Happy 2012

We're into the New Year! And as I figure out the steps I need to take to be a better artist this year, I am aware of the blessings I have too! 

My last three months in LA left me wanting for more, no way will three months do the trick, more like three years!  But I've met enough talented contemporaries and bought a whole load of books to sustain my energy here for the next few months.  

Work is streaming in, and particularly painting jobs! That is way awesome!  

The Elephant Parade is in town.  I caught ALL of them yesterday at the SAME spot at the Singapore Botanic Gardens - all 162 pachyderms!  They have been installed all over the island for the past two months.  One of the interesting ones I found is the a baby asian elephant in a durian body by artist Nat Posila and Ed Robinson.

Looking forward to the unfolding of surprises in 2012! 

Happy Holidays!

It's the time of the year when everything starts slowing down.  It's good that this still happens.  We all need to take our breaks every now and then to keep our bodies, minds and spirits in check.  

CHEERS!! :D

image from 112 Katong Facebook Page

WOW!  Three months gone and so many changes in this little red dot!  Just Katong alone has 112 Katong, Tides @217, the Jago Close Coffee Shop revamp, and the Santa Grand Hotel is now opened!  Amazing work within such a small area!  Either that, or three months away has been long.

On my flight back, I made friends with a couple of travellers, and many were asking if the government sponsored my three month stint.  This immediately told me that what I just did in the last 90 days was incomprehensible!  Many commended that I was brave.  My quick reply to that, "... you mean suicidal?"

So what is my take home?

To be very very good at my craft, I have to be immersed in the right place.  And the right place at this point in my life seems to be LA.  I love living in Singapore, it's just that, this is not the place to breed artists... at this point.  Maybe later, but no, not now at this point in time.  So you get the drift.  I need to live in California.  I need to spend some time there to hone my skills.  And in order to do that, I need a job there to be able to sustain me.

Enough said. Time to put some words into action.

In the meantime, happy holidays!! :D

Gusto!

"Sing with gusto," my choir master used to tell the basses.  Now I know what she meant.  A reminder from today's readings too not to build your house on sand!

I used the time in the morning to do a little R&D.  It is not everyday that you get a close to apocalyptic look in your town!  Last evening's strong winds are the result of some high and low pressure activity near the Las Vegas area as reported by KTLA.  


How bad was it?  The damages can be seen clearly in the photo montage above.  Schools are closed, a huge tree branch fell right through my neighbour's roof, and we're all preparing for round two... tonight!

A Bird's Eye View

I trekked up the Sam Merrill Trail this late morning.  Not knowing how high or how long it'd take, I loaded my bag filled with Art materials and began the hike right after Mass. 


Thinking it'd take about 40 mins to get to the top, I made frequent pit stops to admire the view behind me and whipped up a really quick sketch when I could.  The path was narrow, so I had to be mindful of other travellers.  I bumped into Patrick on the way up and he said it'd probably be another hour plus.  So I kept going minus the sketching.  An hour passed, and I was still walking, wondering how long more I'd take.  I had no GPS, no map, I was alone, no watch to keep track of time, and furthermore... it was a school day!  :D  


As I inched upwards, I could almost see more dirt track ahead of me.  That kept me going.  I was reflecting on this and it kind of became a metaphor for my current journey towards Imagineering.  I had no idea what was up there, but I enjoyed the journey with so much to see especially from a higher elevation.  I met fellow trekkers on the way that reminded me that there are others on the journey.  


90 minutes and still no sign of the top.  I wondered to myself a lot... How much longer?  And like life, there were so many distractions:  Will I be back in time to do some work before class later?  Will I have enough water left?  Will I have enough time to go buy groceries for the Thanksgiving dinners (yes... two) I'm preparing tomorrow? What if a deer jumped out of no where and starts charging at me?  Or if a snake slid up and nit me?  All these thoughts on top of the fact that it was getting hotter.


I decided to ask the next trekker how much farther.  I got my answer 10 minutes later, "You're pretty close... 10 maybe 15 minutes," she says.  With that sudden burst of energy, I realised I was climbing faster.  Also the width of the route became tighter and steeper.  This always happens when I'm just around the bend of something awesome.  


