Happy Merry Christmas Everyone!

A few images of the packaging

"What is the snow queen's story," you may ask. Well, yes, she can be a cruel mistress to those she chooses to incur her wrath, but it is not without reason. For underneath her cold, icy hands lies a woman who has had the bitter taste of loneliness and abandonment left in her mouth since she was but a child.

She would watch the forest creatures frolicking and basking in the warmth of the sun. As she ran toward them in an effort to join in on the romp, a chill so cold trailed like a mist behind her, leaving everything she passed in a frozen state. The woodland creatures never forgot that moment so long ago, and since then, have cowered from her in terror.

The geese were the first to leave during the first signs of frost. As the young queen watched the figures disappearing in the distance, she picked up every feather they left behind and made for herself a gown in the hopes that one day, they will return to play.

As she matured in age, so did her ability to control the magnitude of this dreadfully powerful gift. The forest creatures were not convinced. And thus tells the story of a fragile being chiseled sharp by pain and sadness.

However, the snow queen is not without heart or mercy.

She gives the gift of silent dignity and majesty through the display of the sun shining on a world covered in a blanket of the purest ice. She shows that there is beauty in modesty through the soft falling of snow. She even sends jolly old Saint Nick to deliver gifts to children

Interestingly enough, the queen only seems to attract the gentlest, most loving being(s). Of all the woodland creatures, this would be the yeti. They have been friends for years.

Sometimes you will see her walking slowly through the forest, her gown of feathers trailing behind. Do not be afraid; walk by her and keep her company. There are no need for words, for the purest signs of love and hate are shown through your actions.

Winter Break Work and Touchups

There are a few things that I am working on over the break, and this is one of them; a personal Christmas project of mine. The first image here is a quick sketch that I drew on an interior design magazine that my school library gives out for free

The card will be of the snow queen and her yeti
a quick sketch on a sketchbook
sketching on the final paper

this is just an image of the workspace

a near finished sketch

Illustration Friday: Immovable

This was the first Word of the Week that I had done. The image below is the revised version, because I wanted to make the owl look more like stone.

Illustration Friday: Spooky

For "spooky," I used one of my old paintings and digitally painted over it

Illustration Friday: Dessert

I hesitated for quite a while before posting these on the blog, just because they are not really my prouder images. However, this being a blog of self-discovery, I GUESS I could learn from all the work I have done this way

Illustration Friday: Old-fashioned

I wasn't going to show the illustration for this word, but I guess changed my mind. I DO like my old lady...

Fast Food Man Digital Painting

I used this monster in the Illustration Friday work "beneath." I'll probably be adding more sliminess, hairiness, and some more eyes.

Family Portrait sketch

Some character sketches
haha no this is not my family, but this is an Asian-American family. This family consists of a proud, overbearing mother, a pageant baby, extremely weight-conscious baby-bopper, ignored skater, and disappointed traditional korean father.

I find this whole family to be quite a paradox, which is why I find it so interesting. I will be posting up the finished colored version later

Day of the Dead Poster

This was the original sketch
I think that I might want to add some more effects to it. Probably the same thing that I did to my illustration friday work for savour

Illustration Friday: Savour

Illustration Friday: Beneath

Darker version

Illustration Friday: Acrobat

These are some of the sketches of the old man balancing on books. I have come to realize that I like drawing old people.

the lower half of the painting is greatly flawed, but I am very pleased with his face.

Letterpress Calendar Print

These prints for the calendar were just mock-ups but I like how they turned out
I thought this messy one was kinda interesting

Illustration Friday: Sneaky

Illustration Friday: Afterwards

The image below is the original. That is what it looked like after it scanned. And that is why I decided to fix it up in good ol' photoshop. Also, so the subjects of this piece don't look like they're hovering, I added some shadow.

This illustration is based off of a Gary Larson "The Far Side" cartoon; one of my favorite ones too

Illustration Friday: Transportation

For the word transportation, I wanted to make a short stop motion clip of Charly riding a skateboard. I unfortunately found out the hard way how difficult it is make a stop motion anything. Instead I just printed out a sequence of photos of Charly riding a techdeck skateboard.

