A Tech on Titan: Why everyone should learn how to code (it's not impossible!)

So for the past 1 year I took a break from designing (not really) and started to teach myself how to code. Why the sudden change, one wonders? Well, apart from the classic increasing demand argument, I felt the need to upskill myself and take on a challenge to learn something new.   

And yeah, you bet, it was a hell lot of fun. I started without even knowing what HTML is. It's like one of those moments where you just go, "Yeah! HTML, CSS, I've heard of that somewhere". But not entirely sure of what it does or worse, what it is. 

The days were tough when I first started visiting the codeacademy page for the first time in April 2014. Thankfully the awesome team over there gamified the whole learning experience by chipping it into small bits. It's nice you know, to be awarded virtually meaningless badge of honor whenever you complete something trivial (like adding a line of comment or clicking the submit button). But the psychology behind the reward and recognition system keeps you going, and I haven't stopped since then. 

Now I am at best in my embryonic stage when it comes to coding (major self-awareness) - afterall I only do front-end web development anyway. But knowing a few css-tricks, jquery animations and javascript frameworks has earned my bowl of noodles for the past few months designing small websites for various clients. So even though I am considered as a "pseudo" developer in the whole community of tech geniuses, all I can offer is just a burning desire to learn. The pocket money from small gigs here and there is of course nice to have, but the joy of creating graphics and animation out of a Notepad (I remember being utterly shocked when one of my childhood friend told me it was possible) gives me an immense sense of delight. 

So going back to this tribute of the massive tech companies of our times. I think it is only when I finally get my hands dirty in reading and writing codes where I realised the extent of complexity, impact and creativity these guys generate to do things that matter in the world. Here's a start of a non-exhaustive list, but these are the first 4 that instantly cross my mind: Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Apple. It is by far one of the most (if not the most) powerful tool to create. And that's why if you are bored and stuck in Netflix or busy torrenting all day, consider Ctrl+T-ing and start learning how to code. 

GOING INSANE IS NORMAL

It's been almost 2 months since I posted in this blog. And holy balls my english just turned potato. Anyway, it's really sad to have your study and part time job to take out the better of you. Turns out living away from my family, trading soul for peanuts, while organizing 3 events at once (a concert, a recruitment drive, and a conference) wasn't really the smartest move to make. Can't even remember when was the last time I treated myself with a quiet self-reflection time with cold green tea infusing my brain while dabbing my hands into paint. Fish. It's funny to be known and yet so lonely. Getting paid yet so unfulfilled. I guess it's those one stage of life where you have to suck it up and just blanket yourself with the fluffy dream of tomorrow. 

Ah where was I? Yes. Stress and depression turns out to be good friends with creativity. It makes you more sensitive to situations and sometimes it leads to happy accidents. These artworks below were not happy accidents though. I have been drawing with this kind of style for a while now. It first started when I got sick of following "normal" gradient and composition, and so decided to abolish the rules and be a little bit more adventurous. Never would I try mixing neon green, blue, and brown markers together with pink and black crayons on top of washes of watercolor. It was a spontaneous move I would say, as if I became a vessel and i just grabbed whatever is on the table and drew whatever came to my mind at that very instance without any planning whatsoever. Chaotic much? you guessed right. Heart break fueled these pieces of work. These are then scanned and edited with photoshop using gradient map and increasing the saturation, a feature that only digitization could achieve. 

Culture Shock - 2012

First piece done using this style. Thinking outside the box, skewed viewpoint from what is right and what is wrong. Seeing with the body, pure ecstasy, disregarding logic and following the frantic dance of emotion. 

Waiter - 2013

 Footsteps becoming like clockwork, abolishing basic anatomy to show disfigurement of one's schedule and sense of time. Waiting for money to be spent and earned. Sadness on one shoulder and monstrosity on the other. Unevenness of vision and financial burden. 