20 minutes passed.  25.... still no sign of the summit.  The air was getting thinner, my pulse heavier, my water bottle - two gulps lefts.  This was when I told myself.  Forget school, forget the work, I'm right around something really awesome!  


Just then, I saw something industrial in the midst of the organic shapes ahead of me.  It was a sign!! And just further up more, the peak of Echo Point.  I saw a trail of rusted metal chunks from the former Mount Lowe Railway leading up to Echo Point House.  Only the foundation is left, due to the 1938 floods!  This is where I believe many would have gone, "That's it?" 


But for me, I pictured a revitalised turn of the century amusement park with the old tram and cable car system running.  I hear an echoey audio of the old style amusement park soundtrack and rides with children screaming cheerfully.  Also there are eateries and games stalls for the happy families that come up here to take a break.


Just then, two trekkers that had just arrived the top asked me if I knew the directions to another higher altitude.  Of of them pointed to the higher plains and said, "Over there, you get better bird's eye views."  Not surprising that it's named Inspiration Point.


On my way down, my mind was occupied trying to build this fun getaway.  It was then I got my answer - keep moving forward especially when things seem to be going against your flow,  you'll never know what's around the bend and it's a good way to check what you really want and have passion for.  :D

Last but not least...

Facebook has decided not to import automatically blog entries from blog sites. This should happen in the next week or so. This will be my last blog import into Facebook, but the blogging on this site will go on here - http://imaginativespark.blogspot.com/.

I forgot to mention when I went to Dreamworks the other day, I saw a bus sign with an oh so very aged and faded out logo. Right at the bottom of the sign is the Burbank Transit Logo that I designed some 15 years ago for a competition here. What a trip back into time! I never really saw this final product until that day... Oh well, time for a change!!

The building behind the bus sign is Imagineering... in case you are all wondering. :D

Whaaaa - taaaaahh!!!

It's been 52 days.

Yesterday, I popped into Dreamworks Studios as a guest and got beat up by a Panda! The place houses about 12oo creative talents from the many various art forms and it was so amazing to see how life moves on the "campus". I was even that close to seeing the Concept Art for a couple of new movies along the pipeline... way cool! :D

And just diagonally across from Dreamworks Studios on Flower Street is... Imagineering.

Trader Joe's

Thanks to this grocer, I get all my cooking done in 30 mins! :D

Almost anything I need to find is here. And most of the items are either washed, peeled, or pre-prepared so I only focus on the cooking and not the prep. Most of the items found are fresh too, so it's free from all those chemicals. The range of food here go as far as the south east asia, so that keeps my options wide and helps me stay creative in this form of art.

All Hallow's Eve

So Halloween night came and went. I had classes the entire day: from 9am to 10pm. The only thing close to a halloween ritual I did was probably to buy the above skull... muah ha ha ha... I just hope I don't get issues with security at the airport next month.

I've past the halfway mark, which means I haven't got much time left here. This is when I begin to feel that I should actually spend more time here to hone my craft. You don't just get better in 3 months. :D But overall, classes are going good. The amount of energy generated here keeps me going.

WOW! 7 Billion. I kinda know what 2 million people may look like... but 7 billion is just way over my head.

It's All Saints and and All Souls today and tomorrow... so I guess there's still time to celebrate. :o)

Live from the L.A. Zoo

Today seemed like a good day to visit the zoo, so that's what I did. Armed with my drawing tools I headed 15mins east of Pasadena.

I was partly here to scout The Tom Mankiewicz Conservation Carousel and several new attractions for my theme parks design class, but little did I know that today was the grand opening for this brand new carousel!

This must be mating season for the Masai long neck ungulates! So many visitors equipped with their camera phones waited patiently for Artimus to make his move on Neema. The wooing took ages! What a gentleman! :D I was almost there for 40 mins, nothing happened except for a couple of misfires! The only thing I got are several pages of sketches using col-erase Prisma pencils. I just used it once for an assignment recently and I thought why not use it today. The pencils feel like magic - an easy application! Ha ha... I was happy with the turn out of some of the sketching. After which, I popped into Swains to get some more!

