Els-A-Sketch

Gratuitous Victoria's Secret Model Post

2012-01-12T17:47:00.000-08:00

The VS models are so beautiful they must not be human. Their job description must be to have wavy flowing luxurious hair and the metabolism of a hummingbird. I like watching the annual VS fashion show every year to see all the crazy impractical costumes they get to wear. And those wings! They can get pretty crazy but I like how creative and different they are every year.

Meow Paws and Puppy Noses

2012-01-05T18:51:00.000-08:00

I did some Christmas commissions for my co-workers at Disney Interactive Media. The two cats, Butters and Sissel, were for Lauren. She wanted her cats to be drawn similarly to how I drew my cat. The dog, Greta, was a commission for Leah's husband. I hope they were happy with it!

The Land of Oz

2012-01-05T18:48:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a great New Year! I would like to post more on my blog this year. So my first post of 2012 will actually be an old painting I did to go along with my Wicked project. This is an establishing shot of the road that leads up to the wizard's castle. The house is the one that fell on Nessa Rose and you can see the Munchkin huts in the background. Looking back on this project I want to do more with it (i.e. storyboards, animatics) but I have other projects I should work on. Someday I'll revisit Oz!

Turkey Day Doodles

2011-11-24T17:50:00.000-08:00

I'm horrible at updating my blogspot. I've been busy

with work so it's been taking up most of my time.

I can't wait to post what I've been working on when

I am allowed to :) I attended CTN again this year

and met so many wonderful talented artists.

I'm hoping to get a booth next year with a friend of mine

That'll be so exciting!

Here are a couple of gestures I did on the computer. It's

always great to warm up before drawing for work.

I would like to have better shape and silhouette like

how Alex Woo and Matt Jones draw gestures.

I'm still learning :)

On Thanksgiving I usually wake up too late to watch

the Macy's parade but I usually try to catch the

National Dog Show each year. I did a couple of

drawings of the breed as they appeared on screen

and my favorite out of the batch turned out to be

an Old English Sheepdog. They're so funny looking

with their fur in their face and adorably round head.

Scruffball!

Character Design Blogspot Interview

2011-05-23T12:26:00.000-07:00

I got an amazing opportunity to be interviewed by the
Character Design blogspot. I was so nervous at first because
the site is full of amazing professional artists who are milestones
ahead of me and to be featured on the same website as them is
mind blowing. I never though this opportunity would come so soon.
I am very excited to show you guys the finished interview.
You can read it here!

My Little Night Crusader

2011-03-02T17:32:00.000-08:00

I adopted a cat from my friend recently and he is everything
I could possibly want in a cat. He's super friendly, playful,
loves to cuddle AND he's an excellent lap cat which
is very important. I love the little black mask he wears
on his face so I named him Batman which is appropriate
because he likes dark corners and cave-like places. I'm
hoping to get another cat in the future and name him Robin.

Back To Watercolor

2011-02-20T23:43:00.001-08:00

I don't watercolor very often which is a shame because it's
a medium I successively used before learning how to paint digitally.
So I'm working on a project that will be completely done in
watercolor. I am excited and scared to be going back to
this old medium that I once used to conquer so
fearlessly. This is actually going to be another musical
adaptation, this time based on a film and it will be done
in Earl Oliver Hurst and René Gruau's painting style.

Mononoke Color Script 2

2011-02-19T13:04:00.001-08:00

This is fairly old but I realized that I never uploaded it on here.
This was a color script for the Princess Mononoke project I did a
while ago and it goes along with the previous color script that I did.
As you can see it was heavily influenced by Lou Romano. I hope
I achieved the same cohesiveness he did with just using
shapes and color to tell a story.

