Update: Life Drawing

I've just recently finished first semester of second year.  It's been a busy year so far, and I haven't updated my blog for a while.  I felt it was time to get back into the swing of things.  I've decided to post some of my life drawings from one of the last extra-life sessions of the semester, and a couple of others.

Digital Painting Update

I've been working on digitally painting the line art from my last entry. I'm not overly satisfied with it right now, but I'm trying really hard to improve in my digital painting, and painting in general.

I've been trying to obsorb all I can from ImagineFX magazine tutorials and articles, Udon's Art of Capcom book, and other sources, but for some reason I can't seem to get my brushstrokes the way I want them, and I still have trouble with my light source.

Anyway, I've been working really hard on it so I thought I'd show my progress.

Digital Painting

Today I decided to practice digital painting. A couple of days ago I finished the line art for the painting, and scanned it in today. I spent about 4 hours painting but nothing was satisfactory to me. I then decided to go back and start from scratch, this time cleaning the line work more accurately. I think I need to find a better way to clean scans in Photoshop though, it was very time consuming for me. I will start working on the painting again tomorrow.

Here is the scanned line art (before clean-up):

After I cleaned up the line work I began to colour in the midtones. I then started experimenting with the different features of Photoshop to get this piece, called Tidal Wave.

Watercolour & Calligraphy Ink

Today I was working on another watercolour painting. I created a sketch of this character earlier this week and I really wanted to paint her. I debated whether or not to do a calligraphy ink outline, but I wanted to try it, so I went for it anyway.

I also wanted to mention that 90% of the painting was done using a 2" hake brush. I wanted to practice with this brush more.

Watercolour Practice

On the last day of school I purchased a Winsor & Newton watercolour sketchbook because I felt it would be more convenient/cheaper than individual papers. Yesterday I began using it and I love it so much!

Lately I have been inspired by Udon, and I have been a fan of the Darkstalkers character Morrigan for a long time now. I felt it was about time I tried my hand at Morrigan fanart, so I painted her in watercolours yesterday. Today though, I wanted to focus on creating an original character and painting it.

The first painting is of Morrigan (original character © Capcom), and the second is the original character. Too bad watercolours almost always look better in person..

'08 Gradshow + Personal Work Update

First of all, I went to Toronto yesterday for the 2008 4th year Illustration gradshow. I've had so much inspiration from Elise Trinh and Peter Chan that I just had to attend. They aren't just great artists though, they're really nice people as well. I finally got to talk to Elise, which was really great. Peter seemed busy chatting with others, and then I couldn't manage to find him.

I purchased a copy of the gradbook, as well as the 14-student collaboration comic "Chaos". I also have some postcards that I will stick on the wall.

It was such a great show with a lot of great work. I'm so glad I went.

Now I will show an updated photo of one of the pieces I have been working on.

More Life Drawings

These are more gestural. During the year I have been pushing myself very hard to learn more about force and torque so that I could draw faster and more accurately. The first two are done in marker and the rest conte.

Personal Work

I thought I would update this with some personal work. During my first year at Sheridan for Illustration, I have discovered a lot of inspiring artists in 3rd and 4th year. It's been a really exciting year for me to experiment with a lot of media and to improve my skills, and I thought it would be really interesting to incorporate a lot of what I found inspiring, into my own personal work. Some of the artists who have inspired me for a couple of these pieces are: Yuta Onoda, Nimit Malavia, and Peter Chan.

These are all work-in progress' at the moment, and the acrylic piece painted on the wooden doll is photographed twice because I wasn't 100% happy with the picture quality of either. I'm really starting to like painting on wood, and purchased some planks recently from Home Depot. Peter Chan recommended I buy the wood there, and it was really cheap. I bought three pieces and plan to work on them this summer. I've been working on some rough sketches for them. I want to finish off these pieces before I begin, however.

I apologize for some poor quality photos. I will have to try and take better quality pictures later.


This piece is inspired by Yuta Onoda and Nimit Malavia's work. It still has quite a ways to go, but I'm excited to start working on it again.


I'm unsure if I'm finished with this piece or not. I was experimenting with media and treating it like the media experimentation life drawing classes I've had, but with my personal work. The painting itself is 24" x 20" and I've used acrylics, gouache, india ink, and gesso so far.




This painting on wood is inspired by Peter Chan's "Red Wolf Hood" painting. I tried to push the intensity of the shadows on the skin. I think I may have went a little bit too intense, but I really like how it's turning out so far. I need to tone down the highlights on the front a bit, I think. The wings wrap around the back of the doll. I will take better quality photos at different angles at a later time.

Recent Life-Drawings

To start my blog off, I thought I'd share some of my recent life "drawings." I was experimenting with many different media for these pieces, such as: ink, conte, gesso, marker, and watercolour.