S.P.E.C.I.A.L.

2009-12-15T11:31:00.000-08:00

Head over here: http://mattgamer.blogspot.com/

I've been updating there instead of here.

2009-09-07T15:21:00.000-07:00

weekend digital studies. night and day.

2008-03-25T07:54:00.000-07:00

Old school gaming is the best! I cannot believe how many memories playing one game can bring back! It's like I'm reliving my teens all over again. Here's a story that almost made me go crazy:

Ok, I got hyped on an old game called Deus Ex (DX). I started up my super duper Special Edition at home. The last time I played this game was in 2001 and only got through the first mission (Unreal Tournament was released and it sucked the rest of my time, sad to say).

When recently playing through 3 of the levels (taking me at least 6 hours to complete because I checked out every detail), it was only the PREVIEW edition!! ARRRGGGGGGG!!!

On the DX high still, I had an OLD PC Gamer demo disc that included the Invisible War demo. I played that out for about an hour and really enjoyed the polished look and bug fixes. Although, I did notice that the voice acting was a tad turdish compared to the original DX.

I was so bummed I now have a full copy of the GOTY (Game of the Year) edition of DX and plan on taking a few nights off from Team Fortress 2 (hard to do) to play with this puppy.

I give props to PCG Podcast, PCG Fan Podcast, Vagabond, and Frost for subliminally and consciously creating a DX fan out of me after all these years. Thanks, I am throughly pleased. ;)

ALSO, I want to give some cred to some amazing games developed by the infamious Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw.

5 Day Stranger - http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/5days/
Tribly: The Art of Theft - http://playthisthing.com/trilby-art-theft

Both are free to download and worth your time if you like any games at all. You can also catch Yahtzee's weekly wednesday game reviews here. Be warned though, high levels of obscene remarks, quick talk and foul language are ever so present in all his video reviews.

OH and some art. :/

2nd traditional piece ever. This was done with acrylics.

I love doing fliers and hate distributing them. Ha ha.

I also logged this on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDMMIIQVfsE

Be blessed!

2008-03-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

Hello all. Yes I was away. I'm back now. Have been having a great time learning things and hanging out with people. Hope to get into the mode of creating/studying more. I cannot procrastinate!!

Here are some recent sketches.

Be blessed.

2008-02-06T15:12:00.000-08:00

I hate it when a day is so unproductive that by the end of the day you feel as if you did nothing. Sorry for being so pessimistic, but optimism isn't in sight for me right now. Though at the moment I am feeling the urge to create which in fact is getting me excited.

This is how I would love my photography to be like. Goals are great, and inspiring.

Yesterday was so productive (in my art), that I believe it is making all other days look less enticing. Finished copy/studying (in 3 months) Bridgman's Constructive Anatomy from the first to last page. Now I will be starting Bridgman's The Human Machine. Whilst reading through the first chapter I can see already that this book is more instructional resources on how the body functions rather than a display of anatomy as in the former book mentioned. Hopefully these sketches will be uploaded or photographed for you to see in the near future.

Not knowing too much information on how metal reflects or where the highlights reside, I attempted at creating a mech from imagination. Quite fun, actually and I hope to do a series.

Speedys!

Someone requested what my home PC base looked like and for your viewing pleasures here it is. A humble establishment, although not as organized as I'd wish it to be.

My second office is located in a Real Estate office. This clock gives everyone a hard time on figuring out the time. I took photos for my reference library. And this chair is quite lovely to look at as well.

Sunrises and sunsets inspire me so much. The clouds here are the only thing that give them texture. In the first image with the cars, I had my Nikon D40 with me, but the battery died and I had to use my small Casio to capture what my eyes beheld.

Be blessed!

2008-01-31T08:31:00.000-08:00

Bah! Why do the Nintendo DS's have to be so darn cheap ($129.99 is the lowest price here). I don't want to buy one, but all my friends are doing it. And we all know how the old saying goes, "If your friend is doing it you should too." The thing with these DS's is that they have new user created programs which allow you to paint or animate.

Though once again my friend, Davi (from CA IRC chat), has awoken me to reality. Why would I need a Nintendo DS when I am practically in front of a PC 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. If I'm not on a PC at work, I'm on one at home. I can do far greater things with a PEECEE than I could ever do with a DS. Now if I were on the bus for 4 hours a day, I could maybe justify getting a DS to sketch with. Losing sight of my goal, to save for a laptop or MacBook Pro, would have been out of my reach and in the end I would have an old gaming console which would be out dated by the time I finish this blourp. Thank you Davi.

Moral of the story: listen to your friends... sometimes?
Here's a speedy. I have been working hard at the assignment Fellah gave me. It is so humbling to not know anything about art, composition, etc. I just now know that I know how to copy good. Learning is humbling and exciting at the same time.

Be blessed.

