Dec updates so far

Well have taken the week off this week in order to get some form of order into my chaotic life right now. Car's been acting up and begging to retire,so off to the mech it goes. Then there's the issue of spring cleaning and getting all of my chores aside. Thankfully managed to allocated some time to meet up and catch up with my ol' collegemate,Chan Ghee who's currently back in town for Christmas this year. That was fun and was a much needed de-compressing time for my body to recoup from the terribly stressful past week I've been having coupled with recovery from a recent flu epidemic that's been hitting the studio last week. Hope to get some more recharge and therapeutic time with my good friend,Naz over another cooking session as his place. Meantime,here's a bit of updates on whats been going on in the house :

Have a client/contact who is looking for an animator/artist to work on such a project as chown in the link above. All interested candidates are encouraged to apply/contact Mr. Justus Luke at this email address : happyjustus@gmail.com

And the master himself!!! Mr. Kim Jung Gi is in the neighborhood (in Penang to be exact!)for a live sketch marathon hosted by the One Academy!!! WAAA!!! Not everyday we have the maestro in Malaysia, so if you have the chance, I strongly suggest heading up north for this worthwhile event! :D

In other news, have been trying to find a good home for this wee lil kitten I've managed to rescue from the petrol kiosk last month during a rainy night. She's been given a full sound health diagnosis from the vet with all the necessary de-worming and shots already. So all she needs now is a caring and warm place she can call home. If you know of anyone who may be interested,please help to spread the word around .We hope to find her a home for Christmas. Thank you so much,folks!

Boing the Play Ranger at MIPCOM 2012

To give you all a peek at what I've been up to lately on the job, here's a quicky look at the trailer that's been launched during the recent MIPCOM 2012. Check it out !

Back Home and with a sketch

Am back home from a Company trip to Patong,Phuket. Tanned with skin peeling like the dickens and red like a lobster. All is good. Going to take me a while to upload all of the photos to share with everyone. So mean time,here's a sketch I've just completed today and would like to share with everyone.

"Wanted to throw away this piece of rough sketch. Crumpled it up and was about to throw...but then decides that I actually liked the crumpled characteristics of the paper and kept it and kept on sketching till it was filled up. I'm glad I did that."  :)

Right now am hustling to prep my updated portfolio for my due professional review to SDCC. Also have recently attended the Gala Primiere of 'War of the World : Goliath' and have to say it's a must watch,made more exceptional when viewed with one's 3D glasses. The attention to detail and level of passion put into this project is just outstanding and staggeringly good. I've not been this excited for an animated feature in a long while, I kid you not. Tomorrow will be the official launch of the animated feature locally in 3D around here. It's already being screened in the State much much earlier. If you can,do try to catch it!





Cheers Folks!

24 hours to go & I Remember You

A project I'm backing and so eagerly awaiting it's completion! And there's only 24 more hours to go before this gem is taken off the shelves into full scale production! If you're a huge fan of Doug TenNaple's work,this is one book you'll definitely want to add to your collection and a once in a lifetime opportunity! Please help to spread the word to make this one really awesome project for Doug ever! :D


And something I bumped into while in YouTube...apparently the original AT demo by Rebecca Sugar with the descriptions provided below.

"The Ice King and Marceline are nearly the same age. Marceline is a vampire, and The Ice King—formerly Simon Petrikov—wears a magic crown that has extended his life but has driven him mad. In "I Remember You" we see that the two have had a relationship in the past, even if the bumbling Ice King no longer remembers, further enriching his tragic story.

During her stint at AT, Rebecca has always championed episodes that extend the "canon" of Adventure Time, creating deeper interrelationships among the characters, and striking emotional chords that resonate with fans beyond any usual cartoon show. She has definite opinions about Marcy's back story too: who is her mother and why she and Simon know each other. But if they ever become part of the AT story, it will have to be someone else on the staff who carries the torch.

The Omnichord that Rebecca played in the demo actually made its way into the cartoon, and you can see Marceline playing it—it's Rebecca performing on the instrumental track. The art here, with the exception of the title card art are drawings by Rebecca."

I seriously dig passionate writers and creators who look far deeper into the story and backgrounds of each characters,which I hope I can one day achieve with my own personal projects. And maaannn,Rebecca is one waayyyy talented cookie! Check it out!

