Sophia Lauren, watercolor, acrylic ink, color pencil.

Mostly traditional… I ended up having to fix a lean in Photoshop and touched up some details.

So, it’s 2012 and I’ve been feeling like something has been missing from my art life. Things are going well in illustration, but perhaps there has been too much in the way of work and not enough left for me.

Sitting at the computer working, day after day, is bad not only for the body but for the soul. While I do still draw in sketchbooks for myself, it is sometimes soradic – sometimes I will do several sketches a night, other times I may not pick up a pencil for a week or longer.

I feel like I have to at least try to get back to doing something with traditional materials, on a semi-regular basis. So I’m thinking of trying to do something called Traditional Thursday. I will try to put up a new piece on Thursdays that is not done digitally.

So here’s my first (ok, I’m cheating a bit, I have a head start since I have maybe 3 others done too).  Enjoy.

It’s 2012, and I figured, well, if the world is going to end, then I’m going to get myself a new Cintiq.

Yes, well that’s as good an excuse as any right?

cintiq 24 vs cintiq 21 box size (with cat for scale comparison)

cintiq 24hd box vs me

I do like my older 21in model, really I do. Every Wacom product I have ever owned has been a great piece of kit, and the 21 was worth every cent.

The new 24HD is an upgrade, not as huge as going from an Intuous to a Cintiq, but still an interesting one nontheless. It is massive and heavy, and looks a bit like a panel that should be on a spaceship rather than an illustrator’s desk.

cintiq 24 on desk with 23in LED monitor behind, propped up so I can see it

It seems quite comfortable so far. I managed to set it up to hang off the table but I had to prop some stuff on the base to keep the height up a little (the arms only seem to lock up when adjusted to their maximum height, presumably for transport purposes or if you want to use the Cintiq as a stand-up monitor). Wacom should consider adding a functionality to allow people to lock the arms into place at the angle they desire.

propped up screen with books on base

It’s that time of the year again! Happy holidays, season’s greetings and here’s hoping for a 2012 that doesn’t suck!

Many thanks to Paul Pert Smith for including me in this new book. It’s an honor to be included in a collection of art that includes some really artists, most of all Chris Achilleos. While he is not one of my artistic influences, his beautiful fantasy illustrations adorned many of the books I liked to read as a kid, and at one point led me to draw dragons and other neat monsters. (I also realized quite quick I would never be a good fantasy illustrator since I simply hated doing the rocks or trees or ice that dominate fantasy backgrounds).

The book is now available through Amazon and (probably) can be ordered at your favourite bookstore.

Halloween 11' / Charlene Chua illustration

Happy Halloween everyone! To avoid the above scenario, do not use paper bags for trick-or-treatin’….

Super thanks again to Jason at CRP for letting me do this one! Frogger is one of the most iconic video games out there, and to do the cover art for it is just pretty sweet awesome. Yes I said sweet awesome. It just is.

This is the cover for the North American version; Japan and Europe have different covers. This cover is aimed more at kids, and we tried to convey different things in the game, like the classic trucks and cars, as well as the new additions. Apparently this poor frog also has to hop over tanks, evade mean snakes and rats and dodge Apache helicopters. I don’t know why, perhaps he escaped from Raccoon City or something.

My original art featured a night scene as I thought the lights would show up better. But I guess since the other covers featured day scenes we hanged it to a day scene as well. Below is the original color scheme and art. Frog had a longer tongue as well.

Late night sketching, couple of pieces from the Gucci S/S collection. Not a real fan of it, but couldn’t find the Fendi collection I actually wanted to draw. I guess high waisted pants are back in for Spring.

Been a very busy couple of weeks. Here are some sketches I managed to do at night before bed.

I’ve been rather bad with the updating of the blog this year, and this one’s another belated post. This was done for the Wall Street Journal’s Ask Teri column and it’s probably the fastest job I’ve turned around so far.

It happened that the 4th of July fell on a Monday this year, so lots of places were closed for the long weekend. As a result, I got the brief a day later than usual, but still had to turn out the final by the following day. So, I had to rush out a couple of sketches to the art director, then go straight into the final art in the evening. The article was a question from a senior lady who wanted to know what to wear that would be appropriate for her age but not frumpy.

The people at the Journal were very nice and helped give me some suggestions about what to draw.

Below are the two sketches I sent off.

Eye glasses were added on later. I originally had her with white hair but the editor felt that made her look too old so I changed it to a light blonde instead.