View at Work

Doesn't really feel like Christmas here... but I'm not complaining...
Everyone have a safe holiday!

Yosemite

Whew, an update finally! I managed to go to Yosemite for the first time last week. Its so epic there its a little unreal. Like my good friend Chris says, its like walking into a matte painting...

This was the last piece I did before I left Yosemite. Bees like to stop on my fingers...

Thanks to uber painter Stephen for organizing the trip, and I got to meet the incredible Ignat too.



This was done early morning near the camp grounds... it was so cold. Trying to get into purer watercolor technique with this one... too bad I only planned out the light shapes in the mountain... totally forgot to reserve the lights when I got to the trees.. haha.



After hiking up 1000ft. from Happy Isles, we managed to reach the top of Vernal Falls. Skies were overcast when I painted this. It started snowing just after we descended. Weather reports are so unreliable...



Did this one on the last morning I was there. All the compositions look the same no? Haha... figured I should paint mountains since I was at Yosemite.

I've been really busy working on BATTLE MiLK 2 for next year! Too bad I can't post any images of that yet. It's almost impossible for me to find time to work on that, and Blog stuff besides my regular day job... hopefully I'll have more landscape paintings to post in the future...

Provocative Rodents

Whew, Comicon is over...

Thanks to everyone for their support of BATTLE MiLk!
It was great seeing old friends and making new ones. Sorry if I didn't have much time to chat, turns out selling stuff at Comicon is much more hectic than I imagined.

So this is a piece from BATTLE MiLK, if you didn't get a chance to go to the Con, you can still order yours at www.battlemilk.com, Stuart Ng books or pick up signed copies at Nucleus. More retailers will be carrying the book in the future too.

Hmm.. now.. maybe its time to start working on new stuff...

BATTLE MiLK

Our book is finally here!
Hope you guys will like it.

"BATTLE MiLK" is a collaboration between 4 Concept Designers at Lucasfilm Animation.

My partners in crime include the Kilian Plunkett, Wayne Lo, and Thang Le.

The new paintings for this book have not been posted on this blog. If you happen to be by our booth (1329) at Comicon, please drop by and say hi!

The booth is actually called "Abismo/Nerve Bomb" but the Lucasfilm Animation gang will be there.

Thanks mucho.

Check out our website for some early reviews of our book!
http://www.battlemilk.com

Thanks again, and see you guys in San Diego!

Totoro Forest Project

A few months ago I was fortunate enough to be invited to contribute to a charity show organized by Dice Tsutsumi.

It was an event to help save Sayama Forest, the same forest which inspired Hayao Miyazaki to create Totoro!

Dice did an amazing job organizing this event with hundreds of artists around the world... check it out here and help save the Totoro Forest!

http://totoroforestproject.org/

Thanks!

Oh and here's my entry... 9x12 Watercolor and Gouache piece...

Surf's Up

Finally saw "Surf's Up" on dvd this weekend...
What an awesome movie.

Here's my quick homage to the Big Z and the super sweet designs done on that feature.

Giant Frog

Because no one ever asks for it, here's a giant frog playing chess...

Our book is off to the Presses! Solid Comicon info cometh forth sooneth!

Happy Thoughts

Reading Erik Martin's comment from the last post made me realize I do indeed do a lot of moody pieces...

So... just to show people out there I'm actually a really happy person, I did this tonight.
Lots of influence from Miyazaki, Kinman and Super Mario Galaxy (which I finally beat last night! The game, not Kinman...)

Comicon book stuff is done! Off to the presses soon I hope....

8:45pm

The impression I got when I drove home on the Bay Bridge tonight.
(Right before the Toll Plaza)
SF has such strange weather patterns...

Warm Up

A morning warm up that got a little bit more involved.

Sorry about the lack of posts lately. My colleagues and I are trying to put a book together for Comicon... I've been working on new pieces for that.

More updates soon.

Gouache Landscape

If you haven't done so already, make sure you check out Erik Tiemens' awesome gouache demo on his blog. Really inspiring...

I was super pumped to paint after watching his demo... and here is my attempt.
Erik makes it look too easy...

Junkyard

Random image for the new year... the year is still relatively new right?

Here's to wishing everyone a productive 2008!