Hu is the artist?

Monster Inc. test painting (Disney Publishing)

2011-12-11T00:48:00.001-08:00

This is another test painting I did a while ago for Disney Publishing for their Monster Inc. children's book project. :)

(yeah the main focus of this test painting is character rendering...so I didn't spend much time on the background ..... kinda want to add more details and shadows now >.<)

On site landscape paintings

2011-04-03T17:08:00.001-07:00

last week and this week's paintings

(Watercolor + Gouache)

CalTech

Vasquez Rocks

Evite

2011-03-25T04:16:00.001-07:00

I have been working for Evite’s invitation design since Nov 2010 and I love it. I get all the freedom to do illustrations and graphic design on any theme they assigned. The art director usually approves my design right away or only asks for minor tweaks. So I have been experimenting different styles on different themes and he has no problem with it :P and I just got the second assignment contract to sign!

They are asking me to do more styles like hand-drawn illustrations rather than just doing typography with text… so I just played with it… )

Here are some of the designs I did: (all the images are linked to the evite.com invitation page)

My Neopets works

2011-03-17T14:15:00.001-07:00

I keep forgetting to post my neopets (Nickelodeon Virtual World) works that I did when I was doing internship at the end of 2009. (Since these were online in 2010 so I can include them in my portfolio XD)

Here are some of the isometric furnitures

Books

Gift boxes

and creepy food for Halloween

and a green hat for all the characters…

New paintings

2011-02-19T18:54:00.001-08:00

Here are my recent test paintings I did for Disney Publishing.
I have gained their permissions to include these in my portfolio :)

Although it’s in cute animation style but I still need to pay attention on all the reflections…. just remind me of our ex-department chair Scott Robertson’s vis com class @.@ man those details were very time consuming!!!!! (I am so glad that it doesn't need to be photo real...)

I did have fun doing them though ~ XD

‎2011.02.13 on location B&W gouache painting at Eaton Canyon Park

2011-02-13T19:13:00.000-08:00

I am taking a landscape painting class @ Concept Design Academy with Jackson Sze.

Coz I have been thinking about doing more painting practices w/ traditional media for a while and also painting on locations but I don't feel that comfortable doing it... (I'm shy XD) So by taking this class... it's a goof way to force myself doing it ~ ha.

Here are two B&W gouache paintings for our first on location painting class.

I spent longer time on the first one (1.5~2hrs) ~ I did it slow since it's my first traditional medium painting for the past.... 3+ yrs?

Didn't spend much time on the 2nd one (less than 1 hr) ..so I think this one is just ok ~:P

I guess I will force myself to do more on location paintings just for fun and for building the mileage (and also to train myself not to be shy if I paint alone XD).

My graduation show project -Mazu

2011-01-24T03:02:00.001-08:00

Hi guys ~ sorry for the late update.

Finally I graduated from Art Center!!!! (After…switching majors from graphic design → illustration → Entertainment Arts → Entertainment Design…. what a journey!!!!)

Usually in our Entertainment Design department, most students do visual development projects in sci-fi and featured film style, but I really wanted to do something different. Something I enjoy doing too! So I picked the Mazu project.

My teacher Christian Scheurer said my style is fresh and unique for Ent Design department. I was reaaaally happy to hear that ^^ (coz I wasn’t really sure if doing a complete different style than everybody else was the right thing to do or not…)

Below is my project poster (inspired by Tibetan Thangka). You may have seen my older version in my blog but this is the finalized one. :) I actually changed all the characters’ look and also refined the background.

Characters line up

main characters

Props, houses, trees

Fighting scene

and the location

I like this location painting a lot! This is done after researching and referencing traditional Chinese paintings and it’s compositions. I got a lot of good feedbacks on this painting at the show too :)

I actually did some few sec animated loop characters and scenes… will post them later.

More Mazu characters sketches

2010-10-24T23:05:00.000-07:00

I am doing further development on my Mazu project ~

(you can read about Mazu's story here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazu_(goddess) )

have revised the characters a bit and did a lot of sketches on gestures and facial expressions.

Here are some of the sketches :P Plan not to show them all since this project is gonna be shown at my grad show on Dec 18th.