Vessel-2013"Life is like a glass. You are given an empty one by the hands above. Fill it with a good mixture and you’ll get a good taste of life. Fill it once with toxic and your glass can never be pristine again. Don’t put too much, for it will be overpowering in taste. Don’t fill too much, or else your glass won’t hold. As empty or full as you view the glass, it is a mirroring testament to your optimistic or pessimistic attitude towards life. But try to fill it to the fullest brim, slowly and steadily, and with absolute humility your purity will resonate the potential you make out of your life. "

Endurance - 2013

Continuation of the above. Broken glasses, shattering of dreams. Suicide of art, sadness engulfing the vessel. Crack in the universe, repeating of cycle, immortality of a concept. "

Yes. I have officially gone mad. Put me in Arkham Asylum now. and this is why I don't want to do too much of these personal arts. The more I do it, the more I convince myself that I am a cuckoo. It's too private, maybe even ahead or perhaps way too late for this generation. But the whole experience of painting these is really cathartic, almost like eating sushi/pizza but better. So I'll keep doing it no matter how little time i have in my hand. With this little energy left before plunging myself into yet another string of uni/part-time/volunteer work, I shall bid you sayonara. 

HOW AN ARTIST SURVIVED VALENTINE'S DAY

It's one of those days again where people can choose to either dust themselves with the potion of love or just lament bitterly about loneliness. Me? I choose to work it off and remain opportunistic. Lately my mind seems to be gearing towards its business side. So to celebrate valentine's day, I announced to receive orders for caricatures for people who wants to give a little memento to their loved ones as a sign of affection. A sudden choice that I hope will not dilute the quality my artwork at any cost. In any case,  I have been doing these kind of caricature since I was in secondary school as a side job. It was hard back then because the material cost sometimes exceed the selling price and I was always. It's still hard to complete one now, but Photoshop and Wacom are real life savior that allows quick editing and painting without much regards for pictorial accuracy.

That being said, the response was luke warm. Within 10 hours of the application period I managed to only secure 5. Not sure if its because lack of sample, unsuitable pricing, or simply that people around me are all just single. (HA!). Still, it was a good attempt to dip my fingers in the market.  Besides, I will not be able to finish everything on time if set up a website or at least an official facebook page with a proper marketing campaign for the V day caricature drive. There was just too much commitment with AIESEC, Stereonesia, and Teritori. Anyway, here are the samples of works I have done for the lovely orders I've got from friends. :)

I'm just happy for you guys. Dammit. Ninjas please stop cutting onions. Happy couples, happy couples everywhere.  Nah but seriously, may all of you live long and prosper. :)

And these were the samples I shown to attract the initial orders. It was initially ordered for teacher's day to celebrate the Senior Admin's service to my high school back in Singapore, the proud standing ACS (Independent). Turns out this can be useful as well because all the samples of caricature I did back in Medan are usually given to clients because they exist in hard copy. 

Fortunately all the clients are satisfied with the work so that is a huge relief off my chest. In any case, caricatures are a great way to fill in some excitement amidst the boredom of constantly grinding over normal posters and flyers and even illustration. So I'll be happy to take on one anytime anybody needs a quick birthday gift or special event present for their loved ones at any time of the year. Just send your picture and character you desire to be portrayed as to james.rotanson@yahoo.com and you'll receive it within 1 working day. Well then, gotta go to work at my favorite chocolate bar and see all the couples frolicking over each other now. Oh wait. I survived!

WHY I DIDN'T GO TO AN ART SCHOOL

But decided to go for a business-oriented school instead. 

It really depends on one's own perspective and astuteness in analyzing both sides' own pros and cons. Just two months ago I was pondering whether or not to lodge an application to the Pasadena Art Center College of Design to study Bachelor of Entertainment Design. I reckoned that it will be a good opportunity for me to further my skill by being surrounded with equally or even more creative people.  There will surely be more relevant industries there, situated at the heart of LA and San Francisco. My reasoning was also preoccupied upon the notion that it just does not make sense to pursue art in a university mostly prized for its actuarial studies and accounting program. I was determined to once again set foot for my idealistic and misguided artist dream and told myself, "One does not simply go to a butcher and expect to be served hot chocolate. Go to a chocolatier instead. " 

I finished up the application, answered some of the most interesting essay questions ever and just when I was about to send it in, fate launched its clockwork on me. A series of events started to kick in. AIESEC conference, Google Ambassador, Indonesian society, and a whole lot of other works began to pour in like crazy because of the upcoming new semester. That was when I realized that it is actually a very smart thing to go to a business-focused school rather than an art school.

