Artistic Fong

gong xi fa chai!

2012-01-20T18:28:00.000-08:00

I know I'm a couple days early. Funny thing about growing up is that you get to a point when you no longer recieve red envelopes... you give them. This is that year. But I'm still looking forward to an amazing weekend: Good friends, AMAZING food, lots of alcohol, lots of activities... all in all... HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

2011-12-22T10:34:00.000-08:00

Slightly colder this year than usual so please do whatever it takes to stay extra warm! Thank you everyone for making this year one to remember!!!

we appreciate your patience...

2011-12-13T16:36:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the water company, I spent 20 minutes with elevator music and an automated msg reminding me my patience is appreciated. Found a piece of paper and a pen... doodled from the patio of our 5th floor. Only good thing that came out of waiting.

I drink your milkshake

2011-11-22T14:26:00.001-08:00

This is the painting I'm contributing to the "What If" show at Gallery Nucleus on December 10th. I hope everyone can make it! Here is the info http://www.gallerynucleus.com/gallery/exhibition/300

I was very satisfied with my painting at this stage. Unfortunately a little accident happened with laying resin that I had to repaint a lot of this. It doesn't look too different so I feel its safe to post now while I wait for the real one to dry. The size of this piece is 6x6.

Here is the digital comp I started with. Very rarely do the original turn out better than the comp, but I'm happy I pushed the color more in the end.

coloring book

2011-11-08T09:53:00.000-08:00

I wanted to color my line drawing like a coloring book. The whole time coloring I was thinking, "When I have kids, is this what I'm going to be doing?" Glad I'm getting some practice in.

this is how you're suppose to get tatted

2011-10-27T23:18:00.000-07:00

Wowzers... pretty siiiikk. A while back my buddy commissioned me to design his tat (Click here to see the original post of the line work) and today I just got these images sent to me. Talk about ambitious. He'll be getting it colored next week. I'm honored he went through with this so I'm going to throw in my color design for free. Gangstaaaaa...

noodling doodling

2011-10-13T14:21:00.000-07:00

Speaking of noodles, I had a pretty large bowl of noodle for dinner last night.

I'm a bit bummed that I haven't been showing love to my blog lately. I still appreciate everyone who stops by to check in. Aside from a very fast paced work schedule (only two artist including me, our art director, and our production designer to finish the entire movie) I've also been caught up with everyday unexpected happenings of life! All of which are very very VERY good. More to share with you all when it becomes official.

In the meantime here is something out of my sketchbook. I've been playing around with those watercolor pencils which I'm not too fond of since you can't really mix colors. So please excuse the overuse of primary colors. Thanks

Another painting sketch from the weekend. Wish I had started with a comp, but I guess that's why it belongs in my sketchbook.

Happily ever After :)

2011-09-09T17:12:00.000-07:00

To my awesome teacher who got me my job at DreamWorks Animation.
To my awesome office-mate who I learn from everyday at DreamWorks Animation.
Just a small token of my appreciation to the both of you. Congratulations!!!

gooey

2011-08-24T16:52:00.001-07:00

thinking about her muffin today.

moleskin

2011-08-22T12:46:00.000-07:00

For the very first time in my life... I bought a moleskin sketchbook (the water color one). Pencil and color pencils don't turn out so well on the textured paper, so I might just start painting in it. The first page I also fooled around with some crayons I bought at the 99cents store... those crayons were not the business. Also I really miss drawing and painting portraits... I might start that again. Anyways, enjoy!

dirt... grit... whatever

2011-07-08T10:21:00.000-07:00

These were fun. I was playing more with two light sources, one primary and one secondary. This reminded me a lot of my sketching for illustration class at ACCD with Bob Kato (the best mentor I ever had). As much as I enjoy painting cute... I equally enjoy painting the opposite.

Not sure if anyone on here are car enthusiasts, but if you dig through my blog to some posts dated about two to three years ago, you'll find out I fit the asian-boy-rice-rocket stereotype... except I overdid it. Well to briefly catch everyone up, I was involved with an insane car club where we decked our cars out and competed at car shows. Most people say they did it too in the past, but we didn't just put on a lip kit, some lowering springs, and slapped on a few stickers. Every car on the team made it onto the cover of import tuner, super street, d-sport, and/or PAS magazine. But the more we got involved with sponsors and the market part of the industry, the less fun it became. And slowly, due to school and a realization that I cannot be doing this forever, I had to leave the team. The car quickly broke down into pieces after driving it daily and I ended up with no longer the belle of the ball, but the trashy lady on the corner of 5th and Main st.

Fast forward to present day... makeover in the works. If you guys aren't sure what is going on, I've customized the front bumper and built the rear spoiler out of poly urethane foam. Its a lot like sculpting... except the material used is very light and fragile. After the shape is achieved, several layers of fiberglass is applied on top. Next step... bondo... and paint :) Thanks for stopping by guys!

once in a lifetime

2011-06-28T18:31:00.000-07:00

Like I mentioned, I've been playing catch up with all the commissions I agreed to a while back.