And the same person I'm beginning to discover in DA! Excellent! She goes by the callsign Animatrix. :D

http://animatrix.deviantart.com/
And credits to her steller portfolio just gets better and better!
http://adventuretime.wikia.com/wiki/Rebecca_Sugar

Enjoy her sites folks! While I go through some random old lady episode right about now.

At least I have something new to update ,yea? So that I won't feel so left out and unproductive when compared to my younger counterparts.

Thanks to Bob for sharing this awesome new epi with me. So touching and heart warming...I love it to the core I just had to add it to a page in one of my latest sketches. Been meaning to update my sites more regularly,but having nothing personal to share in terms of art, I didn't want to just rant hot air in here or just update on current faves and such. So here's to hoping I can get back to my drawing and personal projects groove.


Ok, this sketch page is filled with different faces of actual folks I've come across in my food channels and have been sketch studying them,hehehe. The wolf is from an image I saw from my friend's FB share...and lastly,well no prize in guessing which cartoon I've been watching today.

I remember you...:)

 Oh,and in other news...the books that I've ordered from Amazon from Focal Press's prize voucher has arrived safe and sound. And my kitty cat couldn't keep it's paws off of it. :D

Until next post..."Meow" = Cheers folks! :D

Digicon6 and updates

WOO WOO! Grand news today! Giggles Garage won 1st prize at Japan's Digicon 6 awards!!! Pat on the back all 'round! Thanks to my colleagues for taking all the neat photos I failed to get for not being able to attend the event tonight. Also thanks to my pal,Hilmy, for sharing this clip in his FB : And I can hardly wait to see this! Awesome stuff! Oh! And today be International Talk Like a Pirate Day!!! AAaaarrrrr!!!

The Song For Rain

the Song for Rain from Yawen on Vimeo.

Let the animation clip speak for itself. :) Thank you for sharing this to me,Luc!

Books Glorious Books!!!

WOOHOOOO!!! It's arrived!!! I am so stoked! Thank you so very much to Tom Bancroft and everyone at Focal Press for this generous gift of Tom's autographed Character Mentor Book and the gift cert to purchase Focal's animation books online! But the neatest surprise inside was in store when I found out there he had several very notable and extremely talented character designers contributing to his book,among them Sean Galloway & Stephen Silver (both whom am honored to've finally met during the 2010 SDCC.

I am sooo happy!!!

THE LOST ART OF HEINRICH KLEY, Vols. 1 & 2 from Joseph Procopio on Vimeo.

Also,another overdue update! Am a huge fan of Heinrich Kley. Am when I found out at the Brew that he has not 1 but 2! Lost Art of Heinrich Kley books coming out, I really really need to get them in my book bucket list! Aiieee!!! Been doing a lot of book purchasing online lately. Caved in to a Nat Geo hard cover book on Wildlife Migration and I've finally decided on a Stop Mo book by Barry Purves & Walt Stancfield's Drawn to Life vol.2 thanks to Focal Press. I can hardly wait for them to arrive!!!

Mr. Owl

Thank you to all for the grand birthday treats,warm wishes and love received for my Birthday this year and the love hasn't stopped coming. Here's a lovely gift I've received from my good friends Mikhail and Ksusha today while spending the day with them. I'm calling him Mr. Owl for now. THANK YOU MIKEY & KSOOSH! I LOVE HIM AND MY NEW HOBBY! *hugs and muah!*

Cicada Princess

Thanks to my colleague,Khai Tuck,for sharing this awesome clip! I am inspired!

Just spotted!

Thanks to my ex-colleague,Desmond Lee, for taking this awesome shot and sharing it over in FB. Woo!

Character Mentor Competition

https://www.facebook.com/focalpress This was the entry I sent in of Tom's Theodore the Tiger that helped me win at Focal Press's Character Mentor Competition this year and judged by Tom Bancroft. WOO! WOO! I'm sooo stoked!

Kitty Surprise

What happened yesterday when I was in the midst of rushing through brekkie before heading to work. ACK!!!!!