In a community full of people doing the same thing, basic human nature will prevent each other from promoting each other through the words of mouth. Especially in the likes of artists and draftsman, where expertise decides the thin border between life and death. Between being hired and disappearing to their own fantasy world of secreting tangible forms of ideas and feeling, there will come a time that one will realize passion alone is not enough without any sellable form of product, no matter how fleeting it is. In other words, artists needs to be able to not just make good art, but sell good art as well. 

Being in a business school prepares you the opportunity of networking. There is undoubtedly a multitude of artists far superior than each other in terms of technique and conveyance. But it is a privilege of a handful to be able to do what they love and make a decent living out of it. It is a very big assumption I am making here in terms of the selfish human nature aforementioned and the will of an artist to sell his art. Still, it is hard to believe that anybody is going to promote and recommend anybody if they know they have the capability to do it. 

That is why being the rare few graphic designers is around in a non-art school will mean that there will be lesser competitor around. Whenever a student, charity, or non-profit organization needs a new flyer or a brochure you can rise up to the occasion and provide some form of assistance. Even if it is free, I try to think of it as a mutual benefit because they are promoting my brand and work as well. Think far ahead, when these business students graduated and wanted to create their own business, iphone app, company or whatever it is. There will always be a demand for logo, user interface, website, sponsorship proposal or simply a facebook cover picture to market their service or product. And when that comes, hopefully all the long term investment sown will bore fruition. 

One might criticize this piece of rant as a testimony to how opportunistic I am in trying to commercialize art. But the reality is sadly as such and the bohemian era is now over. It is not survival of the fittest. It is merely an attempt to resuscitate the world of art by making it more beneficial to both producers and consumers of any form of design work. Such ideal might be further challenged by the fact that bowing into consumerism will reduce the creativity of artwork. My answer to that will be time management. Meaning, do design work to make a living, but do ingenious artwork to keep the artist spirit alive. 

And so, to end this, here are some marketing artworks I have done for a few student organizations that have helped me develop as a person, entrepreneur and of course, an artist:

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

It's time to celebrate Chinese New Year again! An annual event that always reminds you of how much of a good company you'll always have right by your side. And with very short time squeezed in between juggling art, friendship, and work, I shall give my thanks for the list of blessings I've been bestowed upon:

-  My mom and my two brothers. You have no idea how much I love you guys despite my poker face demeanor. 

- Dad. That's a lot of shoes you are leaving me to fill in, but you are always my role model. :)

- The courage to carry on doing art despite circumstances. 

- The patience to do voluntary work for the value and not for the profit

- The opportunity to be recruited by AIESEC together with a horde of equally lifeless people from different degree of retarded-ness and craziness. 

- The will to trade a significant amount of brain cells for a more experiential learning

- The pleasure of having a great company I've been able to work, play, and share stories with.

- The various companies I have worked with, from a funeral company to tuition and education center, from a chocolate bar to a top IT company.

- The people who have helped inspire me in continuing to do what is right and worth the cause.

- and finally, some bonus fun stuff just for laughs!

CONFERENCE AND FEATURED IN TERITORI STUDIO!

Finally, finally, finally! It's not Square Enix or Blizzard, but at least getting featured in an independent studio from my hometown delivers a certain tumult of joy! It's a pretty bold statement Teritori Studio is making. Setting up such a tertiary-natured company in a community where the people hasn't gone past the bare standard of living? What shot us in the head back then I wonder. Don't get me wrong. Being part of the movement really gets me enraptured. It is the benevolence of my mentor, Mr. Henryca Citra that makes all these possible with the contacts he gathered while working for years in Japan. Still, I was scared at the same time, setting out on a journey with real clients hailing unstoppably from all over the world.

