Jahari

I can't believe I forgot to put this up! Jahari is (was) a character for the Ironclaw Online RPG that Strawcat introduced me to. This would have been the first ICO related pic I ever did.

Jahari's a hyena. Pretty much enough said, I think.

Modern Nes

So I was like, bored, and should've been studying but wasn't, and I decided to play around with OC and gimp again. So I grabbed an extract from a previous self-exorcism attempt and bam!

I was attempting someting a little street-artish or what have you, and yes, I know Nes is missing eyes, I also did that on purpose.

What else...I don't like how the pants turned out. I wanted denim, I got polyester. Damnit! I should have turned down the environment and effect to increase the contrast, but when zoomed way in, things *do* look rather different. But meh, he can have polyester pants.

Nes©D.Ong,Jan2007

L-freeze!

So I've finally figured out most of the basic details of the coloration and the costuming. I had trouble figuring out what color I should use, so I asked my mate and he suggested this. Halfway through I was reminded of a HEV suit from HL.

On the shoulder is a silver rabbit brooch backed by a brass ring- that's probably a personal effect more than an indicator of his skill level like I said I wanted to have earlier. Anyway.

Also, since Nes (that's his name now) doesn't do breakdance per se, he's not doing an L-freeze but that's the closest label I can think of so there you go.

Quick sketch, watercolors from Open Canvas, then GIMP for some motion effects. Copyrights etc. on image.

No Shadow Kick!?!?

I'm too tired to post an abbreviated comment, so please refer to the comment tag for all the relevant info.

All I need say *here* is that Orlestat © Dong, Feb 2006 and Jahari (the hyena) © Strawcat...I don't know the exact month but it was in 2006 too.

Dancer

FINAL (sorry!) uploaded following the last corrections to his eye and xiphisternum.

So I wanted to try a make a new character for an online text RPG (specifically ICO). So I sketched this one out- he's a continuation of that bunny in hot-pants I put in here earlier.

It was easy enough to start with but I'm hopeless with rabbit heads. I think I ought to delete the earlier ones (which were essentially raunchy adaptations of Cream from Sonic et al...god), but as you can see the head has changed alot since the last version. I'm going with a more realistic angle as opposed to the humanoid skull with the muzzle and ears.

I inked after I realised I actually liked how it was turning out. He's nekkid as I, once again, cannot decide on his costume.

©Dong, Jan 2007

Testing out the new comments feature! Goodbye overly-truncated descriptions: for full details just visit the link.

This is another ballpoint scribble- part 6 of "Keeping Dong Sane" and probably the 2nd last as my final exam is tomorrow. I spent way too long on it- started as a basic sketch while watching this fight scene from a Korean film I can't remember the title of...pitching Lateef Crowder against Tony Jaa. Then I started doing background and yeah, that took me 6 days of on-and-off. Then I scanned it and played around with it on GIMP for god-knows-how-long instead of STUDYING. So you get this: Rael and Arael sparring Capoeira style.

Rael, Arael©D.Ong, May 2002

For the (hopefully) last time, now, as I finally used to color pick tool and realised that the background levels were off.

Part 5 of "Keep Dong sane during exam period". This one took me more than 2 hours. Wings. Probably the reason why we have so few avians around.

But hey, it looks like I'm actually improving in perspective anatomy! This is Orlestat (©D.Ong Feb2006) coming out of a hypertwist (more tricking!) You might note that his leg feathers are more in tune with the plumage of a peregrine, and the striped underparts are more (but not entirely) accurate.

Ack, I forgot to sign it! Nevermind.

An administrative bungle on my end means that I'm uploading this for the THIRD time now ^^; Also the levels have been upped so it looks a bit white but then that's because I'm using a laptop.

This is the 4th in line of "keep Dong sane during 4th semester exam period" pics. However, this one while still a ballpoint effort, exceeded its bounds as a scribble- unlike the other three (the first of which is in the sketches folder). I spent exorbitant amounts of time on it (in the context of having an exam today...that'd be 2 hours plus).

I won't say exactly where I ganked the pose from (it's generic, like the rest of the character), but let's just say the addition of denim hot pants are a damn sight more "wholesome" than the original image. Not that I'm complaining, mind you.

