Art of Jin

harvest 62

2012-01-12T03:15:00.001+09:00

Greatest comic in the human history in making.

ETA? still a fucking long time. lol.

harvest 61

2012-01-07T01:34:00.003+09:00

dunno if want to finish....

Harvest 60

2011-12-29T23:39:00.004+09:00

So yeah, I got around to finish this since the sketch last time.

Although my initial plan was a bit more ambitious with armor parts flying off and whatnot. Thus the reason for her surprised expression.

But then I couldn't spend too much time on it as I got other works waiting in line... Nothing to do with an arrow in the knee, I assure you.

Anyways, comparison to my previous piece with a similar concept:

That is all.

harvest 59

2011-12-24T19:18:00.001+09:00

True story.

harvest 58

2011-12-20T01:29:00.000+09:00

Well, few years back, I think it was back in 2007 or so, I was commissioned to do this piece:

Fast forward to October of this year, I was requested for revision of the same character, and as of today I got around to drawing her again.

That is all.

harvest 57

2011-12-10T20:41:00.001+09:00

One more since I'll be busy for a while again.

harvest 56

2011-12-10T19:27:00.001+09:00

nakedness is next to godliness.

harvest 55

2011-11-15T21:33:00.001+09:00

Example pic for second part of IFX tutorial

harvest 54

2011-11-11T00:02:00.001+09:00

For IFX tutorial.

harvest 53

2011-11-07T22:29:00.002+09:00

just a quickie today

Harvest 52

2011-11-05T01:34:00.003+09:00

Last revision on this piece probably. Heh.

Harvest 51

2011-11-04T03:42:00.002+09:00

Khumeia, a combat bot for David Murphy and his comic project. ( http://www.en-mercs.com/ )

Harvest 50

2011-10-13T21:20:00.000+09:00

Sample of the comic in progress... BG's take loooooonnnnggg to draw....

Coming soon (maybe like in a year... lol)...

Also this one's coming along nicely...

Probably will end up doing full color on this since I like how it's developing...

harvest 49

2011-10-08T22:10:00.000+09:00

kinda becoming a daily thing, eh? a bit rougher stuff today... (done a lot today anyway, including the new banner)

revising an old piece of samus...

dunno what she's smoking...

...

Last but not the least-

That is all for today...

harvest 48

2011-10-07T21:23:00.000+09:00

More random sketches. Offbeat theme day, I suppose.

So it had occurred to me at some point, if I ever wanted to do a comic and properly, I had to fundamentally change how I drew, ground up. At the time I had this painting oriented style where everything was drawn to and for the color. I would in occasion leave anatomically incorrect sketches for the painting stage and I'd often fix things late in the stage. This proved to be quite the wrong way to draw.

Lines interact with each other and there's not a good way to 'fix'em later' when you're already painting them. This would often leave my art looking funny, stiff and incorrect. I had wronged the very commandments I wrote to remind myself.

I was once a line artist, going roughly at the rate of 1~2 full sketchbooks per month in the best of times. Once I went full digital, gone was that tradition. It's probably been 6~7 years since I've filled a sketchbook, and around 5 years since I drew something serious on paper.

In essence, I had forgotten how to sketch on my long journey Joe Pesci knows where.

Every attempt at doing a meaningful amount of comic only led me to realize how serious this problem was. Everything came out stiff and awkward and because of it, it all seemed pointless.

Then I decided to take the journey back, and thus are the results on my blog.

It's still an ongoing process, with rediscovery of some of old tricks I used to use, and others new to my inventory. But for now, enough to make progress on the very thing I announced to the world that I would do.

All is indeed quiet on the west front.

Also, Addendum to the 15 commandments:

1. Always try new things

2. Draw broadly

3. Stay focused

4. Have an idea

5. Feel the dimension

6. Always study

7. Try to enjoy it

8. Take as long as you need

9. Trust your eyes

10.You already have everything

11. There's no such thing as a bad style

12. Never copy

13. Keep your strokes economical

14. Get your sketch ready

15. It'll take a long time.

16. Keep yourself healthy at all cost.
I can't stress enough how important this is. If your health suffers, so will the quality of your work. I've experienced this first hand and many corners were cut simply because I was too exhausted and the brain just produced massive amounts of frustration. Sometimes for days I just sat and did nothing due to my body just not getting enough energy.

Sleep well, wake up early, eat healthy food, jog everyday. Do whatever possible in your position to keep your body and mind at top condition.

17. Your work environment matters.
This is kind of a sub-commandment to the number 16. Your environment must also be supportive of your overall health.

There are many factors such as the air quality in your room, the chair and the floor you're sitting on, the monitor you're looking at, and etc.

But the most important of all, the sitting.

You'll work a lot in an enclosed space where you'll be expected to sit for hours. You must feel comfortable while sitting! Your health depends on it.