 I went to an AIESEC conference in Adelaide a few days ago. If there is one thing I rediscovered during my 6 days of stay there, is that of courage. I remembered talking to a very interesting girl who changed her major from industrial design to business for the reason of financial security. During a particular drinking circle, I could recall how wearily my comrades, flushed out their emotion to vent away their apathy towards life. Countless times I found myself in awkward encounters, talking to new people above my ranks, with way more passion and zest than me trying to change lives with their eloquence. I saw people succeed, fail, try again, and from the wisest conference clown ever I learnt my lesson:

"Courage is not the absence of fear. It is knowing that fear exist, but still moved on to conquer that fear"

That is indeed true. Many times I felt inadequate being just a member and a designer of such a huge organization. Speeches were made, with hopes of uplifting "small but integral" pieces as part of the team. I don't know about other people but it always comes to no avail in my case. I saw so many lives being changed since day 1. Yet, I was still pessimistic that the vision of "fulfillment of humankind potential" is merely a gimmick. I almost fell to the trap of thinking that designers are just people who "makes things pretty". Being associated as a designer can potentially mean that I'll be judged only by my profession, and not as a person.

But that's exactly the fault. I was too afraid of judgment. If only I could've reached out more and see how people are actually inspired by my resilience to stay in the world of art. If only I have shared more of my stories and not be a wuss sitting at the corner and sipping a late night cup noodle. If only I can convince one more person to believe in what they are truly capable of, to challenge the status quo and have a vision. If only I could see the person and not the position, I'll have more and more stories to blabber about and introversion definitely isn't an excuse.

In any case, what's done is done and there's no use crying over spilt milk. I guess the post conference withdrawal syndrome is over now but as an artist, designer, and an AIESECer , I'd like to challenge myself to have the courage to stay by my stand and do whatever is necessary to move a step closer towards the dream.  That means having a vision and purpose instead of just being a draftsman. That means having the discipline to stay honest and undaunted besides the fear of uncertainty. That means working hard and smart for the projects I am involved in whether it's for profit, volunteer, or social purposes.

Man, that's a huge chunk of lame, cheesy, but necessary rant.

On a side note, teritori studio's portfolio can be seen here at: http://teritoristudio.com/

Laters folks!

LOGO DESIGN AND ECONOMICAL RAMBLINGS

Designing a logo might be one of the simplest but hardest task to do for a designer. It has to capture the client's needs, target audience, feel of the company etc. but most importantly, a good logo has to be recognizably different even at the slightest glance. It's like when you look at Nike's swoosh and "BAM!" it's the essence of Nike captured there, flavorful and full of finesse. 

I receive orders for logo design quite frequently from my friends, family members and sometimes I get lucky with companies. Most of the time they are all unpaid voluntary work, but when a real order comes, it's always hard to set up a price that will satisfy the client's need, especially when they are referred by close acquaintances. Being a novice designer myself, however, I tend to overlook the fact that I am underpaid or even not getting paid at all when doing these works. Why? I see it as a long term investment. I can testify that my work deserves to be pitched at a higher price and I am very open about this. Still, I feel that the good connection with client and an affordable price will keep orders coming in the future, which I believe outweighs the benefit of enjoying a few extra bucks now. (hopefully, *hint hint*) 

Having said that, it will be great to educate people about the economy behind design and artworks. I personally do not have an influence big enough to start giving lectures about why people should pay designers more. One of the things I have always trying to wander upon though, is there absolutely no fixed formula to correlate the visual stimulation produced to the deserved price of the design itself ? Is it legitimate to measure brain activity, popularity amidst the crowd, artist's fame or the time spent to determine the appropriate fee? I tried to look for an answer, but such attempt to put logic into the abstract harbors a fruitless result. Can we quantify that experience, that fame then? By using facebook likes? By winning real life competitions and converting them into virtual points that allows a designer to so-called "level up"? Would that diminish the value of art? What if we can do it, and designs can actually contribute some form of concrete economical impact instead of just "looking nice". I don't know, but I hope to find the answer within this lifetime.

Anyway, I shall stop being all philosophical and douche-y. Planned to post this compilation of logo and suddenly turned into an endless rambling *apologetic bow*. And well, just as a weird tips to fellow novice beginner, the more constraint you are set for a design, the easier it is to come up with ideas. That's why when dealing with clients, ask as many questions about how they want it to look like and do some prototype designs for them. If possible, ask them to fill in a free survey monkey form.  I generally do 2-3 alternatives so that the client will be able to choose and you don't have to redo it later on. It also shows that you are serious and professional about the order, which means you are subjected to even better connection in the future. That's it for now, ja ne and keep the artistic spirit alive!