See the sketches here http://imaginativeworkshop.blogspot.com/2011/10/live-from-la-zoo.html

The Norton Simon

Monday's painting class became a field trip to Pasadena's Norton Simon Museum (it's only five mins from where I live! :D) It is probably the most informative museum visit I have ever had. And the best part was that Karl got us in for free.

We started outside with Rodin's most famous piece Les Bourgeois de Calais. I never knew how animated this piece of artwork is until now. Moving on into the museum, we covered 14th - 17th century art, 18th - 19th century, and then finally to modern art. It was interested how some of the pieces in the modern art section were created by Karl's friends.

Take home: Every famous artist from Degas to Picasso, from Mondrian to Sargent, all went through lots of pain, either that or they were kicked out from convention to break out from what everyone else was doing. They took the risk. But before all of that happened, ALL of them understood the classical and traditional way of doing things... yes, even Mondrian. If you don't understand what's traditional, what are you going to break away from? Here's an example: We're all familiar with Picasso's style. But if we go way back, we'll see that he came from a traditional art background. Here is an image of his work when he was a student at 15 years old. Enough said.

Gouache Rocks

This past weekend, I attended a Mike Hernandez 3-day seminar on Gouache. The closest I came to dealing with gouache was doing colour swatches for Colour Theory oh so long ago.

The two plein air locations over the weekend were Vasquez Rocks and Laguna Beach. So besides learning a new medium, I get to see two pretty (and far away) sites within the LA county! Vasquez Rocks is a place many film productions use as a location for their shoot. But the minute I saw the rock formation for the first time, I thought to myself... Cars. Not only did I get to see breath-taking sites, I got to meet a wonderfully talented bunch of classmates too. :D The finishing texture of gouache reminds me of the fine sandy rough edges that Mary Blair's produces in her art pieces. I like!!

Gouache is here to stay. :D

To view the other pieces, click here.

Blairing out colourfully

Photo taken at the Disney Galley at the Disneyland, Anaheim to celebrate the art of Mary Blair and 45 years of the It's a Small World attraction.

Today, Google honours Mary Blair's 100th birthday. No wonder the Oscar hosted a tribute for her last night at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Yeah, I had class so I didn't go.

From Alice in Wonderland to Cinderella, to the It's a Small World Ride, Mary Blair has been the one behind the concept art for the Walt Disney Company. Her style so uniquely engaging and colourful, has definitely impacted the work I have done! *tear*

During character class last night, our lecturer confessed that he was almost to a point of shedding tears when he first stepped into his art class. (He studied something completely different and only got into art in his 2o's.) He realised that there were so many good artist out there, and that he was so way behind. But he pushed on. He loves what he does, and continues to do wonderful pieces, especially with animals! You can check out his work here. Later, during class, I mentioned that I am kinda going through the same phase right now. Of course I left out the fact that I'm as old as him which means I'm only, well, say... 14 years behind?? That's a lot of catching up! So... back to work. :P

See what happens at 12 noon at the It's a Small World Ride's Front at Hong Kong Disneyland:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4Ikg8RgM2w

A Day in the Life...

I began assisting Karl for the recording of his in-class lectures. These will be hosted online for anyone is interested. The seminar I attended is called Story Beats: Drawing Character moments that show story sequence. And my... what a valuable class! :D

I was able to pop in and out of Woodbury between the seminar and night class to say Hi to former classmates and Deans during the Graphic Design 80th anniversary celebrations yesterday. Good to see Mr Bill Keeney, my former dean, who lives in the south of France now with his wife. What a life!

The official Imagineering Day session on Thursday (14 Oct) was packed! The only thing I got out of it was how big the company is. Too big! Ha ha...

Homework is pouring in... putting on my busker's hat and doing the juggling thing again!

Check out that Vinyl

Okie, so I'm not into dolls... I think. But because I was passing by the Disney Store yesterday in the city of Glendale, I popped in to check it out. The Disney Stores around aren't what it used to be. I remember more noise, more toys over flowing from the shelves, more sale items... everything has toned down a couple of notches.

But there was this one collection that caught my eyes! Basically, the toddler versions of the Disney Princesses designed by Glen Keane and Mark Henn - two veterans that have been animating Disney Animation for decades - especially the princesses.