Raise your hand (or email me or something) if you know what any one of:
a) Barani
b) Capoeira
c) Parkour

means. Extra kudos to you if you can do a) (I have difficulty presently) or try your hand at b) and c).

I love gymnastics. Not just watching, but doing. That's me in a nutshell. So since my mother has acquiesced to my horsey fursona, I couldn't help but doodle this tidbit. This was actually taken from a photo reference (alas, the clip was too low quality and taken at night so I have to wait till my hoof heals to do another shoot).

Morgan © D.Ong, Jan 2005

This is the result of ruminating on how to draw slim avian types. I find of all anthropomorphic types to adapt, they'd have to be among the trickiest. Strawcat said that he couldn't be bothered thinking about it, so I gave it a shot. This was originally a ballpoint sketch, then I took the airbrush tool out...

20 hours later, this results. I was trying to work on lighting but it appears that laptop screens give far more luminescence than this...other one I'm using now.

I shall do a proper pic of Hugin later. He comes from the Norse mythology but might be involved in a story with Orlestat or something.

This image is © D.Ong June 2006

Hooray for generic stuff and pin-up posters.

Adapted from a very quick and scrappy sketch done during another class. All these dynamic poses and all look cool and everything- but really, you try doing them! It does take some fitness, otherwise it takes a lot of effort.

Anyhow, goals here were improvement of perspective and spatial representation, which actually came out decent here. Pardon the variable outline lengths though- such sloppiness wouldn't happen if I were doing a proper piece, or so I do hope.

Arael(i)©D.Ong,May2004

The friend I did this for couldn't tell that it was a doodle, so I'm submitting it as an actual piece. I know you can barely discern a generalised tinting and this is in fact necessary otherwise either the lot of it will be too light and hurt one's eyes, or the contrast will be too high, and also hurt one's eyes. Ergo- colorised tint with brightness settings deliberately reduced.

But yeah. Done perched (eccentrically- you'll only get the joke if you've done biomechanics :P) on a right-(wrong, since I'm left) handed wing table you find in them lecture theatres, within the space of the lecture. Thought my (oh-so-very-typically-foxy) friend could do with at least one PG rated pic out of his whole collection.

Y-Fox©his player, you can see my sig in the bottom right.

This is actually a sketch, unfinished product. As you can see, my pencil work was hasty because in the end I'm going to be rubbing most of it out and coloring it in properly, anyhow.

You might have seen Orlestat in the sketches folder. I spent a bit of time studying anatomy as well as Karabiner/Den's avian art to figure out the layout, so I think it does look better as a result. This is the small version of the image- for more detail on the pencil work (don't know why you'd want to look at that...since it's draft): http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/29841306/

Orlestat©D.Ong,Feb.2006

When I first drew this back in September, I really wanted to upload it- but due to its personal nature, I felt I shouldn't, or rather, couldn't. Since then however, <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/botcat/71865.html">changes in circumstances</a> have encouraged me to put this up for sake of completeness. It's only a quick 10 minute sketch, done with a lowly Pentel Sharplet-2 (0.5, 2B led with a few brushes of Mars-Lumograph 3B: see tail and Morgan's arm). But it's one of those few sketches I put out quickly that a) look easy and spontaeneous because it actually is, b) fits just right without having to rejig the composition six times, c) captures a mood I was after so well. Hence I called it 'moment.'

Morgan©D.Ong,Jan2005, Strawcat©himself, I guess.

Oh god, another "jpg conversion killed my scan" pic.

Having *just* finished exams, it suddenly struck me that I hadn't drawn Arael for a long time. Since last year, really. So I simply had to do this.

As always, there's a story behind the pic. This pose: "Arael about to fly-kick Rael in the face," is one I draw about once a year. That is, I'd draw it and then my mother would bust me for drawing when I was supposed to be studying. The pic would subsequently be confiscated and I would have no clue where it went. I suspect it is stashed somewhere that I couldn't be bothered to look.

P.S. Manga style backgrounds totally pwn my sorry ass. Now I know why the major artists employ juniors to do their dirty work for them. This is a draft.