Mazu - she is a quiet character, that's also her Chinese name "mo-niang"(silent girl) came from. So I tend not to show a lot of opened mouth expressions.

Big eye demon (Thousand Miles Eye 千里眼) - he is a naughty guardian, loves to laugh and trick people.

Ear demon (With-the-wind Ear 順風耳) - He is always sleepy and pissed but he does his best to be Mazu's guardian.

zbrush

2010-10-11T02:36:00.000-07:00

I am taking a zbrush class with Bryan Wynia at Concept Design Academy.

Because my previous Character Design teacher Neville Page (he is the creature designer of Avatar, Watchman, and Startrek...) told me in class that I got the talent of doing sculpture with tiny details! (so glad to hear it) He said maybe I should keep working with clay or learn zbrush.

Plus ~ I am into character design and toy design stuff and I saw some 3D printing companies and services presentations at SIGGRAPH this year. It seems like the 3D printing machines and services are getting cheaper :D (check out this site: http://www.shapeways.com/ you can upload your zbrush model and select the materials, they will print it for you and you can even sell it on their website.)

So I think it's time to learn zbrush :) !!

The program is really amazing~ It makes 3D modeling a LOT easier (I have learned basic Maya and 3D max before). It's just like working with clay!!!

My 1st project is to do a serpent man model and then do 10 sketches in photoshop.

To be honest~ I am totally not a scary monster/creature person XD I love to do cute stuff.

So my sketches turn out to be a "serpent woman" not a man~ hahahaa

My teacher Bryan said this is looking feminine but it's ok... serpent man needs a serpent woman ~ lol.

Anyway I am here to learn the program so please don't mind that I might make everything girly. XD

Here are my 10 sketches using the zbrush model I made.

and these are my references (ewwww)

Spirited Away – Background paintings

2010-06-08T00:09:00.001-07:00

Two background paintings I did for the Spirited Away redesign project :)
Trying to be flat and 2D :P

Here are the process before the final paintings…

Background 01
Value study

Color study (Acrylic)

Final digital painting (Photoshop)

Background 02

Value Study

Final digital painting (Photoshop)

Here is an extra props redesign – herbal bath chips
Inspired by the Japanese family logos.

The story of Mazu - props and poster

2010-03-12T19:36:00.000-08:00

I animated them... just for fun~ haha
Weapon for 順風耳 with-the-wind ear

Weapon for 千里眼thousand miles eye

Changed background color

The story of Mazu

2010-03-01T22:55:00.000-08:00

Another project that I am working on is the story of Mazu, Chinese goddess of the sea.
The story is about Mazu's childhood as a girl with superpower and how she met her guardians "Thousand Miles Eye (千里眼)" and "With-the-Wind Ear (順風耳)"

This will be developed into short flash animation ....when I have enough time. :P
Before the animation development this will be in flat and graphic style illustration done with Flash.

Poster/Cover of the story (will revise it after I get my teacher's feedback)

3 Characters design of the Mazu story

Mazu - childhood

Thousand miles eye

With-the-wind ear

Props and background are still under development.

Adidas commercial – matte painting

2010-02-10T22:29:00.001-08:00

I had worked on a commercial project last term with a film student Gevorg – a talented 21 years old director. XD He has an awesome sfx team and he showed me some of the fx in progress ~ I think it’s awesome so I joined their team and helped developing the background for the commercial.

Spent about 3~4 weeks on the modern city background and here is the end result. It’s really awesome and I feel honored to be part of this project. :) They are working on the sfx break down video and they will post it online later.

Adidas Commercial from Gevorg Karapetyan on Vimeo.

Spirited Away - redesign

2010-02-10T22:11:00.001-08:00

We are taking an existing movie/game/animation and redesign everything. So I picked “Spirited Away.” Since this is a popular film so I am not gonna repeat the story again :P (lazy). Here are the 4 characters I redesign. I am still working on the props and scenes design. I will upload it when I am done. ^^

Chihiro

Haku

no face

Yubaaba

Monster Mountain

2010-02-01T06:04:00.001-08:00

A scene painting for the Monster Mountain story I wrote 2 years ago…
This is the moment when the boy meets baby monsters. :P

This is not the final version yet… since I got some feedback from my instructor, I am gonna do little more improvement to make this piece more completed. :)

My 3rd piece for the show

2009-12-15T23:27:00.001-08:00

This is the 3rd piece that I submitted for the “Gifted Artist” show on 12/19. It’s made with felt. ^^

This show will be awesome because I will get to be in the same show with all of my favorite artists!!!