My favourite one seems to be Rapunzel. Details right down to the freckles on her cheeks!

Baby steps

After class last Saturday noon, I popped by my alma mater for a visit. The school of Graphic Design is celebrating 80 years this coming Saturday, and have invited 80 Alumni to come give one piece of advice to current students. The session itself should take 80 minutes. I was asked months back even before I knew I was heading out here to prepare something. Since I have classes on that day in the morning and in the evening, I have prepared a one minute video for my segment.

On top of that, alumni were asked to submit their recent works for an exhibition. Four pieces of my current work has been selected. Can you spot it in the picture above? My first works exhibited in L.A.! :D

All my classes have begun and the homework along with it. A total of 30 hours I will clock excluding a couple of seminars here and there. It's going to be creatively intense!! Ah... now I remember what I missed in the last 15 years or so. :D

I finally bought a scanner. I had no choice. The classes need work to be blogged. It would have been absurd to pay a dollar for each scan as a service knowing I'd be scanning quite a load of stuff. Good thing is Target was offering an all-in-one (with wifi) for a low UDS39.99. How crazy is that? And also in perfect (Kairos) timing!! Why are quite a number of things here so economically priced?

So look out for my works online... soon.

Yo-ho Yo-ho...

This evening, I had my first character design class with David Colman. And into the second hour, out of nowhere pops John the Pirate. I painted him two weeks ago at the American Animation Institute. If there's a pirate related anything that calls for a model, John Tucker is your Buccaneer! If you have seen the book, Force: Character Design from Life Drawing, there he is on the cover! :D

A very professional model... in fact, because he knew we were going to do short poses, he brought with him his entire regalia in his treasure chest which includes a barrel of rum, pirate swords and replica guns, a spyglass, and oooh, did I mention a bag filled with pirate themes soundtracks??

And so that's why the Pirates of the Caribbean Ride at Disneyland has been down for weeks! Arrrrggggh...

FIgure Drawing 101

It's getting colder in the nights. Winter's fast approaching.

But during the day, it's very Mediterranean-like. Warm hot sun, virtually no perspiration. Or what seems like zero humidity. I appreciated intense sun today as I was feeling a little feverish.

Last Saturday, classes with master draughtsman, Glen Vilppu, started. Taking these classes from him and Karl really puts me back right in the very beginning. I am constantly re-learning and correcting my old drawing habits. Like Karl Gnass mentioned once in class, "You must encounter resistance in order to grow."

Did I mention how everyone here is so so so good at what they do?

That's Glen showing me his little secret weapon for his guerilla washes, made with love using a small empty Altoids container, some putty, gesso and a clip! :D

Simpsonfied

Today was another sightseeing adventure for me!

It began with Timothy Walter Burton's Specially Ticketed Exhibition at LACMA. There were literally over 700 pieces in the form of sketches, sculpts, photos, videos, etc. And it reminded me of how important every piece of work is important, right down to the smallest thumbnail or sketch.

Next up, Film Roman Inc. This studio produced many cartoons. And one of the more popular ones is The Simpsons. Not only did I get to preview this Christmas' (2011) episode, I got myself Simpsonfied by assistant Director Ricky Manginsay. If you're interested, the image is on my facebook. Ricky is a former co-worker of Philip, my former lecturer who arranged this evening's tour.

Sony sent a free software upgrade for my camera, which now includes a couple of filters to play with. Spent the afternoon trying out the different "lenses". You will see me using some of them in my future posts.

The bulk of my classes have commenced, and looking forward to the next jammed packed 10 weeks. For now, it's back to figure drawing with Karl Gnass.

A Pink Evening

I finally made it to Pink's at La Brea. My sister recommended the place to me a long time ago!

The hotdogs are not too bad. I think I prefer the veggie baja fresh with guacamoles and tomatoes! The best thing here is the very causal setting.

Next up, Erin (family friend whom I used to babysit) and I dropped by Pink Berry! If you are from Singapore and have never seen the image below before but find this familiar... you're probably thinking Berrylite. Yes, the founder of Berrylite in Singapore studied here in L.A. for 4 years. No prizes for guessing where he got the concept, name and idea for the logo from. :D