This piece was a tattoo design I was commissioned to do. I normally do not accept these type of work only because of the constant revisions and changes I've experienced (I totally understand since its something that's going to be inked on you for life). But this was a special exception. An old friend from a decade ago hit me up saying he was struggling to find an artist to design his tattoo. It's been a while since I've done anything realistic, or even gone to figure drawing classes, but I felt like I would be up to the challenge. Plus unlike other people who asks me, he was willing to pay. Now there's a good friend! Anyways, after sending him a few rough compositions, we agreed on one for me to finish polishing off. This definitely would have gone smoother if I'd gone to some figure drawing workshops a month before. But he was very pleased... and so was I :) I might ink it myself just for fun when I have some free time.

what a dead blog!

2011-06-20T09:35:00.000-07:00

I always give my friends a hard time when they don't post regularly on their blogs... look who's talking now! Apparently it is possible to become either too busy (or in my case too lazy) to post! But hopefully by the end of July, I'll be posting more often again.

So far the month of June, I've been focusing on getting a lot of commissions done that I've been pushing off for a long time. It's the worst when someone says to you, "Oh just do it whenever you have time." I remember getting commissioned in high school to draw portraits and everyone would always tell me to take my time. Fair enough, I wouldn't start it until the day they called and asked "how's the progress" ... and I reply by promising to deliver it in two more days. Procrastination at its best! Not anymore... I hope.

Coming up at the end of July, I was fortunate enough to be asked to participate in a group art show in downtown LA called PELIGRO. The flyers are still coming as well as the website, so once more info is released, I'll be posting the event on my blog. Its definitely a different style of art then what I do, so we'll see how people react. Just don't boo me out of the show please?

And finally on my personal time (when I have any), more mvc3 training. 3rd strike online is releasing soon so more training on that. Also customizing my xB again, finish building the front bumper and about to give it the fiberglass treatment. Next step, pit stop at Autofashion to get my sound system redone.

busy busy busy busy busy!! Here's a couple of birthday cards I never posted.

wheyerng wharn...

2011-05-04T22:50:00.000-07:00

Been watching a few classic spaghetti westerns due to my other sibling's obsession. Very inspirational... I wonder what the theme of the next coming painting is gonna be???? :)

So there are some good and bad news I would like to share. I'm gonna serve the dessert first (lol FastFive go watch it!): A great opportunity has come up for me to continue these paintings and hopefully exhibit them real soon. Unfortunately, this means I'm gonna have to post less of my oils since what I will be doing must be kept on the DL for a while. But don't worry, I will post sneak peeks and continue posting regularly, maybe introducing different artists, talking about inspirations, and posting some process. I got a lot of great feedbacks on my last post and I would like to continue sharing my knowledge of the animation industry along with art and design. I'll make sure to keep everyone updated!!!! Thanks for stopping by!

Rio!!!

2011-04-19T23:29:00.000-07:00

I can't believe almost 2 years has already gone by since the first time I've ever worked in an animation studio. It's ridiculous how fast time goes by. New York seemed like yesterday, my first kiss felt like the day before, and just last week, my brother and I were eager to get home from school so we could prance around the rest of the afternoon in our underwears catching bugs in the backyard and reading Goosebumps.

So while I was at Blue Sky Studios two years ago, I was fortunate enough to get my hands on some prop action with Rio! It was my first time ever working in production and I felt that I got a great education and experience out of that. I worked under the infamous Nash Dunnigan who had a great eye for simplification, caricature, and layout. He gave me the responsibility of conceptualizing the style for the props (since the film was still pretty early in production) based off of the designs of his buildings. With his supervision, I was constantly trying to find a clear definition for the props (almost like a mathematical equation) where we could eventually apply to all the props in the movie.

So here you go! I feel these pages are very important for those who look to seek a career in the animation industry as a visual development artist. It's not always pretty paintings... unless your a bad@$$... cuz apparently I'm not... lol.

couple more mystic minions.

2011-04-12T23:07:00.000-07:00

more Mystic Minions being mischievous... thats all :) I've been having a lot of fun with these guys... most likely I'll continue painting more of them in the weeks to come.

11/52

2011-03-31T23:29:00.000-07:00

My Mystic Minion numero san! Let's call it Tikko. Tikko is having issues with this sudden hot weather. He's getting a rash all around his crotch area and the itch is making him furious! Dr. Moomta told him to apply some medicinal cream, but Tikko is just sick of listening to orders!

Thought I would share a special treat of what I won from Art Blocks for Ghana. Vincent Nguyen is a bad ass... PERIOD. I was fortunate enough to play some street fighter with him and his brother Peter (saigonRadio) when I was interning at Blue Sky almost two years ago. Besides the regular dosage of smack talks, he gave me some really good pointers on oil painting. His encouragement was one of the main reasons I picked up the portraiture oil class during my last year at Art Center, which in the end is the medium I have been focusing my personal work in. So owning this piece means more than just an awesome painting hanging on my wall... its my appreciation for everything Vince did for me. And of course being the highest $$$ of the entire auction, I have to show this off :) But there goes my spending allowance for the end of this year... I'll just be eating top ramen, drinking water, rock climbing, and playing mvc3... and thats not a complaint!

