The De Niro

So, I made this for Caricatura Showdown 3000 on Facebook.  

You know him from many great films. Taxi Driver, Godfather 2, Goodfellas, Ronin.

You talking to me? You talking to me?

My Ghostbusters logo... inspired by the ever ongoing negotiations on the sequel...

So, recently, I read an article about Ghostbusters 3.  I've read Bill Murray was out of the picture and they are still doing rewrites. That, and there's a possibility of more sequels.  Hmmmm..  Well, thus I was inspired to create the this image in Illustrator.  It pretty much says it all.

My thoughts on Male and Female Insecurities (Yeah, it's not completely art-related)

Just thought I'd use this statement to point out something psychological about society. I think the statement in its intent is quite true. What it technically should say though is that a "good man chooses to honor..." as opposed to "a real man." The statement, as such, is meant to jab at man's insecurity. Humans are strangely insecure creatures--we are insecure about what we value as important in us or what we think makes us who we are. Men are insecure about their manhood (or strength). Women are insecure about how they look. It is because we as society put value on those things to define us. In a purely biological level one might say it makes sense in terms of procreation. Beauty in women (men seeking woman) and strength in men (man protecting the family) allow humans to ensure survival. Few guys will usually care if someone says they're unattractive compared to a woman who hears it (unless he's a model or something). To feel less insecure is probably to put more value on things outside of that like character, etc (although not as valued in society). In general, telling your hubby often how strong they are and telling your wife how beautiful they are will probably ensure a fairly happy marriage. You'll notice that the unhappy ones are the ones where couples cut each other down in those areas, etc (eg. "You're a wimp!" "You're fat!").

We artists (certainly the commercial ones)  are insecure about our art abilities since much of it (more often than not) are based on other people's opinions.  Our work turns us into people-pleasers.  For many of us, it's always a balance.  You'll notice many fine artists who absolutely care nothing about what others think but base everything completely on their (often high, sometimes even "drugged") opinion of their own work.  Some of them do get rather self-obsessed and tend to stray away from society in general "for sake of integrity."

It's best to be balanced for commercial artists like us.  We are part marketers/businessmen (for the society at large and to pay the rent) and separately, we are also artists who make our own work that only we may like.  That's okay too.

A Review of a comic I did two years ago? Nice! XD

So, couple years ago, I did a comic with Visionary Comics.  I haven't had heard anything about it for a while.  Just today, I found out someone had written a review on it!  True, it wasn't a sparkling review, and I actually agree that the story needed some work (yeah, I had mostly focused on the action because it's just so fun to draw than focusing on dialogue), but the dude loved my art!  Sweeeet! 

Well, anyways, you can read the review for yourself.  It actually felt pretty good to know someone out there actually saw my work.  Heh.  We know comics aren't particularly as big as it used to be--it's great to know someone reads them.

You can read the review for yourself!

Now, I kind of feel I should draw another issue... perhaps something with more characterization and story....a bit more romance?

The Cloones....

This time, I've made Mista George Clooney.  Is there anything more to say? Well, not really.  It's for the Caricatura Showdown 3000 at https://www.facebook.com/groups/caricaturama/?bookmark_t=group

In other news, I still haven't seen Skyfall, Lincoln, or Life of Pi.

I recently finished reading Ries/Trout's Marketing Warfare.

Mike Tyson

Here's my caricature of Mike Tyson. Made it for Caricaturama Showdown 3000.
Caricatures are fun to do.

Caricature of Julia Louis Dreyfus. Think I will try to do more of these as time goes by.
Recently finished reading Peter Heller's The Dog Stars for book club.  An okay book.  Nothing too unusual.  Post-apocalyptic.  For the next book, I'm leaning toward a Philip K. Dick book.  Always find his work more creative and thought-provoking than most standard sci-fi writers.  Plausibility isn't as important than ideas in his books.

Book Cover I had done for a novella.

The author of the book just sent me the copy of his book via snail mail.  Nice!

The author hired me last year to work on his book cover for his horror story.
Admittedly, I don't know much of the story itself--I think he was still working on it when I made the illustration.

Always great to see my work in physical print, I gotta say.

Dark Knight,revisted.

So, I worked on the Dark Knight once again.  Perhaps I should consider making the whole body...but will have to see...

Knight, Dark Knight.

Creating this on Zbrush.  This guy in a mask.

Off-tangeant, I liked Dark Knight Rises.
My review of the film is here.

More stuff I made...

I just came back from a trip to Japan and South Korea. Pretty cool. So much to say, so little time, but I have to say I learned a lot.


Off topic, Here's a CG I made of a pirate girl.

And, I recently made a whiteboard proposal/presentation for a client's book. I didn't do the voice, of course.

'Teenage Alien Ninja Turtles'

This was my reaction to Michael Bay's announcement that the new ninja turtles movie will have an alien origin.

Here's my article on the matter.

Working with various clients

Here are couple of works I did recently for Avatar Airwars, an Xbox Live game, and Game Mongers, a card/board game company. I'll be doing more 3-D pretty soon as well.

Avatar Airwars

Game Mongers

"Recognize Your New Self" with Re-Cognize!

One of my freelance work: I recently created an ad for a client using my drawings, camera, voice, sound effects, and my editing software.  This is what I came up with.  "Re-cognize your new self!"

Making furniture.... a chair.

So I was given a test to created a chair in 3-D for a possible freelance project.  Meanwhile I'm at the process of building the BMW I8 concept car in 3D.  Just thought it'd be fun to create one.