Never Never Land

I'm not going to post here anymore. The cluttered layouts and sluggish performance in Opera annoy me, along with the closed system thing. My new blog is here:

http://www.jasonink.net/blog

Hooray!

It's been a while since I've posted something so here's an update...

I'm freakin busy!

I've been busy with freelance work (which I can't release unfortunately) and of course, my masters degree (which is hectic). On top of that I'm helping out with a volunteer theatre project AND on Tuesday I have an interview to be an APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit volunteer. Oh and I have a small website job pending that will be involved with Sydney Design Week.

So as of late, sleep has been scarce and so has exercise.

Probably the best thing so far is that the Traction Games site is up and running, check it out: http://www.tractiongames.com 

I did the web-design and also helped out with some game graphics. The two games should be available for purchase soon.

Anyway, check out this site. They have this little video on the site in the "daily life" section. It sounds stupid but that video makes me feel like I'm on holiday every time I watch it. It's awesome, in a cheesy 90s home video kind of way.

http://www.booboobeach.com/

As great as vox might be, there's one thing that's really starting to annoy me. It's closed nature. Only people registered with vox can comment... Which, in my opinion is a big flaw. And while vox is becoming more customisable, it's still quite limited. Maybe there are features I don't know about, but I want to be able to have a list of links to my favourite sites on here. A pretty basic function but as far as I can tell, you can't do it.

Since google bought blogger a while back, it seems to have gotten a whole lot better. Gonna look into that..

Satsketch

I don't even know what this is supposed to be. I just started sketching a face and this is what came out. It's a 'lazy' drawing. The kind where you don't bother thinking of a concept at all. I really should push my idea creation harder. But at the moment it's a Saturday afternoon, so I see this as therapeautic drawing.

In semi related news I'm doing a painting demo at an upcoming show in Sydney in August. Will post more details as it becomes available. What's cool about it is it's a grassroots thing, so everyone will be really enthusiastic and interested.

It'll be nice to meet some other illustrators too. There really aren't that many around. :/ 

Ok first of all, yes I know Samus is a girl :) I was uploading the pic and I forgot to write my post about it.

Metroid2

1 comment

Anyway it's meant to be a male bounty hunter from the same universe. I drew it a few years ago (which explains why the hues and value usage is so heavy handed), when Metroid Prime was first announced. The cool thing was, I posted it on an art forum and the concept artist for the game saw it and replied to my post saying he liked it and he'd show the rest of the art team. Yay :) So maybe somewhere in that game there is a texture or a design subconsiously influenced by this pic...

Shanes5

This one I've been working on, on and off for the past year for a friend. The brief was a dapper looking chap, steampunk, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles style, which explains the cartoony style, bright colours and the body proportions. The usual standing pose... But that's because it's meant as modelling reference.

Nmap_mech_2

Ok this one I've been working on and off for the past few days but it's easily eaten away a good chunk of my time, character work always does, especially for the level of finish I'm aiming for. So he's changed a lot since my last update, it's not finished but that's the gist of it. Once I draw his weapon, add more detailing and hit the 'sweet spot' I'm going to move on to modelling and texturing, then rigging etc. Though the cloth and the plates covering his thighs are a concern for animating...

Preview

And finally, spent last night and all day today on this one for Matt. He looks a bit like Wolverine, even in the reference he sent me, so it was fun to paint. Good practice too since everytime I try to draw a portrait it's quite a hit or miss affair. Drawing this really showed me how having a job whereby the work you do brings happiness to other people can be quite fulfilling.

Happy Valentines day everyone :)

I just can't stop painting. I did this self portrait in about two hours using a CD as a mirror for some reference. Though I mostly drew it from my mind, and whenever I hit a roadblock, I went to the CD.  I wouldn't say it looks exactly like me, though better than my previous attempts. Also it's still got a bit of a cartoony feel. But that's ok, I only intended this to be a sketch, if I wanted realism, I'd probably need to put another 8 hours into it and get a better mirror lol.

 

Me

It's been a while. This past month I've been busy doing a summer course at uni, which was a really positive experience. Just did a quick painting, about 1.5 hrs, that's speedy for me. Anything under 5 hours usually is. lol.

Inspired by the cute girl in my class that always wears cons.

Speed

I'm pretty happy with it considering I don't draw girls much. Will definitely pick up on that. I've gotten back that 'artistic fire' so hopefully I should break through to a new level soon enough. I've also been working on my armour/mech drawing, it's changed to become more alien in look, partly inspired by Metroid Prime and also the new Transformers movie. Normal mapping here I come...

Other than that, I've been busy doing freelance work, uni and exercising. Been swimming more which is doing wonders for my health, hopefully I can keep it up. Rocky Balboa is coming out in 11 days so that will be pretty inspirational lol. Add in the upcoming Chinese New Year and I have to say this summer is going great so far :)

I've been doing some research on memory and cognition and it's really interesting stuff. Through all the technical stuff, there was an example, to get you to close your eyes and think of a time when you were relaxed and really try to visualise it. I'm not going to bother explaining what the example illustrated, but I did it and it made me realise how much information is stored, but it's not at the forefront of my mind. Sort of like theres a little strand sitting there, I close my eyes and pull on the strand, which is connected to all the details. Made me realise that I don't spend much of my time remembering things, experiences. Which is a shame, because I have some pretty nice ones. In some ways I feel that's why I write, to increase the amount of 'strands' I can pull on.

It really does work. It's nice that we're able to hold onto the past in some way. Even stranger is that I find photos, while they can be quite 'accessible' in terms of being a strand, I feel that journal entries are even more accessible. I suppose because they're kind of like a direct link to my consciousness at that point in time. I should spend more time pulling on the strands, but not too much, dwelling on the past ain't a good thing.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/

This thing rocks. I am a certified Apple fanboy. But seriously, the interface design is beautiful, I'd be willing to bet that nothing out there comes close to the aesthetic and user friendly beauty of this gadget. There are a lot of Apple haters out there, but they absolutely cannot be beaten on style and user experience.

People complain about a lack of features etc but being exceptionally good at delivering a user experience is a key marketing strength that a lot of companies overlook. It taps into more subconsious psychological needs and wants of consumers, which is why they're doing so well.

Paint_progress

2 comments

Decided to do a greyscale painting, mainly to get back into 'shape' considering it's been more than a year since I've painting something for myself rather than a commission or favour for someone. I feel more free making design changes this way, linework just gets way too tedious and fiddly. As you can see it's in progress and the legs aren't done yet. Just gonna try to get a really nice finish on this, should make for a nice portfolio piece. Click on the image to see it without the ugly compression.