10/52

2011-03-25T21:06:00.000-07:00

Nothing much to rant about this week... except the weather here in LA has been pretty awful. Rain, sunny, rain, storm, rain, sunny, hail, sunny.

The Art Blocks for Ghana fundraiser ended and turned out to be a huge success! Congrats to Rachel Daniels and Margaret Wuller! I did bid on several art pieces as well and ended up winning the one I wanted! Didn't go cheap, but it was all for charity and support so I didn't mind spending a few extra dolares. I have a wall all ready for it to go up on, too!

Anyways, here's this week's mystic minion. I call him... La-Cho-Cho.

9/52

2011-03-17T23:35:00.000-07:00

Change of subject this month... exploring funny looking... animals? Maybe we can call them mystic minions! They live within our bathtub drain, eating most of the junk we let flow down. They're cute, but devilish because they'll barf out all the waste and clog up the drain so when you take a shower, all the water comes up to your feet and you feel icky. Can you tell I've been having drainage problems?

On the side note... only 2 more days left to bid on some awesome artwork!!! Hurry... I've never seen art this cheap! 100% of the proceeds go towards funding children's education in Ghana.

Here's the link: ww.bit.ly/artblocksauction

8/52

2011-03-07T23:01:00.000-08:00

Here's a bad iphone photo of my newest oil piece... and I'll tell you why it was taken by my iphone instead of my regular camera.

It has definitely been a terrible weekend. I wake up Friday morning to find my car got broken into the night before. Passenger window was shattered and at the moment I must've been in shock to not notice what got stolen from my car. And slowly throughout the weekend, I started needing things and realized I had left a number of valuable belongings in my car which included my longboard, my backpack, my checkbook, my rock climbing shoes, my chalk bag, and finally realizing today, my camera. It's unfortunate that my family recently changed our insurance to another company which did not cover the personal possessions stolen from my car.

So when it rains, it pours. Luckily I'm getting my bonus this week. Looks like I'll be using it to replace my stolen belongings instead of bingeing on expensive seafood and going to Disneyland.

And a reminder for everyone to RSVP your tickets for "Art Blocks for Ghana: LA Fundraiser" happening this Saturday March 12th at Nucleus Gallery! Its going to be an amazing show with an online auction beginning that night. Margaret Wuller (one of the founders of The Picture Book Project and the one organizing this event) has been working so hard all of last week and this week to make sure this event will blow everyone's mind away. I would know because she is my office mate and I've been getting coffee mugs thrown at me out of frustration (don't worry Margaret, I understand). All proceeds will be funding towards building schools and homes for children in Ghana. Reserve your tickets here: http://artblocksla.eventbrite.com/

7/52

2011-02-24T23:22:00.000-08:00

Didn't turn out the way that I had hoped. Touch ups will be added... when this damn thing dries!

I want to give thanks to those who keep up with my blog. I know sometimes the posts aren't work looking at... or reading, but I cannot thank everyone enough for stopping by. Keep on being awesome you guys! I mean... it is the year of AWESOMENESS!!! Kung Fu Panda 2 is gonna be the shiznat!

6/52

2011-02-14T12:40:00.000-08:00

Got stuck playing marvel vs capcom 3 this week. Definitely going to have a hard time putting the joystick down and picking up the paintbrush for the rest of the year, but this can be a great way to test my discipline.

I would also like to share that I picked up a Grumbacher portable easel in amazing condition... for $50!

Also, please enjoy some more doodles!

5/52

2011-02-07T23:31:00.000-08:00

Painting women this month.... also trying to paint looser and hoping for happy accidents. Didn't happen :(

4/52

2011-01-30T23:22:00.000-08:00

This was spontaneously painted on a Sunday afternoon. To be honest, the painting I originally worked on this week turned out pretty bad, so I decided not to post it.

I feel that i lack the understanding of robots. Might possibly paint them for another month.

Also thought I would share a caricature I did for Le Boss' Birthday. Ladies and Gentlemen... Christophe Lautrette!

week 3/52

2011-01-18T22:39:00.000-08:00

3rd week of the year... 3 oil paintings. I'm thinking of painting robots until the end of the month. ZZZZZZRRRRRRR---**()()##$%-- - -- --- @

art is my life... art is my job... ART IS MY NAME!

2011-01-12T15:21:00.000-08:00

Just had lunch with couple of the artists here at DreamWorks Animation. Peter Maynez (one of the most amazing designers and hilarious guy) brought to my attention that my name supposedly has a flow to it, that it makes Arthur fun to say. You silly goose... you...