TUTORIAL 2: INSPIRATION - FROM CHAOS TO ORDER

People often ask me about where to get inspiration from. I don't want to go all Zen but ideas, inspiration, and stuff like that can really be found everywhere! I could be in the most picturesque place in the world and still couldn't give birth to a masterpiece if I am not in the right mind, time, and visual trance. Likewise, you could be walking back from a part time work at 2 am in the morning through your university alone and suddenly that "DING!" finds you in the most common place ever - a CCA stall for orientation week. Anyways, here's the second tutorial inspired by one of Feng Zhu's design cinema episode and hopefully it helps all those out there who haven't got all the time to patiently watch his 40 mins tutorial everyday. This is the end result that we are going to achieve:

Step 1: BASE PICTURE

I do not lie to you. It IS from a CCA booth I came across when walking home at 2 am. Yeah I know right, such a waste of electricity to lit up the place. Anyway, take it with your phone, camera, or whatever, you don't need a high resolution for it. This is going to be a base picture and I chose it because I see some interesting color and perspective going on there. 

Step 2: TWEAK THE PICS AROUND. 

Flip it horizontally, change the hue and saturation, and let yourself loose. At this point I have not had a clear idea what the end result is going to be. For this painting, I simply flip it vertically and added a layer of cyan that has been changed to "screen". It is as simple as that, but the change in color affects the overall mood of the painting too, hence more visual stimulation for you to work with. 

Step 3: DAB THE PAINT

At this point, try to overcome the fear of getting stuck by rules of composition and perspective. Simply let yourself lose by dabbing paint around with your brush tool (press command + B for hotkey) while simultaneously using the eyedropper tool to keep picking color. One advantage of using a photo as the base picture instead of starting from scratch is it already acts like an instant palette. So it's easier to pick up color instead of having to choose one by one again from the color wheel. 

Step 4: TWEAK IT AGAIN

I added more details and decided to flip it horizontally again. In the world of art and entertainment design this chaotic order of work can produce what we often call a happy accident. Again, I am beginning to see stuff here and this should be about 20% done. So it should not have a very finished look at this stage but it contains the major elements that I am going to work with. 

Step 5: START BLOCKING

If you notice, I cropped the picture from step 4 to simply get the long horizontal section that becomes my main focus of attention. Try to zoom in and zoom out to figure out what can you possibly make out of the picture. It is definitely going somewhere, and the elements you add can differ with different types of people. Some might see it as a boat, a seashell, or even completely out of the world stuff! Remember that one of the task of a concept artist is to see what can't be seen by others and help them to visualize it. So in this case, I decided to make it a tree house with various Asian elements in it because Chinese New Year is approaching and I longed to be back in my hometown so badly. 

Step 6: LAYERING

Now that I have set the direction of my painting, I will have to make decision on what elements to put in. What this means is to figure out what shapes can fit in and do research about it. Ergo, if you are planning to put a tree, don't just cook it up from imagination. Try your best to source for texture and the overall look of the branches to give it a more realistic look. In my case here, I looked for coral reef pictures to give it a more surreal look. Remember to put new elements in new layers too so that you can revert back to the original, unless you are really confident in being able to salvage the piece later on. 

Step 7: DETAILS 

It is that important. The little things you put in will help to guide the viewer to see the historical context or other message the concept artist wants to get through to the audience. In my case here, I want it to be a hidden village that offers warmth and protection amidst the coldness of the forest. Don't be afraid to use textures from the internet as long as the finished look differ from the original (for example the orange rooftop there). Adding lights and particles also gives that finished look that contributes further to the depth of your painting. As the saying goes, small things go a long way. 

Step 8: FOREGROUND 

Now that al the background seems to be set, adding a foreground of a man standing on top of a tree bark simply increases the value range of your painting, meaning more depth for the human eye to perceive. Flatten down the image and add more particles using customized brush while also highlighting the bright areas using dodge tool (command + o for hotkey). Your concept is now done and ready for use!

Isn't too bad, is it? It might seem like black magic at first but once you get the hang of it, turning a very chaotic piece into order is really all about handling your brush right. All these takes about 5 hours and very minimal tools were utilized (only brush, dodge, burn, sponge, and simply changing hue and saturation of the layers.). Hopefully this helps to get your inspiration running and ciao for now!