These are the contributing artists:
Alex Leon, Alina Chau, Angie Hu, Aurian Redson, Bonnie Lui, Bill Perkins, Brian Yam, Bruce Smith, Chad Morgan, Charlie Wen, Chris Ayers, Chris Appelhans, Christian Narcordo, David Colman, Dean Yeagle, Derek Kosol, Erik Martin, Eunjung June Kim, Elisa Takagi, Floyd Norman, Gerald Dedios, Glen Keane, Glen Vilppu, Grace Lee, Greg K Smith, Iain McCaig, Jackson Sze, Justin Gerard, Kate Burgess, Katy Wu, Kelly Light, Lesley Vamos, Ken Kinoshita, Kohei Nakajima, Lorelay Bove, Lou Romano, Lubomir Arsov, Martin Hsu, Marshall Vandruff, Mark Henn, Mike Hernadez, Molly Hahn, Morgan Sheffield, Pascal Campion, Peter De Seve, Scott Seeto, Sho Murase, Rick Caughman, Robh Ruppel. Rona Liu, Roque Ballesteros, Shaun Tan, Stephen Silver, Sunny Apinchapong, Tara Rueping, Traci Honda, Uwe Heidschoetter, Vivian Nguyen, Victoria Ying.

This is the show flyer:

Dec. 19th 2009
5pm~10pm
12467 Baseline Rd.
Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91729
http://giftedartist.blogspot.com/

My pets - pastel version

2009-12-14T03:39:00.000-08:00

I just did a pastel version :D
These are for the "Gifted Artist" art show on 12/19
http://giftedartist.blogspot.com/

donate arts for good :D

My pets

2009-10-08T00:10:00.000-07:00

I have 2 birds and 1 cat
My cat's name is Miney :)

My birds' names are Kiwi (darker mask) & Tomato (lighter mask)

(by Painter)

Quick rendering

2009-10-07T22:55:00.001-07:00

I am doing character design for a Visual Development class~
Our instructor is Paul Lasaine and his stuff is AWESOME! You guys should check it out.

I am not done with my character development yet but I just wanna post something since I have a long time didn't post anything new :)

We are doing visual development based on a story that our instructor Paul wrote.
So this is my character design for the captian (the father) in the story.
His personality is serious, responsible, and organized (neat freak? :P) So the shape of the character is SQUARE.

some facial expression sketches

This was rendered within an hour... (photoshop) ... so I call it a "quick rendering(painting)"
I guess I work faster now... thanks to Art Center hell training = =|||

However, I am still exploring the art style I want to use.
I want to try something different this time... but I couldn't help myself to add more details when I did this rendering. I am gonna do a really flat and 2D style for this character and see how it will turn out. :)

So I will keep this for myself :)

Buffalo man final photoshop rendering

2009-10-06T02:36:00.000-07:00

I am sooooo glad that this final painting wasn't just gone with my HD :'(
(found another copy in my ipod)

This is a clay paint over by Photoshop

My hard drives died…..

2009-07-29T15:09:00.001-07:00

I was busy moving at the beginning of this month. Before I moved, both of my PC and Mac died. My mac couldn’t load the OS and my PC restarted almost every 10 mins because of the hot weather. So I bought a new Dell XPS system with i7 cpu 6G memory and a ATI Radeon HD 4670 card. Good deal: Dell XPS 435T (but mine is little cheaper than this price)

I planned to move my old HD from my old system to the new system … but my new Dell couldn’t recognize them. So I put them in my external enclosure cases, one IDE one SATA.. and connected them….. THEN……. I SAW SMOKE COMING OUT FROM THE CASE!!!!! OMG!!!! BOTH OF MY HDs GOT BURNED UP!!!!!!! Those 2 HDs have all of my design files in the past 10 years and all of my photos from 1997 – 2009! Because it’s huge so I didn’t spend time to back up those files…. (coz DVDs aren’t big enough for those files..)…… After did a lot of research on the web and I realized that maybe it’s just the PCB boards burned up…. and all of my datas are still recoverable. So I was not that panic after I did my research. But it costs money. After searching on the web and found a data recovery company in Canada… they gave me a quote that $1000 for 2 HDs which is already a lot cheaper than other data recovery services. = = As a poor Art Center student with student loan… this is a lot of money to me… but it seems that I have no choice….