Arael©D.Ong, May2002

Another completed CG, the culmination of curious circumstances:

1) I wanted to do proper renderings of both Morgan and Strawcat. The .jpg conversion killed my filter effect, so you can't see it properly. And the *stripes* Strawcat wanted were not really doable at the resolution I selected.
2) I'm normally not one for hugs- what Strawcat is doing would be very much my own reaction. But given the way they were characterised, it was much more fitting that Strawcat be the one overwhelmed. It just seems so much more stereotypically geared now-
3) Speaking of which, I came down with a case of the cute again. Hence the anime ditz smiley that substitutes for Morgan's mouth. Such a 2-d expression on 3-d makes for a strange effect- not unlike 3-d animated cel shading.

My first attempt at CG. I didn't bother waiting to get a wacom tablet because I knew I couldn't do this image using pencils alone, and I just wrote a poem that went with it (see journal), so I just had to do this.

The only bits of the image that are really totally mine is the outline, Morgan, and the wall. I stole the grass (then warped, changed hue, saturation, posterized, and overlaid it with an airbrush) from www.glci.org. The sky (colorised, posterised and curve-bend warped) comes from www.hoshinavi.com, and the moon (posterized and alot of things) from russelsastronomy.com.

All in all, not too bad, I don't think. I could get used to this.

Morgan©D.Ong,Jan2005

Stryer's Biochemistry 5th Edition: OMFG not for 1st year med students...

*head asplode*

That pretty much sums up my experience with biochemistry. I'm going to stick to lecture notes for the time being, and see if I don't fail my semesterly exams too...

That said, it's been a while since I found time to do any colouring the way I like it (pastels, pen.) I was relatively happy with this one- it even scanned not-too-badly. You'll almost never find a picture like this: Rael, being the rampant misanthrope, doesn't like associating with human activity, so he wouldn't be wearing glasses or reading biochem...but I just had to draw this because it popped into my head and struck me as funny. I ripped the style of the mushroom cloud from Watterson again.

Rael©D.Ong,May2002

The original pic- comparing this to the completed version is like comparing a still with a delayed exposure with flash (photographic), I guess.

Note: I cheated- I already modified this by creating another layer, filling it with a black to white gradient and merging the two to make the background shadow look darker and Xin look lighter. I also desaturated the picture since my scanner light tends to add a small amount of blue to every image I have, and this is meant to be black and white.

Aeryn©D.Ong,Nov2004, Xinoeph©J.Young,Nov2004

So I tried doing a quick sketch and then spent several hours learning how to handle layer tools on GIMP. So much for mid-semesterlys and an overdue assignment.

Basically, 10 minutes with a HB and 6B pencil, then several hours masking, leveling, motion blur, and depth-merging. I thought I might as well use some characters I haven't done in a while and practice my quick sketching. I'll also post the original.

It's a sparring session- obviously. Note the strange postures and hand forms- Xin is teaching Aeryn some newer, more esoteric forms of combat.

Aeryn©D.Ong,Nov2004, Xinoeph©J.Young,Nov2004

Well I had totally forgotten about this little sketch...I actually did it a the start of 2004, making it probably the oldest item I have on account here. I certainly wasn't good enough then and I'm probably not good enough to have done this without a reference- and so I used a brochure for Optus broadband internet (they had the best TV ads but I reckon a recent Shell Optimax one with the Ferrari horse in it pipped them...anyhow...)

So you can probably guess what this is. Close up of a peregrine falcon. Duh. Slightly sloppy pencil work, otherwise fairly accurate- I probably used 2B, 4B, 6B, 8B which is overkill but whatever.

Been a while, again. Just much, much too busy to get anything much done, apart from a few scribbles here and there (check the journal in a month, maybe).

A more successful attempt at doing something in ink. This time, I tried to lighten up and have at it with a bit more speed, using a leaky black uniball and a scratchy signo gel pen. Actually I was hoping for a Watterson feel (Calvin and Hobbes) but then a) I'm not good with that, and b) I'd need a different kind of pen, and paper.

So here's Morgan, looking downcast. You might wonder what's with all the extraneous blank space. Well- it's framing. A whole lot of nothing and everything weighing down on his shoulders.

Morgan©D.Ong,Jan2005

Now coloured in and some basic tricks and stuff. Went over the pacer with the pastels and black uni-ball pen. At first, I had absolutley no idea what I was doing with the shades so I ended up using some that I didn't want, and then ended up reworking layer after layer about 5 times. After all that, I didn't want to make it look that construed, and besides, I was in a hurry, so I scribbled up a quick background and did a layer combine, followed by an 'apply canvas' script from the GIMP. *cheers for the GIMP*

The background apparently adds a feminine quality that was lost when I first finished the coloring job. I would post the version without the background, but then I guess that's being overindulgent.