We had a mind-blowing company update this morning! So many great things to look forward to in the next coming years at DreamWorks Animation. Very heartfelt and brought in some teary eyes on more than one occasion. I am truly honored and thrilled to be part of such an amazing company. Another round of applause to everyone here!

Since my hire here, I have really been enjoying my nights and weekend off by watching movies or bouldering. Nothing much related to art. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I plan on changing that and really saturate my life with art, even after work. Not too sure where this may all end up, but I'm positive something will come out of it.

So to finish off probably the longest blog entry I have ever made... yet... here are some fun paintings I did for two of our artists and two robot digital comps that will end up being painted in oil. Thanks.

digital comp for an oil painting

2011-01-06T10:34:00.000-08:00

Happy 2011 everyone! As one of my new years resolution, I want to return back to some more traditional work. Every week I am going to do one oil, acrylic, or gouache painting. There is no particular subject, just dedication in keeping up with the brushes.

That being said, here is a quick comp for something I'm going to start tonight and hopefully finish by this weekend. Bang bang!

Oh and here's another one of my caricature doodles around work. She'll be having a baby boy during the time our movie is in production. Congratulations!

color-push

2010-12-13T18:08:00.000-08:00

Work has been overly exhausting, but at the same time soooo rewarding!! 2012 is going to be such an EPIC YEAR so get ready folks!

In the mean time, i needed to get some color out of my system. Enjoy

reviving an old post

2010-11-30T09:14:00.000-08:00

Couple years back, I had a good friend of mine ask me to design and build a body kit for his show car. At the time I had already built several kits out of poly urethane foam and fiberglass with the shop owner. School was getting hectic at the moment since I started getting serious into my career, but he was one of my best friends and I knew he would really appreciate my work. Next thing you know, the car got sponsored to go to SEMA and was chosen for Best of Show in the Gran Turismo Award. What does that mean? It means they've chosen to put the car into the next GT game!

And finally, after two long years of anticipation, Gran Turismo 5 is now available to the public! If you get a chance to play the game or buy the game, make sure you keep an eye out for the High End Performance G37.

Unfortunately my buddy past away last year. Nobody saw it coming and I for one couldn't believe it when I got the phone call. He really was a genuine guy, never meant to leave us so soon. His legacy now continues to live on through us and through the game. R.I.P. JR Rocha

Oh and here's a quick painting I did for a friend of mine... who I believe can pull off an orange dress better than anyone else. If you think you can do better, please send all pictures to my email address.. . . .. I'm not kidding... . . yes I am.

Art Blocks for Ghana

2010-11-10T15:28:00.000-08:00

I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity by one of my coworkers to be involved in a charity event called "Art Blocks for Ghana". It's an art auction to help raise money to build a home for orphans in Ghana. I am very excited to announce that early next year, a lot of these amazing pieces will be available to bid! Here is the link to their blog and their information: http://www.artblocksghana.blogspot.com/

The theme for all of our paintings is "home". To me, the strongest foundation in building a home is Family. My painting shows that even in the coldest condition, we can call the warmth of our family, home.

On a side note, I recently received a flattering letter from a 13yr old girl in England. She has emailed artists all over the animation industry and started a personal project of scrapbooking their letters. Glad I could be part of that addition :)

something different

2010-10-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

a bit darker and gritty than what I usually post.

the gremlin living in your hair

2010-10-01T17:34:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder why your hair is so curly? Well something with tiny long fingers help you curl them while you sleep. Lauren's hair is so fun to paint. I apologize in advance if this looks too much like Sensei Tsutsumi's Monster painting... because it sure does... EEEEEEEEEEP

the CCC

2010-09-24T09:49:00.000-07:00

doodling out another...
A few of us at work recently had lunch together and afterward, Chris was so sweet to email and tell us we are the cutest and nicest bunch. So I decided we should call ourselves the CUTE CLAMS. Unfortunately some people in the group objected so I had to do a little more convincing....

caricature doodle

2010-09-09T10:40:00.000-07:00

My neighbor at work got in this crazy car accident earlier this week. For some reason she decided to come to work the day after. Crazy Natalia... that's why she's so gangster. Hope you feel better!

a little time off

2010-08-30T12:26:00.000-07:00

I had a week off from work while my position was transitioning from intern to full time. Since it was waaaaay too hot to do anything, I just stayed in with the AC, did some last minute packing and cleaning before I moved, and worked on this little gouache painting. There is a coat of mod-podge to protect the painting, but also giving it a nice gloss finish.

A few friends of mine are starting an etsy store where we sell limited prints every month of a specific subject. I'll update when I get more info. So for the month of September, the subject is: bicycle

The living Dragon Rider!