NEW YEAR: NEW BRUSH AND NEW RESOLUTION!

Friend: "What's your New Year resolution?"

Me: "Heh. 300 dpi. "

~awkward silence~

Yup. End of the world is always interesting and awkward at the same time. Anyway, I'm back again this year with a few new artworks at hand! Recently I received orders from Asterisk Studio Japan to do a concept art painting for the level 1 and level 2 background of their new game. They were just painting of a normal cave and a crystal cave, really. Still, I was flabbergasted by the amount of details and specifications that they insist on having on both the artworks I had to render every single rock to look perfect but still has that irregular feeling of a painting to it. Phew. Too bad I cannot post it up because of obvious corporate reasons but once they give me the green light I promise I'll put it in the blog. 

As rigorous as it sounds (nah not really), those cave paintings really get my engine going I decided to do more research and watch more of Feng Zhu's tutorial. Turns out he uses a lot of fancy brushes that gives texture to the stucture to the paintings (the particles floating in the air for example). Obviously that is smart because in the industry that kind of speed is really needed. So I went to look for my own set of digital brush and it's always fun to have new tools at hand. Download them here cghub.com/scripts/view/147/and simply extract them using the unarchiver if you are using Mac or just winrar if you are using windows. Here are the samples of what you can do with that new set of brush:

A vagabond arriving into a village built on a tree top. Chinese elements because I just want to go back home for a while and celebrate Chinese New Year! ><

Highway transport in a fantasy, futuristic city. I don't expect Indonesia to have this kind of railway but at least build a proper functioning where people don't just GTA around town like headless chickens. 

Anyway, if you have spare time, do watch Feng Zhu's free video tutorial in his youtube channel or blog. It really do helps in terms of understanding value, composition and all the fundamentals that you need to produce high quality, industry level painting. As for my new year resolution, I'll try to post up more paintings every 2 weeks if I am not too busy for my part time work and other volunteer design stuff. T^T. So yeah, ciao and keep the artist in you alive! 

A week of Colmanhandoko

WOOTS it feels great to be back again! I've been working for an advertising company based in Jakarta for the past week and it's been a really tough few days. Yep that's right, Colmanhandoko is the creative company responsible behind some of Axis GSM's TV commercial airing in Indonesia's TV stations. They have great ideas, but sometimes audience can't help but take on the impression that they are trying too hard to be creative.

On a more important note, I was tasked to do a smorgasbord of full color illustrations for a client that is rumored to be a milk factory in Russia. Yes, it was one of those dafaq moments. Dragons, Rapunzel, Nutcracker, and all the other fairy tales to persuade the market to buy milk. They'll either break it so bad or make it real good. Regardless of the outcome, I wasn't going to waste any of this opportunity. I jumped into my work station and started the color fiesta. Here are the results done over the week.

Day 1: Dragon, Knight and the Damsel. The first illustration that I did for the project. Receive many amendments and changes especially with regards to the background from my digital painting shifu and head of the project, Henryca Citra (the guy is godly let me tell you). It feels great to be doing pure digital painting after so long. But it's even better to receive feedbacks subliminally telling how shit I am. Not to mention the various improvements and design-principle advice gathered from people who are already experienced in the field. It's still a long way to go.

Day 2-3: Wolf and the Phoenix. Pissed by how bad I performed at the first one, I decided to invest more time to do the details and carefully planning the negative space and color composition. Proud of it because all those times came into fruition (at least now). The most important thing of day 2 is how I extensively used reference pictures instead of just cooking up color composition in my mind. I took inspiration from a screenshot of Snow white and the Huntsman and the coloration fits this forestry setting perfectly. Long story short I add a bit of highlights here and there and BAM! second one DONE.