If you are suffering from back pain after hours of work, you may have a cheap, flimsy chair, or worse, an uneven surface. You don't want to be sitting on a chair on an uneven, angled floor.

Get a nicely flat surfaced floor and a high quality chair with good lumbar support. This will save your life, and your spine from what is quite possibly the most painful experience imaginable from the bent spine.

That is all.

harvest 47

2011-10-05T14:16:00.003+09:00

mmmm boobies

1 more with bad teeth...

wasn't kidding.

ok last one for the day. maybe.

last one today really. I think...

homuhomuhomuhomuhomumumumumumumu

harvest 46

2011-10-02T19:04:00.001+09:00

Might finish it later. Maybe...

Harvest 45

2011-09-25T09:49:00.004+09:00

Long time no post? That's because I'm working on the comic. Muhahahaha.

Alright. See you in a while again. Maybe soon if I'm in a sketching mood.

1 more with soldier revision. No color, though. Coloring process is rather boring to me now...

Harvest 44

2011-09-12T03:50:00.000+09:00

Might reduce the breast size for the actual comic.

Maybe. Maybe not.

Harvest 43

2011-09-01T03:32:00.000+09:00

More line quickies

Harvest 42

2011-08-28T04:53:00.001+09:00

Probably my fav class at the moment.

Looks pretty alright I think...

Harvest 41

2011-08-26T23:28:00.003+09:00

Ellie revised.

And the changes she went through

So the lineup for these characters are complete... At least for main characters. I still have about 12 characters left I think...

For David Murphy and his comic project, btw. ( http://www.en-mercs.com/ )

Harvest 40

2011-08-13T03:48:00.000+09:00

Sniper this time.

Harvest 39

2011-08-08T02:46:00.001+09:00

Needed a custom spray for my Demodin.

edit: made some adjustments

Harvest 38

2011-08-03T02:35:00.002+09:00

Lines are fun.

Harvest 37

2011-07-30T02:57:00.001+09:00

Alright. I just moved and got settled in. Gonna be a long night and let's get this started.

Not the comic I'm working on. Just another quickie. And yeah, I got bored of drawing the gun and the BG...

Also got few other pieces I've been saving up for a while.

These were done for a film that wasn't received so well, but I wasn't sure of the specific parameters for posting on my blog so I decided to wait until everybody stopped caring. I guess now is as good as any.

Also, Skullkickers cover 9 through 12.

That was quite a lot for the night...

Megaman Tribute

2011-07-16T17:33:00.001+09:00

It's now cleared for posting.

How to purchase:

MEGA MAN TRIBUTE LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVER

-the book is premiering at the San Diego Comic-con at the UDON booth (#5037), July 20-24

-for fans not attending the show, you can preorder the book at UDONstore.com (http://www.udonstore.com/Mega-Man-Tribute-HC-Udon-Store-Exclusive-p/mega-man-tribute-exclusive-hc.htm )

MEGA MAN TRIBUTE SOFTCOVER

- The standard softcover edition is also available for preorder on amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1926778308?tag=udoent-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1926778308&adid=0DS0GBZB0YWZK4H62YZM& )

Harvest 36

2011-07-09T20:42:00.000+09:00

Another char for David Murphy and his comic project. ( http://www.en-mercs.com/ )

Her name is Ellie. Forgot the last name...

As far as I'm aware, she sorta is the key to everything in the en-mercs universe. Kinda important but non-main character type of thing.

Harvest 35

2011-07-05T23:23:00.000+09:00

That is all.

Harvest 34

2011-07-04T00:46:00.000+09:00

A lot has happened since last time. The comic project is going extremely well and will likely be released as projected, in 3 months. It will consist of around 70 pages for the first chapter. Also few real life stuff happened as well and I'm dealing with it although bit roughly, but I should be fine...

That's all for now. :p

Harvest 33

2011-06-30T03:21:00.000+09:00

ETA for the comic: 3 months from now. Things starting to get rollin'

Cheerios. :D

Harvest 32

2011-06-23T04:30:00.000+09:00

Tried using a bit of SAI... Didn't work out too well.

The prospect of auto-smoothing for lineart was tempting but the feature turned out to be worse than I imagined. It's also fairly nice that you can edit the lines after you draw them, but I'd rather redraw than edit.

Back to Photoshop.

Alrighty. gonna go back to working on stuff.

Harvest 31

2011-06-18T01:19:00.002+09:00

"Uh-oh, this is bad nyah~"

lol

1more

oh, and btw. the top part looks like this uninverted:

now I gotta get to doing the BG kinda like this as well...

Long time no post.

2011-06-12T01:44:00.000+09:00

Hey hey.

I'm still jamming on my own private project, all the while working on the few contracts I'm obligated to, and then the turn was for David Murphy and his characters. ( http://www.en-mercs.com/ )

His comic project is going strong and starting to get noticed. Give the site a visit and take a look around. The comic has some cool SF action going on.