2010-08-09T10:01:00.000-07:00

This is birthday card I painted for my wonderful friend, Monsieur POV, that has helped me a lot throughout my first two months here at DWA. He is such a sweet man with a fiery passion for his work, his life, and his jokes! Thanks for everything!

chaos

2010-07-26T00:07:00.000-07:00

5uff*R

random thoughts

2010-06-28T23:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of post, but work has been pretty busy and so has the activities that happen after work! I've recently got into indoor rock climbing almost two months ago and can't seem to enjoy it enough. The skin on my hands have been brutalized, but nonetheless addicting. Been great to keep in shape and workout since I've been done with school!

Anyways, for this painting I kind of had the idea of some guy riding his rode bike through the city, but then after I got done with the bg, I didn't want to paint a guy on a bicycle no more, so I painted a homeless person. The homeless person looked kind of bored, so I bought him a portable karaoke machine. Now we have a hobo that singing for change.

a little exploration

2010-06-08T22:58:00.000-07:00

Just a quick painting I cooked up after being inspired everyday by phenomenal artists. Thank you... thank you... thank you all!

B3 Hive Gallery

2010-05-29T03:19:00.000-07:00

welcome back!

So recently I was invited to submit a painting for the upcoming "B3" art show that follows the same week as the "E3" game convention. The theme, obviously was video game! I combined my two most favorite video games: 3rd strike and sega UFO catcher. Done in acrylic since I was cutting pretty close to the deadline. I've been enjoying myself too much since my break after graduation. My day usually consists of indoor rock climbing, biking, and watching netflix. That all ends next week though, but then the real adventure starts!!!

Big thanks to Patrick Hanenberger for speaking so highly of me. And thank you DreamWorks Animation for giving me the internship!

quick digital study

my already messy new kitchen

Little more touch ups here and there and I'll be done.

DONE SON!

2010-05-05T12:07:00.000-07:00

So yes... I graduated art school... hooray!

Anyways, here's a quick painting for a visual development project I'm working for the next month before I start my internship. This is just to get me inspired.

little sneak peek

2010-04-07T00:31:00.001-07:00

a little teaser to my graduation show! April 24th at Art Center College of Design (1700 Lida St. Pasadena, CA. 91103). The show begins at 6pm and ends at 9pm. Email me if you have any questions!

artistic.fong@gmail.com

commission work

2010-03-26T04:27:00.000-07:00

So I was commissioned a while back for a three panel painting of a field of sunflowers. The client wanted my personal style, but with their choice of subject. Recently I have been enjoying simplistic graphic design and wanted to portray that into this painting. I also wanted viewers to breathe in the peaceful field of sunflowers at a distance, but feel the energy and looseness when they approach the painting.

I'm surprised the color held together since I painted with different light sources (during the day the sunlight and at night this crappy fluorescent). This painting was 90% painted with the palette knife and touched up with a number 8 brush. Please excuse my bad photography :/

some little color keys

2010-03-19T16:54:00.000-07:00

some rough comps. Wanted to push Robusto's isolation out in his world and contrast the excitement he later discovers. More to come!

a breath of plen-air

2010-03-11T21:42:00.000-08:00

So in my backyard, there is this old shack where we store garden supplies and where I use to play hide-n-seek with my brother when we were little. I've been recently staring at it each time I walk into the kitchen. Finally got the chance on Sunday to dust off the oils and do a quick plen-air. The weather was nice out with my quiet neighborhood; altogether a perfect day for some outdoor painting :)

Refinement

2010-03-09T00:34:00.001-08:00

Robusto is back suited up with a little more material rendering. Not as finished as I would like it to be, but okay for now. I don't know why I chose a space background when currently he is exploring the deep undersea. Hmmm... maybe a teaser for something in the future ;)

Brownstones to Red Dirt Art Auction!!!!

2010-03-06T15:54:00.001-08:00

Take a look at some of the greatest artists coming together for a great cause! Some of these artwork might be exactly what your wall is missing! CLICK HERE

Beetle Boy

2010-02-21T19:04:00.000-08:00

a sketch for my cousin's birthday

sketching rampage this week

2010-02-16T02:03:00.000-08:00

Two serpents I designed for my undersea story. The little guy is named Gìua. The beast named EL GULO!

color sketch

2010-02-10T17:03:00.000-08:00

A color sketch that took a little too long. Full rendering to come in the next couple weeks... hopefully =)

Iwa-Enogu

2010-01-25T22:33:00.001-08:00

I was so honored and excited when asked by a former co-worker from Blue Sky Studios to contribute to this small Postcard Art Project for the benefit of Brownstones to Red Dirt. Fortunately, I returned from Taiwan with these special minerals and rock pigments called Iwa-Enogu. The Iwa-Enogu is mixed in with a type of glue extracted from animal bone and skin called Nikawa which must be slowly cooked and kept warm while painting. What is so different about the Iwa-Enogu from other paints are the pigments sit on top of the medium instead of under such as oil, acrylic, watercolor, etc., so what we see is purely the rich color. The downside of this material is its extensive use of time to prep for painting. But it pays off to know that since all the pigments are natural minerals from around the world, they are resistant to fading and can last hundreds and maybe thousands of years. To read a little more about this paint, you can google Iwa-Enogu.

been missing in action!

