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.

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!

Stylization 1 Showcase

I hope the new year is treating everyone well! Today I’ll be sharing with you one of the final projects I worked on for Kirsten Kawamura’s Stylization 1 class at ACCD this past fall semester. As the course name would suggest, the focus of the class was to learn and adapt different existing styles from life and from other artists, enabling us to begin developing our own unique styles for our work.

Rob in the Orange Lightning - Revamped Final Illustration

The final project that we took on after midterms involved visual development of a basic adventure story following a theme or tone. This included a line-up of characters, an environment to place them in, as well as a vehicle; as for the tone, I attempted to go for something more whimsical. I imagined it as a an animated television series, similar to shows like Phineas & Ferb or Adventure Time. The bones of the visual inspiration came from a blend of artist studio CreatureBox, known for its work on the Ratchet & Clank game franchise, as well as concept artist ‘Spudonkey’ Gareth Davies. For more on the development process, click on the gallery images contained in this post to zoom and enhance!

Overall the class, its exercises, and the final project were a lot of fun to go through. It’s akin to putting your own spin on a master copy/study, and I was happy to see how the aesthetic evolved over the 7 weeks. Of course, this is only representative of half of the work I did for the class; for more on Stylization 1, do check it out in its own section under my Coursework page, where you can find that as well as archives of work from my other classes throughout my college years!

Happy new year everyone! Thanks for dropping by, I’ll speak to you again soon!