Day 4-5: The Nutcracker. No, seriously, it really cracked my nuts doing this. Christmas is around the corner but it was getting so tiring on the 4th day and I can significantly felt my speed dropping. Honestly not much improvement from the previous one but I can tell you the initial color scheme is so different from the final product because I had to come up with a few drafts before getting a right sense of it. Thanks again Shifu Henryca Citra for the valuable feedbacks! :D

Day 5-7: The Kiss. It was the most torturous of all the paintings. The reference picture is made very clear by the head of project and so I do not have control over the color schemes and other technical aspect. Basically I just had to repaint everything into a higher resolution. Still, looking at the details of the dress, roses, wood planks, and basically all the elements in the foreground and background, you can understand the pain of having to complete such an intricate painting within the industry speed of 3 days. To top that, try staring at people kissing for 3 days straight when you are so forever alone and homesick. Life is good heh. Still, it was all worth it. This painting gets such a good response from the head project he said that it makes others look inconsistent. (HOUYEAH!)

Anyways, that is it for now. I would love to share more about the process of how to make this but those will be in another post. and after I am done with some marketing material for Stereonesia and AIESEC. Huff, holidays gonna be brutal isn't it? I just hope Santa doesn't poop in the chimney.

STEREONESIA 2013

Turns out the grand threadless plan has to be postponed again. I don't know why, but the universe doesn't seem to like me doing t-shirt designs for fun or business purposes. FFFUUUUU... Instead, I was steadily and gradually drawn into a whole new vortex of graphics work full of CMYK vector: Stereonesia 2013.  It's a good challenge after a while, but I still prefer Photoshop over Illustrator, meaning that it takes a lot of time making those smooth lines appear (almost) flawless.

Here comes Stereonesia 2013. A concert by Indonesians for Indonesians stipulated to be held next year somewhere in March. Out of the blue I was suddenly a part of their design team, tasked with the usual poster, cover photo, and illustrations to promote the event. It was fun first, but then the greedy side of me went berserk and I volunteered to be part of the trailer and website development team. Expect a brutal summer holiday, James.

Anyway, I am never a charitable person (at least I always have an ulterior motive, like every vegan and  insurance company) but Stereonesia is projected to rock NSW upside down left to right and even diagonally with the array of Indonesian artists that's gonna come. Yes, that's not because I am part of the organizing team. Definitely not. heh. But honestly, it's a good time to jam around and relish the Indonesian culture and music and all other Indonesian bla blas! So there we go, it's still 4 months to go but expect the spectrum of symphony to rock your world! See you in Stereonesia 2013! 

P.S. ( I should be getting paid for doing such a good ads for them ahem!)

Thoughts on Threadless, Life Choices, and Part Time Jobs.

Lately I have been introduced to this community of t shirt and apparel designers called threadless. Wait. That was months ago. The problem is, there is just too much work and study getting in the way before one can really pursue fame and fortune by doing things one likes.

I get these a lot. Questions about pursuing passion and dream. Honestly though, it has gone quite stale. If your calling is to be a Pikachu, don't get stuck becoming a generator maintenance guy repairing electric appliances when you can spark the buzz off out of yourself. Don't kill the child within you. It just isn't logical. Better fail fast and cheap than to have a sudden overdrive towards career-destroying mid-life crisis right?

Recently I got a job at a nearby cafe as a waiter/kitchen-hand/dessert-maker. It was always hell's busy and the staff are expected to run off and on the kitchen like a headless chicken til midnight. I always thought that working part time is going to be fun because I actually receive money out of what I do and not like doing some freelance stuff out of familial bonds. Turns out, working solely for the sake of money is tough, if not wrong. Maybe for the first few days you'll feel excited. But when you start to get used to it and the learning curve starts to get less steep, things can get very uninspiring and the flair will pretty much die down.

In any case, the drawing above is just a commentary of people who hasn't realized the potential within themselves. Come on guys. You don't need me to tell you that sometimes we try so very hard forcing ourselves to like things we don't have believe in. If you like art, make great art. If you like studying, climb the heights and be a professor. If you like cooking, get that Michelin Star. The point is, money should be the byproduct, not the catalyst. What you enjoy doing should be the reactants, and that's what I'm gonna do now. Submitting stuff to threadless!

TUTORIAL 1: SIMPLE MECHA COLORATION

One of the best way to draw awesome robots with sharp edges and cuboidal bodies is surprisingly through traditional method. Drawing straight lines with the brush tool and lasso tool in Photoshop is fine, but I personally prefer using pencil and ruler on paper because it gives me ease and the necessary speed in controlling the direction of the lines. Coloring it, however, is better and faster done using lasso tool and adjusting the hue and saturation. Here are the steps:

1. Draw the outlines on paper after the initial draft and make sure that the lines are neat and clean. I usually use thin 0.1 tip graphic pen for this. Scan it, and open the image in photoshop. 

