Wandering Panda Art Blog

Last Update Until Monday

2007-07-12T07:39:00.000-07:00

Listening to: Brian McKnight - Someday, Someway, Somehow

The title of this piece is called Ass Clown.

I'm not a big fan of clowns (except those fancy, high-class Cirque du Soleil clowns). I'm actually a bit scared by them. So what better way to overcome my fear by presenting clowns in their natural light (natural meaning my biased opinion)?

Anyway. I won't be updating until Monday. I've got a site revamp coming up as well as a site migration. I'm slowly going to be move everything over to the Wandering Panda Comics server.

So see you guys Monday! Hopefully I'll have some additional good news then.

Busy! Busy!

2007-07-09T21:10:00.000-07:00

Listening to: Lifehouse - Breathing

So I made a dangerous way home today. I seriously felt like falling asleep a countless number of times. I guess I'm just having trouble weening myself off coffee, the very substance I relied on in the past five months or so.

Anyhow. Today's been a pretty busy day in the world of updates. As you can see to the right, it has changed accordingly. Now the most prevalent projects that I am involved with are showcased.

I have also gone created a new section in the Wandering Panda Comics section called Irish Uppercut: One Shots. This essentially collects all the random comics that I draw (chronologically out of order at the moment) in one place so you don't have to go through all the blogs to read them.

The image above is something I just played around with. Trying to shy away from typical "anime eyes" and heading toward a more westernized cartoon look. I actually would like to try my hand at the Warner Brothers style. I may need some more reference material before I can start that.

Anyhow, time to try and get some rest.

Back from Reno

2007-07-08T17:23:00.000-07:00

Listening to: 112 - Cupid

I'm back from Reno! After a series of battles with winning and losing, I came up about negative $50.00. Not too bad for that many hours of gaming and fun with friends.

There's plenty of stores to tell about the trip, but I'll save that for another post.

You know, in comic form.

Eggling!

2007-07-06T23:04:00.000-07:00

Currently: On the phone.

I'm heading out to Reno this weekend.

I think Josie did a much better job at cracking open her Eggling than I did. [shakes head in utter dismay]

Clicky clicky.

2007-07-01T02:01:00.000-07:00

Listening to: Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - Alone Apart

I haven't taken photographs in a while, actually.

I've been recently reading up on HDR photos and would like to try that out sometime. Maybe when I'm in Reno I can try it out.

This is a photograph of my friend Nick Murry. I did some level balancing and editing. Aside from that, it's pretty much the same photograph.

Six-String Samurai

2007-06-28T01:12:00.000-07:00

Listening to: 112 - Cupid

I watched Six-String Samurai the other night with Josie. It was entertaining. I've always liked music themed flicks. I've also always liked movies with some post-apocalyptic era where people cherish things take for granted like water and free shipping from amazon.com.

I also like the tagline: Vegas needs a new king.

In other news, here's Jason Hu and my entry for some 72 Hour Film Shootout competition. The project is entitled Villains. It's my first shot at writing something as a screenplay and some kind of screenplay format.

72 Hour Shootout

2007-06-25T11:30:00.000-07:00

Listening to: The central air at work.

This weekend was quite a doozy. The main reason being that the 4th Annual 72 Hour Film Shootout took place. Basically, a theme was presented on Friday and your crew had to put together a short film, no longer than five minutes including credits, and have it postmarked by today.

We ran into a few snags, Jason and I. But snags do not a failure make. It's giving up that does. We plowed through and finished filming Sunday evening. I then went home, transferred footage and edited the piece together.

While it was rendering to a final output file, I took a nap. This happened at around 1:15am. The fact that my alarm had gone off to wake me up at 1:15am left me groggy, irritated and nauseous.

But we're done. Check below for some screen caps:

The Server's Back!

2007-06-18T21:20:00.000-07:00

Listening to: John Mayer - Slow Dancing in a Burning Room

Here is a piece I did today called Cry If You Feel Like It. It took me about an hour and a half in Photoshop 7.0.

The path I took on making this was randomly stumbling upon a great picture on Flickr and copying it to my hard drive. Then I traced it on a new layer. Then I just started coloring on new layers with the "multiply" feature set. I'm not that great from sketching/drawing from life yet, so I do feel a bit guilty for tracing. Granted the term is rotoscoping... but I still feel a little dirty.