His name is Destrato and the weapon of his choice is dual wield saber.

His former incarnation and the latest changes.

Alrighty. I've got no vids for this piece. I'm rocking a 30 inch monitor (from previous 24 inch) with 2560x1600 screen res. Pretty badass, but bad for recording stuff real-time...

I'm gonna tweak the blog design for next few days. This place could use some sprinkles and flashy gifs.

Harvest 29

2011-03-28T05:18:00.000+09:00

Long time no post.

Hopefully next time I post it'll be something big...

I'm making the transition to Mangaka because that's been my passion since the very beginning... I don't think it needs to wait any further. It'll be now or never.

Anyways see ya'll soon.

Harvest 28

2011-03-16T21:55:00.000+09:00

Radiation warning in effect in Korea... Hmmmmrrmmm

Well, at least it isn't evacuation order.

Harvest 27

2011-03-07T04:12:00.001+09:00

Combat bot design for David Murphy and his comic project http://www.en-mercs.com/

Vid now up!

Also did you know that I did a short demo reel based on the comic I was doing for David Murphy at the time? Watch below:

Harvest 26

2011-02-19T23:10:00.000+09:00

From my recent reject pile...

That is all.

Harvest 25

2011-02-09T01:37:00.000+09:00

Still working on it...

Combat bot design for David Murphy and his comic project http://www.en-mercs.com/

I'll also have the vid up once I finish it... This one's taking a bit though.

Harvest 24

2011-02-07T05:26:00.000+09:00

Trying out line oriented piece with few of my new brushes thrown in to act as a toner.

Harvest 23

2011-02-05T20:57:00.000+09:00

Proportion experiment

All 6 faces are pretty much identical except for jawline, nose length and body size.

Harvest 21

2011-01-22T19:38:00.001+09:00

Okay, maybe a few more quickies...

One more...

P.S.: I've been signing the year wrong since mid-January... Goddamit.

Time to go fix them. lol

Harvest20

2011-01-22T04:00:00.001+09:00

Apparently this is my 100th post.

I just about had it with quickies for now, I think. Better get on to some large scale scenery... provided that I can get my morale up enough to actually do it. :p

Harvest19

2011-01-18T22:08:00.003+09:00

Almost turning into an one a day thing...

Harvest18

2011-01-18T01:14:00.002+09:00

Just one today.

Harvest17

2011-01-14T22:14:00.001+09:00

More sketch day.

That is all.

Harvest16

2011-01-11T00:34:00.003+09:00

Just sketches today.

That is all. Back to playing Evil Genius bit more. Haha.

P.S.: Yes, that's Mr. Hitchens and his cancer, Akira style. Even his cancer is badass.

harvest 15

2011-01-07T00:23:00.000+09:00

Usamimi bikini glasses.

Most excellent.

New char revision

2010-12-31T00:32:00.003+09:00

Her name's Cassandra.

Also belongs to the same world as other David Murphy's characters.

You can find more details @ http://en-mercs.creativechamber.com/

Her before and after.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T22:50:00.002+09:00

Obligatory Ronin after playing the hell out of Sengoku Rance. lol

and a random girl.

That is all.

Harvest14

2010-12-17T22:03:00.000+09:00

Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow

Meow meow.

More char revisions

2010-12-17T00:33:00.001+09:00

Jane is her name.

This one also belongs to the same canon as stuff I've so far done for David Murphy.

You can find more details @ http://en-mercs.creativechamber.com/

And the changes she went through.

Also, vid.

Harvest13

2010-12-14T04:34:00.000+09:00

I am going to finish this...

A keen-eyed fan will know who she is.

For now, I sleep. Ciao!

Sculptris

2010-12-13T00:28:00.000+09:00

One of my Anonymous visitors told me of this free 3D sculpting program. It's a little prone to crashing, but otherwise it is fantastic. Huge props to whoever left me the comment.

Had some fun sculpting it and drawing over it on Photoshop. Heh.

WIP folder, where my unfinished works go to expire.

2010-12-11T02:38:00.001+09:00

So I happen to have a folder specifically for works that I get bored of, frustrated, or just simply have no time for. It contains all my unfinished works that I just stopped working on since. Some of them do get finished eventually if I liked the initial idea well enough. Mostly they end up in that folder for years. Some even aging up to 10.

These below are some of more notable unfinished works. They're not in any particular time order. Some are fairly old, and some are relatively new.

I'm not in a mood for drawing so might as well post all the old stuff. :p

Oh god, I'm so bored... Maybe I should play WoW.

Harvest 12

2010-12-11T01:55:00.000+09:00

Nothing too fancy today. Feeling a slump creeping in... I need to refresh myself, I think.

Bleh

2010-12-10T01:27:00.000+09:00

Don't feel like finishing it.