Yesterday I sent my seagate HD to Seagate’s data recovery service and hope that they can fix it for free (coz my seagate HD is the one with firmware problems…and a lot of ppl’s HD died…). If they give me an expensive quote, I will send both drives to Canada…. wish me luck

Golden Gate bridge Panorama

2009-06-08T01:23:00.001-07:00

Golden Gate bridge Panorama，原由 angiehu 上載。

I went to SF during weekend ~ and we visited LucasArts, Pixar, and EA in 2 days :D A lot of thanks to my friends who showed me and my classmates around in the office ^O^ this was a great short trip!!!! and SF is beautiful!!! I loved it!
Took this golden gate br panorama pix at the view point

BREAK

2009-05-06T03:33:00.001-07:00

I am in my spring break now.....
let me take a break
(well this is just an excuse for being lazy XD)

I have registered 3 classes at Concept Design Academy again this summer.
I will post more stuff when classes begin :P (it will be in June).

So just let me being a super otaku for now (eat, sleep, play games, watch anime and read comics).

Old buffalo man - revised

2009-04-14T01:37:00.001-07:00

revised and colored version.
I changed the shape of the head and also the proportion of the face features so that the design of the face is more interesting.

I am working on another clay sculpture of this buffalo man ~
will do another photo real clay paint over this week.

Environment (experimental)

2009-04-14T01:12:00.000-07:00

This is an experimental (happy accident) project.
The technique was from our department chair Scott Robertson.
He asked us to use a custom brush (any kind with interesting shapes) and messed around. Then zoom in and use your imagination to find interesting shapes and composition.
I made it too complicated so this was the only one that I think it's workable.

then I was trying to learn Sparth style ~ but I think I still need to improve my environment painting skills .__.

I haven't taken any environment classes yet >< ~ (except the perspective drawing one that I posted before).... so I will take some classes in concept design academy this summer and hope that I can improve my environment rendering skill TOT

Puss in boots - cat character rendering (blue one)

2009-04-14T01:11:00.001-07:00

I finished 3 of them before the show :D
That also means I finished this class final project 1 week early ~ wahaha

Blue poster

Puss in boots - cat character rendering

2009-04-06T04:18:00.001-07:00

Mucha (Art Nouveau) style rendering for the cat character in "Puss in boots" story.
Those Art Nouveau backgrounds took me forever to do >< .....

This red one.... I made the circle in Illustrator.... err.. took me a long time to get it done...

Red poster

Yellow poster

There is another blue one that I am working on....
I need to prepare for my intern show on Thurs. so I am not sure will I be able to finish the blue one or not... wish me luck.

Fashion illustration - 80s illustration style

2009-04-03T22:34:00.000-07:00

80s illustration style is about very wide shoulder but small hips which creates the triangle shapes.
Our instructor found a model whose body also looks triangle (big belly but thin legs) XD
too bad he didn't do many interesting poses ~ most of his poses were the same...
so I picked 2 better ones I did....

In class digital painting

2009-04-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

This is yesterday's in class painting
my mac was out of space so my photoshop keeps crashing~ that's why I didn't get my painting done >< I only got the face done *sob*

and other parts are just quick block ins =___=

Character rendering

2009-04-02T17:03:00.000-07:00

This assignment is a character rendering in realistic style.
So we need to pay attention on materials indications and everything should look real.
This is a contemporary costume design for future era and she is a princess.
The costume is inspired by ancient Chinese costumes.

I just uploaded this revised one so I re-post this again.
I had soften some edges and added textures in the background.
Added some shadow and highlights to show forms more.

Final version

early development

I don't really like my first sketch, so I changed the pose and her hair style.

