Give me the Green Light

Remember a couple of posts back i said something about having good news to disclose? i have been given the green light to make it known now.

http://ameblo.jp/hobino/entry-10711954132.html

My name is listed around the 15th from the bottom

Cu.eL (Shaman)

Yup, i managed to get selected to have my work featured for Otacool 4 Worldwide Illustrators! *A* As far as i know there's another Malaysian in that book, which is no other than SURFACE group leader Pcmaniac88 who even got selected for prize awards to which he won lightsaber chopsticks...bastard...

Guess it has been a good and fulfilling tiger year.

i'm ready to go right now~
i'm ready to go right now~

End of Sem + GACC

Finally sem break is here! though this round i don't think it's very long coz our classes got dragged another week.

Anyhow, this post features some of the works did during the sem.

Typography CD cover, non of the images belong to me although i did trace some of them in Illustrator.

outside

inside

CGPP board game

mix of Smarties and Katamari Damacy

Illustration Fundamentals Final. Wish i did a better job but i'm not brave enough to venture beyond using color pencils alone. I always have fear of trying new stuff without prior guidance.

uugghh i suck at the composition

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Prior to sem break, last weekend was GACC (game,anime,comic, convention) down at Malacca. It was a 2 day event and i had to drive down to and fro for 2 days, fortunately swapping between my bro and me.

Turn out wasn't so good this year, since everyone is so hyped up about H1N1. Can't blame them after the number of deaths reported. Anyways, overall the event wasn't as awesome as previous year and it's not because it is missing the Seiyuu. Well, it's just lacking i guess, from the way things were organized down to the control of the event. Anyhow, the Emcees were still as awesome.

Day 1 character design competition which i again joined and bagged nothing :D
Sorcery is the theme given this time and, knowing the mass majority will draw witches (which 2 out of the top 3 bagged the position, 1 was a sorcerous), i decided to go for witch-doctor-shaman-thingy, to which i think i might have fared better if i drew witches lmao. Well, trying to do something different sucks sometimes huh? xD

oh my, maybe this looks more like a fairy, but it's still sorcery ain't it!

Regardless, i still enjoyed it and i can feel my brain juices really flow when a time limit is imposed. Time for some humble pills, i'm just not there yet lol. But i'll keep trying until i do again! Just like the gold medal for my Hammer piece.

Driving around Malacca town, i noticed a shop which coincidentally has my nick on it, "KAIZER" in caps and yellow in color with a stark red background filling. It's a food outlet selling chicken and something i can't remember. Too bad din manage to snap a pic of the sign board. XD Now i can tell people i have a restaurant in Malacca.

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On day 2 since there were no competitions to join (YES GACC, WHAT HAPPENED TO GUILTY GEAR TOURNAMENT???!!) Surface doujin group leader Pcmaniac aka Peach, mutilated Mio from K-ON...

wat the....CAN'T UNSEE!!!

his original piece that was sold in the K-ON set...

And so, i decided to have my own revenge on him when he went out for lunch...

XD Yui?

original piece courtesy of PC again...find his works here > Peach Artworks

I had a good laugh over it and we burnt each other's eyes out. Almost made an all out war drawing each others gallery into manly renditions. Fortunately we came to an agreement not to.

Later i got commissioned to draw my own character here below. Strangest request yet since usually fanarts are the things requested.


Got back from Malacca and KO-ed. Took a long time to fully recover my energies. Long distance driving suxxors.

I AM THE HAMMER!

Well, remember the bitching i did about not winning contests at this entry? >>> here-we-go-again

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GUESS I JUST BROKE THAT CYCLE AND STRUCK GOLD!!!
Literally struck GOLD!!

holy sh...

'I am The Hammer. I am the sword in His hand. I am the Gauntlet about His fist. I am the Bane of His foes and the woes of the treacherous. I am the End.' ~Grey Knights

Sob, it was certainly overwhelming when i found out about it. Tricia was even more excited than i was when she gave me a ring on Wednesday to congratulate me. She congratulated a very blur me before telling me that she saw my name on the list of gold medalists xD

"Many, many heartfelt Thanx to all who sms-ed/called me to give your congrats to me m(_ _)m"

The impact didn't really sink in until my slow brain took a couple of minutes to digest what i just heard. Then i was shaking uncontrollably with excitement lol. I was finally able to taste the experience of achieving something i have longed for for so long. After those relentless and bitter past track records of failing that i had T_T finally....

