Healing

In one of those 'draw something'' moods while Yuna was playing in my head. I love the sleepy acoustic version of her singing this song.

Inking Process....sorta.

A lot of readers (okay...just that one guy 6 months back) requested I share some of my cartooning process on the blog. I'm not that secretive...I mean to post this kind of useful (maybe?) info, but I just get forgetful. Anyway, here it goes:

This is a page I quickly sketched out and inked. It's not part of any story...yet, but who knows? You may recognize the idea ... it's a panel taken from one my earlier comics.On the left is the sketch done in black pen...not ball point, the thin, felt-tip variety...it was the nearest type of pen I could grab. On an A4 sketchpad. Really thin paper.I began with a facial expression (figure in foreground) and the the composition expanded on from there.

The inked version on the right is pretty close to the sketch. The pen was a brush-pen bought at Daiso...the green one, small size ( there's a picture somewhere on this blog). I didn't use a light-box (although I do have a drawing table with a glass panel if I need to trace ). Turns out the sketchpad paper was so thin I just needed to lay a fresh page over the sketch and it was still visible. Yay! So I could ink while lying down. I did make changes in the inking.Most notably the second girl who's ..uh, seducing? ShyBoy-chan. I wish I had kept the squarish shape of the scarf like in the original sketch ( I like simplified shapes ) but I kinda lost it in the inking.

SCAN!! ( 400 dpi here)

And a few more fixes in photoshop to neaten things up. If I was more careful in the sketch/ink stage I would probably save myself time and have better looking original artwork! So : Crop the torn binding away, adjust the brightness/contrast to bring out the brushwork. Erase any splotches or stains. Actually there was minimal fixes done on this. I did add a bit of black on top so the title would pop more and add some tonal balance to the page. And that's it! Click for the larger version.

Hope you found that interesting. Leave a comment if there's anything else you'd like to know about my process.Cheers!

September Sketches and Cartoons

Cosmic Comic

Real Emotional Girl

Not A Harem Girl

Come With Me to Florida pt. I

 Wait, you say. This is'nt Florida. Very astute of you! My parents in Dubai agreed to mind my daughter during my 3 week residency at the Atlantic Center For The Arts (ACA). I had a few days to spare in Dubai and took time off finishing some client work to go sightseeing with my folks. I took the above picture while we drove to the beach- the worlds tallest tower, glinting in the sun.

 On the way we saw the neighborhoods and houses. Dubai is monochromatic in color compared to Malaysia- wet, wild,green - and very sunny. I enjoyed the architecture and how clean (but dusty) everything was.

 Finally we arrived at a nice stretch of beach. It reminded me of my childhood days , walking along the Kuwaiti coast with my mom and pretending to be mermaids sitting on boulders.

 I thought this awesome truck would transform into Optimus Prime at any moment. Who would own a machine like this??

 A nice respite of green overflowing from a courtyard garden.

 We walk along the beach, my mom takes a picture of me and OJ against the backdrop of the Burj hotel which is a Dubai landmark.

 More refreshing green - we walk through a park to reach what we hope will be a nice stretch of beach.

 No photography beyond this point! It's a family friendly beach with well-maintained facilities.

 After the beach we walk through the park again, passing by some public art- horses customized by various artists.

 OJ enjoys a strawberry ice-slushy-drink , we all think the fruit salad is lovely- cool and decadent with plump grapes,kiwis,mangoes ,pineapples and strawberries.

 We all look very adventurous in our hats.

 OJ and grandma slurp it all up before ordering another (it was very warm weather).

 I share the leftover popcorn with one of the nearby horses.


 A lovely play area that,again, reminds me of Kuwait.

 A snapshot of the Dubai skyline as we drive home.

A last glimpse of my parents African-themed pad (hey- the kids are grown up and gone, they can have fun decorating) before I kiss them all goodbye and fly to New York, New York.

Not Again

Pressure

So I wondered what the blurb for Rojak might be like. It made me think of what I really want the core of the story to be ( that readers would find most interesting ). Boarding school seem to fit.

And where do I find the middle ground between whats Malaysian and Global? Local and universal? Everyone can relate to being a teenager and trying to make sense of stuff, right?

Those after school specials are finally sinking in.

There is a true story involving sunglasses , by the way. And it involves rap. But I'm not telling just yet.

The notebook spirals and paper were added for a school-feel and the yellow+checks is just so 90's.

Ponder

Whut

Brat

Smile in a bottle

Drawin's

Ring My Bell

I'll make grown men weep

Hope Iridescent

A while back I got the word from a facebook friend that Linkin Park was looking for some art to go with their new single, Iridescent. I liked the song which had a message I really needed to hear at the moment.

The illustration somewhat combines my geeky love of 80's cartoons and soul-therapy. WOAH DEEP. In the end , I liked it the final outcome. I hope the band will too. Thanks for the great song, LP.

Interview in Gempak Comic Magazine (Feb 2011)

The title of the article which is "WIRAWATI SENI KARTUN NEGARA" roughly translates to "National Cartoon Art Heroine"....I don't think I'm quite where I want to be yet, but feel very humbled and a little giggly.

Gempak is one of the top selling comic and infotainment magazines in Malaysia. It was very cool of them to interview me ( honestly, I'm so not mainstream at the moment ) for their magazine...thanks Gempak! :)

 If you did not manage to find the issue (man those Gempaks sell fast) , here's the scanned 4-page spread :

(warning before you click: they're pretty big!)

  I will put up a translated version when I have some free time. 

Thanks to Hansel, the very nice reporter and the graphic designer who did a pretty awesome job.

100th blog post !!!

Thanks for visiting this blog since I started in in 2006 ! I promise to make it even more interesting and fun to read in the future (with more frequent updates , too). Cheers!