Thank you.

This year is about to end for many of us. And before it ends, I just want to say thank you to everyone. It was an interesting year. It was quite a roller-coaster, i might add. Ups and downs on and off. For many, there is the election, and the economy crisis. This year definitely felt pretty long compared to the rest, and now lets just wish for a better year to come.

For me, one special part of this year was the Japan Exchange in Osaka.

And for this experience, I want to thank my Japanese friends and my homestay for creating a very special experience during my stay in Japan.. it was very special and the memories will always stay. Even though the exchange has been over for quite a few months now, some of those memories have still stayed closely. When I came back to Canada, I was very refreshed. I can't wait to see a lot of you guys again when I come back to Japan someday!

Also thank you everyone else who has been supporting and simply being around and all that.
Lets hope 2009 will be an even better year!

Hope you guys all had a great Christmas and I sincerely wish everyone a happy new year!

And to my Japanese friends who may be reading the blog,

メリークリスマス, 明けましておめでとうございます!

More lifedrawings & Studies

Here are some more colour lifedrawings and painting studies. Some of them are short poses about 2 - 5 mins paint gestures and others are longer studies ranging from about 15-30 minutes.

I've always wanted to try using acrylic in shorter poses for lifedrawings, its really tough and I have to mix my paint frantically..haha..but its fun with all the pressure, you also don't know when the pose will change since its in such a short time. It makes me think how I can paint fast and get down as much as I can before the pose changes.






























Check out my friend Lettie too she has some nice acrylic studies as well

Lifedrawings?

Its been a long time since I've posted lifedrawings. Usually I just post paintings and illustrations. Recently, I wanted to use lifedrawing as a way of warm up before I start my daily work/routines and keeping the drawing and painting alive in me. I am currently working on ideas at the same time for my next batch of paintings. So this is great to loosen up and keep myself warmed up while I work on other things.

I've been into exploring tone, colour and energy. So here are some lifedrawings from the last few weeks.

These are all studies with chalk pastels and/or charcoal. Its been really fun to play with.
These are also a range from short studies of gestures 2 min, 5min to longer poses where I can use some colour 15mins, 20mins and 30 mins.

Less Fruitcake.. @ T and P Gallery

Going to be a part of a show in Philadelphia, really happy and excited to be part of this one, it will be my first real group show in the 'low brow' type gallery. To be showing with talents like Angry Woebots, Scott Musgrove, Dan May, etc is my humble pleasure. Thank you to T & P Gallery for this awesome opportunity.

Hopefully more of these to come in the next year. Sorry for the lack of updates recently, I have been busy with work and trying out new methods of working. I will post more about those soon. Looking forward to new things.
Feel free to drop by the show if you are in the area. Opening night is Dec 5th.













Would've loved to do more piece for this show but I just got too busy this past month, so I will have one painting for the show. One that I previously featured..












"Rebirth of Adam" oil on wood 6x9

'Orphan Works' Copyright Law Dies and Tessar Lo

Earlier, i mentioned about this law and to people who wrote to voice their concerns.
Thanks to to everyone who helped make a difference, the orphan works bill is dead now.



I also wanted to mention that my friend Tessar Lo's two-person show at Roq La Rue is coming up soon!

Loving his work, and the emotions that comes with it.

Tessar Lo/Roq La Rue Preview from Modus Films on Vimeo.

The show opens on November 7th and is entitled "my love, it's on we".

NYC Vinyl Record Exhibition

I'll be in an upcoming vinyl record show at gallery APW in New York City. Opening reception is October 3rd, 2008.










It was really fun painting on a Vinyl Record. I remember working on a Record Album for a show earlier this year, but this is a first time I ever painted on a Vinyl Record.

Anyways heres the beginning of the Record










and the final... (sorry its not the best image to show the piece, but I didn't had a scanner while I was working on this in NYC)

'Womb of Nature' Acrylic and Oil on Vinyl Record 12x12

Update!!! Silkscreening and NYC!

Sorry guys, been away for a bit.

Lots to update on...also a lot of things in progress...some upcoming things to prepare for..etc.

I've just recently finished a course by the amazing Jeff Garcia on silkscreening. Hes a great silkscreen artist/teacher in the Toronto area..love his work. It was great to finally get my hands dirty and try silkscreening...it was always something i wanted to learn...took the course with my friends Hieng and Lettie.

Here are some of the results..of the class..was fun! (Photos are courtesy of Lettie's blog)


















































And heres a shirt design I did, had 12 of these shirts available for sale at the NYC convention and its now sold out!! Thanks to all who came out and bought a shirt! Also thanks to my friend Hieng for silkscreening em and selling them at his booth! A second batch of shirts will be in the works.























Anyways, the past 2 weeks have been pretty busy, but it was all good fun. Went to Atlanta 2 weeks ago and just returned from New York City yesterday.

One of the highlights of my New York trip was meeting one of my favourite game design/animation illustrator Yoshitaka Amano, a illustrator legend for the famous Final Fantasy series and the Vampire Hunter D series. Also had the pleasure to meet Hideyuki Kikuchi, the writer of Vampure Hunter D and last but not least the iron chef of japan, Masaharu Morimoto.