Char revision

2010-12-02T02:25:00.003+09:00

This one's called Misato

For David Murphy and his comic project: http://en-mercs.creativechamber.com/

And the changes she went through.

Annnd finally the timelapse vid below.

Off to the printing press

2010-12-01T02:54:00.000+09:00

Provided that I can find a printing studio that does scroll prints in small amounts...

Split Decision

2010-11-28T13:20:00.002+09:00

I'm doing a piece to print off and give to my friends in Japan. What initially started off as a piece with a dragon and a sexy girl felt too bland, so I switched out the girl in favor of something more cutezy and with broader appeal.

This isn't done yet, but I think I'll finally finish this piece. I've quite a history with it, you see.

The piece was originally meant as a parting gift for a friend and his family when I lived with them for a year. It first started as acrylic, but then I did not have enough time, resource and skill to pull it off.

It's been 10 years since then. Hopefully they'll like what they see.

The acrylic one is forever lost, but I've made few more attempts in the past such as these below:

Harvest11

2010-11-26T00:38:00.000+09:00

Another day and another drawing.

I'll be travelling through Japan from Dec 3rd to 6th. If I'm not posting during that time, I'm not dead! :D

Although I could be posting stuff because I'll be taking my tablet PC... who knows!

Harvest10

2010-11-21T04:06:00.000+09:00

Moe Moe Kyun...!

Hahahahhhhhhha.

Don't forget to like me on my Facebook fan page!!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Saejin-Oh/169338239756232?created

My entire life and all of achievement depends on your ability to click that left mouse button!!! (truly so)

Facebook fanpage

2010-11-20T13:26:00.001+09:00

Chibi Jin appears when Saejin needs people to do something for him.

Facebook fanpage here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Saejin-Oh/169338239756232?created

or just click 'like' on panel on the right ------------------------->>

;_;

Harvest9

2010-11-19T01:02:00.002+09:00

Ceiling girl is watching you.

Harvest8

2010-11-16T02:23:00.000+09:00

I'm back for now. Also kinda got lazy with coloring with this one. Just threw some overlays and multiply layers on it... heh.

Lineart below.

I've been playing too much New Vegas... Time to try the mods.

Harvest 7

2010-10-28T23:47:00.000+09:00

Not finished as usual, but oh well. Haha.

This piece is particularly meaningful because it was the last piece I did on Painter before the program crapped out on me - and corrupted the file. It was this piece I decided to switch to Photoshop. Since 2003, it's been sitting in my hard drive quietly, waiting for me to get back to it. I finally got around to work on it.

So this is the state the file was left in, brought to you by the wonderful Painter. Ever since this piece, I never drew another piece on Painter ever again. I was already using Photoshop about 70% of the time by then, anyway.

Anyways, I'll be going on a bit of a hiatus. I'm not sure until when. You'll know when I'm back.

Cheers ya'll :)

One more

2010-10-27T01:16:00.000+09:00

I think I like using this painting style... It's much easier to manage values and form, and it basically is the digital equivalent of sfumato technique. The slow build-up of the value seems to work quite well for me.

Anyways I felt like drawing a dragon after watching Cataclysm trailer lol.

Harvest 6

2010-10-27T00:25:00.000+09:00

Stuff done today. Trying out an old style I used to work on. Seems to work much better than I previously thought - Using a flat brush with lowered opacity. You may know what I'm talking about.

It's a re-work of this piece I've done few weeks ago, btw. lol

Harvest of the day 5

2010-10-26T01:15:00.000+09:00

A bunch of them today.

Harvest of the day 4

2010-10-19T23:54:00.000+09:00

A n i m e i s f i n e t o o .

HP Touchsmart TM2 TabletPC review

2010-10-17T00:59:00.002+09:00

12" LCD screen, 1.3 Ghz ULV i5 CPU, 4G RAM, 600G HDD, ATI 5450. This baby is packed.

So I bought this little baby recently to compliment my current workflow. Before the purchase, I was pretty much desk-bound for the entire process because I both sketch and paint digitally, directly on computer. The stationary nature of my work usually meant being physically worn out as well as mentally exhausted. Sitting in front of your desk for 5~10 hours straight isn't your typical dream job.

For the longest time, I've been looking for a TabletPC (With Wacom Penabled technology) suitable for use as my mobile workstation. Up until early this year, the only available option that is affordable was HP's notorious Touchsmart TX series with AMD processors. They got extremely hot, and the battery-life was nonexistent. Not to mention the abysmal performance mobile AMD processors provided.

HP has smartened up switching to the Intel's new ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) processors when they rolled out the new TM2 series. Now it's faster, but with much lower power usage. I'll talk more on this later.

So was this tablet PC worth my purchase? Keep on reading to find out.

Before ordering...

