Happy Chinese New Year

 

Gong Xi! Gong Xi! Welcome to the Year of the Tiger!

As you can see, in honor of Chinese New Year, I've given iKzut a makeover ^_^

It's my take on the sketchbook look - clean and simple with pretty much zero tweaking to the original template. This design fitted my decision to dedicate iKzut solely to visual art. As such, I've created a separate blog for my book reviews: the drifter notes.

I hope that having separate blogs for my separate interests will make it more convenient for my readers...
...though my bro thinks iKzut looks like some sorta  promotional website now 'coz of the red seal stamped all over the place (-_-") He thinks it looks like a logo or something...What do you think? Comments please! ;)

Btw, the tiger above is an old ink drawing I dug out (under my growing pile of used sketchbooks ;P) and colored using Adobe Photoshop.

I just realized how old it is... according to the date I scribbled in the corner, it's 6 years old...Huh (-_-")
Well, let me know if you like it/hate it (I'll do a fresh drawing for my next artwork post *promise* ;)

ABC: Keep An Eye Out

Finally got round to posting up my artwork (which was created solely using Adobe Photoshop ;P)
View full size.
Please comment/criticise.
(A/N: I'm sorry for the lack of updates. Real life gets in the way sometimes, y'know? C'est la vie.
(Anyways, my sincere apologies.)
Gurney's ABC post is finally up and displaying everybody's individual interpretation of the excerpt and...
...IT'S SO COOL!! *loves it* 

Man, there are some fantastic artists out there. Hell yeah XD I especially loved the pic from Mei-Yi Chun. It took the exerpt's meaning to a whole 'nother level: the level of cool.
Well... *ahem* that's my own little opinion >_>... Anyone is free to dispute otherwise on this point.
(A/N: Who dares to disagree with me?? *DIE DIE DIE*
(A/N #2: Kidding ;)
Anyways...I discovered her website :) Right here.
 Nice stuff there. *can't wait to explore! ^_^*

Yep. ABC rocks pure awesomeness *nods assent* Wouldn't mind joining the next round :) Here's the quote for next month:

Quintessence of weirdness.
But I'll take a whack at it ^_^
(A/N: Except for one major problem: these days  my schedule is replete with busyness. So, no promises for doing this one. Well, okay... I might be able to fit in time to do this... if I cut out the non-essential stuff in my daily regime. Y'know, stuff like: eating, breathing, and sleeping. Yeah, that would work ;)

Art By Comittee (Season 2)

Hooray! hooray! James Gurney (of Gurney Journey) has brought back his group-sketch game of Art By Comittee! Yeah, you heard me: ABC is back! XD

(Note for Newbies: ABC was a weekly game where participants each illustrated an actual excerpt from a science fiction manuscript.)
This time round, Gurney has made a major modification: ABC is now held monthly instead of weekly. Heh... this sure will give more time for folks to come up with something really inspiring!

I'm pretty excited about this ^_^" The last (and only ;P) time I entered was in May 2008. No real excuse for the lack of participation... just my own troublesome procrastination coupled with an overpacked agenda.
Anyways, this was the excerpt that I illustrated:

View full size

Pretty graphic account. Cliche, I know - but it still held my interest. The name "Chukumbu" was culturally vague... it could've passed as anyone's name - the possibilities ranged from an alien invader to an American Indian (okaayy...I'm stretching it here ;P)
I liked it ^_^" So I took the plunge and submitted a sketch:

View full size

Prophet S thinks it's funny. Well, I think it's funny too. (A macabre sense of humor is wont to afflict me at times ;P)... But to tell you the truth, I'm not too happy with it. It was somewhat of an eleventh-hour job [done with the help of Adobe Photoshop], so my options were limited. The artwork style was due to my recent anime craze that had left me permanently afflicted with perpetual anime emoticon usage (^_^" Yeah, that's a good example :)  

Gurney probably thought I was an obsessed 4channer (I'm not ;) But cool guy that he is, he posts up all submissions on his blog :D The Chukumbu round garnered quite a number of strikingly artistic endeavors. (Made me wish I'd spent more time on my Chukumbu -_-") Dave Harshberger's was my fave: Click here to see his take on Chukumbu :)

Anyways, the first excerpt in ABC Season 2 is shown right here:

Heh. I fully intend to participate in the Keep an Eye Out round. The excerpt may be cliche (as usual ;P), but I've got some quirky ideas residing in my noggin - wouldn't like to waste 'em, y'know *grin* I've got till the 12th of Feb to send 'em to Gurney Journey.

Now: To work!