Inktober Owls

It's been a while!

School has been a bit overwhelming theses days, but I still have time doodle birds! Yay owls!

I used a pentel brush pen and some watercolor.

Until then, "Owl" be back!

Sketching away the weekend

Actual Inktober time!!!! I sketched my friend Sarah at the animation student collective meeting.

I used my brush pen to sketch her out and then I used photoshop to arrange all the sketches.

THE BIRDS PROJECT - Great Blue Heron

It's finally October! (+3 days)

I know a lot of people are celebrating inktober, and I decided to jump on the band wagon... -ish.

I decided to illustrate birds. Any kind of birds. Small birds, big birds, fancy ones, ones that fly, that don't fly, etc. 

I don't digitally paint enough, so I decided to try different digital painting methods as well.

I borrowed a field guide from the library and picked a bird.

First stop, the Great Blue Heron!

I remember watching Magic School Bus as a young kid and I saw this episode when Wanda's frog? toad? escaped. I learned that Blue herons EAT frogs and I was terrified that Wanda's frog was gonna get eaten. So I tried to draw a smug version!

Thanks for looking! :)

Design for Media project final!

The Menagerie project for my design for media project has come to an end. Unfortunately, although I had designed and sketched out 5 characters, I could only finish the West, the South, and the East in the given time. Which is still according to the project, because we only had to design 3 characters that are related to each other. I plan to finish the other 2 on my own time though.

Guardian of the West, Guardian of the South, and Guardian of the East.

(sketches of the 4 directional guardians)

(Hair styles for the guardian of the North)

(early designs for the guardian of the West)

(designs of the trident for the West guardian and costume designs for the North guardian)

(sketches of the Center Guardian)

(Sketches of the Center Guardian)

Update on Design for Media project

It's been 2 weeks! (I didn't update late week because I was quite sick)

My research materials arrived though!

I did not expect them to be in Korean.... Thank goodness I know how to read Korean!

Basically all I did last week was read read read. There were so many interesting materials of Korean mythology! It really was a shame that I don't have enough time to do more research and have a really solid background and meaning for the designs of the project.

I've decided to create designs for the Obang Sinjang myth.

Below is an image from the book "An Illustrated guide to Korean Mythology" of the Obang Sinjang, the gods/guardians of the directions. According to the book "Uri Sin Iyagi" (The Story of Our Gods), there are five guardians that protect people. 

1. The Guardian of the East, Dong bang chung jae. 동방청제

It protects the household from diseases and unfortunate events. It is recorded that he carries a spear-like weapon. He is usually represented with the color blue/green.

2. The Guardian of the West, Suh bang baek jae. 서방백제

 It protects the dead. Like guiding them safely to the right heaven/hell. (There are like 10 hells)

It is usually represented with the color white and and it is said it carries a trident. 

3. The Guardian of the South, Nam bang juck jae. 남방적제

It looks after the wealth of the household. It is recorded that it carries a long sword and represented by the color red. 

4. The Guardian of the North, Book bang hook jae. 북방흑제

It looks after death itself. It is recorded that it carries a mace and represented by the color black.

5. The Guardian of the Center, Joong ang hwang jae. 중앙황제

It is the one that is in charge of the ancestors of the household and rituals that are for the ancestors of the house hold. It is represented by the color gold and it is said it carries a fan.

So I decided to design all 5 (or 4, depending of the time). I have designed the layout and color schemes for the Guardian of the South and the East. Below is the documentation.

I decided that the Guardian of the South would be the jolliest of the five, and that he would look like a rich merchant that eats way too much. He would be wealthy, because he is the one that takes care of the fortune. He is also the wildest of the most, so he doesn't really like wearing armour much. However, he does like to have it luxurious. He has a beard, but barely, because he always burns it while work. (He deals with fire)

Then I decided that the Guardian of the East would be more stern and proper. He deals with sickness and unfortune, so I figured he'd be quite solemn. I tried to give him the most military-ish uniform. His uniform would be the most basic and traditional out of all. He even wears a hat, something that other guardians don't like wearing because they feel like it just has ceremonial value, but nothing that actually helps in combat. The Guardian of the East doesn't really get along with the Guardian of the South, ha.

Sketch

Line Art? Cleaned up skethes

Color Schemes

I plan to paint them digitally.

It's not something I'm used to, so I think I'll be spending a lot of time in the cintiq labs...

New Design for Media Project!

My previous attempt of the Design for Media Project was to design 3 characters that had the same purpose/color/design didn't really fit what the project was asking the students. So I decided to scratch that idea off, and branch off to another one.

I have always been interested in Mythology. I loved reading Greek mythology as a kid, Egyptian/Norse mythology as a teenager, etc. What I realized through this project is that I wanted to focus on Korean mythology this time, and perhaps render 3 designs of gods/goddesses/mythical creatures. Unfortunately, my local library (Columbus Metropolitan Library-Main branch) did NOT have ANY materials on Korean mythology. I was disappointed, but the more I tried to research information, the amount of material that was out there about Korean mythology was nothing compared to any other kind of mythology, including neighboring countries like Japan or China.

I did however, request a lot of the books on OPAL (Ohio Private Academic Libraries) of Korean mythology to CCAD's library. So hopefully I can start digging into these books when they get here. In the mean time, I did go on the internet to get some ideas to begin with. A starting point. However, the internet being the internet (too many things with too little organization), did not really offer information that I was looking for. Instead, I went back to the stories I read/listened as a kid and tried to think of a concept for the menagerie project.

(The Story of Our Gods, Jung-O Suh, left. An Illustrated Guide to Korean Mythology, Won-Oh Choi, right)

These are some of the books that I requested! I really like the color palette of the one of the right. I think it is supposed be a Moodang, a shaman that connects the two worlds (the land of the living and land of the dead).

post.... "oops summer came and my brain just logged out."

Whooooa. Sorry for the inactive-ness for the past month... or two?

After school was over, I came back to Vancouver. (after a crazy time of "packing" (more like scrambling and flailing my arms midair shouting "I QUIT" a thousand times))

After a few days of peace, I had to start packing (AGAIN) for moving and shipping my stuff to Korea.

So that went on... for a couple days weeks. (6 years worth of stuff.... just crazy.)

and during that crazy, hectic time, dad and grandma came to visit us.

Then my little sister's grad!

and then actually moving!

Not gonna lie. I'm SO GLAD everything is done. (well almost. I'm going on a missionary trip? are those how they call it? like volunteering 2 weeks from now.... fun stuff!)

SO.

I finally got to catch a breath and got really pumped for art! (It's been a while, wow. Well, I did do a lot of sketches, I guess)

and VOILA!

So my little sister just graduated high school this month.

It was also her birthday 4 days ago.

Oh the dress that she wore to prom was just absolutely stunning!

So as a graduation gift-ish?

I drew her this pic.