I didn't quite know what to expect from this little tablet laptop. The reviews on the internet were pretty much by non-artists and they did not understand the artist aspect of things. They approached the whole reviewing process as they would with any other typical laptops. All the reviews lacked certain information I was hoping to find. I was left to imagine those aspects and functionality. For most part, though, the machine seemed capable. I was a little skeptical of the CPU due to its low clockage, but the RAM was spacious, HDD generous, and the graphics chip seemed fast enough. Apparently you can run most of modern games on this laptop at mid to low settings and I can confirm that. At least with Civ5 which ran quite fine for me.

Anyways, as soon as I hit 'order' button on the internet, the laptop came to my door within 24 hours. One of the benefits of living in Korea.

As soon as I received my unit, I began testing on the various aspects of the laptop and eventually I came with a number of pros and cons. I'll talk about my final impressions after the bullet points.

Pros

Powerful machine. The CPU, RAM and GPU combination is powerful enough to give many desktop machines run for its money. You wouldn't expect much from a 1.3 Ghz CPU, but the laptop was capable of smooth stylus drawing on Photoshop at 10000x8000 resolution. You will have to do few things to make the machine rolling this smooth, but I'll talk about that in Cons section.

Fairly good GPU to game on. You can find videos of people running modern PC games on TM2 machines, and I'd say that's a good indicator. I'm able to run Civ5 without much problems on it.

Thin and sleek design. The brushed aluminium plate with etchings on it looks quite nice. One of the reasons I bought TM2 instead of HP Elitebook which is lighter, thinner and more powerful (also costs more). By no means TM2 is fatter, except for the battery compartment. Overall the design is quite a sight to behold. It has a nice combination of minimalist and artistic design choices.

No DVD drive. This is actually a pros for me. I haven't used the DVD drive on my desktop in years, and the Bluray drive that came with my Vaio laptop hasn't been used for just as long. If they can rid of extra weight by removing DVD drive, all the better for me. Cool people flashboot for reinstalling OS nowadays anyway.

Battery life. This is the place Intel's new ULV core shines in. Compared to most of laptops out these days which clocks at 1~2 hrs on battery in real life (unlike 4~5 hours they claim), this laptop does quite much better by lasting up to 3 hours, and maybe 4 if you're really conservative. But this is still a far cry from 6.5 hours they advertise for TM2 series...

Long power cable. It doesn't sound like much, but for tablet PC's, it actually matters. The cable, including the power brick attachment, is almost at 5 meters. I think this is the longest power cable on a laptop I ever seen. Pretty handy when you want to sit in the bed and browse web or draw.

Price. The price listed on HP's website for highest end model of TM2 is just under $1,000 USD. Nuff said. Just few years ago, $999 was the price for low-end laptops... Now you can buy high-end performance for the same price.

Capability. This is the all-in-one package for any artists who wanted a desktop alternative to all their digital art needs. I don't think any other companies have come this far in terms of satisfying many of the criteria that was required for an art-oriented laptop... Unless they can satisfy all of the cons I'll be listing below.

Cons

God awful stylus. There are many things wrong with the stylus and few things right. There are so many wrong in the list this bullet point requires numbered list in itself.

Inaccurate tracking. The magnet inside the default stylus is an utter crap. almost 50% of the time the tracking will be off by about 1cm, and that's pretty hideous. Also the tracking in not uniform, meaning sometimes the tracking will be inaccurate because it's falling behind, or it'll be inaccurate because it races past your pen. It's like having Starship Enterprise entering warp at random at random places on the monitor. This really breaks the 'illusion' of drawing directly on the monitor.
Nearly useless eraser. Eraser on the default stylus has this 'springy' feel to it and it depresses if you press on it. It would be fine if the pressure sensitivity corresponded correctly to the movement of the depression, but unfortunately the eraser has a huge dead-zone and the tablet starts recognizing the eraser pressure at totally random strength. From the slightest press, to full 100%, there's virtually no middle-ground, and it's impossible for you to have a control over it.
Only 1 side-button. It's critical to anyone out there who's used to Wacom's 2-button stylus. Also the button is at an awkward height, so half the time you'll be searching for the button with your finger. This is aggravated by the fact that the stylus has a...
Tube-style design. Remember Apple's hockey puck mouse? Yeah. You'll be spinning around your stylus other half the time, thus wasting all of your time by forcing you to spin your stylus around and searching up and down for that stupid ass button which has no bump on it to make it tactilely visible.

Solution. Buy a stylus from Wacom vendors. Note that Graphire/Intuos/Bamboo and recent versions of Cintiq stylus WILL NOT work on a tablet PC. They have a different magnet housed inside the pen. Follow this link for further details: http://www.wacom-asia.com/aptky/607/pen.htm Any stylus with product code starting with 'UP' should work with Wacom Penabled TabletPC. I bought the Cintiq 18SX stylus and everything's working fine now, except few minor issue still persisting with tracking. It's a lot better now, though.