Senior Project Wicked Part 3

2011-01-18T01:39:00.001-08:00

The Wizard's Cathedral Photoshop

The Wizard's Cathedral Sketches Pen

The Wizard's Air Balloon Photoshop

The Wizard's Air Balloon Sketches Marker and Pencil

Carriages Marker and Pencil

Trains Marker and Pencil

Senior Project Wicked Part 2

2011-01-16T18:36:00.000-08:00

"Elphaba" Photoshop

"Glinda" Photoshop

"Fiyero" Photoshop

"The Wizard" Photoshop

"Chistery" Photoshop

Elphaba and Glinda sketches Pencil

Fiyero and Wizard sketches Pencil

Chistery Expressions Pencil

The Flying Monkeys sketches Pencil

Dr. Dillamond Pencil

Madame Morrible Pencil

Graduation and Senior Project Wicked Part 1

2011-01-16T17:23:00.000-08:00

So I finally graduated (a month ago!) and I am really excited to start
my new life and take on new challenges. For my last term of Art Center
I wanted to do a project that held a lot of meaning to me and would be
something that I'd enjoy. So I picked the Broadway musical "Wicked".
It's a brilliant play as it is but wanted to add my own whimsical charm
to it. It's a special little story about friendship that really touched
my heart and captured my imagination.

"Dancing Through Life" Photoshop

"Popular" Photoshop

"Wonderful" Photoshop

"No Good Deed" Photoshop

Scary Dreams

2010-11-07T20:08:00.001-08:00

Sorry for the lack of activity since summer but I've been working
hard on my senior project since July and I am graduating in
5 weeks. Yay me! I haven't had much time to myself to do
any personal work (I go to Disneyland once a week while the
rest of the 6 days are spent on my project. Running around a
theme park has been my only source of exercise...)
Also happy late Halloween you guys.
Enjoy these two old contest pieces.

Miss Adelaide

2010-07-14T18:05:00.001-07:00

A continuation of the Guys and Dolls project I worked
on last semester. We had to make a poster of Miss Adelaide,
a show girl, who performs at the Hot Box. I looked at some
vintage showgirl posters and Eric Tan's posters for color
reference and then I made some extra show girl designs for
the hell of it :)

Fashion 2

2010-06-28T13:35:00.000-07:00

Another batch!

Geese & Gator

2010-06-22T22:38:00.001-07:00

Another piece for a weekly club contest.
This week's special guest was David Colman who
is my idol when it comes to animal design.
He shared a lot of advice with us and some of them
really hit home especially since i've been feeling
a little discouraged lately.
"Honor your practice, respect the process.
It doesn't happen overnight."

So yeah this week's prompt was:
Follow the Leader

I drew mother goose with her newly hatched
babies. One of them so happens to be a baby gator.
He follows mother goose and the goslings around
as if they were his family.

Fairy Tale

2010-06-15T22:37:00.001-07:00

That's what you get for rescuing a princess in a
tower guarded by a dragon.
Not even a Thank You.

Monster

2010-06-08T21:54:00.000-07:00

This is for a weekly club contest at school. This week's
prompt word was "Monster" so I went with an
unconventional route and drew a very charming
non-threatening monster who's at a hat shop.

Fashion 1

2010-05-28T22:59:00.001-07:00

I wanted to do a couple of paintings based on some
things i've come across in fashion magazines and blogs.
So this is just a first batch of many. The lady in red has
some swagger.

New York, New York

2010-05-20T16:51:00.001-07:00

New York City circa 1950.
Gouache and Photoshop.

Little Chef

2010-05-10T17:39:00.000-07:00

This is a drawing for my friend who really likes to cook.
I don't know what it is about green and white but I love
putting those two colors together in any kitchen I draw.
Bon Appetit!

Wild Thing, You Make My Heart Sing

2010-05-03T13:18:00.000-07:00

A whole bunch of animal drawings I did this past term.
The birds were done with the help of a couple of lovely
bird books. The pen drawings are characterized zoo
studies. The zebra and gator sketches were for a club
contest at school as were the kitty cat drawings but
those were also inspired by Robin Joseph. The
Australian monitor lizard (goanna) studies were just for fun.
And the dancing hysterical mice were for my color & story class.

Princess Mononoke Sketches

2010-04-29T16:52:00.000-07:00

These are just some more sketches for the Princess
Mononoke project I did last year. They were incredibly
fun to do. I picked up some prisma color-erase pencils
and had a party.