2008-01-29T16:19:00.000-08:00

Another day another dollar. Or how the old saying goes, "kill two stones with one bird." Er.

Today has been quite inspirational. The people at Conceptart IRC chat have totally wasted too many of my hours, but inspire me nonetheless. I have managed to finish a speedy and sketch a few things on breaks.

Dusso has inspired me for the umph time and I cannot wait to have the skills necessary to blow people's minds. And even MOAR inspiration came when I watched a 3 part movie from Bobby Chiu. His videos make me want to be an artist and to seek out other artists to be friends with me. Such a lovely dude and his voice isn't too bad either. ;)

This is a redesign of QUAKE 1 by the artist named Prom and I found on DI.FM that new stations have been added. I have been listening to the "Heavy" station which includes hard electronica beats making you move to the constant beat if you know it or not.

I am also on a new assignment by my mentor, Simon Fellah. This one will be quite fun and I cannot wait to finish it.

Now it is time for hard studying of all things art/painting/etc. As much as I can fit in a day. Sometimes at night when it is 1am and I'm painting, I feel that excitement building up in my soul so much I believe it explodes. If that means anything. Ha! Keep drawing, never give up, and always look forward to the next day!!

Be blessed.

2008-01-26T10:26:00.000-08:00

If you lived in -14ºF weather, what would you do? I would definitely stay in, read a book or sketch till my hands bleed. Check out my friend Jynko's blog.

Here is a study of John Singer Sargent's "Madame X" which ruined his career as a portrait painter in his younger years. I hope to work many hours on this. The colors of her face are too yellow after painting an hour. She has a peachy soft pink tone to her. I must fix this. ;p
Be blessed!

2008-01-23T11:03:00.001-08:00

Middle of the week already and I only have this to show. Been studying Loomis again. Brings back such good memorize. I have also been playing Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64. Such a good game that I never worked all the way through. The Fire and Ice Temples are so fun! :D

I've been inspired by my friends Vinny, Duq, Davi and Michele. They are such kind people and keep me going when the days are tough. Thank you guys! My teef hurt. Ouch. :]

Be blessed.

This is my front yard. Colder now and more snow. :[

2008-01-19T09:38:00.000-08:00

It's below zero weather and the past two days I've been working late into the night to finish my LMS. I have restarted it so many times that I don't even remember the first concept I had, but here is the final and a few speedies.

Ahhh! The colors on the three 3 LCD's I use (2 jobs and my home one) are ALL DIFFERENT. The LCD I am using now has a high contrast and everything looks so dark. At my other work it's too light and at home it's just right. I don't know which to trust and it's maddening!

I kind of feel good at finishing the LMS, I feel more free to do so much more art. Listen to www.pandora.com and if you have a camera, TAKE PHOTOS! ;]

Be blessed!

2008-01-15T09:08:00.000-08:00

Busy weekend and I don't know where the time has gone. Hunting for new jobs because the current one is making me work less which I cannot do now because I must save the $$$ for the future.

Be blessed!

Daarken's tutorials inspired me here.

And one of my favorite photos out of the batch I took last Friday at a show.

EDIT // I found this extra image hidden that I did last week. I forgot I did it. Ha ha! Oh and I wanted to link Jens (a friend from Conceptart.org's forums) little gallery of cool photos to speed paint. I think I will paint them all! I am also painting speedies from this gallery.

2008-01-10T16:27:00.000-08:00

Post for today. Also check out all the tutorials from Daarken. The face one I did, but change the face a little bit. :]

Be blessed!

2008-01-09T09:29:00.000-08:00

Today I just wanted to inform you artists about [ws]'s Color Scheme Generator, version 2. This thing is awesome if you are painting digital and have no knowledge (or little knowledge) of how colors can compliment each other.

The city of "Temans" sketch is inspired by the Ridley Scott's heavily detailed sketches. I cannot believe how much time it takes to detail everything out. I'm o.k. for an hour of tedious work, but after 2 hours my mind wanders into doing other things. I need to learn discipline in fine details.

An amazing inspiration that hit me today was that of improving artists. My friend Devine Platts (Texahol) has been improving ever since he did gray scale master studies. I have yet to finish one (without cheating) completely and he has already done several! Again the tedious details really make me go mad. The thought of working on a painting for two days, let alone a year is incomprehensible to me.

Viewing the world first hand in sunlight is impossible for me during the winter. Work gets out at 5pm, which is when the sun goes down. The only way for me to enjoy the sun during the day is to be out in it all during lunch. Nature is a strange thing. We are all like Superman's who recharge by the sun (nature), if we don't get it I believe something in our soul starts dying and we cannot coop with reality with a normality. I'll have to stop this discussion because I'll go on forever explaining things that work out in my mind, but won't be explained well in words. I suck at words.

I have been inspired today and hope you are too by the people/things around you. :}
Be blessed.