Woner woman - in "The Incredibles"

2009-03-31T04:47:00.000-07:00

This project is to take a character from 70s show and put it in a modern movie. We have to render the style as the movie and make sure the character that we design can fit in the movie scenes.
So I chose wonder woman (since we also had that cartoon in Taiwan back then XD).
She is also a superhero character so I think it's gonna be great to put her in "The Incredibles" movie. As you can see, she is also like The Incredibles parents that she is a retired superhero.
With middle age woman body and wrinkles, she is still very confident and able to fight any time.
I am gonna put her in a screen capture scene from "The Incredibles" movie but I need to get a HD quality movie first.
I will upload it once I get the good quality screen capture image.

(Photoshop rendering)

I am trying to match her rendering style with this poster.

Fashion illustration - 60s illustration style

2009-03-30T15:24:00.000-07:00

These are in class digital paintings with 60s illustration style.
Although it's more illustration stuff but I really enjoyed doing it! I didn't even go to break when everybody left already....

Play with composition, colors and pattern.

Another characteristic of 60s illustration style is zero gravity.

fun fun fun and the model was great :)

In class digital painting

2009-03-26T13:40:00.001-07:00

Our instructor used red and green lights as the setting so we had to figure out how to use the colors and how to paint the dark/light sides since the light sides were on both side.

Puss in boots - cat character

2009-03-22T02:00:00.000-07:00

This is costume design for the cat character in Puss in boots story.
The style inspiration is combining 2 historical periods - Art Nouveau & Elizabeth Period.
Here is the collage:

Then I did 20 ideations of the cat's costumes.

and narrowed down 10 ideations with color keys

This is still an on going project.
I am gonna do 3 different poses with 3 different costumes of the cat.
I will upload it when I am done. :)

Fashion illustration

2009-03-22T01:55:00.000-07:00

It's my first time to try out some fashion illustration techniques.
It's so fun!!! I really love doing it with pen and ink ~
The model was great ~ she could do all the poses showing S curves.
Too bad that I didn't have the right brushes to draw ~ so that my line quality was not as smooth as I expected (I was using Chinese calligraphy brushes) .

1st matte painting

2009-03-19T17:01:00.000-07:00

It's my first time working on a matte painting piece.
It's a lot harder than I thought....

More pespective env drawings

2009-03-18T21:17:00.000-07:00

Medieval City

This is the revised version ~ slightly different than the previous one I posted.

Future City

Asian Architecture - Japan

Head Drawings

2009-03-17T18:24:00.001-07:00

These are in class drawings
We had 2 shaven-headed models.

Buffalo man - early development

2009-03-14T04:32:00.001-07:00

Clay paint over
This is early development of the buffalo man.
I am working on the revised clay sculpture and I will do another paint over and upload it.

Acrylic Painting + Photoshop

2009-03-12T03:36:00.000-07:00

Thieves design

2009-02-20T01:29:00.000-08:00

A gang of thieves design completed.
Redesigned characters for treasure island

Costume design (Architecture influence)

2009-02-20T01:11:00.000-08:00

Inspiration from architecture collage

10 ideations

Costume design for an animation character.
The time period is in the future, and her name is Lena.
She is a princess and very outgoing and active.
Lena was tired of her boring life so she ran away from home and went on an adventure.
Eventually she learns her life lesson and her responsibilities of being a princess.

Oil Painting - Portrait

2008-11-16T22:59:00.000-08:00

(yeah yeah I know his legs are too short XD)

Architecture Design

2008-11-16T22:38:00.000-08:00

Pencil on marker paper

Medieval City

Egyptian City

Perspective

2008-11-16T22:31:00.000-08:00

My room

3 pt city

European Street

Thieves design - leader

2008-11-16T22:00:00.000-08:00

Storyboarding for motion - Global Warming AD

2008-11-16T21:42:00.000-08:00

This is a stop motion ad and the storyboard is done with photographs of felt~

Storyboarding for motion - Self Portrait

2008-11-16T21:23:00.000-08:00

This is my personal experience of last year...
My dear friends thank you for supporting me~

High school work - watercolor "Winter Afternoon"

2008-11-16T20:29:00.000-08:00

Another high school work
This is a huge watercolor work ~ it's 42"W x 30"H

High school oil paintings

2008-11-16T20:14:00.000-08:00

Yup~ these are paintings I had done when I was in high school.
My high school in Taiwan "Fu-Hsin Trade & Arts School" is a vocational art school.
We had to learn all kind of drawing, painting, design (graphic design, interior design), block printing, crafts, and even photography skills.