Terrible LCD panel. This is really bad news for people wanting to use TM2 as an art platform. The screen is quite much better than the old TX screens as the new one has no grains, but still quite bad due to its horrendous viewing-angle. You probably have about 3 degrees of your screen looking perfect, and the rest are pretty much unwatchable. You can still do good amount of sketches on it, but I wouldn't trust a single color on that screen. From what I can tell, the panel can only express 8m color instead of typical 16m colors on a typical desktop monitor. It produced dithering effects upon painting gradients. Another bad news.
No front-facing buttons. Another serious bummer for artists. No programmable buttons on the screen bazel means you're forced to manually click through the menus via Wacom stylus, meaning added time to your actual drawing process. I can't have any of that so I bought this (below):

Being sold in Korea only, AFAIK.

A USB mini-joypad being sold in Korea. It has a fold-able design so I can carry it around easily with me and the laptop. You can use Joy2Key program to translate button inputs into hotkey functions. It's actually small enough to hold it in one hand so I use this in my left hand to access the usual functions such as brush resizing, zoom in/out, quick save and full-screen.

Touchscreen. It doesn't work, period. You better not be expecting iPhone quality touch-inputs on this thing. It's simply clumsy, difficult to be accurate, and just is not responsive. The problem is compounded by the fact that touchscreen turns itself off when you don't use it for a while and you have to pound on your screen to get it to work again. This actually happens very often and quite annoying. You can goto USB device settings to disable auto-sleep function to keep your touchscreen responsive, but then you'll be clicking things around with your palm while using the Wacom stylus. Something you don't want to deal with. I just use my stylus to surf and do stuff now.

Poorly built. The power button for this laptop is on the side, with a DSlite-style slider power button. The bad part is, the plastic (which is supposed to be the power button) moves around like a Lego head in an empty Lego bucket. IT DOES NOT FEEL GOOD. It's also a nail-breaker to turn the thing on. You have to pull on it quite hard to make it work. Also on few parts of the keyboard bazel, when you press on them with your finger, it depresses like something isn't quite nailed on. Feels bad, man. The overall machine feels quite solid, but few stuff like this makes the whole thing feel cheap.

Weight issues. It has a terrible center of weight, with battery compartment being the heaviest. It will NOT sit still on your lap, and most likely will fall on its back if you open up the screen more than 90 degrees of angle. It's fine on a flat, smooth desk surfaces, but none of that will help when you want to use the machine over a blanket, while on the toilet, and etc. You'll have to press it down with your non-writing hand to keep it from falling. Also it's wayyyy to heavy for any practical on-the-arm use. With battery, the laptop goes over 2.1kg in weight. That's not ideal if you want to hold the machine with your hand and draw on it. You'll most likely be forced to find a surface to lay the laptop on for any reasonable use. Anytime I can find wired power for my TM2, I just take the battery out and put it aside. Even without the battery, TM2 is pushing the limits of what is a reasonable weight for a TabletPC.

Crapwares everywhere. Remember when I said above this machine is quite powerful? Well, not with all the crapware that comes with the laptop. When I checked the number of processes on my first run, I saw 95 processes. 95 freaking processes. I had to delete nearly all of the HP related softwares, bundle softwares and other crap that came with it, ultimately settling at around 55 processes. This isn't so much a problem as minor inconvenience, though. Nonetheless, you'll have to delete all these crapwares to get your laptop running smooth, and at top performance.

Gets hot under load. I thought Intel's new ULV core would practically make this a non-issue, but I was wrong. It'll still gets fairly hot under load and the machine has a teeny-weeny exhaust on the side. I worry for this laptop's future, but for now, it's a minor problem. It's mostly only problem when you're in bed, under the blanket and the laptop is on a easily heatable surface, like (duh) a blanket. It stays pretty cool on a wooden or glass desk.

Conclusion

HP Touchsmart TM2 series is the newest and the best entry to the tablet PC market, though that's not saying much as most Tablet PC's are pretty crap (Thus the reason I haven't bought one until now). This one shines in terms of performance, usability and affordability, especially considering most Tablet PC's are well over $1000USD.

Despite TM2's many faults, most of them are easily mend-able by few extra purchases. Too bad the screen is not replaceable, though. That's the only glaring weakness I see as being critical. I think it was very well worth the purchase and I see myself using this laptop for quite some time - sketching stuff both at home and on my travels, or even for casual computing.

Getting bored... and... tired...

2010-10-15T01:47:00.002+09:00

Any word of encouragement? hehe.

Boy, am I easily bored or what.

(New) Revision

2010-10-12T04:53:00.001+09:00

The dude's name is Boriken, I think.

For David Murphy and his comic project: http://en-mercs.creativechamber.com/

Also the changes he went through.

And a timelapse vid to accompany it.

Cheerios. :3

Another BG quickie

2010-10-03T04:34:00.001+09:00

I may finish this later (most likely), but for now I'm gonna be away for few days.