2008-01-08T17:27:00.000-08:00

Yet another day passes and I churn out a few digi's. I adore photo reference and what better site to surf but a photography site, PBase.com. Fantastic images every refresh. :] I hope to someday contribute to their site as much as they have considerably inspired me.

On the topic of inspiration, inspiration from the streaming videos of Revelations' (Conceptart.org Seattle workshop) has given me hope for the future and excited me more than a schoolgirl with her girlfriends on a Saturday night. So exciting, in fact, that I've set my mind to start goals in my life to achieve. First one is to jump from an air plane over New Zealand while sketching a monster. I think I can attain this goal once I get some sort of wings.

Keep at whatever you are doing and don't stop, no matter what. Change is good, but do what you love.

Be blessed.

2008-01-07T12:48:00.000-08:00

Happy new year to all. It's 2008 and I cannot believe I am still alive after all the zombie fights, alien invasions, and trips to Mars and back. Thank you, Vinny, for being my new friend this year. Your kid will be named "Poop Spitters". :p

I love Ashley Wood's advice in his December 24, 2007 post saying, "... don't ever take or accept critique, just advice." Read how he explains this comment here.

I haven't been working on my LMS because I got stuck and once again (5th time). This time I changed the style, although the residing theme has stayed with the past 3 concepts. I hope I can finish it by January 11th, but drawing demons depresses me to no end. :[

After the LMS I plan to get "low brow" with some art and create some fantastical canvas paintings (my first ever) in a series. www.fecalface.com really influenced me to draw for the joy of it.

Still doing speedies and fliers and learning too much.

Be blessed.

2007-12-21T14:10:00.000-08:00

Last post of the week.

I did a few studies today. Flaptraps art is exciting to study because of its simplicity. [You can view Flaptrap's art on my links] It is exciting to get in the routine of speedpainting every morning. I learn each time I do it, even if I don't observe myself learning. I do learn, subconsciously. If any viewers have advice in what I am doing, please post a comment. Critiques are a pleasure for me to attain knowledge from.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
Have a wonderful time with your families and friends. And don't forget, Alien vs. Predator: Requiem comes out on Christmas day. Weoohoo... I hope the Aliens win.

2007-12-19T13:03:00.000-08:00

Hello all! Christmas is getting closer each day. So exciting.
I love doing speedpaints in the morning. They are getting easier and easier when I don't get all technical with them and try to get general colors that I see. My motto for today is "less everything else and more art." [Shouldn't that be everyday?]

Julien got me into Feist:

<3

2007-12-15T10:55:00.000-08:00

I did a speedpainting. It was fun and I learned a lot. :) Now days I am learning to use the palette tool and to mix colors on the painting. Instead of using the sliders to change the colors. It's exciting to get colors from mixing, just like traditional painting.

Also Pandora.com has really revolutionized my music experience. I get to hear new artists everyday that I never knew existed. Check it out.

2007-12-13T18:42:00.000-08:00

Finally finished a painting and a few speedies.
Today was a great day. Studied much Bridgman. I can't believe I actually studied anything.

Koshime showed me his sweet forum that focuses more on socializing and is sort of like a school here. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! Be blessed.

2007-11-20T13:27:00.000-08:00

Last Man Standing has started. Click the link for more info, tutorials, interviews, and more. This event will be a battle to remember and my first LMS ever. Exciting.

I also design fliers for Namaste Booking (my brother started it) on my spare work time. It's quite fun to create fliers every time there's a show, though when I advertise about it I lose precious hours I could be studying Bridgman. Ahk.

2007-11-17T13:49:00.000-08:00

"In the event of panic. Do not push the red button." Yeah, I like to make up random quotes. It's quite fun. Study Bridgman. I find that the only way for me to learn anything is to do it over and over again.

2007-11-03T11:50:00.000-07:00

Matt Busch is insanely funny and an awesome artists. His videos made my day today. :) Also Julien's blog always is so informative and exciting to visit. Leave him a comment, he will reply. I'm sure of it.

Today I have been sketching in JP1 at my Saturday job. It is quite relaxing here and everyone is so nice! Real estate offices are a blast.

Worked on two little self portraits. One for the yearly Conceptart.org/forums November 1st Self Portrait day. Quite fun to picturesque myself as a vampire, when in fact it is me after my wisdom teeth were pulled. I'm glad that is a once in a lifetime thing.

One strange note, when you get spacers in your mouth (dentist put them in to space your teeth out in preparation for braces), you get very weird sex nightmares. I'm glad these things are coming out in a few weeks. I don't like large women in my room trying to do unthinkable things to me! It's scary! Be blessed. <3

2007-10-24T16:26:00.000-07:00

I have discovered DUNE once again and enjoy every bit of it. Though the little girl scares the heck out of me whenever she speaks. It's nice to know of the movies that came out the year you were born and this is one movie that I'm proud to be born in the year of.