2010-01-12T12:47:00.001-08:00

These are some work that kept me busy while I was over in Taiwan. Since my uncle and aunt were treating us with such great hospitality, the least I could do was doodle a bit on my two really funny and cute cousin's shoes. The idea came up when they asked where I got my PUMAs from with those cool drawings, and when I told them I drew it, they immediately wanted a pair! I spent about 6 hours on the Nike shoes (since i had to figure out a simplified way of drawing beetles) and about 3 hours on the other pair. The joy and light on the look of their faces was worth every minute and every cramp on my hand... haha.

Just got back from Taiwan visiting relatives and spending time with my grandma. Was extremely busy running all over the place, but found some time to squeeze in some sketches.

MERRY X-MAS

2009-12-24T19:44:00.000-08:00

B.S.S. Christmas

2009-12-17T01:25:00.000-08:00

Here's a christmas painting I did for the lovely art department of Blue Sky Studio to show my appreciation for this summer. Thought I would share with everyone else as well =) More holiday paintings to come!

art dump of Viscomm 7

2009-12-05T23:08:00.000-08:00

Color thumbnails and painting for midterm

Robusto Di Demante and his adventures!

From color comp to final painting... this is what I happened to stumble into =/

old sketches

2009-11-27T15:47:00.001-08:00

First pass on a mood painting I've been working on. I've been critiqued to redo the foreground and clarify the center field. Still WIP!

starry deep sea

2009-11-18T14:05:00.000-08:00

Took one of my marker sketches from a class and threw up some color on it. BLAH!

oil painting!

2009-11-10T02:10:00.000-08:00

Since my return from N.Y., I got a lot of encouragement to keep up with traditional media. So when I got back to school, I really wanted to learn much more about oil paints. Its been fun so far in my class and thought I post something worthy on my blog... hopefully. This was a 2-week pose we had in class. More to come!

And this is from my midterm. Some grotesque looking baby. Really wanted to push the texture of the paint!

weekly update before I hit vegas!

2009-11-04T00:19:00.000-08:00

So yes... going on a mini vacation to attend SEMA at the Las Vegas Convention center! Kinda like a midterm reward.

Here's a quick scribble inspired by chinese landscapes. I was observing some chinese paintings in this book I borrowed and I just absolutely looovveeee the simplicity with empty space. Thought I'd give my wacom pen a wiggle =)

quick scribble

2009-10-26T14:43:00.001-07:00

My buddy Mark Castanon, mentioned a huge group of fishermen at the Redondo Beach pier and how funny it would be for a single fish to be swimming through all those hooks. Nice going Mark!

color update!

2009-10-22T15:48:00.001-07:00

Here are some sample color key moments I have been doing for my story. Hope you like'em!

moooo....

2009-10-16T15:37:00.000-07:00

Does an ox mooo? Just a quick sneak peek at a personal project I've been doing for my independent study and possibly for my grad show next spring. I'll probably be dumping more teasers every week so come back and check'em out!

The Loss of a Great Friend

2009-10-07T00:12:00.000-07:00

The past week has been extremely tough due to a passing of one of my best friends. I was unfortunately a bit more distance the past year spending every waking hour refining my portfolio for my career. But the times we had in the past will never be forgotten. He was truly someone that appreciated the work I did for him and was never shy about giving just as much back. His heart pure of love and passion. His drive, powerful and aggressive which lead him to his successes. And his Love, more greater and warmer than any other love experienced.

JR, I want to thank you for everything you have given and done for me. You were someone I truly wanted to be when I grow up. To have a beautiful wife and three lovely, adorable children who are so filled with life and love. We all love you so much, and we know you are at a better place now. And as my final appreciation, this portrait (oil on canvas) is a tribute to the celebration of your life. Farewell, My Friend.

some vehicles

2009-09-24T14:12:00.001-07:00

I was gonna try to post only personal work for this blog, but school has been way to busy for personal stuff. Then again... isn't everything we do at school for our personal use anyways? Niiicceeee.

quick painting

2009-09-19T22:51:00.001-07:00

Just trying out odd color combinations. Critiques are ALWAYS welcome in the Fong Blog =)

sketch madness!

2009-09-11T11:15:00.000-07:00

Been disciplining myself to sketch a page a day. No notes, no process, no work. Sketches for the sake of sketching =)

poopoo

2009-08-26T13:11:00.000-07:00

I went with a couple of buddies to the arboretum to paint and sketch. Too bad we were stingy and did not want pay the 5 dollar entrance fee, so we decided to just sit near the parking lot and paint. Still got some really beautiful views! I was scribbling colors here and there to see what i would end up with.

FINAL LANDSCAPE!

2009-08-19T06:49:00.000-07:00

Oh *sigh* my last painting of the summer from the studio. I wasn't a trooper to go outside because I was afraid of sweating, so I decided to paint from the windows. Apparently there is one tree that is beginning the fall trend.