Cheerios until then!

Quick scenary

2010-09-30T23:49:00.000+09:00

and of course I gotta throw in a girl there...

Harvest of the day 3

2010-09-24T01:22:00.000+09:00

Fun.

Quickie before sleep

2010-09-22T02:54:00.000+09:00

Invisible headphone

Last one before sleep.

Harvest of the day 2

2010-09-21T23:58:00.000+09:00

Presentation is also important even for random sketches...

Stuff

2010-09-19T22:53:00.001+09:00

I've been feeling pretty damn lazy about drawing or anything art in general recently. Oh well. I better get over it. Things needs to be done and I've only so much time.

Anyways, stuff as usual.

Bonus:

I have too many styles...

Buncha sketches

2010-09-14T02:37:00.001+09:00

Harvest of the day

Alacrity Commission (revision)

2010-09-09T04:30:00.003+09:00

Doing a free revision for Alacrity as I didn't quite like the first one.

Actually I had uploaded a previous version few days before, but didn't really like it (below)

And the first version I did for Alacrity:

Also my big wall of sketches getting larger lol.

Well, that's about it for now.

WIP of the day

2010-09-03T03:32:00.002+09:00

Color coming up later...

... or maybe not. I thought I was doing commission revision for Alacrity but it turns out I've been re-drawing a wrong character by another commissioner called MysticalSkeleton.

Oh what the hell. lol. If you're here, lemme know you still want the thing finished, Mystical. Haha.

Previous version of the character... Not sure 100% though. lol

Some line stuff

2010-09-01T04:00:00.000+09:00

And some simple shade over it. May color it later.

Cheers :3

mmmm quickie...

2010-08-30T01:34:00.000+09:00

September already? Man, this year passes like horse on a race car on a jet plane on a rocket on a hyperspace capable starship. Imagine all that added speed!

No-erase quickie

2010-08-28T01:53:00.001+09:00

Freeflow lineart. Kinda like letting your subconscious flow freely and keeping your hand flexible.

I did use undo when I didn't like the line, though.

Bonus: stuff I drew on my ipod recently :3

3 Art Tutorials

2010-08-27T02:58:00.002+09:00

2 new and 1 old.

I actually put the first two a day prior but took them down soon after because the presentation on them was pretty lacky. Now it looks tiny bit better, I think.

Due to some weird bug/restriction by blogger, I'll have to put a link on them below:
(The thumbnails seems to work fine but I'll have the links live just in case)

Tutorial 1 Tutorial 2 Tutorial 3

Lemme know if these work fine for you.

Cheers :3

P.S. My art depository is coming along nicely. Check it out from menu on the right ----->>

Color me insane

2010-08-25T03:58:00.002+09:00

but I do take my commandments very, very seriously.

Alright. It's REALLY done now. For most part, I felt that I seriously violated many of my own commandments while working on the previous incarnations, so I decided to start anew from scratch.

Specifically, the 4th version started with a fresh sketch, not a modification on a crappy base like the previous ones. Also Mudbox is completely OUT. I had few funs with Mudbox but the program does not fare too well in conjunction with a natural flow of a 2D drawing. The stiff posture that started last year had to be remedied. His torso now correctly rests in a slight, natural angle and he is overall more slumped down. The face which was placed at a perfect 3/4 angle is also changed to heighten the overall mood. It should feel more natural now.

Alright. Time to really move on.

For David Murphy and his comic project: http://en-mercs.creativechamber.com/

Artist's 15 Commandments

2010-08-20T00:29:00.001+09:00

Things I try to remind myself every time I draw and paint. Not in any particular order.

1. Always try new things

Explore new concepts, different angles and perspectives. Even styles.

2. Draw broadly

Never start your art with details. Get the basic shape down solidly first, and then add details to it.

3. Stay focused

If you're not thinking, you're not drawing. Never have your mind wander off mid-drawing.

4. Have an idea

Know what you try to paint, right down to the final image. Come up with an image in your head first and draw based on it.

5. Feel the dimension

For every objects and characters you draw, try to have a good feel for how it is shaped.

6. Always study

Where ever you go, try to analyze and process what you see in your head. Be it subway train, or crowded park. Look for particular cues, highlights and shapes. Use that knowledge to improve your art.

7. Try to enjoy it

If you're having fun with the piece you're drawing, you'll be more involved and motivated. Even if it means drawing naked chicks all the time.

8. Take as long as you need

Your art is never done until it is.

9. Trust your eyes

Your eyes are always correct even if your brain wants to deny it. Don't trust what your brain says - if it looks funny, it probably is.

10.You already have everything

You have all the tools and talent you'll ever need. The only thing you need to change to improve yourself is to change the way you think.

11. There's no such thing as a bad style

Just bad art.

12. Never copy

Never copy other works to produce your own work. If you really like something, try to study how the artist was able to create the effect and attempt to replicate it from your head.

