Forgot to upload this:



( Warning: Disney Parody )

My Website is finally up and running. I'm not 100% happy with the layout, but at least there's something. Actually it looks really bad in Internet Explorer 6 and all versions below. In IE 7-8, Firefox and Opera the layout (which is done in CSS and DIVs) turned out fine. What to do? Should I fix it to make the layout work in IE 6 and below? Does anyone still use IE6 or has it been completely phased out? Grrrrr.

Anyways, hopefully in the future, I'll add a tutorial section and flesh out the Flash and Comic sections.

Next, I hope to have the website for Fallen Moon ready soon. Also I've been debating on trying to finish my old Cat Boy // Mouse Girl webcomic, because I hate leaving it unfinished. Yet motivation to work on it is still nil. I tried drawing some pages for it, but I got bored and frustrated. I want it finished for completion's sake, but maybe it's just not meant to be. Sigh.

Click on thumb for bigger view.

Been having insomnia for the last couple of days, so I started working on this. It was supposed to be a layout for my website, but the more I worked on it the more I started hating it. There are a lot of things that are off, but I don't want to work on this anymore. Sigh... I'll rework it one day, but moving on now!

Watching Qing dynasty period dramas makes me want to draw Manchurian-style costumes. I should be working on my website but noooooo....



( finished art and some progress shots )

I broke one of my goals, which was to not to go back and revise any of the Fallen Moon comic pages that I had deemed "complete". The first reason was because I've been feeling frustrated about my art, and whenever I'm in that sort of mood I end up redrawing old things. Then that's where I end up in a cycle where I do nothing but redraw old stuff. Arrggggh. Secondly, with the whole live-action Avatar casting fiasco, I have been feeling a growing dissatisfaction about the way I drew my characters in Fallen Moon. So a desire to make my characters look undeniably "Asian" kept gnawing at me. But how does one make her characters who already look Asian to her, look even more Asian?


( What was meant to be a little tweaking, turned into an overdone paintover. )

Cleaned out my PS brushes and so far Photoshop hasn't been freezing up. So that's probably what the problem was.

Speedpaints again:

48 minutes. Another Panda from stock photo.

( somehow it all goes downhill from here )

Speedpaints again. Am a little sad that I didn't get to do as many as I did last week, but on the other hand, I find that I'm loosening up a great deal. I hope to try complex subjects next time. Photoshop and reference stock photos again.

Less than 1 hour:

( 4 more speedpaints )

Doing more speedpaints again to practice backgrounds (fatal weakness), and color. All are referenced from stock photos so I could study composition as well. Sometimes I didn't stick too closely to the original reference, sometimes I did. Painted in Photoshop, time approximately around 30 minutes to 1 1/2 hours.

This is the speedpaint where Photoshop froze on me so many times that I lost count. Each time I just gritted my teeth, took a screenshot and attempted to finish it as fast as I could.

( 7 more speedpaints )

Playing around with Photoshop and colors, just a practice portrait:


( Speedpaints and face studies )

Finally registered a domain name, I've been procrastinating on it for so long because I was indecisive about choosing the right name. I debated for a long time whether or not I should've gone with "yourname.com" but ultimately decided against it because my name isn't very unique. Plus there are too many people with that name.

So I've been working on my website/portfolio on and off this whole week. Hopefully it'll be up and running before the end of March.

( Been doing a lot of doodles and studies )

For some reason this makes me think of an advertisement. Must be because of the ligature. :/

I don't like to draw Fanart very often -> guilty pleasure. But I felt like I needed a break from comicking. So here we go - Pencil, Photoshop CS 2:



So I was just concentrating on speed, mood and colors (i.e. Mushy shoujo romantic feelings... XD). By speed, I wanted to refine the technique I'm currently using (grayscale -> color overlay) and see if I could find a way to color more efficiently - which in turn will have me churning out more comic pages at a quicker pace. It was meant to be a speed paint, but it didn't quite turn out very speedy.

Initially I wanted the color scheme to be predominately yellow, but the blue/greens seemed to take over. Actually it started out pretty yellow, but the more I worked on it, the more I toned down the yellow. This is just not one of my favorite colors...

I feel like doing something purple now.

New Year's Illustration - which is one week late (I'm never good at this holiday stuff):



( larger version after cut )

Internet is back now, seems there was something wrong with the phone lines.
Wasn't able to get much work done on the comic this week (then again I never seem to get anything done when Lunar New Year rolls around, argh!). I'm behind on my self-imposed schedule of relaunching the Fallen Moon webcomic and building up the buffer. But... no use stressing about it, I'll just have to be more productive next week.

There's something weird going on with my Internet, it's agonizing slow and sometimes pages aren't loading up properly. Sigh.

Lunar New Year is fast approaching - like Monday - and I haven't yet finished my New Year's illustration (and a million other things)! Aah!

CgTalk Daily Sketch 1673 "Escapist"
60 minutes


( Another one under cut )

Current work in progress. This has been sitting in my hard drive for over a year now. Hopefully I can finish it soon and submit it for EXPOSÉ 7.



Hehehehe... I am a layer fiend. I have a terrible, terrible habit of creating a gazillion layers. Only when the file starts taking forever to save, then I grudgingly merge the layers. Overall, I think I have about 20-30+ layers currently. I also don't name my layers because I'm lazy so I end up with huge layer numbers. ^^;

( One more under cut )

In order of importance:

Write more specific goals instead of vague ones (check!)

Relaunch Fallen Moon - with substantial buffer as a backup - sometime by end of January (I think I'm about halfway there)

Also, attempt to update webcomic at least once a week no matter what!

And don’t let buffer run out! (Something I keep doing, argh)

Quit perfectionist habit of constantly redoing comic pages/story! (It's because of this that I keep going in circles. >_<)

Build a webpage/portfolio with XHTML and CSS coding and have it up before Spring 2009

Keep focus & have more positive thinking

Do more exercises esp. with hands

Work on anatomy, perspective, and color theory (an eternal goal it seems)

Experiment with different styles and color moods/color schemes

Be more prolific and post more stuff on online galleries

Do more speed paintings

Do at least one full complete traditional drawing/painting (instead of half digital/half analog)

Learn PHP and MYSQL

Learn more about ActionScript

Try to update journal at least once a week

Attend Fanime 2009 and have an art table

Maybe do some Cosplay...? (a tentative goal...)

Wishing everyone a very merry holiday. :)