KissPlease.

Oh. It's THAT big.



I mean, I knew it was A3-size (12x19) when I ordered it, but damn, it's still surprisingly huge, haha. Lotta money gone byebye, but a lotta good drawing times ahead!

Size DOES matter baby.

A new piece, for alla y'all.



The original sketch can be found here at my more regular haunt, van.vox.com.

Here's a piece I've been working on lately, I hope you dig it!


Click for larger

- Lorien

Goshers, been a while since I've posted here. Whyso? I've been hanging out at Vox! It's made by the same people as Livejournal, but has a ton more features. Loving it.

Anyway, here's a doodle of Ryu schooling Ken in the classic Street Fighter II.



Click for larger.

And for anyone who cares, here's a link to my Vox account. ^^

I'm one of them now!


Click for larger!

So, as you can no doubt see, you cunning so-and-so's, I finally got my tattoo done. The part in red is the Han symbol (Chinese written language, the same symbol can be found in the Japanese Kanji written language, which Japan kindly jacked from China!) for "truth". My beautiful partner Lorien is half Chinese, and this is her Chinese name. So, this is an attempt to represent my commitment to her and to our life together, while somewhat cirmcumventing the cursed name tattoo (the curse being that anyone who gets their partner's name tattooed on them inevitably ends up single again in the future)!

The black section is a hexagram from the ancient Chinese system called I Ching (the I is pronounced as an E). One of its interpretations is "After Completion", and it acts as a recognition of the trials and challenges I've faced, while also declaring that I am armed against future challenges. It stands for accomplishment, showing that I've achieved some of my most important goals - the chief one being finding Lorien - and that I'm prepared to fight to keep them.


Click for larger!

This is Steve, he's the man who marked me. He's a really top guy, big into graffiti and art in general - the pieces on the wall behind him are all his own work - and was a blast to be inked by. You can find him at Tattoo Connection out in Knox (Victoria, Australia), on 03 9800 5470.

Right on!

- Van

My top 5 2006 releases (at this point), in order, are:

1. Guster - Ganging Up on the Sun
2. Mike Patton - Peeping Tom
3. Eskimo Joe - Black Fingernails Red Wine
4. Bem Harper - Both Sides of the Gun
5. Gomez - How We Operate

Honourable Mentions to:

Snow Patrol - Eyes Open (yes I've been a fan since before this album, damn it)
John Mayer - Continuum (Yeah it's not out yet, but it will be in 25 days, and it will be awesome).
Donavon Frankenreiter - Move By Yourself
Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
Gnarles Barkly - St. Elsewhere
Bernard Fanning - Tea and Sympathy
Hilltop Hoods - The Hard Road
The Submarines - Declare a New State (You'd like this Cam!)

The above may be added to or altered before the year is out!

- Van

This started life as a photo of an inked drawing. My scanner is busted, so I've had to resort to taking photos of my drawings! Anyway, after taking the photo, I brought it into Adobe Illustrator CS2 and used its LiveTrace tool to auto-vector it. Not bad, considering it came from a photo rather than a scan!



Original photo of the inked photo after the cut!

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Hey gang! I'd like some feedback on this tattoo that I am wanting to get. The core elements - the kanji (the red part) and the I Ching symbols (the block-looking bits in black) will be there regardless, but the question is how shall I present them? I've included 5 different concepts (1 to 5 -- left to right) in one of the images, as well as a Photoshopped example of what the 5th one would look like, and it's my favourite at the moment.

My megalicious beautiful girly has already suggested I space out the I Ching elements a bit more, which I think I will probably do.

What I'd like to know is which you prefer, and if there's anything I could think about changing/improving. No *major* changes, as I'm pretty happy with the basic concepts presented, but the point of this is to see if there's anything you can pick up on that I've missed!

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On the question of firing your weapon in Mario Kart DS:

Lorien: How do you deploy again?
Van: Eh?
Lorien: How do you deploy your item in Mario Kart?
Van: Oh. Left shoulder button.
(A moment passes)
Van: ...Did you say "Deploy"?
Lorien: (cute embarassed face)

You see?!

Later on:

Lorien: Argh I got lightninged!

Lorien (my gorgeous partner and the other half of our collaborative art project "KissPlease") recently decreed that the first KissPlease piece must be finished within the next two weeks, and it's coming along nicely, as she laid down some background today. The dude will have a scratchy white outline, so she's left that area unpainted for now while we decide how to attack the outline.


Click here for larger version.

What do you think? Is there anything we can do to improve this piece (keeping in mind that it's obviously amost finished!)?

Model: Lorien (the other half of kissplease)
Time: 1.5hrs

- Van

Not quite as cool as a sword welding bear, but whatcha gonna do.

I gave Lorien the challenge of sketching a bear in a hoody, holding a sword. I think she did quite well.

Follow the link to see what you can see.

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So. At work, I have a 9x12" Wacom Intuos3 tablet. It is—for those who may be wondering but didn't know how to ask—a mini God.



It's just so damn perfect.

The tablet, I mean.

The time between picking what I want to eat, and the time it takes the waiter to come and take my order, is usually spent drawing. The waiter took his time tonight!

A bit more work done on the project, and I think I'm starting to like it. I've thickened the lines on the face, and I've started playing with the lineweights (though only barely, at this point).


Click here for larger version.

I just ordered these books from Amazonianwarriorbitches.com (or amazon.com, I forget which):

Flight 1
Flight 2
Flight 3

(check out pages for the 3rd volume here)

For eye candy & inspiration, and:

The Illustrator's Bible
All About Techniques in Illustration

For learnin'.

Whether I'll get anything out of the last two shall remain to be seen, but I know for damn sure the first 3 better come with a box of kleenex for the mess in my pants.

Oh, I also bought the I Am 8-Bit book. Pics & info for I Am 8-Bit: Iam8bit.net, Fort90, IGN.

Dany Boy, one of my fave urbanised artists has thrown up a massive amount of updates to his LJ over the last few days. Check it out eh.

Been a while since my last update, but here we go.


Click here for a larger version.

I think I've messed up the face—or at the very least; the eyes and the area surrounding the eyes. I think the nose and mouth are okay, though I did see it going differently (read: more professionally, damn it) in my head.

There's far too much ink shading (the vertical slash-like lines) in the shoulder, and the ink shading around the collar bones looks poorly thought out and too full-on.

Apart from that though, I'm happy with it. I like the general shape and inking of the arms and hands. I'm hoping that my dissatisfaction at the moment is more a result of the fact that I've been looking at it uninked for 2 months now, so this is quite a shock to see it finally moving forward to the ink stage!

They never fail to help pass the time.

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Something I whipped up tonight. Apologies for the poor quality, it's on A3 so I could only take a photo (didn't feel like scanning it in two halves).



- Van