Middle O' June Summer Update

Hey friends!
I haven’t really caught a break post-grad, and I can’t believe two months have already swung by;
I have been extremely occupied! I’ll share some pictures but the short of it is:
- I graduated!
- I renovated a space at home into a real snazzy office.
- Built my very first mid/high-end desktop PC.
- I’m reacclimating with Bullet Journaling…
- And I am reintegrating into Gadget-Bot and doing much more!

ACCD SP2022 GRAD SHOW

It was great having a gallery show in person - check out my friend’s coverage of the event below!

Everything went by in such a blur; life is full of missed opportunities sure, and this is one I am grateful and glad to finally have been able to make happen for myself. Some may see some elements of live, physical presentation as a pain, but I was excited to revisit and print art, to cut foam core, to edit a video and to speak, all of it - to curate a sort of experience and vision. As soon as I began taking my wall down, I had the solemn realization that many of us may never get a chance like this again - a chance to host a show of their own work and design. I’m honored to have been able to share this pride with such an immensely talented group of graduates, to have been able to share such a personal time together.

Beyond these milestones lay more challenges,
and recent struggles made me painfully aware that I really needed to re-evaluate my working conditions.
Here’s a sneak peek of my new home office!

The next post will hopefully, really, come sooner than later! I’ll dive a bit into how I set up my brand-used space, some of the new things I’m working on (personal and at GB), and how I’m keeping it all together. I’m thankful for the support I received leading up to and after grad. My amazing ENT Dept leadership and faculty, teachers, friends, and compatriots, I thank you and miss you all dearly.

Here too especially - I got a lot more eye traffic which made me happy. I just wish in the future I saved a little bit of that effort to let you know ahead of time that I had big things coming my way, and that I also really, really encourage you all to feel free and engage with me here! My comment box and mind are open.

Until next time friends! :]

2 Weeks From the Finish!

Hey friends!

Quick announcement: sorry time swept me under the rug again - now another few months have passed and I am less than two weeks away from being finally done with my undergrad! It’s been a decade-long journey since I started my first term, and I can’t wait to show off my recent body of work. Definitely don’t be alarmed by the drastic changes to the site these next few weeks as well - I’m temporarily restructuring it for outreach purposes, and most of the content will be readily accessible again soon!

Check it out online: Wednesday, April 20th, 2020 @ 10am PST

Make sure to RSVP here for the Zoom event!

That’s all for now, wish me luck, and I hope you’re all doing well! See and talk to you again real soon.

Hello 2022

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? It sure has been hard the past year, but that’s fine, I’m back and I’m good!

So, two real big news. First and very briefly, my dear friends at Gadget-Bot welcomed me into their team over the previous summer, and it has been a great time working with them! Second, this Spring is going to mark my final undergrad semester at ArtCenter. It’s been a real long time coming - my indoctrination into ACCD began all the way back in 2007. In the middle of my drop-out years, I feared never going back and finishing at all. I’m 30 now and still struggling, but I know it, I’m nearly over this next hurdle

For tonight, enjoy this small sample of work I’ve done since the quarantine. For the next few months, expect some big changes and additional content here as I prepare myself and this site for graduation!

Hope you’re all off to a great start this new year! Talk to you again real soon. :]

Wk 10/14: Some 6th Term Art Dump

Hey all! Just wanted to make a quick post and update about some of the work I have going on in my current classes. It’s nearing the end of another semester. Hang around ‘til the end for a nifty surprise!

On top of the normal workload, I’ve been prepping for my 6th Term Review under ACCD’s Ent. Design track. For those of you outside of ArtCenter, our semesters operate in a trimester ‘term’ system - what this means for me is that this is essentially my junior grade review, before I tackle the larger senior project and classes. To pass, I’ve compiled a complete body of all of the schoolwork I’ve done since re-entering ACCD in Spring of 2019 - a collection of over 400 pages, some of which isn’t even publicly shown or available on here yet! And it’s only going to be up for your viewership for a limited time. Here’s the link - if you are so inclined to scroll near-perpetually through this large library of art and design. And give me your thoughts down below in the comments if you did look through it, I need that engagement from you! :D

Take care, see you guys again soon!