13. Keep your strokes economical

Making multiple strokes to create an effect isn't always the best way. Sometimes it can be done in one stroke or two, and it'll look better that way too.

14. Get your sketch ready

Make sure your sketch looks good before you color it. No amount of paints will save a crappy sketch.

15. It'll take a long time.

Be patient. Be it your current drawing, or your career, art is something you do for your life. Patience is indeed a virtue. Keep a calm and steady pace and you'll be fine.

There could be few more, but so far this is all I can think of. Maybe there is a lesson of value to you here, or maybe not. I hope this will be helpful to someone out there.

Jin out.

Stuff for today

2010-08-19T02:19:00.000+09:00

Lallallallaaa stuff stuff etc etc lol

Even more stuff

2010-08-18T04:27:00.002+09:00

Actually when I attempted this same concept few days ago, things turned out pretty nasty. (below)

Even for seasoned artists, being careless with your art usually results in catastrophic horror. You gotta be on your toes, and keep your head spinning at all times to achieve solid work. Well, at least for me.

Art is a thinking process and it shows when an artist does not think his or her way through.

Stuff as usual

2010-08-17T00:07:00.001+09:00

Took about 4 hours. Just random paints with an original character.

Random Crap

2010-08-14T02:08:00.001+09:00

Some random stuff I never really finished, or still working on...

And some other stuff I've done from my iPod touch..

That is all.

I just had to make this

2010-08-11T23:06:00.000+09:00

Over a million hours on photoshop.

Quickie... What was the number again?

2010-08-03T04:35:00.000+09:00

1hr 40 minutes. Started at the same time as the movie 'Groundhog Day' and finished by the credits.

What a great movie. Never gets old after 17 years.

Also timelapse.

(It's gonna take some time for HD and audioswap)

Jinbrush Update

2010-08-02T23:44:00.002+09:00

The new update isn't very much an addition to my past brush sets, but rather a deduction.

I'm basically releasing how I have my brush set up on my current photoshop workspace.

Click here to download.

Disclaimer: I saved this brush in CS5. Theoretically, it should work in all versions of photoshop CS, but it also may not. Godspeed.

As the description say, every one of them counts and are useful for something. I have basically rid of all the brushes I felt redundant. Keep the brush numbers low, and the photoshop stays fast and responsive.

Also I have added 1 brush that has been critical to my recent workflow. And that is the 'Bushy Fraud' brush I made.

Bushy Fraud is basically a modified version of 'Bushy Road' and it's been working wonderfully for me. As demonstrated above, the brush eases the extreme differences between hard and soft brushes while staying interesting enough by itself. Painting process has been much shortened because of this - by removing extra efforts like blending or sharpening.

Along with my 'Penciler' brush, I can see myself using this baby for a long time...

Quickieee!

2010-08-02T03:20:00.001+09:00

2 hr quickie. Just getting hang of the whole lineart stuff - I think.

Also...

Man, I've been drawing for a long time eh? almost 23 years of continuous drawing and 14 years of that have been on computer. I feel like I've just started getting pretty good at this drawing business.

Something to note is that I have an extensive backup habit. I have 2 1.5 gig HD for backing up all my works. One of them is in my computer, as a second partition. I use that to store all my current ongoing works plus all the backups. The second HD, which is sitting on my USB dock as an external HD, just stores all my backups in case one of the HD goes bad.

I save as new once every 30 minutes or so when I work. So I end up with approx 2~100 PSD files depending how long I spend on drawing the piece. I basically preserve all the steps so I can go back to them at any given moment.

This saving habit mainly started when I lost all my digital works prior to 1997 when I used to draw on MSpaint on the 77mhz computer which just broke down, and fully blossomed when I had few of my files corrupted on Corel Painter because of their save bug back in 2002 (thus the reason I don't use Painter to this date).

I don't think anyone needs to save as extensively as I do, but does give me some comfort when I press the shift+ctrl+s key. I'm pretty anxious without it. Heh.

That should be enough revisions...

2010-08-02T01:40:00.001+09:00

That was quite a quest. Time to revise rest of the characters.

BTW, it's for David Murphy and his comic project: http://www.en-mercs.com/

Drawing stuff

2010-07-24T20:08:00.001+09:00

Tried the new CS5. The mix brush is okay. Not great though. Painter and even SAI does the mixing better IMO.

Still, it's better than nothing. I've been waiting for it for a long time. :p

On the fourth day of Mudbox Saejin made few things...

2010-07-22T03:35:00.002+09:00

Am I awesome or what?

Hitchens took 2 hrs but Obama took even less and looks better - at just one hour. Made from scratch (No tracing).

Also vids.

Drawing

2010-07-21T04:00:00.001+09:00

No other resources used except for this head I sculpted in Mudbox

Edit:

Had to fix few stuff that was bothering me.