The task at hand was to further coloring practice. I'm not sure. I think it's about time I took some art classes about color, lighting and shadow.

The images below the main picture are a few progress shots. I remember when I first started coloring the skin and thought to myself, "Man, that looks like poo."

You're killin me, Dreamhost.

2007-06-18T15:28:00.001-07:00

Listening to: My anger... rising.

My host for these images, Dreamhost, is being a butt.

So until further notice, many of the blog's pictures will be dysfunctional.

Why don't you trot around in the gallery section while you wait? I'm sure you'll find something to pass the time there.

Art Day!

2007-06-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

Listening to: John Mayer - Slow Dancing in a Burning Room (acoustic)

The first piece is a vector piece that I've been working on all day. It basically took me, I dunno, six hours or so? Something like that. I used a photo reference, of course. The second picture are all the pieces of the image without the colors; basically it's the outline version.

I remember mentioning the Perler Beads I bought a little while ago and, well, decided that I'd go and actually make the thing I said I'd make. How's that for follow through! It's the dragon from Bubble Bobble and Puzzle Bobble.

I'm tired and my back aches. That's the artist's life for ya.

Pow!

2007-06-13T00:12:00.000-07:00

Listening to: Maroon 5 - Makes Me Wonder

I got in a fight with a cartoon character in my room earlier tonight.

Needless to say, I got the cheese knocked out of my ears.

Vroom!

2007-06-12T01:27:00.001-07:00

Listening to: Josh Kelley - Hard Times Happen

This is my second assignment for Kick Face Design. The theme was race cars. I decided to create a diorama of one race car that has obviously strayed off the track and ended up in some countryside.

He'll lose the prize money and his uncle will never get the money needed for that operation.

How heart-wrenching!

Here are some "before I put it together" shots...

I'll post something soon...

2007-06-11T00:17:00.000-07:00

Listening to: I should be in bed.

Collaborative comic strip about nothing in general.

I'll be working on some new things soon. I'll post it when I have time. I realize that 24 hours in a day just isn't nearly enough to do the things I say I should be doing.

Watermelons!

I like my [swear words] yogurt in plain!

2007-06-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

Listening to: Magnetic North feat. Mr. Shen - Dozen of Dimes (Mr. Shen Remix)

I felt really under the weather, so I had to bounce from work a little early. I got home and took a nap. That some how rejuvenated my body completely and I was able to go to the gym and do a real good workout. Anyway, enough of the drivel of my life.

These two pieces I did today.

I also went and did a remix for my friend's rap duo, Magnetic North. Their song Dozen of Dimes was always a favorite of mine so, naturally, I decided to go for it. I also threw in a verse myself. It was entertaining.

Go ahead and download it here. It's an mp3.

And that's right, I like my [swear words] yogurt in plain!

Deep Sea Fishing

2007-06-05T01:33:00.001-07:00

Listening to: Bond - Fly Away

So, Jason and I have started a new project based design team called Kick Face Design. We basically pick a topic and make some kind of "thing" for it by the deadline. It'll keep both our minds fresh and moving.

Our first assignment was based on the topic Deep Sea Fishing. The main reason is that Jason, Jerry and I went deep sea fishing the other weekend. We didn't catch a single thing. It was actually probably one of the coldest days I've ever experienced in this lifetime.

So to capture the feeling we had with the trip, my project was based on the idea that we didn't catch anything. I also wanted to work on food packaging some more (the last time I tried was Farmer Shen's Milk) and came up with this mess.

What a delayed week.

2007-06-04T01:11:00.000-07:00

Listening to: Bond - Explosive (remix)

It's been a very long week and I haven't had a lot of time to work on anything that I can show yet. There's a lot of planning going on in addition to sketches, "game plans" and other things. This was a really quick piece I whipped up for a coworker.

I played a little bit of Mario Party 8 and really want to develop one of the game board ideas that resides in the game. It's a very interesting game of investment and strategic planning that I would love to play as a straight up, traditional board game.

I also picked up a handful of crafts today at Michaels and will be starting on making coasters of old NES (to start) sprites. First on the list: the dragon from Bubble Bobble.

