the time to read this thing in-depth.
And hopefully I won't end up paying overdue charges for it >:P

first entry

2005-06-07T09:24:00.000+08:00

I'm getting geared up for the SRK EVO T-shirt design competition. I've finally got a concept for the design, now it's just a matter of executing it an a way that doesn't suck. I'm hoping this design of mine gets at least a nod for its concept -- I think it's pretty apt for the event.

And if you're expecting some sneak as to what my design will be like, I'm sorry... competition is stiff, so I'll be keeping things under wraps until after they announce a winner.

Here's a thumbnail of my 2003 T-shirt competition entry.