Bud Plant Store

My book is on sale at Bud Plant, one of the best place to find artbook from all over the world.
http://budplant.com/product.asp?pn=HAHS

CGbrainchild

My work is feature over on http://www.cgbrainchild.com/
a place for inspirations, really cool site!

Books

Here are pictures of the books:

Tutorial

Allot of people have been asking for a tutorial and so here it is.
I made this for CGTalks a while back, click here if you haven't seen it:

http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=3230

Sketchbook part3

I should back up and start with the layout of the book. Like I said before I love looking at original works at the scale the artists intended it to be.

So with that in mind, I wanted to create a book that would give the audience something to remember. To give everyone a chance to see the original work at the same scale. I then divided the book up into three sections; character and concept designs, pin-ups, and a work-in-progress comic.

The concept works was comprised of my own original game and comic characters. Stuff that I was thinking about for years, most of these drawing was done over a period of ten years. Some pieces are in various stages of completion. And the reason I decided to includes these were to show my thought process and my approaches to finishing them. Maybe on my next book, I'll show my step by step techniques.

Next up are the pin-up that was commissions by various fans (Ok, I actually have more than 2 fans) These were fairly simple, pretty girls in different costumes.

The last part is the comic book that I've been working on and off for the past decade. Just could never get myseft to finish it. Anyway presented here for the very first time. So, after many months and years of hard works. The book is finally here (see picture above)

d'artiste concept book

Got my book over the weekend and my art work "Memories Lost" was feature in the latest d'artiste concept art. Published by Ballistic http://www.ballisticpublishing.com/books/dartiste_concept_art/

I highly recommend it, one of the best concept book I've seen in a long time. Click here to see all the arts from the book: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?threadid=392930

business card

Finally got around to designed my own business card. Looks pretty good if I do say so myself :)

Feature Portfolio

My portfolio have been selected for the "Feature Portfolio" this week (over in CGtalks http://portfolio.cgsociety.org/ ) It'll be up for about a week. Yippee!

Sketchbook part 2

After playing around with the layout and pondering what my next step was...

I've decided that its just looks too cheap going with Kinko. Not that there anything wrong with going this route; it just didn't appeal to me. The quality will not last, plus I'm thinking big here.

The biggest thrill for me (when I attend these comic conventions) is cruising around the artist alley and checking out their works. Nothing beat seeing the original up close and personal. To see the art at their original size (11"x17") so much is lost when you see the final product. Sometime the end result is just not there, due to: time constraint, bad coloring, cheap paper, bad artists team-up, or whatever...

So I've decided to print my book at 11"x17" inch size, printed the art one-to-one scale. No reduction in the artworks, its going to be glorious! Started to check out various printers. I found out about the print-on-demand (POD) possiblity. Which makes allot of sense, if your on a limited budget. I found a bunch of them and had some sent me samples and quote. And after reviewing the materials, I had to make a pass. It looks cheap and the quality just isn't there, I guess you get what you pay for. So off I go to look for a offset printer...

HOLY SMOKES!!! its frigging expensive! But I was still determine, I figure if you give them quality, they'll come back for more. My next plan was to created something similiar to a sketchbook that you buy at the art store, you know one of them spiral binding sketch pad. Similiar to this (see picture above)

By now i've settled on a printer. So I got them to sent me a sample of the spiral binding. I didn't like it, its not what I've envision, plus at that size the pages seems to come off. I've told them to give me a perfect binding softcover. Another problem arise, the weight of the paper and spine just could not support it at the 11"x17" size. Crap! My next step was to go with hardcover.

By this time the cost have gone up dramatically, from spiral to softcover to hardback binding. The cost have quadruple from my initial quote. Shit!

I guess the artist in me have taken charge, quality all the way, not a sound business plan. And
after talking with my better half, I forged ahead (I've told her we'll make it all back, wishful thinking :P)

For the next few months, back and forth between me and the printer, I've made so many changes and ask for so many quotes, I'm supprised they didn't hang up.

To be continue...

sketchbook

So, I've been wanting to do a sketchbook for the longest time, just never got around to it. I have a few fans (maybe one or two) been hounding me about a sketckbook, so I've decided to take the plunged this year. I was going to prepared it in time for the 2006 San Diego Convention. Maybe I can sell about 200 to 300 copies, enough monies to pay for the trip and some beers :P

So much for that huh? the convention came and went, I missed it by 2 weeks. And my book is still in transit. Oh well, maybe I'll be better prepare for next year. The Wonder Con. is coming up though...

Anyway, here is the run down of my adventure into publishing. What a great learning experience it has been for me. I learned so much about self publishing and I barely even scratch the surface.

I've started out preparing something that allot of comic artists do now-a-day, making personal sketchbook. I've bought a few of them myself, some of the arts are awesome, but the quality isn't so great. Its pretty much the same as making xerox copies of your work and having Kinko collate and bind them. So I set out to do the same, I figure the cost won't be too much and its something I can whipped out in no time. I've even layout the cover and did a mock-up of the book. And was pretty proud of it too. But, (to be continue... getting sleepy)

Comparison

Here is a comparison of an earlier version. OK, that's enough of this piece. Time to move on, I promise to post the latest and greatest soon.

I got allot of stuffs brewing in the background, standby...