I believe I can FLLLLYYYYYY

2009-08-11T04:36:00.000-07:00

Another quickie before I go night night. Painted from a picture I took of Manhattan the first night I was in NY. Bob Kato said once, "There is no point of using reference unless your creation takes the reference to another level." ... or something around that corner.

Just a quick 30 minute painting to kill the time last night because my internet wasn't working. I am going to try to do more paintings like these and definitely explore more color combination.

FAN ART!!

2009-07-31T01:23:00.000-07:00

Every so often, I like to do fan art, usually because there is some fan art contest involving prizes! So this illustration was for the 15th Year Anniversary of a popular fighting game called King of Fighters. Because of the short time I had (and my laziness), I decided to just draw the 3 main characters of the game and come up with some cool looking poses.

So here is a quick step by step of how I did this. I start with drawing the three characters separately and putting them together in photoshop (the composition was already planned out on paper... but usually the composition process I use is very messy with stick figures flying all over the place.)

Next step, I'll make the line drawing as a multiply layer and start a new layer underneath. Paint some tones here and there and make sure each character still reads, along with finding cool graphic shapes.

Now I throw in a color layer and just do some quick washes. Again, making sure each character still reads individually.

Okay here is where I start figuring out the final look of the illustration. Adding certain special effects and introducing new light sources. Then I do a tighter color pass with the additional light sources to unify the characters in the same environment. This is probably the most painstaking step, because of the numerous amount of colored lights hitting different colored materials. This is also where the understanding of traditional painting helps. What do you get when you mix a green light source onto a red jacket?

After all the thinking has been done... now its just spending time to render and refine details. I also went ahead and made a new layer for the line work. Cleaned it up so I get a much more clearer read.

And I continue to render and render and render and render.... uuggghghh.... but at least I get a cool illustration! And for the finishing touch, threw in a faded type in the background and called it a day!

This was my attempt on really giving myself a mess of color and light source to solve. I have been extremely amazed by the color artists at Blue Sky Studios and observed how they carefully choose their colors and why they do. I realize there is a lot of logic involved as well as design. I would also like to thank Peter Nguyen (color artist at BSS) for giving me some advices and tips. He's also teaching me some pop and lock moves... yeeeaaaaa.

Sketchcrawl Weekend!

2009-07-13T06:43:00.000-07:00

Another cool weekend spent with the Dynamic BSS team (Mike Lee, Peter Nguyen) including their newest addition Lord Menon-Mort (aka Sandeep lol). Started with a ridiculous early phone call from Mike, got to the Metropolitan Museum (meeting up with Isaac Orloff)and right away we don't mess around. Sketched from roughly 9:30 until 1:00... had some quick lunch, and finished our mission at the Met around 3:30. Then crawled our way down south to Chinatown again for some awesome chinese food, bad tiramisu, and more sketching! We topped it off by getting lost a bit before we ended up at Whole Foods for some more snacking and calling it a day!

half way

2009-07-10T09:18:00.001-07:00

So sad that I'm already half way done with my beautiful internship =( More sketching this weekend with cool people, but as for now... heres a painting started traditional and then I screwd around in photoshop. Enjoy!

3-day weekend

2009-07-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

Here are some sketches from the weekend out in the city with Pete Nguyen and Mike Lee. We started out at the Air/ship museum and worked our way towards chinatown. It was refreshing to be out on a nice day since its been raining the majority of the time I've been in NY. But nothing like spending the day with some buddies sketching, eating, and joking around. Fun fun fun with more to come!

The King of Pop

2009-06-26T06:33:00.001-07:00

May we remember him by his good being, music, and love.

Airy Business?

2009-06-25T12:52:00.001-07:00

The lunch-landscape-painting-team is trying to figure out a name to call what we do during lunch. Quite funny!

Painted this with a random limited palette. All the greens were made from prussian blue and yellow ochre. Other colors I used were burnt umber, brilliant purple, scarlet lake, and white.

lunch break painting

2009-06-18T15:46:00.001-07:00

Did a quick painting during lunch outside the studio. Obviously came back and touched up in photoshop. Man.. all of these guys I'm painting with our OUT OF THIS WORLD!!

BTW... I just realized both compositions of this painting and the post below are identical!! Oh goodness

Blue Sky Internship!

2009-06-09T20:02:00.000-07:00

revised

So its my second week at Blue Sky and I'm still amazed on how talented everyone is! I am so fortunate to be here and already given the opportunity to design so soon! Something small, but I've been putting 150% effort!

Work has been work, so heres a painting (little over an hour) to inspire a direction for my graduation project. Hey... never too early to start!

break!

2009-05-06T21:50:00.000-07:00

Damn I've been soooo lazy since break. Well here are some car doodles! Its suppose to be a potential modification for the 2nd gen xB for SEMA Scion Challenge this year. Yea yea... I know all the reflections on the rendering is off... scott robertson would be so mad at me!

ARGH-itecture 2!!