Illustration Friday: Burning

This idea came to me pretty quickly. On really hot days, my mom would say that it would be possible to cook an egg in this weather, and whenever I happen to turn my face towards the sun, I can feel as if my eyes are either melting or shriveling in my head. I combined those two, and being sunburned to a crisp

Illustration Friday: Racing

Racing:

Sports To compete in a contest of speed.

2. To move rapidly or at top speed: We raced home. My heart was racing with fear.

3. To run too rapidly due to decreased resistance or unnecessary provision of fuel: adjusted the idle to keep the engine from racing.

I used the idea of a heart racing in this here illustration.

Illustration Friday: Spent

My teacher for comm studio, Mister Ota, has the students participate in illustrationfriday.com, where we are to illustrate an image for a chosen word.

This word is Spent:

1. Used up; consumed: a spent youth.

2. Having come to an end; passed: a spent era of opulence.

3. Depleted of energy, force, or strength; exhausted: At the end of the hot day the spent workers slept under a shady tree.

4. Nautical Of or relating to a vessel at the end of a voyage, with fuel, stores, and water consumed and cargo discharged.

For this illustration, yes, it is an exhausted energy depleted fish, but I was thinking about the story of the golden fish that promised a sailor that he could grant all wishes if he was set free, so I was thinking about the idea of spent in terms of selfishness; the golden goose complex where the golden goose is killed and cut open because the fool thinks this way, he could get an unlimited amount of wealth but is left with nothing but regret and a dead goose. Am I rambling? Does this even make any sense? Nearing the end of the semester, my mind feels like pudding.
Chocolate pudding.

Drawing and Painting with Cecil 2nd Assignment

Our second assignment was to create a comic strip of a prison like situation where the main character eventually escapes. I chose to use a senior citizen escaping from a retirement home.
My comments? I am not particularly pleased with the color used in the final panel. I plan to go back at some point to revise and finish up this comic.
The next assignment to take one of the panels and to render it out with more detail. Looking back at this image, I will have to go back and add more cool shadows on Herman, the wall he is behind, and the back of the cabinet

Drawing and Painting with Cecil 2010

The first assignment was to digitally paint a statue, and then add/subtract something to/from it.

My revised version

Comic Book Heroes Fall 2010

These are some character concept sketches for the idea of the yeti. Yes, Chewbacca was one of the references.

This is probably the first digital painting that I have ever done. I felt like using this medium for our first Comic Book project of creating an illustration for a song of our choosing. I chose Arcade Fire's "Neighborhood #1(Tunnels)"

Our major assignment is to create a socially relevant story for a graphic novel/comic book.

These are some concept sketches for the main character. Now, which one shall be chosen?
My story responds to the treatment of the elderly in society. This is a story that I have wanted to create for years but did not have the drive to put it down officially. A combination of the Comic Book Heroes class with Candy and life here in Los Angeles allowed me to finally give my main character a face and a life.

The social significance of this story is about the treatment of the elderly: whether treated as children who can't take care of themselves, or people who have passed their time as well as their usefulness.
This story shows that our senior citizens continue to live rich lives, and that we could learn a lot for our future if we take the time to stop and learn about our past.

Charly is a retired entertainer of the 30s and 40s that was abandoned by the entertainment industry. He tries to fend for himself in modern day Los Angeles, taking odd jobs here and there, all the while being moved along by the memories of his fame, past Los Angeles, and all those who once. loved him.

By the way, these are just a few of the images that I made for my story. I have three other people who are working with me on developing the artwork for Charly, and I am very grateful that they even chose my idea to be a part of.

Go ahead and visit thefantasticmrbojangles.blogspot.com to see all the work we have done together!
A sketch for the cover of the book




Charly and the memory of his wife on their wedding anniversary
This is a modeling clay sculpture that I worked on for Charly. I sewed his clothes out of felt.