splash screen

website main page

The all of the illustrated elements from the website were custom drawn for this project (though I’ll probably recycle that wooden frame for other projects down the line), the Stargazer lilies are actually the same illustration repeated, resized, and rotated to look like a cluster. can you tell? I drew it last fall for her save-the-dates.

Stevens-Jouper Family Portrait

Brooklyn Roofdeck

Buster Bluth

I’m going home to Seattle to visit my family and some friends this week. My friend is going to be garden-sitting while I’m gone. Maybe the plants will flourish in the absence of my smothering and obsessive greenthumby hands. Let’s keep those fingers crossed.

From the signage of the Thai restaurants in suburban strip malls across America.

Film logo in a customized font, based on papyrus, in 5 easy photoshop steps!

Yeah, well I always thought Papyrus was forbidden, too.

Just to get it out of the way, and lest I appear ungrateful for all the hard work and groundbreaking innovation of director James Cameron, Avatar is truly an awesome spectacle, definitely worth shelling out the cash to see it in the theater, and in 3-D. I didn’t watch it in IMAX, but I was sitting in the 2nd row, if that can be considered a comparably intense experience. This is definitely not a movie to watch later on DVD. Once it leaves the theater, I don’t think there is really any point to seeing it at all. The story and dialogue were incredibly corny. Make no mistake about it, Cameron doesn’t want anything to take the spotlight away from the special effects he’s developed.

But when it comes to scrimping in other areas, the results can be downright distracting. The glaring example of which was the use of Papyrus in the credits, on the film’s Logo (a bastardized form of it, but still), and all through the film itself as the Na’vi to English subtitles.

Na'vi blue hippie cat people.

Na'vi are GO!

Battlefield Pandora

Na'vi native dress, translated into Burning Man style.

poor hair decisions of the past turned mystical plot device

Another element I found distracting within the film was the character design and the styling of the CGI Na’vi people. Though the figures were rendered beautifully and moved gracefully and elegantly, they looked… well… I’d describe it as “Thundercats go to a Psychlo hairstylist (from Battlefield Earth) and then get (un)dressed for Burning Man”. And while I am all for the idea of neuron tentacles intertwining with one another to form a telepathic and spiritual communion amongst the flora and fauna of the planet, why does it have to occur in a giant braided Rat Tail?

I should take a moment here to mention that my problems with the production design of the film did not extend to the design and landscape of Pandora’s jungle and mountain range. They were beautifully realized, lush and fantastic. Again, definitely worth the trip to the theater to experience it in 3D. During an early scene’s reconnaissance trek through the jungle, I kept hoping the characters put on some kind of insect repellant. I bet those bugbites would itch like a bitch.

*sigh*, c'mon Joss.

James Cameron isn’t the only director to see the wilds of outer space personified in the typeface Papyrus. Joss Whedon (one of my TV-making heroes) used it for the film logo for Serenity. Sure, I was disappointed, but my disappointment with Whedon was more of the sad variety, whereas my disappointment with Cameron was more of the annoyed. I mean, Avatar‘s budget was at least $200,000,000 larger than that of Serenity‘s. Surely some of that could have gone towards production design? And maybe a slightly better screenplay? Whedon’s film was largely unwatched by anyone who wasn’t already a Joss Whedon’s fan, so I was willing to overlook the typeface choice, but I figured it was worth mentioning now that it’s all over Avatar.

Still, though. Go see it. It’s pretty cool.

[some images from Papyrus Watch on Flickr and Jessie Stankey on bestc.am]

In a Chemical World, it is very cheap.

The Illustration Friday theme this week is “Blur”. I’m posting a little drawing I did last week for this topic, as the title was taken from a line from a Blur song (“Chemical World”). Maybe this is a stretch, but I believe my previous 2 Illustration Friday entries were also a stretch. If I get around to doing another, more spot-on interpretation, I’ll post that before the week’s end. How’s that?