Robb Pratt

Superman Classic Bizzaro Classic I dearly love Robb Pratt's take on the Superman and Bizarro classic. Total respect and homage paid to the retro medium during the classic era couple with awesome character animation,timing,scene editing...I could go on. This has really pulled at my kiddie heart strings as to why I wanted to join in the animation band wagon in the first place. Thanks so much to my friend,Bob,another uber Superman fan,for sharing this wonderful clips with me! :D

Ready,aim...FIRE!

Sketchy Duel by Bird Box Studio. Love it! One of the best indie shorts I've seen in a while. Of course I haven't been keeping tabs of all the new stuff that have been churned out lately... have been really tuckered out lately from this year's schedule but am glad am still able to catch some of these gems out there. Cheers and hope you'll like it too!

My Beastly ABC's

Here's something I so look forward to from Ken Duncan's Studio : So please do help to make this project happen. I for one am soooo gonna look forward to it! :D http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/461592703/duncan-studio-my-beastly-abcs-interactive-storyboo-0

Thumbie,Twisted & Trade

 Let's kick start todays update with a thumbie that occurred this morning while I was heading out,on my way to work...

Its no secret that I'm such a huge fan of Michel Gagne and his amazing works. And was awestruck years ago when I came across one of his pet projects with this sneak teaser trailer I stumbled upon in YouTube.

 I have to say  I was floored by it. The designs, the orchestration, everything! Totally blown away cos it had the entire package that screams Michel Gagne in it.
 And now years later,I finally get to see what the end product looks like.....
The Game Play Montage

The Official Trailer to his Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

And Man! It really didn't fail to impress me! I need to invest in a new compy just for games!Rrrr!!!
Check out the game play explored by Power Hour.


And lookie what arrived last month to my art trade pal,Henry Jaepelt in Brazil! Yes,my long awaited trade for him along with a few other goodies in the package.

 Am so happy and relieved it had arrived to him safe and intact. And Phew! Was he ever pleased with his received trade.

 Here's a close up peek at the art gift. Some of you may remember my earlier post of his art gift to me. But I'll re-post it here for good measure.

Well that's all for now,folks! Not too wordy, but enough to sum up what's been going on in my head and life lately. Cheers!!!

Le Chalet de la Foret in Brussels

Art has never looked so appetizing and tantalizing!

I know that voice!!!

Thank you Bob for sharing this awesome link! :D Love it!

And I'm kinda hankering to go!

To keep my mind occupied, will be playing the soundtracks from Animalympics while I work. Love love love this show and grew up with it so the songs never grows old on me. Most notably Brad Bird had worked on this project previously along with many talented voice actors with the likes of Billy Crystal & Harry Shearer.

Check out some of the interesting in sight & snippets I found from Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animalympics

Coupled with the great designs and animation is of course the great soundtracks by Graham Gouldman.

Hope you'll like it too,folks!

World Wide Sketch Crawl # 35

Hi all,

I will be hosting a group to go out sketching most probably at the Lake Gardens touring the National Monument,lakes,orchid garden,butterfly farm etc as far as our feet can take us in conjunction with the World Wide Sketch Crawl #35 ([link]) happening on Saturday 21st this month. Am not too sure how big or how small the group will be this year so I thought that this place would be ideal and we can also have a picnic luncheon together on that day. Please do spread the word around to whoever may be interested and let me know if you are interested. We may kick start it at 10am so it won't be too hot.

Cheers and look forward to meeting and sketching with you there!

Silly Doodle

A silly little thumbnail doodle at the office today....

Could it be?

Awesome! MurkGrumbly recently gave me a link to this pic which he mentioned reminded him of it after viewing the Claude & Chunkie strips. :D Too cool!

http://murkgrumbly.deviantart.com/

Nominated 2011

This one's for the Saladin team! May it be the first of many with more successes to come for the Malaysian Animation industry.

RIP Maestro

You've left an everlasting legacy and contribution to the creative industry and will never be forgotten.

Andrew Stanton: The clues to a great story

Scruffs 2

Huzzah! Just received great news from my ex-boss at the Games Studio that the game I got to work on last year is finally out officially in Big Fish Games and has made it to the top 10 spot on the chart for pc games with top 5 spot for MAC. *w00t~!*
Please do check it out if you're curious enough ...
http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/16291/the-scruffs-return-of-the-duke/index.html

:D Cheers folks!