2007-10-24T12:59:00.000-07:00

We were talking on the Concept Art IRC chat room and the topic of "brushes" came up. Brushes for Photoshop, that is. And well, this is one reason I love frequenting the CA chat. The following links are sweet!

[HERE] - Sweet brushes thread with every brush you will ever need to download for Photoshop.

[HERE] - Some custom brushes Mike made for 2DArtist magazine.

Here's some sketch/doos, but I really should be working on the assignment at hand. ;)

2007-10-23T15:31:00.000-07:00

Did some fliers for my brother who is starting to set up shows around town (finally). I think I will be his main fliers man from now on. So this will be an interesting time. Also, trying to spit some inspiration out from looking at Ashley Wood's fine Metal Gear Solid graphic novel again. I can never get enough of that thing.

Simon has instructed me to create a battle scene with me in it. I have done a few studies already, and feel a bit confident that I can do this. Draw!

2007-09-07T14:46:00.000-07:00

I believe it is the time to draw my brains out. Recently I have been attaining a knowledge as well as experience to draw.

My goals for the futures are misty, though I would love to work in an environment where people enjoy their work as well as their lives. It is exciting to see what the future has in store.

In this blogger, I plan to make it a place I reflect my thoughts as well as show studies I am currently doing with Simon Fellah. An amazing artist that I met through ConceptArt.org/forums.

Currently these are my studies. 50 feet from reference...

...and 16 heads of the same character with different facial expressions. I have never sketched this much of myself at one time. It was a challenge and yet quite fulfilling once I was finished.

Now go draw and listen to cool music like the new As I Lay Dying "An Ocean Between Us". Cheers!

2007-08-27T15:23:00.000-07:00

Learning is so exciting these days. I have learned more in the past month than I have all year and plan on learning even more after the year is out. I do not know why I have been putting off this thing called art for the whole summer. It could have been because of a relationship, work, etc., but when it all comes down to it, I have been cheating myself out of my art. Working at it more and more keeps me alive and excited for the next day.

When you are down and think your art is suck. Keep up those figure and painting studies. You will not regret it and soon be addicted (as I finally succumbed to).

Recently I acquired two shots, a tetanus and varicella vaccine. I hope they do not take me away from my art or work out sessions. That would horrible, though even more horrible would be to have a varicella-zoster virus. We will see the after effects by tomorrow. My arms are a little tingly now.

These pages are from my moleskin. I try to study various master artists (i.e. Frank Frazetta, John Singer Sargent, etc.) from time to time and occasionally fail miserably. I found a Sargent book that I am eating up at the library the other day. It is a prized jewel in my 3 weeks of possession.

2007-07-23T12:49:00.000-07:00

Cheekta a GameBoy SP! :o

Hooplah a CHOW, wow! Haha, cheers!

2007-05-14T16:32:00.000-07:00

I missed this place. Now I hope to update since I have woken up from being stupid and not drawing for weeks.

Here are some old things.

2007-02-15T11:23:00.000-08:00

It has been over a month since I have last posted. Well January was a really nice month to learn about how much I have learned from 2006. I can grasp things so much better without the pressures of school on my back.

This image [left] is one of the many speedpainting I will be on a daily bases. I can do the greyscale ones in under 30 minutes, though the color take from 45 to an 60 minutes. I am learning much through each one I do!

This is a pencil of my friend from the Netherlands. It is a gift for her on Valentines day.

I had a grand time sketching it with many different pencils [HB, 6B, etc] and plan on using them more often than my plain mechanical pencil.

Also, I would have rather sketched her live than from a photograph. Maybe in the May [when she comes to visit] I will be able to. We'll see.

In the mean time, at work I dream of drawing and actually read up on many of the forums on techniques to draw. Actually, what it all comes down to is that I get so pumped up on inspiration at work [looking at amazing artist's work] that I get home and draw purely from this excitement.

The other day I spent 5-6 hours with friends doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I felt I was cheating my art, though I did need a little relaxation. Still, I hate it when I do things like that and waste perfect hours that I could be sketching or learning how to paint.

What I like to induce on everyone I meet [artist or not] is that you should find a hobby like drawing or something to spend your time in. Otherwise you are a lifeless nobody that does nothing in your 80+ years on earth. At least do something, encourage someone, or do something worth wild with your life. Draw, draw, draw! ;]

2006-12-30T02:29:00.000-08:00

No way is it 4:30 a.m. already! I never stay up this late anymore, but a friend needed help and well, I talked with her.

While drawing, this came up. Some ideas just come in my mind, and I have to put them down on digital.

2006-12-29T13:55:00.000-08:00

I am really ejoying The Complete Metal Gear Solid with art done by Ashley Wood. This art is the sort of thing I live for!
Been emulating Wood and Hogarth's art recently, though I know I should be drawing so much more.