2009-04-23T18:45:00.000-07:00

Hardest f***en class ever!

Adding more...

2009-04-17T01:05:00.000-07:00

there is gonna be a bulk of architecture 2 stuff in the next couple of days. They're okay, but just thought I post more junk that I do =)

fish out of water

2009-04-06T20:04:00.001-07:00

Stuffers!

prince charming

2009-03-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

Still need a few more hours of finishing touches. Half assed the sword, the shoes, and some other places... lol.

AHHH SORRY!!!

2009-03-23T21:14:00.001-07:00

crap I just completely deleted everyone from my link list!!! I'll have it back asap my friends!

Fish out of Water

2009-03-23T21:01:00.000-07:00

Little personal story I'm working on. Hopefully have the majority of it done for intern show in the next 2 weeks. Here's a sneak peek at the main characters. Its about a fish that falls in love with a human girl.

a little behind...

2009-03-18T02:33:00.001-07:00

tendons on my knuckles are hurting =( Scholarship + 6th review pushed Arthur waaaaaaaaayyyyy behind

Check out my new blog

2009-03-15T15:06:00.000-07:00

This is my attempt at a more professional blog. Majority of the (better) work I have from the past year is up here. I will still be doing some weekly updates on this blog as often as I can. Man... SP09 at ACCD is seriously insane... and I know most of you are going through the same!! Lets all keep it up with great positive spirit and finish strong with our intern show! Good luck everyone!!!

www.noodlefong.com

shrek?

2009-03-07T19:38:00.000-08:00

The style of shrek and donkey is a bit inconsistent, but you can't blame me I'm just a student! I will have a second pass plus other characters by the end of next week!

toaaaaaddd...

2009-03-02T01:23:00.001-08:00

It'll do for now. This was my attempt at slime, but its pretty whack... WHACK I TELL YOU... LIKE MY FREAKIN LIFE!! AHHHHH!!!!!!!!

I'm also working on my online portfolio and that is why there are very few updates. So peep in the next couple weeks!

my retarded attempt on reflections

2009-02-16T22:41:00.001-08:00

Next I'm going to paint it candy red!!!! With gold pearl.

...

2009-02-16T19:07:00.000-08:00

YYAAAAAAAAWWWWWWNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!

bleh

2009-02-09T22:29:00.001-08:00

ratatatatattataattaaat

2009-02-02T19:43:00.001-08:00

yea its a rat.... I think?

I'm not fat...

2009-01-25T16:21:00.001-08:00

Horizontal striped shirts make kids look fat. Vertical striped shirts make kids look skinny.

Parents, watch what you're feeding your kids.

STRAIGHT UP HELL!!

2009-01-23T23:55:00.001-08:00

Spring term at ACCD 2009 = hardest f***en part of my life yet!

Not ur typical sci-fi guy =(

2009-01-18T16:06:00.000-08:00

Dude I am totally not good at any type of futuristic/sci-fi/robotic type of story telling. But turns out I found out a method of finding weird compositions and the first thing that came into my mind was this robot thingy. And KAPOW! The second part of my hw is done.

getting ready!

2009-01-08T00:31:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd get some photoshopping time in before I get back to school (which I'm super excited about!!!!). I've had this character for a while, but never had the chance to paint her. Still doing some finishing touches, but its done for now. She is suppose to be the evolution of thumbelina (if you go back to the first post of my blog you'll see the other thumbelina). Anywhoolers, hope everyone had a great break and see most of you on SATURDAY!!!

another painting

2008-12-26T16:52:00.000-08:00

Another gouache painting... still fiddling around with this material. Wanted to express the mess of a squatter community. Red orange sky reminds me of terminator for some reason =/

Also note to self and others... browsing through production work, paintings, art books, and etc. definitely helped gear my painting to a direction. I tried just straight up painting the other day and it sucked donkey kong bananas.

kinda lazy..

2008-12-19T23:52:00.001-08:00

A quick painting I did after having my paint brushes sit for about 4 weeks. Its a story I'm developing at the moment and hopefully have it all done by the time break ends. I'm practicing a new method of just visualizing the composition and paint, instead of always relying on my line drawings =( Master painters, lemme know what you think!

BREAK IS HERE!

2008-12-12T00:07:00.000-08:00

Actually one day away... but I've been done with all my projects since tuesday so I've basically been doing nothing... lol. Saturdays plan is to hook up my sexy sleek 32" Sony Bravia HDTV w/ my blu ray player AND i have a line of the GREATEST MOVIES TO WATCH ON BLURAY!!

Kung Fu Panda

Wall-E

Ratatouille

Iron Man

The Incredible Hulk

...and last but not least... the epic DARK KNIGHT!!!!

I'm also really looking forward to doing personal work and paintings over break! Should be extremely fun!!!!! I'm pumped... why cant week 1 start next week?

WHAT?! Treasure Island 2010?!?!

2008-12-08T20:10:00.003-08:00

As my greatest hero Po would say, "Awesomeness!"