Oceans

2010-04-26T02:19:00.001-07:00

I watched DisneyNature's Ocean yesterday and it was
really amazing. I've been an ocean freak all my
life and I've been waiting for this film to come out
since last Earth Day. The ocean and the life that live in it
are so beautiful and delicate. There are a lot of problems
with it currently due to overfishing and pollution
but hopefully in the years to come we will see an improvement.

Here are two parts of the documentary that really
caught my eye with their color and movement.
A blue whale and a cast of krill and a couple
of fish under a fluther of moon jellies.
I tried my best to take a mental photographic image
while watching the film because I wanted to draw it
when I got home. Luckily it was still pretty fresh in my
mind so I was able to accomplish it with a couple
of google images for reference.

Girl in the Mask

2010-04-17T20:20:00.000-07:00

A drawing I did for my mom as a birthday present.
It's a revision of a drawing I did 4 years ago that she
just absolutely adored for some reason. She's been bugging
me on and off for a print of it and even had me paint this girl
on a canvas tote bag that she carries around. So here's an updated one
with hair influenced by Brittney Lee. I'll refrain from posting
the original to spare you guys of 2nd hand embarrassment.
So Happy Birthday Mom!
Hope you enjoy this strange looking girl.

Baby Bunker Boo

2010-04-10T22:01:00.000-07:00

And I dance dance dance

2010-03-17T22:43:00.000-07:00

Weekly contest for the club I'm in. This week's topic:
CATS
I love my cat. Well she's technically not my cat she's my
neighbor's cat (they named her Rusty I just call her Kitty)
but I've been taking care of her since she was a kitten and she hangs out
at my house more often than her own. The other day my dad said he
thought the cat had gotten under his car as he drove off to work
because he heard some strange scratching noises coming from
inside the car. Panicked I ran outside to see if she was around and
I saw her sitting across the street and I ran to her in relief,
scooped her up in my arms and cried for a good 5 minutes.
I was so happy she was alright and she looked up at me
as if she were saying "why are you crying? Don't cry".
I love that cat, seriously.

Oh yeah and I strongly support adopting pets from a shelter.
If you're looking for a furry little companion to add to your home,
shelter pets can be just as good as the pets you get from personal
breeders and pet shops. Take it from me, someone who knows.

My rescued shelter cat, Tom Tom <3

I'll save the biggest piece for you

2010-03-10T22:56:00.000-08:00

A piece for the weekly art club contest that I'm in.
This week's theme was a tricky one:
67%
So many ideas ran through my mind when I thought of things I could create around 67%.
67% fat free milk, a drawing that is only 67% complete, 67% chance of precipitation...
Then I thought of a pie chart and what I could do with it...
Nothing.
So instead I thought of drawing an actual pie and thus created this.
Although I think my 67% looks more like an 87%...

Mischievous Play

2010-02-25T20:44:00.000-08:00

Another contest piece for the club I'm in.
This week's theme: Stripes.

And some sketches of the characters.

Dewey Cox

2010-02-17T23:58:00.001-08:00

For my graphic design class we designed memorabilia for
the Dewey Cox movie, "Walk Hard", played by John C. Reilly.
So I chose to do bobble head packaging.
And the Bunko.com at the bottom was suppose to be a twist
on the original toy company, Funko.com. But apparently Bunko.com
exists. Haha so disregard that...

And this is the background that goes inside the box behind
the bobble head.
It's ravenous fangirls!

Moon River Wider Than a Mile...

2010-02-10T21:39:00.001-08:00

This was done for a weekly contest for a club I'm in at school.
Every week a theme is given to us and we just create an image to bring
in next week and this week's was:
"Under the rain."

Uh oh looks like you need a bigger umbrella, Mr. Bear!

Mononoke Keyscenes

2009-12-12T22:20:00.001-08:00

Keyscenes for my own adaptation of Princess Mononoke.
Enjoy!

Hunting Duty

2009-12-12T22:16:00.000-08:00

20 minutes later...

A painting of the back of my house but with a narrative story.

