" Fail as much as you can so you can eliminate your flaws." 

                              - Goro Fujita 

Wise words from an amazing artist.

Top Chef : Season 12

This season was just way too awesome!! TWO female Chinese chefs and TWO Portland chefs kicking major butts!! With me being Chinese (female) and from Portland, I was totally rooting for the four of them...and guess what? They ALL made it to the top/final four. What I found interesting was that they had such a diverse group of contestants and would've made an awesome line-up of character redesigns- all different shapes and sizes with contrasting personalities. If I have time I would love to do an entire line up of all 16 chefs.

Working on this reminded me of how tough character designing is. Its been awhile so I definitely felt a bit rusty...you can see a lot of my drawing/design weaknesses here. Still have a long way to go, but one step at a time!

Also, I'm back on tumblr ...and other places. just sort of testing which would be the best platform...

www.jfan-art.tumblr.com

www.behance.net/joycefan

www.joycefanart.com

The Bait

How many cats can you spot?

Done at last!! 

I would say this is technically my "first" full on illustration with environment and characters. I got a bit too excited and neglected some important steps that would've made my life a lot easier...as a result this piece took WAY longer to finish than it should have. I was erasing, redrawing, removing overly done details, simplifying etc. but this could have all been avoided if I had just slowed down in the earlier stages to really build and secure the  "foundation" of the piece.

Worked on this with the mentality of deleting it afterwards...working this way relieved me from all the restraints and pressure I felt previously. I was getting way too caught up with the technical side of drawing that I've almost forgotten how to enjoy it. 

Baaaa

Just leaving a note to prove that im still alive.

Drawing has been very tough lately :( but slowly trying to get back on my feet. Been working on a few pieces but can't seem to get anything done!! I think I need to get back to tradition mediums, maybe this digital thing is killing me.


Fixed my Forest Friends piece because I realized the composition of the snowballs were driving me nuts. Also fixed The Journey because I've always felt like the giraffe's legs was disrupting the flow of the piece. Now I can stop feeling that "off" feeling when I look at these two pieces!

The Composer

 I didn't want to tighten it up too much so I left everything rough and loose. Felt that it was more important for me to capture the feeling I envisioned. I've been wanting to play around with lighting for awhile since its something I wasn't taught much about in school.

I think one of the most important aspect of this piece was getting the hands right. I learned in school that hands could be one of the most expressive part of a piece and its definitely true. Sadly, I still often struggle with drawing hands but I've come a long way! I used to draw characters with their hands behind their back or in their pockets so I could avoid the frustration haha! Now I can draw hands without having to google the PERFECT angle (or another trick is to photograph your own hand with your phone- quick and easy).

Anyway, this piece was inspired by an OPB commercial I saw when I was a kid. It's been so long but its one of the few commercials that etched in my memory because its so darn creative and clever!!

One thing I learned in school that changed the way I painted in photoshop was to have a desaturated layer that I can turn on and off while I worked. This helps me keep my values in check.

Stage 1 and 2. First stage was literally just scribbling whatever I had in my head without really thinking of anything technical. This stage was done without colors. Literally looks like chicken scratch. Second stage was cleaning it up a bit and trying to capture the mood I wanted.

Pineapple Girl

Inspired by the most adorable costume I've ever seen :)

Fashionista 03

This one is more loose compared to the other two, and also more stylized. I tried to focus more on exaggerating his proportions.

Also all of these 'fashionistas' are wearing sunglasses not because im lazy to draw eyes, but because these are referenced from Korean celebrities 'airport' fashion photos. Long story short, they're photos of celebrities taken before or after a flight. Because all of their fans (and press) are usually there to send them off or welcome them back, they put tons of effort into dressing well. They usually don't have their make-up professionally done before/after a flight, so they hide their faces with sunglasses or surgical masks. Anyways, I definitely want to draw some eyes so this will be the last sunglasses one in awhile. :P