2. Using the polygonal lasso tool, carefully select out the area of the robot and press ctrl + shift + J to make a new layer via cut. Be diligent and don't use the magnetic lasso tool because it will leave crappy pixels around the edges and make your robot looks unpolished. In the layer containing the robot, adjust the level by pressing ctrl + L or command + L so it looks bright enough for coloration. (see below)

3. Select the background layer and press control (command if you are using apple) + delete to color it with white. Then adjust the brightness by pressing ctrl + u so that you get the light grey color. This is useful so that the overall color contrast will not be so high when we are painting the robot. For the robot layer, press ctrl + u (to change the hue, color, and saturation) and I chose orange for the base color. Then use burn tool to make some areas darker than the other. In this case, the source of light is at the top left hand corner above the tank so the bottom part of every element should be darker. 

4. Copy the robot layer and erase some areas that you want to color differently. Use eraser or lasso tool. After this, change the color to make them complementary. I did have some trouble in figuring out a nice color combination so take your time for that. 

5. I finally settled with a dull cyan for the full body and bright yellow for highlights. Add a bit more shadows here and there and you can even add a third layer for a grey area around the machines. Finally, adding a paint daubs filter will create the shiny highlights around the edges of the line, rendering a more refined machine look for your turret. 

6. Add a little bit of dark areas for value play using the burn tool. You can even put a texture over some areas to make it look rusty but that will be in some other tutorial. Polish some tiny white spots on the highlight area (depending on what kind of material your turret is made of) and it will look even more convincing with great background. Simple mecha coloration: DONE.

Here are a few other artworks done using the same method as above. 

INDONEXIA 4: FROM TRADITIONAL HOUSES TO POMPOKO

After my visit to Lake Toba back in July, I was really thrilled when I found out about the interesting stories behind traditional houses from the locals. The Jabu house, native to the Batak Clan is usually mounted with bull heads to indicate social status of the tribe. The house is viewed as sacred, carved with intaglio geckos to cast spirits away. The huge rooftops are also purposed for crops storage, ventilation, and a warm family gathering, all designed with the backwoods knowledge of the indigenous tribe. Unfortunately very few of these amazing architecture structures are left with deforestation and expansion of the city folks. 

Around the same time, I was also watching Hayao Miyazaki's Pom Poko where a bunch of tanuki (Japanese Racoon dogs) tries to survive the vicissitudes of life when industrialization starts to kick in. It pains me to put myself in the tanuki's position, having to fight a greater force just to live and survive. And Miyazaki crafted this in such a creative manner, drawing inspiration from the ancient Japanese mythology of tanuki's transformation and summoning abilities. In any case, I feel that there's a shared universal feeling about the rustic village charm, an atmosphere no concrete can ever replicate. So I decided to give some twist to the traditional houses in Indonesia and give them a dose of character and modernity. Done in Photoshop CS4 and Wacom Intuos 4.

INDONEXIA 3: PORTRAIT PERSPECTIVE

INDONEXIA 2: ANOTHER LANDSCAPE PERSPECTIVE

If you are looking for inspirations for concept art, check out Feng Zhu Design and his awesome, endless list of portfolio. I came across his artworks about March this year and it's a fantastic place to learn about color value, perspective, composition, and tips about working in the industry of entertainment design. I wanted to go for a one year program at his newly opened school in Singapore but too bad don't have the money for it. Still, his digital paintings and sketches are just so inspiring they suck me inside the moment I look at them. It's like a new realm, and it wasn't surprising,  because he has been responsible for the concept art in Tron, Star Wars episode III, Transformers and many other great titles in the entertainment industry.

So I figured, why not apply and learn a thing or two from his comprehensive blog, and infuse some color into my boring hometown? The results are shown below, with a reimagined Lake Toba, a rocket-equipped rickshaw, and spirit concert from the Indonesian folklore. Done in Photoshop CS4 with Wacom Intuos 4