Dynamic Sketching

2009-12-12T22:11:00.001-08:00

Done for a sketching class.
A majority of the bottom one was done on location.

Mononoke Color Script

2009-11-13T21:59:00.000-08:00

I am on an updating roll!
Anyways this is my color script for the Princess Mononoke project.
I loved doing it so much. If I had more time I'd do 50 more frames.

Mononoke Characters colored

2009-11-13T21:25:00.000-08:00

1. Mononoke Hime - The wolf princess
2. Shishi Gami -The forest spirit
3. Moro - The wolf goddess
4. Ashitaka -The struggling hero
5. Lady Eboshi - The industrial blockade

Viking Girl

2009-11-10T00:06:00.000-08:00

The movie hasn't even come out yet and I'm head over heals for this character.
For those who don't know yet this is a character from the upcoming Dreamworks Animation movie "How To Train Your Dragon" directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois.
My mentor, Kathy Altieri, was working on this film as Production Designer so I got to see a lot of the production artwork at the studio and they looked amazing.
Can't wait for the movie.

Website for How to Train Your Dragon

Happy Birthday Sis

2009-11-09T18:12:00.000-08:00

A birthday card for my sister-in-law.

We Are the Daughters of Triton

2009-11-07T21:22:00.001-08:00

I painted this set to put on my bedroom wall
because my room is ocean themed.
Each mermaid is on a piece of 5x6 watercolor paper
and will be individually framed.

Color tests for Mononoke

2009-11-06T17:17:00.000-08:00

Different color variation for the characters.
Never done this before but by golly it was fun!

Princess Mononoke Character Sketches

2009-11-06T17:14:00.000-08:00

Character sketches for the Miyazaki film "Princess Mononoke." I designed it to take place in ancient Greece. OPA!

Grandfather's Attic

2009-04-08T18:22:00.001-07:00

...is filled with deep sea junk

Hunchback of Notre Dame

2009-04-08T18:05:00.001-07:00

Character Design for the Hunchback of Notre Dame

Symbiosis!

2009-04-08T17:35:00.001-07:00

Illustrations for a book I made about symbiotic relationships.

Done in gouache.

Castillian Hot Chocolate

2009-01-18T17:41:00.000-08:00

Greek and Roman mythological story about
Apollo and Daphne

Cupid shoots Apollo with an arrow
He falls in love with Daphne
Daphne does not love him and turns into a tree
The End.

The Ogre Forest

2008-08-06T22:35:00.000-07:00

Drawing in the style that
Disney did when they looked
at Gerald Scarfe's work.

Skydoll

2008-07-14T17:45:00.000-07:00

Skydoll fan art for a friend.

American Beauty

2008-07-12T21:18:00.000-07:00

I drew my character wearing Tank Girl attire
and colored it in >>Chamba's<< style.

Abandoned Ship Yard

2008-06-11T14:38:00.000-07:00

Trying out Mary Blair's style

Black Cat Martini

2008-05-23T19:38:00.000-07:00

After looking at Mark Brook's drawing of Black Cat
I knew I had to draw her for myself.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of SECRETS

2008-04-13T14:19:00.000-07:00

Not so much a secret anymore, eh Hermione?
The assignment was to pick a scene from a book and I chose
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
The scene is when Hermione drank the potion and turned into
a feline. But I made the potion did more than just that.
Ha ha I'm so terrible.

Bloody Mary

2008-03-23T18:22:00.000-07:00

Mary had a little lamb...

Figure Drawing 4

2008-03-23T17:52:00.000-07:00

Stylized 7-10 minute drawings of the model.

Figure Drawing 3

2008-03-23T17:42:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks worth of sketches.

I don't usually draw men [no kidding.]

But I drew Quante, the model, and somehow I got him

to not only look like a man but a BUFF man.

Distorting the figure.

Quick 5 minute sketches.

Smirnoff Watermelon Twist

2008-03-22T01:02:00.000-07:00

Paintings from a class with a model.

Figure Drawing 2

2008-02-22T18:41:00.000-08:00

A couple of model workshop sessions.
Done in ink with bamboo pen and a brush.
10 minutes each.