Things I had them sign in respective order.. Amano, Kikuchi, Morimoto

amazing

Today, some of my good friends are having a show at project:gallery. They do some amazing things. Its a fresh faces show of these four up and coming artists. Really excited for them, while I was in LA, saw them work on those pieces in the studio and it was inspiring to see.

Natural Affinity (work in progress)

Here is another piece I am working on right now. Concept is again nature x human interaction and the idea of life and energy giving from our natural environment.

Here is the defined drawing and the first layer of acrylics + colored inks... working a bit differently this time, instead of painting on wood with oils and acrylics like most of the other pieces i've done, I decided to experiment a bit and try painting on paper again..

Fun stuff...I'll post more wip on this piece soon or the final...

Continue the Work in progress...

Some new work in progress shots of the paintings i've been working on..
more to come..hopefully very soon. Also some retouching...

Square Foot 2008 at AWOL gallery

Amazing event, really glad to have been a part of it.

Lots of people, great music, had a great time there, even though it was short. Never

Here are two pieces that I contributed to the show with my friend Tyrel, it was fun collaborating with him on these 2 pieces. (sorry about the bad photos, i couldn't get a scan of the piece before i sent them out unfortunately..) After i painted the girl, he worked on the airbrushing of the background and texture of the piece. He also painted the red riding hood running away from the octopus monster i painted. Tyrel is now the third artist I've collaborated with.

"A haunting thought" oil on wood - 12x12












"Better run" oil on wood - 12x12










Collaborative art is a really fun part of art creating for me, its really exciting to see how my style fuses with others and how each style compliments each other. Whenever I pass my art to another, I'll tell them to do anything they want, paint over my work a bit, change or add things to what I already have on it...etc. Its a great surprise when I see the result.

As much as I love collaborating with other artists, it might be a little while till I can collaborate with another. We'll see, but I got lots of pieces to finish first before I'll have the chance again.

Unfortunately, that night, I couldn't make it out to the other opening at Whippersnapper Gallery. I will try to make it and post photos of that one later on.

Here are photos of the rest of the show

A social network for artist

Got a great new art social network to share today. It has just started recently.

We all know deviantart, CGtalk, and Concept art. But here is a new great place for both digital and traditional paintings.

CG HUB
http://cghub.com/

Go check it out, looks like its going to be an exciting place, I am addicted already. :)

Show photos from squarefoot and whippersnapper will be updated soon.

Whippersnapper Show pieces

Heres one of the 3 pieces Whippersnapper gallery selected for their Summer bonanza show this weekend. I finished it a little while back for the grad show at the burroughes building.

Longing Tree - oil on wood 11x17








As for the concept of the piece, its a reflection of the feeling of a song called maple. Originally, it was what the assignment asked for, a reflection of a song for the personal narrative class. It was also how I was feeling at the time. Here is the lyrics of the song for those interested. I wish to create more pieces like this in the future, with more emotional connection. Special thanks to Harvey Chan and Blair Drawson for art directing me through this piece.

Dark clouds cast a shadow over our hearts
I listen intently to the feelings that have long been silenced
Distinct and clear
Just like a beautiful landscape
That can only be clearly seen in one's memories
Can a heart that's been thoroughly wounded continue to love me?
I tried hard to hold (your) cold hands
The tenderness in the past
Is locked in time
All that's left are sadness that cannot be dispersed
Longing is like maple leaves, slowly drifting down
I light a candle to warm this year-end's autumn
The aurora steals across the horizon
The north wind flits across the face that's thinking of you
Ashes from my burning heart falls like leaves
But I can never regain (your) familiar face again
Longing is like maple leaves, slowly drifting down
Why must I try to recover all before winter arrives?
My love for you transcends all time
Two streams of tears that were shed for the autumn's end
Let the love flood through
I just want you by my side
Snowflakes have already covered the ground
Fearing that the maple leaves outside the window are already frozen

These are the other pieces that will be in the show, also for sale.

Innocence (Chaos Series - Collaboration with Elise Trinh)
Framed Print 17x22









People and Places
Pen and ink on paper, Framed 9x12

Two shows coming up this saturday.

This weekend is going to be busy. I'll be in contributing a few pieces in these shows this coming Saturday in Toronto..

One is the annual 'squarefoot' show at AWOL gallery, and the other is the summer showcase bonanza show at Whippersnapper Gallery.


Square foot 2008 at AWOL Gallery.
Come check out the annual Square Foot Show at Awol Gallery. 600+ artist works on 12" by 12" panels.
A MUST SEE EVENT!!
This Saturday, August 16th @ 100A Ossington Ave,. 2nd Floor 7PM












Whippersnapper Summer Showcase Bonanza
This Saturday, August 16th @ 587A College Street 8PM

Sleep in Sepia

Heres something I worked on recently for the upcoming Chaos 2 anthology book. More info about it to come soon..

Been interested in ideas of sleep and dreams recently.. dreams is kinda a mysterious thing.

so randomized. Often, they say excess thoughts goes into dreams..so you can relax during your sleep...

Sometimes, dark shadows might just be beneath you...while sleeping..

"Sleep in Sepia" Acrylic and Graphite on BFK - 6x6