I wish I had thought to use green for the girl’s wallpaper, rather than the bright pink I used. It would have really popped. There even were some green colored pencils around, but I just didn’t think to use them because I didn’t have my blender. Oh well. I didn’t do this at home, and my supplies were limited.

And now for a quick plug, this drawing was done in The Storyboard Book, which is a great little product made from a friend of mine. I post about it in my my previous post. Take a look, order a few, have some fun.

And now, as a special treat, the video for “Chemical World” by Blur.

Just one of 5,386,290,589 uses for these little notebooks.

Corin is also half the brainchild of The Storyboard Book. The other half of the is design wunderkind Salah. The Storyboard Book is a great little notebook, 35 pages, with gridded pages and an inset frame at a 16:9 ratio, perfect for storyboarding projects. These are very handy little notebooks, highly portable, and perfect for planning your projects and passing them off to your collaborators, peers, and partners. At last week’s Project Night, Corin asked all of us in attendance to fill up a 2-page spread in one of the books so she could photograph them as examples of uses of the books. Then she gifted us with the books we worked in.

Since the title of this little drawing is directly lifted from a Blur Song (“Chemical World”), can/should I submit it as this week’s Illustration Friday entry? The theme this week is “Blur”. Or is that cheating and/or too much of a stretch?

The Storyboard Book
Corin’s Blog
Salah’s Blog

Stargazer Lily

Event Information

More design elements from her wedding to come.

In other news, I was commissioned to make a title banner for my good friend’s blog. She has been chronicling her thoughts of and life with Multiple Sclerosis at Tingly Feeling. She is a wonderful writer, and her blog is informative for people like me who are ignorant of this disease, and provides support for herself and others who suffer from it. I also learned a bit about her condition during the creative process, as I did some research for reference. She wanted an illustrated nerve strand with damaged myelin sheaths. I know, right? Huh?

Nerve Strand, Ink and Watercolor

The finished banner can be found on the blog itself, and just because I’m vain I will link to the post where she praises my work and includes a picture of me.

powkang.tumblr.com

As if I didn’t have enough online presence to keep track of, I decided to start generating content for my tumblr (which heretofore only had one post, which was a link to this WordPress blog).  It will solely be sketches made in public while people-watching and listening to my ipod. I’m hoping it will generate traffic to this blog, and my website. I haven’t yet decided if I want to x-post everything there here, but I probably will for the time being.

[via: tumblr]

Le Pen, drawn with Le Pen

Last weekend, I decided that my fine point black markers are too harsh for some projects, and thought I should invest in some of my favored pens in gray.  I like the Faber Castell brand of markers, and while they had some in gray at the Utrecht, I couldn’t find anything in a fine tip point.  There was a pretty cool set of brush tip markers in various shades of gray.  Great, except that I am not a fan of brush tip markers.  They’re really cool and everything, but I like a good, solid, thin line.  They did, however, have some other fine point pens in various colors for really cheap ($1.15 or something), so I got one of those in gray.  They are called “Le Pen”, and just like it says on the barrel, they are “marvy” and from Japan.  The line is great, until I come stomping in with my waterbrush pen and watercolor.  This is not permanent ink.  It gets all blurry and blendy.  Le Pen = Le Sigh.  I actually like this effect, if I can control the water enough to keep my lines from completely disappearing.  I just know that someday I will also want some gray lines that will stay put.  Especially since I can’t seem to keep watercolor away from anything I touch anymore.

Anyways, just like I painted the ocean with water from the ocean, I drew a picture of this pen with the pen itself.  After I had my way with the waterbrush pen, I went back and re-inked the lines.  Maybe I’ll just have to get used to that.  Or maybe I need to go to (gulp) Pearl.  Or some other kind of super pen emporium.

Regardless, the nice guys over at Drawger has a little collection of MJ illustrations, and they approved my submission of “Jackson and Child”.  I’m going to assume you have already seen my piece, but click on the link anyways, and gawk at the talent.  MJ meant many things to many illustrators, and it shows in the multitude of incarnations displayed in the show.

Drawger: Michael Jackson