This is a huge painting ~ about the same height as me
(lazy to check the exact size of canvas)
"Rebirth"

Still Life

yes I like to use yellow for my painting :P

More Goblins

2008-10-26T17:34:00.000-07:00

Character Design - Goblins

2008-09-27T04:16:00.001-07:00

This is the project for my Character Design 1 class.
We are doing animation style and focusing on characters shapes.
I had a loooot of fun doing this hw :DDDDDDDD

Environment master copy

2008-09-21T14:58:00.000-07:00

This is a quick master copy so the porpotion is not the same as the original one ~
so I am not putting the original one here so that my master copy looks better haha
the original work is also from the Korean artist of paperblue.net website.

Environment practice

2008-08-21T22:16:00.001-07:00

We need to do a painting for our environment design class ~
I did the base design referencing crabs photos and I was trying to learn and copy a Korean concept artist Jaecheol Park's composition/style/colors/lighting.
You can check out his website: http://www.paperblue.net/

The foreground needs to add some colors....I m gonna fix it ......later =v=

Visual Development

2007-10-16T10:57:00.000-07:00

This story is Alex in wonderland.
It's based on the story Alice in wonderland, but I changed Alice to a boy and the rabbit is a girl.
The boy Alex chases the rabbit girl into a tree hole and enter a different world.

Limited Palette

2007-10-15T22:29:00.000-07:00

This painting is done with limited palette.
I am only using the colors between orange and blue to paint this.

Monster Mountain

2007-10-15T16:52:00.000-07:00

This is a visual development based on a children's story I wrote.

It's about a village on an island where there is a monster mountain with monsters living in it.

Village people are afraid of monsters and no one is allowed to go there.

Until one day a boy Jack was lost and he met 4 monster babies, Aero, Pyro, Terra, and Aqua with their guardian fairies Fu, Ka, Chi, and Ku. . They became friends.

One day there is a serious natural disaster that may destroy the whole island. So those baby monstors and their father decided to help. Village people finally understand that monsters are harmless so they work together to fight the storm. Afterwards, monsters become the guardian of the island. With monsters guard, village people live happily and peacefully ever after.

These design are for children's book and movie animation.

Book cover

Monsters

Monstor Mountain

Village

Digital Paintings (Mouse painting)

2007-10-15T16:45:00.001-07:00

These three were done with mouse..... very tiring... @@

Digital Landscape Live Painting

2007-10-15T16:25:00.000-07:00

These are in class live paintings.
We had to bring our laptop, wacom tablet, and folding chair to go to different places to paint every week. It was a fun class (except when we went to a park where has no food and water and even no shading :P)

Brand Library

Descanso Park

Downtown (painted from Chinatown)

Millard Canyon

Acrylic Paintings - costume

2007-10-12T15:17:00.000-07:00

These are in class paintings of acrylic painting class (sketching for illustration).
Instructor is Gary Meyer, the nicest teacher I ever had :)

Acrylic Paintings -Still Life

2007-10-12T15:12:00.000-07:00

Acrylic still life painting

Color study - cool and warm

2007-10-12T14:34:00.001-07:00

This assignment is color study for color theory class.
We took photo references of a building in different time and painted both warm and cool versions.

Image and idea - poet

2007-09-26T03:49:00.001-07:00

These are my 3 rough ideas for my illustration "Poet" (temp title)
We need to draw an illustration based on a sentense or a paragraph.
Mine is:
在池邊散步一低頭胸前的原子筆竟跳進水底而後浮上來的是一朵黑色的玫瑰。
Walking near the pond, bent down, the ballpoint pen on the chest jumps into the water, and then a black rose floats.

I chose the 3rd one.

Storyboard for motion - Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

2007-09-26T03:41:00.000-07:00

We need to choose a song and create a storyboard for motion piece.
So I chose Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon sound track and this is my 1st draft idea.

The whole image looks like this:

Revised: (Removed photos from the movie to add more personal feel)

Test

2007-07-21T23:01:00.001-07:00

First post.

This blog will be my English blog, and publishing my artworks.