Great Animated ads by De Lijn

GOON

With a snippet shot of meh kitty enjoying her prosperous and fulfilling life.

Captor pt 2

This is a totally different direction I am heading into. So please be gentle with me. It's actually based on a simple story I've developed for my writer (Bob Francis) and he loved it so much that he's been encouraging me to continue to develop it further in terms of the artwork. So here is the next piece,from what would seem to be a long series of following art to come.
Hope you will like it,folks.
Here is the original piece that started the spark :
http://sandora.deviantart.com/art/Captor-Sketch-274888400

Inspired by greats such as Claire Wendling, Pierre Alary, Juanjo Guarnido, Ood Serriere , Barbara Canepa and the list goes on!

Simon's Kitten!!!! :D

Out of a Forest

Thanks to Jay Schuh for sharing this!

TROPHY

One of many instances with my kitteh. Rrrrrrrr.....

Ryan Woodward

Just awesome and inspiring works!!!

Panique Au Village

My all time favorite stop-mo trio with a really cool in-depth look at the behind the scene clips of how this awesome animation project is being produced. Love it!
Check out their pics in the official Panique Au Village Flickr site! WOO!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paniquelefilm/

New Year Updates

What a year it has been so far! So many activities, a lot of creative juice flowing... I'm pumped! I did realise however that I've been really failing in updating my blog as regularly and current as I'd like and have to work on that note. So without further ado, here's a quick glance at some of the major events that took place from last month up to this point.
First off was a little Christmas do both I and thanks a great heap to my mum for putting together,managed to conjure up a swell spread from pasta,meat accompaniments and so forth. Thanks to everyone for doing their bit in chipping in the swell and beautiful dishes as well. From Ksusha's awesome eggplant rolls and seafood wraps,to Twinnie's unexpected whole roast Chicken to the guy's Tiramisu ice cream dessert. It was all totally wonderful and what a blast. This year's party goes out to all my orphaned buds who're a lil too far away from home to be celebratin' Christmas so here's a little warm treat and gift for them to enjoy.

And am so grateful that it all went so smoothly and everyone had a grand time on Christmas. And yes,we did round up the evening with a game all artists should have a go at...Pictionary!
Wanna see how well it went? Just take a look at what my friends came up with...
This is truly a game for the non-artistically inclined. My comp tech savvy and game producing friends fared better in my opinion than my animation buds. :P Guess which one got the most guesses?
Next up,before you knew it, NY came down upon us like a heavy rain cloud. Honestly we weren't planning to celebrate anything special for the special day. Just the thought of enjoying a bit of rest before the start of a New Year with endless opportunities and possibilities is enough to make me want to just shut down and kick up my feet. But fate had other plans and before I knew it, both me and mum were invited to join in on a Russian style NY celebration with my Siberian pals at their place.

Man, it was just great soaking up great Russian cuisine and going over the traditional aspects of their celebration and historical significance was just hitting me on all the right notes. And boy,did we feel like kids again with the fireworks blasting in the night's sky with little sparklers my friends insisted on.
My favorite eggplant rolls with olives were present (I'm soooo tummy rumbling happy) along with some real smoked mackerel from Moscow with fresh lemon slice on buttered baguette for appetizers, creamed beetroot slaw ,...oh man I could go on, up to beef with pork dumplings with tomato cream sauce. These people really know how to rock out good comfort food!
One of the best things about visiting my pals is that I get to hang out with the lil 'un whom I first saw in a dingy old cage quite a while back in an animal shelter me and my pals visited last year. She was the smallest kitten amongst the many other kittens,felines,pups and canines at the shelter. And boy,was fortune smiling down upon her. She easily won over my pals hearts and mine included and was quickly picked up and taken back to her new found home here. Aptly named Kiki, had never have to see a day of worry since she was parceled off to the shelter by her unwanted previous owners and it was on that very same day did we decided to drop by to visit at the shelter.
Now she's looking all sleep,beautiful and properous and I couldn't be happier for her. Good ol' Kiki. She still remembers her adopted aunty.
Another surprise gift that came along was a double dvd set of 2 of my most favourite Ghibli features to date! WOOHOO!!! I'm in heaven. Thanks to both my childhood friends,Bolly & Daniel for sending over the surprised sweet treat. I couldn't help but play them over and over again during the course of my drawing stints at home.

