MOVIN PIXELS

Prince William & Kate Middleton

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Sun, 01 May 2011 02:45:00 +0000

Here is a quick sketch of the The Duchess and Duke of Cambridge to commemorate the marital union televised all over the world.

ART FOR JAPAN: CYRIL TAKAYAMA

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Sun, 01 May 2011 02:31:00 +0000

This is a portrait I did a few weeks back as my way of taking some time out to show some moral support for the Japanese in the recent tsunami incident. Cyril Takayama is a famous Japanese-American-French magician who's brand of magic continues to raise eyebrows of magicians and non-magicians. His slogan "Just Believe" from a couple of years back came to mind when I was doing this piece. Hang in there my fellow Asian neighbors. Believe that for every set back good things are just around the corner.

KARLO

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 07:29:00 +0000

I had pretty much been given free-reign on creating this piece so I had a blast with this one! This is an 9x11, landscape portrait. This time I used a combination of charcoal and graphite. I like how this looks and how the two mediums go pretty well together.

Because I didn't have high-res pictures, I had to make do with these small photos. I used three reference photos, taking the sock-hat from one, the pose, shirt and lighting information from others.

This is the quick thumbnail I did. This gave me a rough idea of what the final piece will look like. Changes and adjustments may still happen to bring the piece closer to the person's likeness, so I thought I'd throw in a shoulder tattoo of a flying heart with MOM around it. I had originally intended to have his target weight indicated instead but didn't know what it was. Nevertheless, I think it's a cool tat for several reasons: 1) Everybody loves their moms and he seems to be really close with his 2) No one gives a hard-core body-builder a hard time for his heart shaped tattoo 3) To quote the guy, he once said and I paraphrase: It's not about the car you drive but the size of the arm hangin out the window.

BRIGITTE BARDOT

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:54:00 +0000

ME ANNE

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 12:49:00 +0000

This is a commissioned piece, 10"x12" full body portrait on an 18"x24" paper. The deadline was pretty tight and I had about 4 business days to do this upon the approval of the final sketch. There were plenty of pictures to choose from, which gave me some idea of how she carries herself, though most of them were too small to really work in the details. I was left with just these shots to work from:

Because I had to interpret the adjectives given to me, "energetic, active and flowing" the full body pose in this picture doesn't come across as so. I had to suggest poses and create them from the ground up. I also needed to find more references for this particular style of dress and man, a dress by any style is still a dress to me. Thank god for facebook, my fashionista friends helped me out in that department!

After the approved pose, I needed to make sure that the body would have the same lighting as the face in the picture above. I sought the help of my partner, Jet, to pose for me and to bring whatever accessories she might have that resembles the ones I needed. She came pronto and I couldn't thank her enough for that. I still owe her lunch!

The hem of the dress was something I needed to pay close attention to, to simulate a flowing pattern. The dress she had on was garterized, so it pretty much closed up at the bottom. Good thing Jet brought another skirt! Talk about foresight!

I used two fans to blow the skirt to see the natural fluid motion of wind on skirt since what I had in my final sketch didn't look right to me.

I also needed to take more references for the finger positions, hands, arms, assets, shoes with the same lighting to keep it consistent with the entire piece. Upon reviewing all the pictures sent, I noticed I had not worked in the beads and the watch. I had to borrow more girly stuff from my aunt who provided the extra accessories!

After taking all the references I needed, that was the only time I really started to work on the actual portrait. I do not copy what I see, but try to simplify and then add my own interpretation to it. If I could x-ray my head while doing the piece, I'd probably see lots of areas lit up since every stage of the portrait entails a lot of decision making such as darkening the shoes instead of keeping it light as how it appears in the picture, size relationships between parts, consistency of volume and length for all the arms and hands, values, etc.

Finally, when I felt that the piece was ready for the final touches, I added the details in such as fly away strands, the pattern on her blue dress which I thought would bring more life into an otherwise plain garb and the slight twinkle in her eyes.

This was a really challenging piece to do but I had the opportunity to channel my inner Rockwell, to not limit myself and recreate everything from scratch. I was sleep-deprived the entire week but I think it turned out quite well given the complexity of the concept, the deadline and the support from everyone who pitched in on this project!

Conan O Brien

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 08:51:00 +0000

A favorite comedian of mine. I find him side-splitting even without trying.

ANTON DIAZ

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 03:10:00 +0000

Anton is a foodie blogger and entrepreneur. Check his blog out at: http://www.ourawesomeplanet.com/

ARNEL TELESFORO

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 02:15:00 +0000

Arnel Telesforo. Visual Artist/Illustrator/Animator/ Photographer/Birdwatcher. Check his website out at: http://www.ilahas.com/arnel ; http://abtelesforo.blogspot.com/

VICTORIA

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:31:00 +0000

A friend of mine who is also the godmother of my nephew and an entrepreneur. Check out her stylish tote bags for your tech gear at: http://www.techtote.net/

PASTOR JOEL OSTEEN

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:51:00 +0000

JOHNNY DEPP

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 04:10:00 +0000

LESLIE NIELSEN

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 04:08:00 +0000

PRESIDENT NOY NOY AQUINO

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 18:44:00 +0000

LIV TYLER

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 00:22:00 +0000

Rio De la Cruz, Running Enthusiast

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 16:04:00 +0000

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 16:35:00 +0000

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 16:32:00 +0000

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:24:00 +0000

PRACTICE SKETCH 4

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:28:00 +0000

The heart of a portrait is not in the paint but in the sketch. I've Been working on my sketching for the past weeks, taking my time with it, critiquing my own work but enjoying the whole ride as well. Can't wait to start on some more faces!

PRACTICE SKETCH 3

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 15:28:00 +0000

PRACTICE SKETCH 2

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 18:51:00 +0000

Practice Sketch

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 04:14:00 +0000

OBAMA SKETCH

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:58:00 +0000

A quick sketch I did one morning. I didn't struggle with Obama at all. He has so many features that are very drawable. Very distinct shapes. You can see the redstrokes underneath as I roughed out the shapes and proportions.

COLORIZING

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:14:00 +0000

Here’s a colorized version using the value study as an underpainting. I made sure to subdue the colors so Im not sure why the colors look more saturated here. I learned something about painting with a color scheme in mind and where to get plenty of inspiration from. This I feel is a lesson that integrates traditional painting and digital since much of the color mixing was done mimicking a palette of colors. Digital since blend modes were used. This was also about interacting the subject and the background so they look like the belong within the same space.

This was after getting some feedback from Paul. I think it looks much much better now. I didn't change much on the rendering aspect but I had to fix the structure since I overlooked the shapes of the features. Exaggeration is not at all about distortion but emphasis on certain features yet retaining the structure of the individual!

VALUE STUDY

brodwong123@gmail.com (BROD WONG) — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:23:00 +0000

My very first attempt to render skin texture. This is the most detailed piece I have ever done and I like how this turned out!