moved on tumblr!

I've moved to tumblr! Been posting there OTL

lee-tao.tumblr.com

2014

Forgot to update my blogger! Frozen fanart and some outdoor paintings and studios from a few weeks back.

Rivals

Next part of this series, more to come...eventually =)

I made a tumblr a few days back also:
lee-tao.tumblr.com

Gouache

 More Gouache stuff about 1h each again, been crunching at work but need to get back into it!

Dota2 fanart

Phantom assassin!

Afternoon

Been a while since I did one of these, I started comping out a few of these a few weeks ago but never got around to actually doing them. Next one might be..RIVALS?!

Bernal Heights again

Some of my previous outdoor gouache sessions were at a hill/park near my area, Bernal Heights. This week is no exception, it's fun climbing up the hills. 1.5h

Gouache adventures

 Been doing some outdoor painting on the weekends the last couple of weeks. Around 1h each. It's very relaxing. gouache is a fun medium, still need to learn to control it though!

 To help with that, I've also been doing some studies of Edgar Payne at night.

Morning

Spent longer on this than the other ones...I really need to work out the comp sketches better before I start putting the paint on haha, most of the time was wasted on moving stuff inside the composition.

Also, Zerg campaign AWWWW YEAHHHHH.

Noon

Continuing the CloudCity stuff, interior shots during the day time. More to come..I think, until I get bored of the idea.

Costume(Class) Design

Design for a project a few months ago, put on hold so might as well upload it. Using color accent on different areas for a clear read on different types of character(class) even from far away(game view)

Been doing studies the past month so that's why the lack of updates but I'll have some stuff to upload soon..

In totally unrelated ramble I really really want to play the new Fire Emblem on 3DS, but have to buy a 3DS to play it =__=...why am I am a cheap asian dude.

D3 Wizard

I drew my cmWizard on diablo3 hehehe. Kind of gave up half way through, wanted to finish it before new years to start on new things YEAH!

Happy new years everybody!

Cloud Town

 Wanted to do a sequence like beat boards to change it up =)

Nothing to add except I'm really excited to see Paperman and Wreck-it Ralph, actually little more excited for Paperman than the feature haha, but both looks amazing!

Postpost

Posting some sketches

Sleepy

Korra, jumped on the bandwagon on doing avatar fanart =)

Sorry for the long hiatus, a combination of moving to SF, work, and Diablo3 was the cause.

It's getting late so I will keep this post short. Watched Korra over the past few months and one other animation show called Kids on the Slope, pretty cool stuff. Korra's ending and overall story could use some work but everything is pretty awesome overall. Can't wait for second season!

Books 2

Doodled the characters from Gentleman Bastards while listening/reading the Lies of Locke Lamora. Sabetha, Locke, and Jean

More amateur book reading, so fun!
I jumped to Guy Gavriel Kay and Scott Lynch last month, both authors were very fun to read. 

GGK came highly recommended online so I dropped some time reading Tigana and A Song for Arbonne, and oh boy, I have never read better characterization in fantasy(his books aren't high fantasy, more historical fiction), all the characters have a lot of depth, it's really cool where good guys also do cruel things and bad guys are very human as well. You actually feel for both sides instead of just good vs. evil. A new favourite author, will go back to him definitely (GGK also lives in Toronto!)

I needed to take a break from the really moving stories of GGK and chose to start on Scott Lynch cause a friend gave me the audiobook for The Lies of Locke Lamora. People online describe it simply as Oceans Eleven mixed with fantasy. A very fun adventure, about a group of thieves and them stealing things haha. A lot of amazingly funny dialogue and the story is very well paced. Also hooks you from the beginning (the girl character/love interest of the main character Locke doesn't even show up until the 3rd book! Arrrggg) These books are an easier read than GGKs, if you guys liked Hunger Games and such, try this one out, I think it's a cool jumping point into some fantasy. If you like Oceans Eleven style story, even more so. A lot of swearing haha.

Books

A picture to go with blog post! Started this one a while ago, jumped back to render it for fun.

I jumped from the Shannara books I mentioned a couple of posts down to Brandon Sanderson books. I stopped at the 3rd book of the Shannara series, got too repetitive/boring. The first books from Brandon Sanderson that I read through was the Mistborn trilogy, very popular books right now I think. I started reading it because I saw Sam Weber's sweet cover illustration for it when he uploaded it recently(http://sampaints.com/2011/01/26/mistborn/)Anyways, the first book is really good. The second and third books were OK and finished the story nicely, but not as much of a page turner as the first book. The first book would make a good Hollywood movie haha. After that I read The Alloy of Law which is a spin off from the same world as Mistborn, it was alright. The magic system in the world is really fun, would make a great game system imo. Just yesterday I finished Elantris, a stand alone book from him, also a very good book, although the story is a little generic, but most fantasy books are pretty similar. Get the audio books from him when you are painting or sketching, it's very fun!

Going to move on to another author now =)

Random Enviros

 Random rendering of some thumbnails/compositions

Quick update just to throw something up here, been busy with random stuff lately, will do another post next week after Christmas =)

Happy Holidays!

Life paintings and Dark Souls

2.5 hour sessions.
Trying to get faster mixing the right colours and the block-ins. Always run
out of time for finishing touches for darks and highlights at the end.

Played Dark Souls last month, it's not without problems but wow, such a good game, great improvements over the first game in most areas. No two boss fights are the same; the subtle and non blatant story suggestions adds to the atmosphere so much. The last third of the game feels rushed though and it basically had no ending, but overall probably my favourite game this year..so far.

Who's that pokemon?

It's Slowbro!