Week 5's assignment was to do a colored painting of Anne Hathaway. I posted the initial sketch I did on the Level Up! Facebook group, my Facebook page and my Instagram. The 2nd sketch won by a huge margin so I decided to bring that to a final render.

For this assignment, we were taught to use a technique where you create another Photoshop document that acts as a palette for color mixing. We were also instructed to use a limited color scheme. I chose the Split Complementary combination of Green, Orange and Purple for this piece. I think the technique is pretty effective in achieving nice skin tones.

Mekazoo has gone live.
Mekazoo has gone live.
Mekazoo has gone live.

It feels good to say it.

I have worked on this game, part-time for 4 years and full-time for 3 and a half. Working on this game has brought me from Singapore to Seattle and back. I have attended PAX twice as an exhibitor and have seen firsthand how people were having fun with the demo. I have evolved, as an artist and as a person throughout these 4 years. I have also become engaged to the love of my life. After all this time, Mekazaoo has finally come into fruition. 

So what is Mekazoo?

It is a 2.5D platformer where you switch between the 5 mechanical animals - Armadillo, Frog, Wallaby, Panda and Pelican. Each of the animals possess unique abilities that aid the player in navigating the game's vibrant levels. If you love side scrolling platformers from the late 80's and early 90's, you should definitely check out Mekazoo! It is available on PC, PS4 and XboxOne. I will recommend playing it on the PC with a controller for the best experience.

Steam link - http://store.steampowered.com/app/390330/

The above images are early concept artwork I created for the foresty world of the Arboretum. We wanted to differentiate ourselves from other platforming titles that had cheery and bright forest settings. The vision we had in our minds were that of a neon and luminous forest that featured highly saturated, almost psychedelic colors. The paintings were very much inspired by the music of MJ Quigley, the Audio Director of the team. I remember bouncing to the beat of an early Mekazoo track as I painted this.

I will be posting more images throughout the week and elaborating on my involvement as the Art Director of the project, so do look forward to seeing more artwork!

When I first met Chocolatte, the shopkeeper in The World of Final Fantasy, I knew I had to do a fanart of her in Jiant form. I initially debated sketch her for my inktober entry, but chose to go with a collage featuring some of the game's critters instead. After all, they were the stars of the game. Taking Jason Seiler's caricature class renewed my interest in painting portraits, so this was the golden opportunity to paint her.

After completing Dice Tsutsumi and Robert Kondo's light and color Schoolism course (in which I learned a lot), I decided to move on to the Caricature class offered by Jason Seiler. I like creating images that tell a humorous story, so I think learning to capture and exaggerate a person's face is the logical step forward in my art education. 

For week 1 and week 2's assignments, we were required to do sketches of the "citizens" based on the photos Seiler provided. I felt that the drawings I did in week 1 were too "tame" and tried to push for more exaggeration in week 2.

Week 3's assignment was doing a grayscale paintover of a sketch that Seiler did. It was alot of fun and I really like the end result. This proves that the sketch is always the most important component of any artwork.

Week 4's assignment is similar to week 3's in the sense that we are supposed to produce a well rendered caricature. The twist is that we are supposed to do the initial sketch ourselves and the final product can be a sepia painting.

We were given 3 photos of Johnny Cash to sketch. I think my 2nd sketch had some potential to be pushed further, but I personally don't think the source photo resembled my impression of Mr. Cash. I decided to go with number 3 in the end.

Whew! I apologize for disappearing from this blog for almost 2 months. I have been busy with work and the Inktober challenge. I learned 2 lessons while completing these sketches. One, I really need to polish up my inking skills. Two, it is really, really hard to come up with a new idea on a daily basis. I'm glad I made it through.

​I might be converting some of the more successful ones into full paintings, so stay tuned.

​Here are the 31 ink drawings I did this past month: