Ghostpalm: Kevan Hom

Year of the Dragon: Deity of Water and Weather

2012-01-31T12:40:00.000-08:00

Happy new year everyone!

-Kevan

Unleash the Monster Inside

2012-01-16T01:20:00.000-08:00

Winter

2011-12-26T11:44:00.000-08:00

For the past couple days i've been going back to traditional mediums. These small illustrations were given away as gifts and were painted with gouache.

The Predator

"The Moon Rabbit, Forever making elixirs for the immortals"

Pandurrrsss

I hope everyone had a warm christmas! :)

-Kevan

Double Hammer LOTR Troll - Digital Model

2011-12-18T15:35:00.000-08:00

So this here would be the project that I've been slaving over and struggling to finish for the entire semester. By all means, I don't consider myself a digital modeler, but I do feel that I gained some useful knowledge this semester. Anatomy, modeling a figure in maya AND learning how to use Zbrush were all a part of my digital modeling class.

The project for the semester was to use the programs maya and Zbrush to model and sculpt out the Lord of the Rings Troll as well as his collar, loin cloth, teeth, eyes, and hammer. And OF COURSE I wanted to add some wushu flare into my troll....it was pretty much a given because he has a weapon anyways! haha...

And here would be the turn around video that I made as well. The video appears better if you enlarge it and watch it in HD

Time to enjoy my winter vacation...and SLEEP.

-Kevan

Thanksgiving

2011-11-27T00:14:00.000-08:00

Thankful for this relaxing thanksgiving break, family, and friends.

Some Work work...

A couple pieces that I had to make for work....but, I also added a touch of myself in them as well :)

Oil Pastel

Oil Paint

For the holiday season I helped draw a pokemon themed Christmas Tree for the students to color. It was 9 ft. tall and there were two others with and angel and gingerbread theme. All three were completed in one week.

Zoo Trip

Union Square, SF

Hope everyone had a well fed thanksgiving

-Kevan

Armadillo Centaur?

2011-11-02T17:35:00.000-07:00

*Sigh*...kind of sad that I haven't had the time to do my own work lately. This week in particular is really weird....So many of my classes are cancelled and I'm pretty much up to date with my projects/assignments, THEREFORE......I decided to finish up a creature doodle that I started awhile ago.

Till next time! :)

-Kevan

Fei Lian Stirs Up the Sea

2011-08-23T22:08:00.000-07:00

Fei lian is the deity of Wind in Chinese mythology. Descriptions vary, but I went with sparrow head, snake tail, stag body, and bull's horns description......and changed it up a little.

Since Fei Lian is said to be mischievous, I made his head an ape disguised under a bird's helmet. I basically wanted his silhouette to be misleading...Kind of like how people have mistaken whales as giant sea monsters.

-Kevan

Nanquan Character

2011-08-09T13:54:00.000-07:00

I felt that the first vis dev project that I did for last semester had "some" potential. I kinda liked how my green demon turned out, so I decided to go back and totally change the main character from a samurai to a girl specializing in southern Chinese Martial arts (wushu).

I studied a couple traditional tiger crane videos as well as modern nanquan (southern fist) as reference for the character poses.

The original black and white pose I did for the green demon was too stiff, so I reworked the pose and painted it with color. Meh...I hope the colors I applied aren't too ugly...had trouble judging color saturation in the past...

Kevan

When Nightmares Go Bump in the Night...They Will Be By Your Side

2011-07-18T13:09:00.000-07:00

Inspired by another work of art. I liked the concept of childhood toys fending off nightmares...and what better way to represent childhood than incorporating characters from Winnie the Pooh :P.

Kevan

A Long Overdue/GIGANTIC blog post - Spring '11

2011-05-27T20:18:00.000-07:00

Year four is finally over. This year was by far the most challenging. Lots to improve on of course.

Chinese Jian (Sword) Maya Modeling

Ugh, this was such a headache, but it turned out better than i thought. I was literally teaching myself how to texture map everything in the last week. My fellow wushu practitioners would appreciate this.

Vis Dev Spring '11

Green Demon

Green Chapel Isometric

For our first project, we designed characters and environments based off of a story called Gawain and the Green Knight. The story is basically about how one of King Arthur's most respected knights is humiliated in the end due to his cowardly decision.

We were given the option of basing our designs off three different themes (viking, prohibition gangster, or samurai). I interpreted the Green Knight as a Japanese Demon who protects a forest nearby King Arthur's kingdom. Due to human encroachment upon his forest, the Demon is consumed with rage...his benevolent intentions to protect turn malevolent...and he soon challenges Gawain to the death in the end. Anyways, I wanted the Green Knight to be a combination of both plant and avian elements.

"Rain Star"

"Rain Spear"

Fishing Device

The second project was to find an animal figurine and use it for reference. With reference in hand, we had to design our animal and give it a job (as if it were working for people or alongside people). I chose the platypus and created two characters as well as a device for them to use to carry out their work. Long story short, Rain Star and Rain Spear (their names are based off of actual aboriginal symbols which are indicated on their tails) are brothers who were taken as eggs by aborigine fisherman. They now catch fish for the aborigine tribe with the contraption strapped to their backs.

The contraption is made out of flexible reeds which are lined with a fine fish netting. When the platypus accelerates in the water, the reeds expand outward and capture the fish like a spider web. When the platypus decelerates, the reeds detract, thus trapping the fish.

Attic Environment

Story Moment: Flying Carpets at the Orchard

Story Moment: The Ascent

Third project was based off of a short story called Flying Carpets by Steven Millhauser. The original story was basically about the essence of summer and childhood. My interpretation takes place in the 1920's at an orange orchard farm. The boy's parents are immigrant laborers who lead a rough life during a time of agriculture decline. When the boy obtains a flying carpet, he uses it as a mode of escape to break away from the harshness of reality. The last story moment illustrates then climax of the story before he falls.

Anyways, I still need to revise a lot of the work I posted.

Wushu + Green Ninja: Origins

Long story short, back in October was probably one of the most memorable experiences in my entire life. I had the opportunity to represent the U.S. at a world traditional wushu competition in Shiyan, China. We visited a wushu school where 2,000 students applauded our team's arrival, stayed at 3 different 5 star hotels, ate awesome food everyday, toured Wudang Mt and the Shaolin Temple, and brought back a silver medal. The people I met along the way were friendly and we were treated very well. I can't summarize in words how thankful I am for having the opportunity to go on the trip and having the support from family, friends, and teachers.

Represented SJSU at a collegiates competition too. Twas Awesome

Eagle Claw:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0gutzAuWdU

Broadsword:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDlGL42_pwk

Green Ninja: Origins will also be coming to SJSU SOON! 3 days of 10 hour film shoots were tiring, but it was a lot of fun. More characters and different locations. I can't wait until everything is edited!

Anyways, to those who actually stuck through to read this gigantic blog post, I applaud you.

Cheers to summer!

-Kevan

Showdown

2011-04-03T13:22:00.001-07:00

Something serious is going to go DOWNNNnnnn....

Really quick post...but I'll post more later :/

Kevan

Vis Dev Stuff: Fall 2010

2011-01-02T20:54:00.000-08:00

The Hansel and Gretel Project:

Set in Germany, the witch lived in a quaint village located in the central portion of the Black Forest.

She was soon exiled to the northern remote area of the forest. Through many years of struggle to survive, she was slowly consumed by the darkness of the forest and became a beast. Opportunistic in nature, the witch does not actively hunt her food, but consumes whatever unfortunate being passes her cliff-side cottage. She has a close relationship with other scavengers such as vultures and coyotes and uses these creatures to locate possible prey.

For my character designs I based her beast form on elements of scavenging creatures such as the bearded vulture (native to europe and certain parts of asia) and also the coyote. Her bird servants eat Hansel and Gretel's bread trail, causing them to be lost and to find the Witch's cottage.

I wanted the cottage to feel like the forest has a taken it over. I could've pushed it a lot more, but oh well. The cottage sits on a the edge of a cliff. Stairs located at the back of the cottage lead to the bottom of the cliff, revealing the witch's oven and corpse pile.

Pimp my Truck:

.....Sooo...I thought it would be fun to incorporate some Japanese mythology into the back story for my characters. At first I wanted to design some kind of fried rice rice truck, but to incorporate the mythology aspect, I practically changed my designs from Chinese to Japanese over night....hah.

"For over 20 years, the Tomita family has served their community wholesome rice bowl dishes, however the owners recently passed away and the truck business was turned over to their son. The inheritor, Jack Tomita is an insecure, but kind young man who is a novice of a cook. He can't even cook rice, the staple ingredient in most of his family's recipes. Even though he struggles to keep up with the demands of his food truck, he knows that it is his responsibility to continue his family's success.

After hearing Jack's failing business, the Rice God Inari sends down her rookie fox servant named Kome to serve as a "guardian angel". Selfish and stubborn at first, Kome only helps jack to earn her nine tails to finally be realized as an enlightened spirit. But after realizing Jack's dilemma, she pitches in when she is needed.

In the end, Jack's business flourishes and Kome earns her nine tails for her deeds on earth"

Portrait...

2010-08-12T00:14:00.000-07:00

Haven't done a self portrait in a very long time :/

- Kevan

Beneath the Sinkhole

2010-08-08T22:44:00.000-07:00

Stanford University is huge, but I have to say its really beautiful there. Painted and sketched for awhile.....and then I joined my friend at Stanford wushu's practice :)

.

Stanford Memorial Church

I also revised two of my custom wushu silk designs. Got some feedback from my coach. Maybe i'll be wearing one of them in China when I compete in October :).

And here is another digital painting with color. Eh...I tried making the lighting as dramatic as possible...but anywho here it is. The creatures probably don't make any sense at all because they look too heavy to actually fly......but whatever, in my fantasy world, they can :) haha.

Beneath the Sinkhole

-Kevan

Watch Out Shroomen!

2010-08-02T19:50:00.000-07:00

Swooped down from above, the shroomen scatter D:

At Heaven's Door Painting

2010-07-26T21:05:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to finishing one project I've been working on for the past couple weeks. The painting is based off of an old drawing I did when I finished my first year at sjsu.

For reference, I searched for images of various Chinese temples such as the Hanging temples of Shanxi and I drew certain elements from the ornaments you usually see on the temple roofs.

The guardian lions are kinda my spin on the Fu dog statues you usually see in front of buildings. I wanted to portray them more like gods...belittling the lone soldier in front of them >:)

Oldddd drawing....with bad perspective lol...

Thumbnail Sketch

Exploring Lion Sketches...

Finalized sketch

Line Lay-in

Value Block-in

Final Painting

Overall, I thought it was pretty fun revamping this old drawing of mine.

-Kevan

Palace of Fine Arts Painting/Sketch

2010-07-06T20:31:00.000-07:00

I practically had no idea what colors I was mixing/using......but I just went with my gut :P

-Kevan

Wushu Silk Uniform Designs

2010-06-29T22:17:00.000-07:00

These aren't really related to the art I usually work on......but I think these are worth posting :).

I've always wanted to design my own wushu silk uniforms, but never got around to doing it. I looked at several old school wushu silk designs for inspiration and old chinese jewlery/symbols for reference. I basically wanted to blend the old with the new without everything being too obnoxious :P. Both have a shiny silver trim.

This one is specifically made for my eagle claw form. I was inspired by some elements from xu xiang dong's wing designs on his silks. I might possibly make this one a short sleeved silk, but people tell me that eagle claw looks better with long sleeves *shrug*.

This one would probably be my regular silk uniform. The sweeping "flowery" designs were inspired by some symbols from an old asian picture frame I have at home. Plus I drew inspiration from the symbols you see engraved in the Green Destiny Sword from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon :P. I'm still deciding on the color though.........I was thinking of a jade green......and make my silk look even more asian, haha...

I'll probably revise some things, but I can't wait until I can get these shipped off to china to be made :D.

-Kevan

Second Lion

2010-06-28T21:25:00.000-07:00

Finished sculpting the second maquette which took wayyy shorter to complete. The aluminum foil armature underneath really helped stabilize the whole body and it kept it from falling a part :P.

Together at last :P

-Kevan

Lion Maquette

2010-06-26T13:40:00.000-07:00

Its been awhile since I've sculpted anything....probably the last time I worked with clay was sophomore year of high school.

I found it pretty tough making this maquette because a lot of the parts kept breaking on me. For this one I used sculpey clay which is pretty nice because it never dries up......for the legs and some parts of the body, I used some strong aluminum foil as an armature underneath.

Now I have to make another one......hopefully it wont be as frustrating to sculpt, haha...

-Kevan

First Plein-aire of the Summer

2010-06-23T09:47:00.001-07:00

Feeling a bit...unaccomplished these past few weeks...

Stowe Lake, San Francisco

Cafe Interiors for the "No Robots" project....I need to learn how to use photoshop better...

The two guardians...who will be featured in a personal project of mine. Hopefully it turns out decent.....But first, I need to make a maquette :P

-Kevan

Taking it Back Old School...

2010-06-14T10:04:00.000-07:00

Still life of pokemon figurines :P........I still feel that the objects look a bit flat to me :/

-Kevan

First digital painting ever...

2010-06-08T00:15:00.000-07:00

Free Zoo days are always nice :P

Hogs with warts!

I think I'm finally getting more familiar with painting in photoshop. I'm a bit relieved because before today, I was totally clueless as to how to go about starting a painting. And to my surprise....its not that much different than painting traditionally :P.

My first digital painting ever.......is a peach, haha. Its not the best.....kind of looks like something a 13 year would have painted....but I just need more practice.

-Kevan

End of the Semester

2010-05-27T11:33:00.000-07:00

The semester is finally overrrrr.....It was really great seeing what everyone produced in the end....Some short films and storyboard animatics looked almost professional. I was really impressed :)

Doodle stuff...

A semester without illustration, painting, and what not was kind of a bummer for me...so unfortunately I didn't have the time to do a lot of sketching outside of class. Drawing creature sketches helps me free up my mind i guess :P

I wouldn't say this is the best dragon i've ever sketched haha...oh well.

Fairy Salamandar :P

Platandas! hah.......

Animation and Storyboard Animatic...

To be honest, I'm not really satisfied with what I produced this semester. I definitely improved since the first pass for these projects....but eh, I think that story still needed work, plus clarifying certain parts would have helped a lot too :/

After about 200+ drawings and with the help of a couple of my 115 friends...I finally finished it. Basically the story is about a hunter who pursues Big Foot, but isn't aware of the trap set before him.

Torn and United is basically about a family troubled by alcohol and financial issues. Based loosely on a true story :/. Not entirely satisfied with the final product...but I learned a lot from it.

Wushu:

A lot has happened with my "wushu life". Training has gotten more serious...especially this semester in particular with collegiates and UC Berkeley's competition. To be honest, I never would have thought I would be competing against such good people (people I have grown up watching at tournaments and etc)......in a way it feels like an honor :P. Hopefully, I will continue to improve in the coming years........and look less foolish on the competition floor :/

Eagle Claw at UC Berkeley's 18th annual Chinese Martial Arts Tournament

The training has been brutal...but the pay off has been beyond sweet :)

Collegiates silver medal and UCB's CMAT gold

Commercial...

I'll just keep the commercial thing brief. I decided to audition for a commercial who was looking for a person who was "competent" in martial arts and swords play...I figured it would be a cool experience. I got the part and I was being filmed on set for three days straight. Friday we filmed from 12-8:30 and Hakone Gardens in Saratoga (a Japanese garden) and the next day I had to wake up at 4am for a 5am shooting.....which was 10 hrs of filming that day...and the following day I was being filmed jumping off the VTA lightrail, haha. The experience was awesome...met lots of cool people......had my own make-up and wardrobe crew :P

Hakone Gardens

A small group of filming crew

It was a big pain dressing into this costume...so many parts...

Anyways...thats it...

-Kevan

This and That

2010-04-22T10:32:00.000-07:00

The semester is almost over....but right now summer is practically non-existent to me...mainly because of one big animation project and a storyboard animatic :/

But I guess here is the update on what has been worked on?...

Rhinos Galore!

Final Storyboard Project

In the beginning I wanted to do some fantastical story about dragons, creatures and what not.......but after looking back at the LAME story that I attempted to create for John's 112A class, I figured that I should go back to the roots and base a story off of an actual experience.

I guess, my objective for this particular story was to not retell the generic story of a family with drinking problems, but to capture innocence and how alcohol can affect those around you? Errr..something a long those lines....

My story is basically about a family of badgers, they are having financial problems, but through those hard times....family still comes first.

Three Key Frames from beginning, middle, to end:

People keep telling me it resembles the Kraken....I guess the concept I had in my head didn't transfer onto the paper like it was supposed to :P

Wushu

Spartan Wushu has had two nice semesters so far. We had a demo at Spartapalooza last month with lots of SHM supporters in the audience (which I am very very thankful for :D). I'll be vice president of the club next year...soooo, hopefully our team will be able to start managing practices and maybe a couple demos/seminars here and there.

Spartapalooza demo on youtube:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEyIMzXKsC8

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlrCFmpXrSs&feature=related

Berkeley's tournament is coming up in a week!........i feel so SCREWED...enough said :/

and on a random note, I might be starring as the "green ninja" for a public announcement commercial, haha! I'm kind of looking forward to filming :D

-Kevan

Spring Semester UPDATE

2010-03-24T22:09:00.000-07:00

No internet for a month = No fun...which also means no blog updating :(. But hey, I'm back! yay?

Storyboarding has been a pretty difficult concept for me to grasp because of the different camera angles, staging, and what not......not including the pitching, but overall I am enjoying the class.

Here are a couple 9 panel story boards which are usually due every week. Hopefully they read for you guys :P.

Lunch Surprise!

My Allergic Valentine

Kidnapped

Short Animation:

For much of the semester until now, I've been refining my story for my short animation and also created character designs as well. Here they are.

Early Concepts:

Simplified Turn-Around Sheet for Big Foot

Figure Drawing:

Creature Doodles:

Random creature drawings, haha...

"Warghhh!!! mmm...giant cow!"

Some kind of...sea monster...

Undead creature?

Bird Serpent

Wushu:

Training has been pretty brutal. So painful that my teeth hurt and my thigh/calve muscles are going to explode...but the pay off has been sweet. This year was the first time SJSU sent down a wushu team to represent at the 14th annual Wushu Collegiates hosted by the University of Oregon. It was probably one of the best experiences in my entire life...and it was worth the trip because I brought back a silver medal :). I am pretty grateful for my coach and my friends who have supported me throughout the whole way.

My eagle claw competition vid from Collegiates:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xApGtr-psMU

Spartan Wushu brough back three golds and one silver! Jiayo!

Thats it for now.

-Kevan

Wrapping up Winter Break...

2010-01-19T19:36:00.000-08:00

Last week of winter vacation.....it seems that it has passed by so fast even though its been about more than a month? Far longer than my friends' vacations, eheh...

Random Sketches...

Jury Duty....I couldn't avoid it this time, haha. I was honestly a bit nervous...but I was only there for about two hours. Not bad :/

Snow Leopard

Winter Vacation Rendering?...

For pretty much my whole vacation I've been working on another "forest rendering". I'm not sure what made me decide to work on another one...I guess I wanted to challenge myself because I still struggle with color unity and etc.

For this environment, I based it off of a Chinese folklore that I found in one of my books called, "Li Chi Slays the Serpent". The story is set in Fujian, China where a vicious serpent inhabits a cave. To prevent further terror, the people decide to offer the serpent a sacrificial victim.......Li Chi (the story's heroine) decides to volunteer as the next sacrifice, but her motives are to actually slay the serpent. She packs her sword and her dog to battle it out with the serpent as well as sweet rice cakes to coax the monster out of its den. In the end, she kills it :/

Serpent Sketches...

For the serpent, I wanted to combine both cobra and mantis qualities. And now when I look back at it...the front legs remind me of the Cloverfield monster...haha...ugh.

Final Illustration-ish...

When the serpent approaches the sacrificial victim :)

Thumbnail Sketch:

Quarter Comp:

Color Comps:

Final...

I honestly had some difficulties finding the motivation to bring this painting to a decent finish......and there are certain elements about this piece that I'm not really liking...but oh well, at least I attempted it. Now I seriously have to familiarize myself with painting digitally -__-...arghhh...

Wushu...

I was browsing youtube one day and I came across a video of the exact same eagle claw form that I learned when I was in China! Liu Qing Hua taught me it...and she's legend when it comes to straightsword :D

Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88NVBbhPVEE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1salH5iayKM&feature=related

-Kevan

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-25T18:07:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays everyone. I hope all of you are enjoying this day with loved ones...and what not :)

An xmas gift for the parents. The theme was lame...but I just wanted to try something out I guess :/

-Kevan

Wrapping up the Fall Semester!

2009-12-18T10:08:00.000-08:00

AHHHHhhhh...the semester is finally over. It was tough, but I learned a lot :D

Time to update.

Some Figures:

Another Mandrill Demon Drawing:

I started this one in my sketchbook awhile ago, but never got the chance to finish it. Yay mandrill demon!....haha..

Sack Pantomime Animation:

I don't consider myself much of an animator because I feel like I don't have an eye for it like some of my other peers, but working on this animation was definitely a learning experience. For this final animation, we were required to incorporate a change in emotion in our flour sack pantomime. What I found challenging about animating a flour sack was that the sack has only a body and tassels, so most of the emotions are to be expressed by clear poses. I personally had a hard time figuring out different ways for the sack to hold the fishing rod, but i guess i figured it out...kinda?

Forest Renderings:

These are two forests illustrate an environment from the story of Jorinde and Joringel by Brothers Grimm. They both are supposed to portray a different mood...one should be pleasant and inviting and the other is hostile and foreboding. I had some trouble unifying the colors in both paintings....but oh well, I tried..haha..

Pleasant forest Graphite Rendering

Hostile Forest Graphite Rendering

Pleasant Forest acrylic rendering

Hostile Forest acrylic rendering

Thats all for now....now its time to enjoy my winter vacation >:D

-Kevan

New Plein Aire studies and Demon Sketches

2009-11-10T23:33:00.000-08:00

*sigh*..more work..always busy...and I survived today on 2 hours of sleep =__=...that's a first...

Plein Aire...

Guadalupe Park Plein Aire Study

Complimentary Plein Aire Study

Figures...

Demon Creature...

Conceptual doodles :P

Mandrill Demon profile view...I'll probably draw another one in a much more dynamic pose.

Grading papers =__=...lol...quickly sketched my professor during my history class :/

Wushu...

SJSU's wushu club is starting to take root on campus. We're getting involved with club sports and is currently planning to host collegiates (a national wushu competition for university students) next spring on campus. I'm pretty excited because sjsu has never had this kind of exposure before.....so if any of you are interested in learning wushu, you are welcomed to ask me about info and one day, maybe drop by our practice days or demonstrations on campus in the future :)

Lets start forming sjsu's wushu team! :D

-Kevan

Flying Pig!

2009-10-27T13:20:00.000-07:00

Furlough week wasn't as relaxing as I thought it would be....I was mostly using my time revising my quarter comps for my forests -__-...

Plein Aire...

Guadalupe Gardens, San Jose

Figuress...

Quick People Sketches...

Flying Pigs for Fun :/

Eh...Just some doodle concepts...I was just playing around with silhouettes and head concepts.

-Kevan

Gingko and Rock Rendering

2009-10-15T22:21:00.000-07:00

*Sigh*...animation is frustrating me still, but yay for no classes next week :). I can finally have a time to breath and work at my own leisure.

Anyways..um...here's some work I've produced since the last post :/

Mandrillus Sphinx...again:

Figures...

Walking Gesturesss...

It is interesting how different people walk...some people slouch..other people make hand gestures....its all very interesting.

Doodles...

"Shroom Folk" - This one was fun...was inspired while watching Planet Earth in 113b, haha...

Gingko Tree branch and Rock Rendering:

This rendering turned out a lot better than I thought it would...especially the rock because I did not know how to approach it at first x__x. Haha...a friend of mine told me that the rock reminded him of a little planet...

ok..back to work =__=...

-Kevan

Branch and Pine Cone Rendering

2009-09-22T12:06:00.000-07:00

Busy busy busyyyy....animation is frustrating me quite much...

but here is some work I produced during the past couple weeks..not much, but there will be more :/

Figure Drawing...

2nd figure looks like it's saying, "Rwarrr, i'm a dinosaur!!"....lol...heh...nvm..

"Before the Dive.."

"Boo Hoo...my life is a downward spiral.."

More Mandrillus Sphinx:

Mossy Branch and Redwood Pine cone Rendering:

Will post the leafy branch and rock rendering soon.

-Kevan

Trees and Mandrills...

2009-09-08T12:58:00.000-07:00

School has been really intense lately...x__x. Actually, I should be revising my egg and acorn right now, but I'm just going take a breather :/

Too Many Trees...

Various Tree Studies around the sjsu campus

Figuresss:

I haven't been figure drawing since last semester..so, i'm really rusty. I enjoy working with my new bleed-able pen though :)

Mandrills at the SF Zoo:

Also during the Labor Day weekend, I went to the San Francisco zoo to sketch mandrills for the 114 assignment.

These guys are pretty cool. While I was sketching them, one of the zoo keepers was throwing chunks of lettuce into their enclosure. The keeper told me that they love lettuce and would sometimes hog all of it up to themselves, haha. And...that is exactly what happened, the male mandrill began hogging up all the lettuce to himself and one thing led to another...and the 3 female mandrills started ganging up on him which resulted in a bit of a squabble. I found it pretty intense.

I woulddd post my egg and acorn, but I'm not too happy with them...hopefully i'll get around to posting them up once I correct them. Oh, and my branch and pine cone too -__-...

-Kevan

Wrapping UP Summer

2009-08-23T17:42:00.000-07:00

Time to wrap up summer. *sigh*...

Mandrill portrait - I guess after sketching the mandrills at the zoo, I was inspired to paint an expressive portrait of one.

Stowe Lake

Levi Park - I never knew there was a park right underneath coit tower. It's very lush...serene...and I love how they designed the the waterfall and small stream :)

Japanese Tea Garden

Bread Fishing - When my family went camping for the first time, my parents bought little toy fishing rods for me and my sister. We were so excited to use them at the pond right by our cabin.....instead of giving us bait, our parents gave us a loaf of bread to use, haha. I just thought it would be nice to illustrate that particular scene :).

Sharpei - I've always loved this particular breed of dog...so I painted this one just for fun....my dad ended up framing it for himself because he likes these dogs too, haha.

-Kevan

Qilin!

2009-08-09T23:17:00.000-07:00

My sketchbook work production has slowed down a bit...but here are a couple pages/pieces I came out with for this week.

Samurai Armor of Domaru Gosuko

Last week I ended up going to the Asian Art Museum to check out their new exhibit. I actually expected there would be more, but the samurai armor that they put up on display were amazingly detailed and ornate. I especially loved this particular piece of armor with the dragon ornament on the top of the helmet.

uh..Some lemurs

Mandrill Studies

The Sf zoo finally has a male mandrill in their exhibit. I find these species of baboons pretty fascinating because of their vibrant facial markings......plus they have some gnarly fangs :D

Winged Qilin

A small drawing I worked on for a friend.

-Kevan

Summerrrr...

2009-07-23T18:21:00.000-07:00

I think its time to update...

Painting Here and there...

Golden Gate Park

Weird fountain structure in Sf. I painted this one from a photo though, but i was good practice.

Alcatraz

Tidbits of Union Square

Free Zoo Trip..

Another free trip to the zoo...I'm so glad to be an sf resident :) haha...

Kangaroo Studies

Polar Bear Studies

I didn't paint this at the zoo...but I thought a portrait would be nice to pair with my spectacled bear sketches
Other Stuff...

I found a nice black and white photo and thought it would be interesting to paint it. I should make a point to paint some models though :/

For fun...kinda x__x

Portrait for fun...

Clash of the Titans

A project that my friend asked me to do for him. He wanted a charcoal drawing with a dragon, great roc, and a tiger all in one composition. I actually had fun working on this one, but did a good amount of research and reference searching beforehand. For example, the dragon was tricky because it is a creature from imagination/myth...so I looked at images of crocodile heads, eagle talons, deer antlers, and bearded dragon scales for reference. The turbulent water was also tricky to capture and I still need some practice...but overall, it turned out decent.

By the way, sorry about the photo, it definitely doesn't do justice to the actual 18x24 drawing :/.

thats all!

-Kevan

Some Work Here and There

2009-06-16T23:50:00.000-07:00

Mm...I haven't really produced anything that great lately. I've got to try to step it up a notch :/

"OH SNAP!"

"HURRY!!!"

Two illustrations I did for fun which were inspired by two of my plein air studies I worked on a week ago.

Some people I sketched at the mall...In some way I kinda like how this one turned out, *shrug*...

Seal Rock

Another Plein air study. I'm not sure about you guys, but to me...blue green looks like grey to me :/.....

-Kevan

SF zoo

2009-06-05T16:57:00.000-07:00

I made a trip down to the San Francisco zoo on wednesday since it was a free day for all SF residents...and these are some sketches that I came out with.

The perfect model...

I'm liking the anteater sketch on the top left, but the others are kinda...meh :/

Some quick Rhino studies

Probably one of the most awkward poses I've ever seen a Lion do...ahaha...This was seen from above by the way.

-Kevan

Summer

2009-05-30T21:57:00.000-07:00

My second year of college has been completed...and....summer is here! :)

Time to dedicate these couple months to painting and sketchbook work.

Battling color blindness is no easy task, but I'm surprised at how my rendering turned out. There are probably some weird color choices....but I can't really tell unfortunately :/.

Spawned through tiresome nights of rendering, emerges the RENDERING MONSTER! haha....I doodled this random creation during my last days of color rendering :/
Plein Air Painting

After taking 113a, I realized that I really need to start practicing painting outside, so for the past couple days, I've been going to golden gate park to paint with gouache. I'm slowly getting accustomed to the medium, but there are still things that need improvement. I can't get the atmospheric perspective that I want in these paintings :/.

Plein Air Bridge Study

I OD'd this one...

-Kevan

In a Nutshell

2009-05-04T16:25:00.000-07:00

It is about time for an update since I haven't blogged for about 2 or so months >__>;;;. These past couple months have actually been a roller coaster for me. Not only did have to prepare for my portfolio, but I also had to prepare for my tournament which was literally a couple days after the portfolio deadline.

Some Portfolio:

My portfolio got accepted, and that's pretty awesome :). So...I'm no longer a pre-illustration/animation major and now the REAL work begins for me =__=. Hm, I guess i'll share some portfolio spreads.

Hopefully I can produce better material for my future portfolios. I was a bit doubtful that I would get accepted this semester :/.

Some Stuff:

Here are some sketches/other work that I have completed since the last time I blogged.

A little concept of mine of the Manticore...haha...

Some Figure Drawings (an area that I obviously need to work on lol...)

A couple portraits of my friends.

Wushu:

I unfortunately didn't take any photos at Berkeley's 17th annual Chinese martial arts tournament, but for the most part, I enjoyed myself and I brought back TWO gold medals! :). I saw lots of talented people out there this year including a couple team members from the Philippines, Canada, as well as Russia.

Ying zhao quan (eagle claw) at SF's Cherry Blossom Festival

SO...........in a nutshell, life is pretty good: I got accepted into the SJSU animation illustration program and I brought back two gold medals. Now I've got to make that extra push to finish up my color rendering =__=....I will NOT let my color blindness ruin my color rendering, LOL.

-Kevan

Spring Is Among Us

2009-03-19T23:15:00.000-07:00

I haven't been on this blog for awhile...mainly because I've been pretty busy. Actually...I'm in a bit of a panic right now, haha....the portfolio review is coming up pretty soon....

But the good news is that I finished my black and white rendering which I found pretty fun...but at the same time, a pain the the butt, haha. I'm pretty proud of what I accomplished though, I never would have thought I would be able to render such a painting....and I was so intimidated when I started! XD.

"Home Cooking"

San Jose City Hall

meh...this one was kinda tricky...

And on the side, I've been working on some other drawings....mainly in my GE class because they're all pretty dry...haha.

Pigsy - Monkey King Project Concept

Lionfish Study

Lionfish Dragon Concept

Training has been GRUELING....my martial arts tournament is coming up in less than a month...and the portfolio review deadline is coming up in less than a month TOO! I seriously need to add more oil (jiayo!)

Work of the Last Week of Winter Vacation

2009-01-20T21:44:00.000-08:00

School is about to start in about a day....I have a strong feeling that I'll be bombarded with massive amounts of work this semester -__-...oh well, haha.

Anyways, I'll share some Sketchbook work I completed during my last week of vacation.

Deyoung Museum:

I found these statues outside the Deyoung Museum in Golden Gate Park.

Kangaroo and Dog Statue

SF Wharf/Pier 39:

California Academy of Sciences:

Beaded Lizards

Waxy Monkey Frogs

These guys were awesome models...hardly moved at all, haha.

Moray Eels

Steinhart Coral Reef

This one is probably one of my favorite pages.

And...Other Things:

Here are some sketchbook pages that I worked on, on the side. The following two are two of four in a portrait series that I've been working on. They go with the dragon and phoenix portraits that I posted on my previous blog entry.

Lion Portrait

Xuan Wu Portrait

The Three Ox Demons

This is another concept design that I made for the SJSU monkey King project. In the script that the group created, they included three ox demons that attack Sun Wukong. I thought it would be interesting to assign each character a specific weapon according to their body type/personality. From the beginning I wanted to include a long weapon, a flexible weapon, and a short weapon...so I figured the gwan dao, meteor hammer, and double broadswords would be appropriate.

Since the first demon is pretty bulky compared to the other two, I thought the gwan dao would be most suitable for him.

The second demon is the smallest out of the three, so I gave him a long range flexible weapon. He wields the meteor hammer.

The third demon is kinda lanky, but agile...so I gave him double broadswords.

Alright, thats all for now :D

Stuff and...More Stuff

2009-01-08T21:03:00.000-08:00

Still on vacation and its been pretty productive for the most part. I guess I'll share some sketches that I finished within the past week.

San Francisco Japantown:

One day I decided to bus myself down to Japantown to get some sketches into my sketchbook since I'm so horrible at drawing people/environments XP.

Cafe Hona Sketch - Pen, Ink wash, Water color

I know there are several problems with this one...like perspective issues and wonky chairs (I was getting kinda tired and lazy), but I finished this one in one sitting which is good...i guess? hehe.

Anderson Bakery Sketch - Pen, Ink wash, water color

I actually didn't finish this one in one sitting because I was too tired from the previous sketch. So I took a picture and worked on this one at home. I'm slightly dissapointed with this one because it seems a bit "stiff"....I'm guessing its because I worked from a photo. Blah..perspective issues...-__-...

Pagoda - Pen, ink wash, water color

A sketch that I finished today. The weather was still overcast, but fortunately it didn't rain while I was drawing it, haha. I feel that this one turned out alright...though I know there are some ellipse issues.

Golden Gate Park:

I also took a trip down to Golden Gate Park as well. I thought this statue in front of the Deyoung Museum was interesting, so I decided to do a shadow study.

"Cranking Out the Juice" Statue - Pen, Ink wash, water color

2nd SF Zoo Trip:

I made a second trip to the SF zoo on wednesday because every first wednesday of the month, SF residents are allowed free admission. Surprisingly there were very few people at the zoo that day which made the trip a bit more relaxing :D

Zebra, Kudu, and Giraffe - Pen, ink wash, water color

Lion monkey? Gibbon, Howler monkey, a couple colorful ducks - Pen, ink wash, water color

Black Swan, Tapir Studies - Pen, ink wash, water color

Lioness and Tiger Studies - Pen, ink wash, water color

Totally messed up on the lioness...lol...

Other Stuff:

A couple drawings I've been working on. Here they Are XP

Dragon Portrait - Pen, Ink wash, water color

Phoenix Portrait - Pen, Ink wash, water color

Sandy (Journey to the West) - Pen, Ink wash, water color

This is my concept design for Sandy from the Chinese folklore, Journey to the West. I know it doesn't look like you're traditional Sandy, but I wanted to try something more aquatic.

I love this picture of myself for some reason....yes! broadsword!

Thats all for now :)

Some Stuff

2008-12-29T23:56:00.000-08:00

Yeaaa...I don't use this much, do I? haha...

I'll just use this blog strictly for art and maybe throw in some wushu here and there if it's interesting :)

So, since the beginning of the break, I've been going out to draw more often...I guess I've got to thank John's class for making drawing a daily habit for myself XP.

Last week I decided to go draw the dome and the columns at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Since I live in Sf, it was easy getting there...however I still had to bus myself across the city in order to get there -__-...

The Dome - Pen/ink wash with a bit of blue water color which doesn't show well because of my lame scanner.

I'm pretty horrible when it comes to drawing buildings...probably because of my lack of knowledge of perspective. Its just soooo confusing sometimes o_O;;;....

The Columns - Pen and ink wash with blue water color that doesn't show up at all -__-...

I feel that these were good first attempts...i'll probably go back again to draw them better XP.

And a couple days after I decided to head downtown to go to the Westfield mall to draw some people eating at the food court.

Food Court - pen and Ink wash

Another failed attempt at drawing people within and environment, blahh..I'll probably draw some more.

This was a concept design for the Monkey King project. I wanted to try something new, so I brainstormed some monkey species to use and I found one that was interesting. I chose to use the Chinese golden snub-nosed monkey for this design...I figured that since the project is based off of a Chinese myth/legend...the monkey species of Sun Wukong (monkey king) should be from China. I included the crown, as well as the tiger patterned clothing, but I also added the shoulder and shin guards. I thought that the turtle patterns on the guards were interesting and very earth bound.

Sun Wukong Design - Pen and Ink wash

And I'll throw in a couple pages from my zoo trip, enjoy :D

Day before 4th of July

2008-07-03T22:53:00.000-07:00

I can't believe its July already...summer is really slipping by me pretty fast, haha.

Summer has been pretty much the same for the past couple weeks. Summer school in the evening, working on a few illustrations, and also wushu. I was hoping to meet up with some high school friends during the summer, however school and work schedules interfere with this "free time" that all of us share. I realize that once you're in college, you won't see your old friends as much as you did before....its kinda sad, but I guess thats the way things are meant to be for now.

Lately, I've been inspired to illustrate scenes from storybooks...I'm not sure why, but I just think its just really satisfying recreating a specific moment in time.

Guardians of the Forbidden Gate - Pen and Ink

Yep, this totally came out of my own imagination, haha. At first I originally envisioned a lone warrior facing off against two guardians lions, but I later decided that a hoard of soldiers would make it looks more EPIC. I am most pleased with how the lions are positioned. The lion with its back turned to the viewers really gives us a sense of perspective and the lion crouching down gives off a playful, yet attentive persona. However, this drawing is just a sketch for a bigger piece that I might do in the future...so there are a lot of improvements to be made *cough* perspective *cough*.

Sun Wukong vs. Nezha - Pen and Ink

This illustration depicts the battle between Sun Wukong (the monkey king) and Nezha. In the story, "Havoc in Heaven" Sun Wukong creates mischief in Heaven. Because of this, the Jade Emperor sends his warriors down to earth to stop Sun Wukong. Nezha is sent from the heavens wielding his spear and two fire and wind wheels to do battle with Sun Wukong, but suddenly Sun Wukong creates three clones of himself to do his battle for him.

Imperial Dragon Warrior - Pen and Prismacolor marker

Saturday wushu practices at hong dao have been pretty grueling. Now it seems that saturday practices are dedicated to basics training and conditioning....hardcore basics training -___-. On top of that, Sunday practices have been getting pretty tough as well. But all in all, its all good.....this kind of bitter training will toughen me up -____-...haha...

Anyways, I hope everyone will have a great 4th of July.

No...my Birthday Passed T_T

2008-06-08T21:40:00.001-07:00

Sick on my Birthday?....NOOOooooo...

These past two weeks have been pretty relaxing for me, YET I'm still trying to make it as productive as possible :D.

Last week was my nineteenth birthday, unfortunately I caught a cold a couple days before -____-. So I basically stayed home sleeping for most of the week and I have to admit that it was pretty depressing. Sleeping and having the lack of energy to do anything felt horrible. However, while I was suppressed by body aches and congestion, it really got me thinking about my own life and how sometimes I feel that time its passing by too fast, and I'm not quite catching up to it.

I feel like I am given such a short time to grow up...which leaves me overwhelmed by my future responsibilities of being an...adult o_O. Ohhh...how I wish to be a kid again, not having to worry about the future and what not.

But anyways, I recovered from my cold and I started up conditioning and practicing wushu, as well going outside to work on sketchbook work and other personal art projects. Exercising and continuing with my art REALLY made me feel a lot better about myself :D.

Art

Lately I've been going outside around San Francisco to do some sketchbook work. Although the weather has been pretty windy ( I hate windy weather -___- ), I find it very relaxing drawing outdoors. I've been going to Golden Gate Park and the SF Zoo to get some environment and animal sketches into my book.

Here are two roughly sketched in environments from Golden Gate Park...

"Holy shit Kevan!!!....what're you DRAWING???!!!" - Eli

Koala with a Hangover -___-......LOL, poor thing XP

I enjoyed sketching the animals at the zoo, however I just WISH they had some ELEPHANTS! -___-...seriously, what kind of zoo doesn't have elephants??? o_O...

AND...when I'm at home, I work on my friend's 18x24 charcoal drawing. He requested for me to draw two tigers carved into a mountain...one being passive while the other being aggressive. I figured two full bodied stone tigers would be a difficult composition to create, so I incorporated their heads/arms into the mountain instead.....I personally feel that showing a larger image of the heads expresses more meaning into their personalities rather than to draw smaller tigers with less detail.

And here you go, hopefully he'll like it XP.

Mt. Tiger - Charcoal

The funny thing was that while I was working on that drawing, I was also watching all of my favorite Disney movies at the same time, haha. I really miss the traditional 2D animations that Disney use to produce in the 90's, like the Lion King, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and etc...now people are so absorbed into the 3D animation movies. I have nothing against movies like Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, and etc......but I just miss the old 2D animations. But anyways, watching all of those movies really brought back some good memories and provided me some inspiration and a bit of motivation for myself :D.

On another note, Man....I wish my friends were out of school right now. I feel so disconnected with them T_T...but anyways, hopefully we'll have some type of reunion later this month or next :)

Martial Arts Benefit for Sichuan Quake Victims

2008-05-28T20:49:00.000-07:00

I'm officially on summer break right now. It feels really nice having this time to relax, but there is always this other half of me that pushes me to always do something productive and active.

So anyways...to sum up last week, Thursday was the animation screening for the sjsu animation/illustration dept. Surprisingly my animation got picked as one of the favorites in my class so I had my one minute and eleven seconds of fame that day, haha. I just wished they adjusted the contrast on my animation because it was so dark. Overall, I got to see A LOT of impressive work that day including simple pencil tests, 3D environment rendering as well as flash animation.

And here is my animation that I've been wanting to post. Even though its only one minute and eleven seconds long, it took a VERY long time to make. I would like to give a big thanks to my friend Ryan who went out of his way to find the song for my animation as well as finding a video converter for me. Anyways....here's the final product that totaled over 300 individual drawings XP.....enjoy :D

Saturday night I headed down to Santa Clara where the Tiger Claw Elite Tournament was held. When me and Ryan arrived at the Santa Clara Convention Center, we literally saw everyone carrying at least two or more one foot trophies O_O...I thought it was quite ridiculous, but I have to admit that the trophies were so much more cooler than dinky medals, haha. I'll definitely be competing next year if they do have their tournament in California again.

But the main event that night wasn't just the tournament, it was also the Martial Arts Benefit for Sichuan Earthquake Victims. Many martial arts schools throughout the Bay Area came together to perform for a three hour demonstration which made a profit of over $55k. I think that demonstration was probably one of the largest I have ever performed for....overall the whole demonstration was pretty awesome and well represented. I really wish I brought my camera that night just to show how impressive some of the performances were such as the shaolin iron body/balls technique O_O... and etc. Anyways......it feels really good that my money will be going to somewhere helpful to aid this tragedy :).

ahh...I guess I'll throw this in to share.

Mt. Tiger...o_O.......lol....

Yes, Tigers carved into a mountain. This is however, just a preliminary sketch for an upcoming project I will be starting for a friend of mine, Jared lol. Hopefully, It will turn out alright as an 18x24 charcoal drawing, but I don't think it should be too difficult to draw. For this sketch, I used a regular black pen and a light ink wash for the clouds.

OK...gotta get back to drawing XP.