Morgan©D.Ong,Jan2005

The quickest sketch I've done for a while...took me no more than 3 minutes! I do prefer it when I do something spontaeneously, as opposed to planning something for friggen ages and having it lacking the energy or living quality to it. So this turned out pretty alright. I thought that there was a certain element of femininity in it, although when coloured in, people tended to disagree. Still, this is the preliminary sketch, in itself a finished product.

Morgan©D.Ong,Jan2005

I was pleasantly surprised that it turned out not-too-badly, especially the texture and most of the shades of the color.

What was especially surprising was that this was a very carefully planned piece- it took me about 7 attempts to get the pose right: Rael's normally either angry, or lost, or plain psychotic. I wanted to put a little something else in his attitude- something distant and callous, yet something alive. I daresay it worked, from the responses I got so far.

This faux-masking thingy was something I've never tried before, and I'm not quite sure what it adds, but definitely something, (contrast? vibrancy?) If you look carefully, you can see the reddish tint in Rael's eyes. Done in ink, pastels, as is now my preferred practice.

Rael©D.Ong,Apr2002

'Kind of' the finished product...

I had to fiddle around with the gimp for a coupla hours before I got the motion blur right. I suck at sand effects, so fyi that mess on the left was supposed to be the sand getting whirled up by Rael's *amazingly rapid dash* over it...kinda worked.

The sky was meant to be blended in the same manner as the second Macroped pic...but I kept stuffing up the blending, since it WAS half-past-three in the morning and I kept selecting the wrong shades. I ended up using something in the ballpark of 30 different shades...and I'm still not entirely happy with it.

Still, it's good enough for now.

Rael(ii)©D.Ong,Apr2002

The coloured version to the scribble earlier. I had no idea how I was going to do the background, so I used the 'easy way out,' the street-lamp effect (as suggested by Strawcat.) Unfortunately, while he had nihilism in mind, I had chaos, so I stuffed it up and ended up doing some funny trilayer filter- you can see it easily. There's the shades of grey, which is the plain lamplight and shadow, then there's these circular blue streaks which was my original idea, which, after three minutes and irreversible damage, seemed not to be working after all.
I really ought to use 110gsm paper, this is a lousy 70 and it really shows.
Also pardon the compression- it sucks coz I only have MS Paint here.
Anathema©Strawcat,Jan2005
Morgan©D.Ong,Jan2005

Re-re-upload. Apologies.
But really, it's quite shocking that I'd have to try so many times just to get it halfway decent. Poor form, Dong. Poor form.
Yes, it is Morgan again. Still being his shy, soft-spoken self. Just alot cleaner, and less grainy. And now you can actually see the correct colour of his eye.
Morgan©D.Ong,Jan2005

Pardon my absence, to anyone that asked (which might be like 0 people), but I've been rather busy. This is actually not the first pic I started since my father's death, but more like the 3rd (and most recent).
Up till now I've never drawn a character that belonged entirely to someone else. However, Strawcat has kindly given me permission to draw his character- Anathema (based on a portrait by Emiya.) I can only hope I'm doing him justice.
At present, this is a scribble done entirely with an 0.3 clutch (HBs), but it shall be coloured later.
Anathema©B.Kehler,Jan2005
Morgan©D.Ong,Jan2005

Sorry bout absence, I haven't had much time- a few days ago my father was killed in a car accident...(but I'm ok, mentally), so as soon as I get everything sorted out, I'll finish off that growing list of things I hafta do :P (if you want to read more then go to livejournal- my username is dongstyle_ltd)
This is a REUPLOAD- the scanner and compression destroyed my first attempt. This image is about 1/16th the size it is in RL, but I can't manage anything better atm. It's a b'day pressie for one of my best friends, actually, since it resembles him (slightly).
Otherwise this is another character from LfaPS: Morgan (again read LJ...) I currently use this as my MSN display pic-someone was kind enough to mistake it for CG...I'm flattered.
Morgan©D.Ong,Jan2005