The goodies didn't stop there!!! More goodies came by in the mail since Christmas and the latest one is a copy of my friends,Erin & Chrissie Humiston's BAND comic with which I was extremely honored to've contributed an art splash page for their comic. I had so much fun working on it even though it did take me many months before I could find the time to draft and put them to final inks in the process. Thankfully it all came out well and I was able to send it in time before my pals took it to publishing. Here's a sneak peek of the WIP.

MAN! I am so stoked the final page ended up being placed next to the equally awesome Dirk Erik Schulz aka Themrock. An artist I've had the pleasure of meeting in DA site a while back and up to this point,I am still amazed at the range of design skills he's capable of. My hats off to Erin & Chrissie for putting together this awesome series to print and am so very happy and thankful to have them as my best friends for so long since we've met. I love you both!

Cool cool cool! My criminal details finally out in print in a bona fide circulated print just above my bro,Eric's,details along with the ever so talented Mario Gonzalez! Words cannot describe my feelings right now. I'm over the moon. Mario,Erin,Chrissie,bro....if you're reading this, I sure hope I get to hang out with you guys again one fine day if I ever get my butt to the States again.
A bonus that came along with the comic is an amazing home-made Christmas card my pal,Erin, put together for the holiday season. Man it is looking tight!!! That's going on my wall!


Something else I came across recently when going through some old photos in my shelf. That's a series of old worn out and crumpled designs and images of a freelance gig I've worked on for a family friend who had dearly wanted for their son's bedroom furniture to be painting in an African theme with wildlife in it. Assigned to the task,this is one of the many odd jobs I've worked on during my early years as a fresh grad. Here's a look at the process I went through.
After drafting out the concepts and finally satisfied with a look I am comfortable with and without much room to trash up the job, I proceeded with final watercolor renders before photocopying the designs which will then be projected onto the furniture themselves to begin their paint job.
Bear with me,this is me as a freshie so proper illustrations were still far beyond my grasp. But I did the best that could be done at the time and with the help of my mum,aunt,twin and a friend,Daniel,I hired to help out...we did manage to complete the job within a space of 3 weeks I believe? or within the month. And it felt really good to finally get the job done without making a mess of things.

Here's a peek at the painting progress. I certainly had fun with it.

And in the end, these where the final results. I don't know if the furniture themselves are still in existence as it was def a good 9-10 years ago when I've completed the job and have never had the opportunity of visiting the home again after that. If anything,I am sure young Master Day would've done a thorough redesign of his bedroom to suit his growing adolescent age. Oh well, c'est la vie.

I'd like to end this post with another clip that got me inspired and hankering to get my own comics/graphic novels kicked to high gear. I seem to always want to share animation/art clips in here. :) I just can't get enough of watching jaw droppingly good clips that I happily come across online. Nice to add a little variety too,wouldn't you agree?

Anyways, enough of my long winded banter. Hope everyone is having a good year so far and though there's still a ton more to share about what I've been up to...*wink wink* I shall save them for another update.

Cheers and have a grand upcoming CNY holiday ahead,folks!!!

Art Trade and the impending Migration

Great! Henry Jaepelt 's Art Trade came through in the mail today! Here's a peek at his lovely design style! Love it because it looks like a springboard from Moebius/Jean Giraud's style. :D Thank you,Henry! I've as yet to draw him something just as neat and eye candy.

And been thinking,it won't be long before the biggest annual event of human migration which will be taking place very soon this coming Chinese New Year. It brings to mind this eye opening movie which focuses about the life and struggles of a typical Chinese couple working in the city but leaving their kids behind in the rural communities usually to be taken care of by their relatives or grandparents because jobs are scarce in the rural villages.
I caught this documentary a long time back about the plight of Chinese kids left behind by their parents who took off in search to earn a better living to sustain the family and can only come back to visit their kids every Lunar New Year holiday. I, like every other young kid that age would've been devastated should that situation be put onto me. Hope every kid this year gets to be reunited with their parents happily.