Sugar and Spice and all Things Nice

And that's what little girls are made of! A nice little old rhyme, which inspired this one.  I've been meaning for quite a while to attempt and design a fashion doll which was cuter  than Bratzillas and with a bit more spice than Kawaii Crush. (:]

Family Portrait for Chistmas Present

I thought a family portrait collage would be the best Christmas gift this year.


With this portrait collage  I was aiming to achieve a strong contrast in light,   painterly strokes and slightly exaggerated volumes so it does feel a bit stylized. The composition nods to the family tree, with my grandparents in the middle, their two daughters branching out with their families each side of their parents.

Overall, it was  a warm and intimate experience, drawing all of the loved ones and getting to know their face in minute detail :]

Pencimals

Here is something, pencil animals! They are a fun way to keep the coloured pencils tidy. Plastic body of an animal holds 4 pencils for legs. Arrange a wild pencil terrain around on your desk :D

I thought the type of plastic surface finish could also allow for drawing fur/skin texture with a simple pen or pencil.

I would sure love to populate my table with a nice range of these...  (:]

Scorched Earth Saturnalia

This time it is  piece of work inspired by Secret Chiefs 3, Album Forms, Scorched Earth Saturnalia. I think the design feels grounded to that particular track, but let me know what you think if you give it a go:

Hiatus Kaiyote Portrait Landscape

Amazing Hiatus Kaiyote are an independent future soul group based in Melbourne. 

They are absolutely lovely so I decided to give it a go and practice portrait skills by drawing them up. I've tried to capture the likeness more than anything else, but kept the personal style too. The piece took me about 8 -9 hours to complete. 

Following portraits are of are Nai Palm, Paul Bender, Perrin Moss and Simon Mavin.

And more on the music they play, Hiatus Kaiyote has a style that can’t be easily pinpointed. Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding, Tupac Shakur, Flying Lotus, traditional flamenco and music from Mali and Colombia have influenced the group.  They're touring in Europe now and  I will see them in London Village Underground, soon. Who knows, maybe will be able to say hello (:] 

Check them out, maybe they will be to your liking too :] 

Life Drawing

After a long long while, I  finally went to a life drawing class at Candid Arts, Angel . I really need to loosen up my drawings! I'll try and keep it quite regular ...

Wacky Creatures Crayola Toys for McDonalds

A range of Crayola toys for Happy meal has just been launched in restaurants across the UK! I have worked on these at TMSW , following direction from Tom .

The range features pencil Wobblers, Creature creator, Comic Creator and my personal favorite, monstrous Sticker Dispenser! It has a lovely mention at ToyNews too, yay! (:]

Halloween Pumpkin

Hard to believe the summer has ended... but the turnaround of new projects make me think of nothing else than late Autumn as  I'm preparing for Halloween events . Here is a little model of a faceted pumpkin. The strong style suits themed visuals from  last year and should work nicely for the Halloween

Little Pet

A piece of old work I got permission to share very recently. Zombie pets. A project intended as an augmented reality game extension to physical pet figurine.

 I have taken one of the designs through 3D character pipeline: modeling, UV layout, texturing, skinning and rigging.

(press the image below to see the virtual model using your mouse)

The following short video shows the puppy animated. I have created various lengths animation cycles for each body part. Essentially it is a looped animation, but because cycles are offset it isn’t repeating itself identically.

Sketchbook

I have to admit, summer isn’t my most productive time of the year. But I try to at least practice sketching. Here are some of the more loose and creative sketchbook pages.

On the other side of news, I have started a full time position at the Marketing Store Worldwide, London, as a Junior creative product (toy) designer, feeling very very blessed! (:]

72 % Water

Finally I got round illustrating an old idea ! I imagined a water creature walking out of the ocean.   72% water, he contains chemical X. The plotters behind contamination of waters intend to 'fix it' .

This time I concentrated on a clear line work. Gray-scale painting was my next step, to solve all the complex water and atmospheric rendering. After that, colouring in was simply fun :]

 

 

 

Pushing and Pulling

The image shows one door in two sides of entering and exiting. If the job is done well, it should be easy to tell which one to push and which one to pull

Push the left one and pull the right one :]

 I wanted to give it a go designing 'user-friendly' yet aesthetic doors.

The rectangles are positioned in a triangular shape to helps direct the user towards the side they need to use (towards the handles) . Also, on the side one is supposed to pull, the rectangle protrudes slightly.

A rather great book helping me to get my head around it is The Design of Everyday Things  (author worked as an adviser for early Apple) .  It analyses  both poor and great designs of everyday objects focusing on user experience .

 It has been a mind-opener for me, with a kind of key message: when having trouble using a product/object (be it phone,  DVD player, doors etc.) users tend to blame their clumsiness when in fact it's the fault of design.  On the other hand if the use is effortless and intuitive, doesn't require explanation it is yet again because of the design!

Sketchbook update

Character sketches from a short while ago. I am exploring some themes as well as drawing techniques. Some might recognise some use of alchemy.

Feels Like Summer

And here is a T-shirt Idea for it :

I attempted a moody drawing with 'Feels like summer' .  I've been watching the works of Loish, and can  sense the influence. Other than that,  I watch for mainly two things: good variety of colour values and shapely lines.

Some Recent Sketching

Days have turned into lovely ones to spend outside. And sketch! (:] These are only some quick ones. I'm getting into habbit of drawing over a lunch break or while waiting for a friend/a bus.