My 2nd entry.
Poor Midnight Carnival didn't manage to bag anything. xD

It must be partly due to those numbing experiences that drove me to never give up, to further outdo my previous selves. Like what Kin Sun said, what's more important is that each new piece that you work on, make sure that it is a little-teeny-weeny-bit better than the previous. Gradually time will bear the fruits of labor.

Of course, although i did manage to snatch the gold medalist title for Manga Illus category, i am far from remaining content. I know that i am still very 'amateur-ish' and that there is a lot of room for improvement (a room as big as the universe). Looking at this piece now i feel that the judges must have made a mistake to have awarded my sub-par work with a gold. Nevertheless, i am thankful for the opportunity they have given me.

The day i entered The One Academy has been a day of blessing (as well as a sweet torture). I am very fortunate to have my family's support for me in this eccentrical line that i am towing. I will treasure and cherish the skills/knowledge that i have gained in my endevour here, be it bitter or sweet. It feels good to be reminded that it is through a conscious choice on my own part that i am still where i am today.

Look In The Mirror

As promised i will post the final piece for the Good vs Evil pic for the contest here.

Here was when i was 50% through it

Almost done....

Final Product in wallpaper size for non wide screen if you interested.

Anyways, i also promised to post my rationale for it. I'll just copy paste it from my deviantart account.

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Look in the mirror...

...and you will see your other self. Evil lies naked within all of us, we just have to pay attention to it. Many a times we are quick to point out the flaws of others, but remain ignorant of our own actions. More often than not we choose to neglect reflecting upon ourselves.

So is evil really that far off?

If we do not keep it in check it will eventually taint and consume us whole. Thus it is a constant battle of good vs evil.

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I'm bad at expressing things figuratively, so i went for the straight ball.

- Angelic and demonic side, well you get the drift. Straight forward enough.
- Almost naked demonic side, represents that evil lies naked within ourselves.
- Closed eyes for the angel side to represent ignorance.
- Tendril like things swirling around the connected palms represents the taint creeping in.

cliche....but i hope i get my message across clear enough ^^ ;;

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Well, i don't expect anything from the competition. I wasn't really joining it with the motive to win anything (although winning is a bonus, which i doubt of course). More importantly i wanted to try doing something based on a contest theme. I just gave it my best shot so that i won't regret later for not participating at all. Thanx a lot to Jun who was always encouraging me to take part. I truly hope he comes up with something better than mine and get a win :D

I always tried ways to cg like what i have done for this pic. I think i am fairly satisfied with the results this time. I tried to use greater contrast by using more black. I know, in college the lecturers do not encourage the use of this color because it is a color-killer. But ImagineFX has taught me otherwise. Mastering the use of black brings out a greater sense of depth and contrast to your works, making it very stable and solid if controlled properly (and epic-ness in my own opinion). I wanted to challenge myself to be able to achieve that.

I guess that itself was already a victory for me. I am quite proud of what i have achieved for myself here. It took me longer than usual to finish this piece but it brought back the nostalgic feeling i had when i took onto a personal project seriously. I was already wondering if i could still have the determination to go through that again. I have proven to be still passionate about it.

Although not many will like it for its stereotypical-branding i am still very, very happy with the outcome of this pic. I tried thinking out of the box and doing something different for this theme. I came out with many ideas much better than this, but then in the end i asked myself, "What is it that i enjoy doing the most?" So i decided to go with this pic. I have always tried to avoid drawing angelic and demonic representations because it is too overused. But i cannot deny that i still enjoy it no matter how recycled these sort of depictions are.

I shall continue to refrain myself further or what you will be seeing from me will all be of the angelic-demonic sort.

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Oh i also wanted to share some things i learnt from ImagineFX. For those majoring in IL and is greatly interested in digital painting or CG, i recommend getting this book. I know it is not cheap, but it is worth every dollar you pay because they even include a resource CD which has brushes for photoshop to works from featured artists of that particular issue. If you really cant afford it then get a glimpse of it in the TOA library.

There's a very good tip i used in this work by one of the artists featured in IFX. He works in grayscale first to get the sense of '3d'-ness right before he adds in color tones. So from there i picked up turning my colored works into grayscale. While you are working on it, save up often and constantly convert it into grayscale to check. It truly makes your colored works less flat and brings it another level.

And a personal advice from me before truly ending this post. Save often and make LOTS of backup copies whenever you can. It really stinks to have to redo a work because you saved in a single file and it gets corrupted (e.g. power blackout while saving). I have not experienced it myself before because on day 1 i picked up CG, i made countless copies all over every single available space and hard disk i have. I fear losing my precious works so much that i even burn mutliple copies of them into DVDs. Please, please heed this simple but very very useful advice.