Monthly Archives: July 2010
30
Jul 10
The Process – Compaq City
Hi all. Finally manage to find time to share with everyone my process on working on the Compaq project that I have done quite some time ago.
Agency: PMG Asia
Associate Interactive Creative director: Juliana Goh
Client: Compaq
Link for the site: http://h20426.www2.hp.com/campaign/compaq/sg/en/index.asp
01. My basic involvement is to provide all the illustrated elements for the game area which includes one main map which was use for the opening page, three areas and some small elements here and there. I was given a rough idea what Juliana wants and I kick off the project by doing some sketches.
02. Once the line is confirmed and we are set in a clear direction I started to paint the illustration. I’m using mainly Photoshop for this and an intous 3 wacom tablet.
03. All the stuff is in layers. For a style like this, I basically path out the element first before I start painting. Since I wanted it to look 3D-ish, the edges of the elements need to be very sharp and clear, but the tonal transition inside the element can be smooth and airbrush like. Lighting wise, I’m thinking of sometime neutral. More towards natural sky light. In 3D term, I think it’s something like a dome lighting.
04. Final Look
05. Once my illustration is complete, Juliana and her design team took the psd file and animated it, giving it more life.
Link for the site: http://h20426.www2.hp.com/campaign/compaq/sg/en/index.asp
Do feel free to checkout the website. Enjoy 
Tags: oicsingapore, ORGANISATION OF ILLUSTRATORS COUNCIL, Ray Toh, torei, compaq, Singapore Illustrator
28
Jul 10
New Sketchwalk with Urban Sketchers at Joo Chiat 31st July
The next sketchwalk with Urbansketchers will be at Joo Chiat – interesting shophouse architecture + food haven!! The 2 lethal combination for any Singapore flava sketchwalks. Do join in the wholesome sketching fun!
More info here : http://urbansketchers-singapore.blogspot.com/2010/07/sketchwalk-july-31-sat.html
Meet at Paya Lebar MRT control station this Saturday at 9am sharp.
Call (Don) @ 84183032 or Drew @ 91070735 if u have any queries.
27
Jul 10
HP City of Dreams “woot! woot! 45″
I was recently invited to be a guest designer in the HP City of Dreams “Live Our Dreams, Fly Our Flag” campaign - commemorating Singapore’s 45th National Day for HP.
This is my rationale:- “The national day flypass by the jets has always been the highlight of the event signaling the start of the parade/ celebration! Mindflyer’s Flying Circus troupe’s flypass hopes to usher in more peace, openness and creative freedom in Singapore!”
My aim is to make a fun and lively piece that depict a mood of celebration and optimisim without being overly nationalistic.
If you’re now inspired to design something of your own, join the open contest now here. Closing date: 31 July 2010.
Tags: oicsingapore, ORGANISATION OF ILLUSTRATORS COUNCIL, mindflyer, flying circus, Singapore Illustrator, michael ng, HP City of Dreams, Hewlett-Packard
23
Jul 10
Mindlyer’s “Flying Circus” for Feiyue
This is a recent installation I did for Feiyue sneakers which was really fun. My idea was to personify the brand Feiyue ( the name means “surging forward” in Chinese ) with my flying characters and dazzling mix of colours. Material used : arcylic paint, foam board, cardboard, reclaimed toys and household objects. Thanks to Steve and Tanya of Kult and Feiyue for the opportunity to work on this.
Tags: oicsingapore, ORGANISATION OF ILLUSTRATORS COUNCIL, mindflyer, flying circus, singapore art installation, Singapore Illustrator, michael ng, feiyue
20
Jul 10
The Process – Love Is In The Air
Hi there everyone…I would like to share one of my painting’s processes with all of you.
So let’s start!
1. Concept: I was just thinking to draw something wild, adventurous…so came up with the idea of kissing lovers in the air, was laughing on my own idea 
so this is the first doodle I made.
2. Drawing & Composition: It’s time draw details…the dress code of the lovers, their vehicles & the city structure. If you are wondering about those sinister buildings then it’s intentional..yes, to show the bravery of the lover, I just wanted to add more drama in the whole composition, it also depicts that these two lovers are so passionate about each other that they don’t really care about the consequences of their Kiss.
Since I wanted to show something Futuristic yet ancient (sounds silly I know!) to make it more clear, I would like to say more about the culture I was looking for…
this city is somewhere above the sky and they are living there from ages… I tried to show more organic feel, like it’s made with natural stuff. Check out the overlay building’s roof.
As u can see, I’ve added few elements (Overlay) to add more depth. I wasn’t sure about the colour scheme till this moment.
3. Colour scheme: Since its going to be an ancient fantasy…I thought about Golden Yellow scheme.
So I created a new layer and filled Golden Yellow and tried the blending mode options. It’s a great option to achieve harmony in the artwork. Sometimes you can get lots of unexpected and beautiful effects
through this feature. I think most of the people are already aware about that. So as u can see here the look and feel is changed due to the blending mode adjustment. Now I started adding details in overall composition.