Taking Flight / Dreams of Design / Designs from A Dream

originality.jpg

First assignment/project from Originality in Design with Shannon Jeffries last semester! I had a really strong (and emotional) start here - the goal was to pull as many cues from a dream together into a collage and visual structure to drive designing for abstract experiences with strong correlating elements. The gist of it is that images can communicate specific emotions or contexts, and that they need to be the anchors for the narrative and visuals.

The dream? It was the one my mom had under anxiety and heavy medication the night my sister passed - Vivian showed Mom the world before departing from it. Some of the images I collected to communicate certain motifs come from Vivian's own personal library of photography as well. Also, never tried doing a color script before - so that was new and interesting to wrap my head around. Reflecting on that time and working on this over a year later served to be really cathartic for me.

In other news, I’m dying here (as usual)! Worse off this term than the previous three. Sorry sorry about the lack of posts (as usual). I’ve got a lot of heavy projects due near immediately (as usual) so I’m getting right on that now! On top of the upcoming 6th term review - yikes!

Week 5 - VR Concepts Project 1

Hey all, hope you’re hanging in there! I’m gonna be sorry forever for being MIA all the time - it’s already the 5th week into this Spring term and I’m getting CRUSHED. To be honest I had originally planned on making a deep post about the wonders of exploring and using VIRTUAL REALITY weeks ago: I’ve resigned to show just one of the projects I wrapped up recently.

2021.02.15_WisonH_VRConcepts_Wk4_GravitySketchVehicle_FinalConcept.jpg

Cool, more spaceships. I’ve done a few iterations of “3d models into concept painting” ships before. What’s special this time? This is the first time I tried that initial step in VR - using Gravity Sketch with the Oculus Rift. This semester I hopped onboard a recently added VR CONCEPTS class taught by Patrick Hanenberger, and as was allowed to borrow a headset from school to fulfill this ‘educational need’ of mine. I’m reworking the previous post I mentioned with more details and explanations, but the gist of it was that it was a big investment and troubleshooting quest to get my setup workable with VR.

 

These above images were grabbed from within the headset while using Gravity Sketch.

 
 

Importing the model into Blender for some lighting set up before painting.

 

I was going pretty stir crazy and demotivated with regards to schooling, especially now that we’re nearly at the year mark from when that mess began. I was desperately looking for some kind of change in environment, and thankfully VR technology has shown me a pretty unique experience so far.

Happy Lunar New Year and Happy Valentine’s everyone! You’ll hear from me again soon!

Winter Break

All I can think of to do post-term as I finish up these final projects is being a vegetable.

Vehicles and Props Autonomous Covert Drone

Vehicles and Props Autonomous Covert Drone

I’m so worn out! last night as I was toiling away into 4am my hand began to cramp something major, and I just couldn’t rest my Wacom stylus on my middle finger to draw anymore.

Color Theory Deep Stone Crypt Color Key

Color Theory Deep Stone Crypt Color Key

Last spring I literally broke my back from overworking - so as soon as my hand started acting up I started questioning how long I could keep working like I am. I haven’t been taking care of myself - neglecting to work out, let alone limber up and stretch. And I’m supposed to keep drawing for the rest of my life

Stylization 2 Austrian Village Illustration

Stylization 2 Austrian Village Illustration

Snowballing happens regardless of whether you have snow or not. It’s like with each passing day of 2020 I’m left with just enough energy to do little more than my bare minimum. I’m really going to take use of this winter break to freshen up and to start 2021 nice and refreshed!

Painting 3 Sewing-Machine Spaceship Illustration

Painting 3 Sewing-Machine Spaceship Illustration

2020 had more than its fair share of upsets - but my biggest takeaway from the year is how much digital painting I’ve been practicing. It’s always something I struggled with (and still do) but I faced it as one of my largest challenges for the year and I’m content with how much progress I made on that front. I can only push that and my other skills farther and better.

Be sure to check out the newly populated pages in Coursework - it’s still going through some structuring resolutions but you’ll find plenty of new work in there. I hope everyone has taken something from 2020 that they can be grateful for.

Cheers, and warmest holiday wishes to you!