Thursday, December 15, 2011

NYCC part 1

So this is one of three posts related to my experience at NYCC back in October. I just haven't really been able to update my blog about anything since I got back to school....


First off, I did some artist doodles (apparently nobody does doodles of the artists as they doodle... I was so META):

It was a great chance to practice getting a quick likeness down (these were roughly 5-10 mins each). Also sorry about writing "bearsex" next to Craig's face... I had to take some important notes for future illustrations.

Let's get down to the cool stuff... SWAG:

I bought a copy of Robbi's webcomic, Frankie Get Your Gun while I was smoozing in artist alley. :] Check out his work on his deviantart and the blog on his webcomic.


Had to get an issue of American Vampire signed by SGM himself. The guy is too cool and you can check out his deviantart. If I had the money, I'd buy an original spread from Joe the Barbarian or Hellblazer.

Awwwww I got to meet Yuko and Ananth of Johnny Wander! :3 Webcomics are amazing.


Did I mention I got this sweet Wolverine sketch from Guillermo Ortega? SO WORTH $30.

And much more stuff will be covered in the next NYCC-related post. I have to write a review for this graphic novel and etc.

motion graphics are hard



After Effectssssss whattttt.

so I had a 10-15 min overview of AfterEffects when I started this little motion graphic comic thing for my Fashion & Lifestyle Illustration class. It's not the best since I need to take a class to really know how to do this stuff, but I'm interested in taking an elective if I can.
Here is some process work, and I'll post the video later this weekend. :D


Sketches to loosen up
Thumbnails (I somehow lost some more that lead to the final one)

Final lineart


Light studies

Color studies

Screenshot

Basically I learned that I should draw the lineart in separate sections to animate... but this was a 2 part assignment in which I had already made the lineart all on one spread. With time constraints, I had to just work around it. Lessons learned indeed.

It was a 10 sec loop, but after my experience, I really appreciate people who work in this medium.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

doodle during finals


so I should be work on finals stuff but I wanted to doodle.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Not dead, just into finals time and I haven't complied any in progress stuff on here.


Not to mention I have still yet to review some things from NYCC since my trip was amazingly inspiring.

For now, I did a little doodle for the new and improved Jerk n' Draw, now named J+D Just Draw (much more professional sounding, I might add).


Sunday, October 2, 2011

More, more, more... books and things I enjoy

So I hit the ground running (quite literally running around) a bit this Sept. But I'm glad it happened this way. I could have been QWOPing my way instead.

Currently I'm working on a few things for Noel Night and more books have entered my library... I think I have a spending problem (or rather, I was stressed out/ill and I socialized and materialized my efforts).

Syd Mead was at the Taubman Center Campus Bookstore a bit over a week ago and I got to get my book signed for this special occasion. He's back on book tour for 2012 and apparently designed some concept restaurant in New York... I want to go there.

I bought Yoshitaka Amano's Final Fantasy Art Book while at Detroit Fanfare and dug up my old japanese art book of his to compare. Both cover an extensive amount of creative energy and wide range of efforts.

The IDEA magazines are just breathtaking beautiful publications from Japan on typography and graphic design. Somehow, the approach is much more whimsical over the Pacific. Mildly 80s and very avant-garde.

This came in during the week of Syd Mead's visit and I read it in about one sitting. Habibi invokes the old times of Arabian Nights and long form epics of more European comic artists. This felt like I was reading something monumental, in the same vein as watching The English Patient in some ways.


And this is more research/personal swag that I had to get recently to calm the beast within. Seriously. That Blade Runner Soundtrack is worth a lot more in the market and it's out of print.

I must go and write a paper now and return items to people.

More personal branding and artwork in future posts, as I prepare my upcoming trip to NY Comic Con and meet up with friends, old and new.

Working? ORLY

Now, onto other things I'm doing...
This horizontal piece above, unfortunately, doesn't work for this layout.... desperately I put it in under short notice. correcting it now.


a WIP from Fashion & Lifestyle, since I'm fixing some things around with after crit last week...
My lines are much more direct and loose now, and its really freeing. I need to show some restraint and attempt more minimal linework. and cleaner work.

In terms of inspirational fashion illustrators, I've really admired René GRUAU and Kenneth Paul Block for their loose and decisive lines, textures from various dry and wet traditional media, and bold use of color. http://theerrantaesthete.com/2009/07/13/swan-necked-hauteur/ - a great little post about Block's work and appeal.

A major costume designer I feel connected to is Edith Head. Back when I had short hair and wore my glasses more often, I was told I looked like her (or Edna Mode from the Incredibles).
A recent interest is with costume designer John Dunn, who has worked on Boardwalk Empire; he is amazingly tuned to period style and subtle touches of characters' relationship to clothing and status. http://www.esquire.com/blogs/mens-fashion/boardwalk-empire-costume-designer-091510- a great interview that notes some thought process on character development and wardrobe.