Sometimes I don’t follow the ideal process and work on different area at the same time. To show the depth of field, I made the foreground elements blurry
using Gaussian Blur filter. So I suggest working with lots of layers, so that we can tweak each layer separately without spoiling the whole artwork.
4. Background: Background was almost merging with the characters…so added light pink colour on a separate layer to add more depth in the background. So the character will come out.
5. I think we should take a break and see the same work once again after some period of time. After looking at this artwork after few days, I realized that the composition was too tight for the subject.
So I made few changes… minimized the character’s sizes and flipped entire canvas.
It was looking better than before…then started working on the details. I chose Calligraphic Brushes…these Brushes are great for painterly look & feel.
6. Final details and tweaks: I’ve used smooth edge brush around the character to avoid those sharp edges…added clouds and light in the sky. Hope u enjoyed the making. Click the last image to view the final bigger image.
Happy Painting!!
19
Jul 10
OIC PORTRAIT DAY, 7th August 2010, 2 TO 7PM
On-line registration open NOW !!
Hi Artists and Posers- Book your OIC Portrait session now! Please spread the word! It’s OIC’s NDP session. Get your face painted, bring your flags, bring friends and let us draw YOU!
Sitters/ Models/ Posers!
Email us which slots you want – reserve early via email “info [at] oicsingapore.com” subject: “Sitters/ Models/ Posers/ Aug Portrait Day”.
Posing is FREE, each artwork is S$10 available for purchase- all proceeds goes to the artists.
Artists!
Polish your drawing skills & catch up with your OIC buddies at the same time. Everyone gets 20 minutes to draw the “patron/ sitter” at the same time. You get $10 for each drawing sold . Make it PLAYFUL and COLOURFUL, all skill levels welcomed. OIC Portrait Day is about artists having fun and experimenting with new ways to capture an interesting image and making new friends. You don’t have to be an OIC member to take part but you have to register and please read the FAQ. Come and draw, make friends and spread good drawing vibes. Artists Registration Fee is S$10/- *Posting your work for view & sale (compulsory ) is a sign of appreciation to the patron/sitter/ poser .
( Poster illustration contributed by Ken Lee – You can see his folio here )
REGISTERATION : http://www.oicsingapore.com/events.php
( No last minute signing up at MAAD will be entertained )
16
Jul 10
Process – Blueberry Cheesecake for BLU Shangri- La with TBWA Singapore
Alright guys, some analog stuff. Behind the scenes and process for a very interesting project with good friends which were from TBWA Singapore then, Pei Pei, Ng, Merlin Kwan and David Chan. Another piece was crafted by our OiC darling, Sokkuan. An amazing illustrator in her own right.
1) Straight forward agency brief complete with idea and sketch.
2) Counter sketch from my side to enchance idea. Execution style is discussed and agreed upon with the creative team. In this case. Heavy body and soft body acrylic style.
3) Preliminary colour proposals done in photoshop.For analog or natural media work, this stage is very crucial because there is not much room for amendments when it gets to the real thing.
4) Final stages of colour, look and feel approved by agency creatives and client. Canvas and paints are prepared and halfway through the completion of illustration, art director steps in for minimal final touch ups and amendments.
5) Voila! Final touch ups and off to the photographer to do his magic lighting. Crucial stage as well because photographing paintings need another set of skills.
16
Jul 10
Oic Maad 2010 July- the Artwork pt 01
It’s fun to pick and highlight interesting sketches from our Portrait Day sessions at Maad every week. I am very happy that the participants/ artists try their best to capture the image of the poser in interesting ways. I have problems identitifying the artists because not many of them print their names clearly on the front. If you know please leave a comment for me – thx
More to come…
( Artists from top- ??, Raymond, ??, Mas, ??, ??, Yeo Jian Long, ??, Lay Siong )
14
Jul 10
The Process – Vue Privée’s Maiko
Client: Vue Privée‘s Gallery
Brief: Aimed at capturing the elegance of Old Japan, seen through the lens of photographers living and working during the late Edo period (1872 – 1912). Using gallery owner’s private antique photos collection as inspiration.
Process: To start any project i always do extensive research for the items i planning to draw. Sometimes, even read up facts on them.
While looking for research i basically already have an image in my head on how i want my illustrations to be, so most of the time i only look for items that goes similar to that idea. Similar meaning; species of plants/animals, man/woman, dressing, pose, angle/view/perspective etc.
I do all the initial sketches on tracing paper, so i can overlay them on top one another to “check” if the composition works. And after that some minor adjustment/fine tuning will be done before i redraw the entire image as a whole.
Once the image is scanned onto Photoshop, i began an extensive cleaning up of tiny dust spots and pencil lines. Followed by pathing out the items that needed to be coloured. Here’s the view of my path window in Photoshop.
And also the process of colouring.
Even though i been given total freedom to create this piece, from time to time i do email the client on the sketch done for update, so to assure that i am on track and do not stray to far from the topic.
So here’s the finish piece!
Two most important tips i can offer to anyone.
A) SAVE YOU FILE
B) BACK UP FILES RELIGIOUSLY
Thanks for reading and comments will be very appreciated.