Oh, I also played this ridiculous fighting game called Bikini Karate Babes this weekend on the PC. It was terrible. After about five minutes I uninstalled it and deleted any traces of the game off my computer.

I can't believe they're working on a Part II.

Robbie's Adventure

2007-05-28T20:19:00.000-07:00

Listening to: Maroon 5 - Back At Your Door

Now it's time to figure out how to program this freakin' thing.

Occupied like an airplane toilet.

2007-05-28T08:40:00.000-07:00

Listening to: Maroon 5 - Back At Your Door

Currently working on two game design docs for some independent games. One is partially done and the other still needs some kinks worked out. A side-scrolling platformer and the other is a puzzle game.

This suit is NOT black.

2007-05-23T02:28:00.000-07:00

Listening to: Maroon 5 - Can't Stop

It's been a while again. Been busy with sight-seeing people.

Feeling Fine.

2007-05-16T23:29:00.000-07:00

Listening to: Michael Buble - Me and Mrs. Jones

I've been pretty busy with a lot of work lately and interviews, so tryin' to get my head on straight. Also, can't fail to mention, the distraction of some Gears of War with my buddy Brad. Oh, and also can't fail to mention spending the weekend with the most excellent people who live in Alameda: Brad and Shannon.

Ah, I definitely can't fail to mention that I also got to catch 28 Days Later with the fabulous Joy.

I'm tired from all the things that are making me tiredly tired.

When things, perhaps, wind down a little, I can actually sit down and illustrate something for reals.

In the meantime, check out the newest Mr. Goh.

Mr. Shen - Kind of a Lawyer

2007-05-11T00:13:00.000-07:00

Listening to: Ne-Yo - Go On Girl

You know, I've owned this game (the first Phoenix Wright game to hit the Nintendo DS) for about a year and a half. I have yet to finish it. I'll get to it eventually.

Maybe.

I was tossing around ideas of what to throw in the text box. I was also thinking about, "Mother fucker, I'm going to cut you."

I decided against the swears. There was plenty of that when I was driving around the tunnels in Dead Rising and crushing tens of thousands of zombies.

Wow, all this game related art... it's fun.

Dead Rising

2007-05-09T23:19:00.000-07:00

Listening to: Robin Thicke - I'm Not Loving You

I've been having a super busy week and that's why I haven't been able to update anything as of late (Los Angeles this past weekend, hanging out with friends and such).

Another reason that I've had a hard time updating anything is that I've recently purchased an xbox360 and have been playing Dead Rising.

Speaking of which, I think I'm going to go play it now.

Work in Progress - Black and White

2007-04-30T23:55:00.000-07:00

Listening to: The SFX from Toribash as I wait in queue.

Just a piece I'm working on right now. I'm also coloring it. Hopefully I'll have it fully rendered by the end of the week.

Then again... I'm not so sure. This week looks to be busy as heck.

Oh, goodness! Minus artwork!

2007-04-29T00:57:00.000-07:00

Listening to: Jonathan Coulton - When You Go

The fabulous and amazing artist/comic creator of Minus sent me the print I ordered a little while ago. I love the webcomic and from what I hear, it's nominated for an Eisner Award!

Anyhoo, with the print he sent a Mr. Goh "fan comic"! That's right! Mr. Goh and Minus in the same strip! To say my heart exploded out of my eyes is an understatement.

I'm framing this forever.

In other comic news, all of Gashapon Shop has been uploaded to the Wandering Panda Comics website. The actual archives drop-down menu took an incredibly long time to code by hand. I should really look into setting up a PHP database for these things.

Been diligently working on new comic strips (outside of Mr. Goh) to be self published by year's end. I've been working on them between online fights on Toribash, one of the greatest PC games I've ever played (and the only I've actually ever downloaded, paid for and registered).

Grand Re-Opening!

2007-04-26T00:35:00.000-07:00

Listening to: Jonathan Coulton - When You Go

That's right! I've finally gotten around to recoding (granted it's done in a very ugly kind of way) the Wandering Panda Comics website! It's going to be updated over the next few weeks with the appropriate links and such.

All developments in regards to new works will still be here.

Check it out!

And to warm your hearts, a new Mr. Goh comic strip.