For people who wonder if I have a tumblr... I do. Will be posting mostly inspiration fashion stuff.

And for those who don't follow me on twitter (wudanni) or listen to my music podcast (Authentic Jams), I have streaming feeds on the right side of this blog.

more stuff from last weekend

More from last weekend! :D
This was set up by a former CCS Grad who's now teaching letterpress as well.



Beautiful design work by my friend Jacob at lovio george and their great design team in the Midtown area.


Ethan Nicolle, artist of AXECOP, gave me a free poster and drew a doodle in my sketchbook! :3

I was doodled by Matt Feazell and I drew a doodle of Ron Swanson from Parks & Recreation.


On a more serious note, this was sort of irritating to see at a comics convention. A vendor was selling cheap cardstock prints of DC artwork, directly cropped wrong (probably 'fit to page') and printed off of DC.com or the artists' personal websites. At SDCC, this would never fly because DC has a booth there and can watch copyright infringements like a hawk (no unlicensed goods distributed). Detroit Fanfare's in its 2nd year, and is not associated with the Comic Cons in San Diego and New York. For it to continue (I think it aims to be more about artists and comics), this is something to improve upon. Also the location at Cobo Hall is too spread out and the a/c is super cold.
I did send a note to a great artist I met at SDCC, Dustin Nguyen about this issue (I recognized his work from his blog in the prints), and unfortunately the only thing artists can do is send a cease and desist letter or threaten legal action.

And another book I checked out recently:
I really want to own this book and I highly recommend this to people looking at more graphic/comics approaches to illustration and concepts. Also if you're a fan of retro humor and black comedy, this is a nice book for your coffee table.

"I've been waiting for a book of Mark Newgarden's stuff most of my adult life. Somehow, he managed to retool the basic external elements of cartooning - big noses, panel gags, punch lines - into a sophisticated inner language of uncomfortably familiar self-mocking existential despair. Most everybody knows that 'funny' is really 'misery,' but his stuff gets as close to misery as it can without quite ever touching off the chain reaction that'll make you want to cut your head off - all the while staying hilarious. We 'youngsters' should be paying him reparations for stealing from him for all these years."
- Chris Ware

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Detroit Fanfare and Tashmoo Biergarten!

Since school started, I have been super busy everyday working on classwork and student government and NYC trip stuff. I also got a job working as a waitress down the street from my apartment building at Byblos on Wayne State's campus. It's a lebanese restaurant so I tend to smell like chicken shawarma and falafel. Sometimes tabouli too.
That means I have to hold off on major updates and a layout change for this blog until I find some time to do this properly. As in, before October so I don't look unprofessional in front of artists and publishers I swapped cards with at the cons I attend.


This weekend I had the luck to get a free pass to Detroit Fanfare Comic Convention as CCS (College for Creative Studies/my school) had a table at the con for portfolio reviews and recruiting. As I haven't officially gone through Student Ambassador training yet for school info sessions/campus tours, I instead got a chance to see how to run a table at a con.
Thanks to Dave Chow, Zach Ares and Hannah Stockdale!


I got to hang out with Joe Foo, a professor at CCS and the creator of Desmond while he was sitting with another CCS alum, Mike Roll. Joe and Mike's tables were right next to Ethan Nicolle, one of the creators of Axecop (he's the illustrator, his 5 year old brother Malachai writes the stories). I sat in as an advertising asian while bothering them at their tables.

I also got cards from Top Shelf and spent major dough on some swag.... but it was worth it. A rare, out of print, complete 2-disc 20th anniversary Blade Runner soundtrack, digitally remastered and resubtitled 3-disc set of A Better Tomorrow Trilogy in a special boxed package, and an artbook of Yoshitaka Amano's concept art for Final Fantasy. I also got some more art supplies and talked major shop with some comic artists. I will make a separate post about some things I learned and some stuff I drew later this week.


Sunday, I woke up 3 times in the morning before getting up from my couch around noon with Futurama dvds on repeat. Then I went to the opening of this Sunday daytime biergarten in Detroit's West Village called Tashmoo.


The biergarten is open on Sundays for the next few weeks with a rotating menu of local brews and eats. I was really impressed with the crowd the neighborhood event created, and the design branding done by my good friend Jacob Hagen (pictured above) at lovio george communication+design was really sharp.


The end of the night concluded with a short film about the Detroit People Mover (which is finally starting construction to expand down to 8 Mile) and was art directed by Michael Burdick, a CCS Illustration Grad who currently works with Team Detroit. Music in the beginning of the film was from Of Oceans, the solo work of Peter Bosch, a CCS Photography student.