Andrew Ho's Art Journal

reference study

2011-10-04T15:44:00.000-07:00

soldier dude

2011-09-29T00:45:00.000-07:00

I was going through some old photoshop files and I found this character sketch that I never got around to finishing. Well, I decided to touch it up a little and post it here. The design isn't fully done but I took it as far as I wanted to.

practice

2011-09-24T00:09:00.000-07:00

Patrol

2011-09-22T23:41:00.000-07:00

uhhh.....

2011-04-23T16:57:00.000-07:00

I've been struggling with some portfolio stuff lately, so I decided to do this sketch to help take my mind off of those projects.

Hello!

2011-02-20T12:48:00.001-08:00

Hello! I've been really slacking on the uploads but I'll try to post more in the future ;)

Machete!

2010-09-17T18:34:00.000-07:00

New Post!

2010-09-07T21:52:00.000-07:00

Here's something I was working on for fun. It started off as a quick sketch but then I got a little obsessed with the rendering part, haha. Unfortunately, I was using an old laptop with a really crappy monitor, and the colors and contrast came out looking dull when the pic is viewed on another computer :(

Gangbang

2010-04-17T04:24:00.000-07:00

A "Cat Person"

2010-04-15T12:25:00.000-07:00

Blood and Sand

2010-03-29T23:36:00.000-07:00

Here's another speed paint of a scene from a show. This time the show is Spartacus: Blood and Sand. I could have resolved the sketch further, but I strongly felt that I've reached a point where I just needed to stop and move on to something else.

The Pacific Front

2010-03-23T02:45:00.001-07:00

Here's a quick sketch of a scene from the new WWII show, The Pacific.

Swamp Creature

2009-09-22T12:51:00.000-07:00

*UPDATE 1/14/10*

Here's a revised version of the creature below; it's not done and I'm not totally satisfied with it, but I think it's better than the lame creature on the bottom. I also found it difficult to salvage a design when it was poorly thought out to begin with. I'll try to polish this creature some more and I hope to provide better stuff for 2010!

Three Little Pigs

2009-09-15T17:35:00.001-07:00

Here's a piece from my character design class that I took during the summer. The concept was to take a fable, such as the three little pigs, and adapt it into a modern warfare theme.

1-800-DENTIST haha

2009-08-28T02:39:00.000-07:00

Been trying to improve my color paintings skills...still much to learn in this area haha.

Got Blood?

2009-08-24T16:05:00.000-07:00

I recently noticed on my blog that I've been avoiding color haha. Well, here's my latest attempt at painting directly with color. Color isn't my strongest skill and it's been a long time since I painted straight with color. So far, I have only used three colors but I aim to incorporate more colors into future paintings. I'm sooo rusty at painting with color and I hope my color choices are working harmoniously haha, but I think I'm starting to get comfortable with color :)

Drone Mech

2009-08-15T16:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a more refined version of a mech that's based on one of the thumbnails that I posted on a previous post. I plan on coloring this drone in the future.

MechScout

2009-08-10T04:40:00.000-07:00

*UPDATE 9/6/09*

Here's a recent update of the character design below. The old version had some weight and balance problems; in the new version, I pushed the pose more and modified some design elements. As usual, I'll be revising this design until it's done.

I decided to take a break from my class assignments today and work on something for myself. These are sketches of a mech-suit that's built for martian travel; there's still some things in the design that need a little more tweaking and I'll be updating this image periodically as I find more areas to resolve. Hopefully I'll get around to rendering it :)

Robo Girl Sketch

2009-08-02T16:21:00.001-07:00

*UPDATE 8/17*
I felt the previous sketch that I uploaded on this post was very stiff and unappealing, so I decided to do another version. Hopefully this version is more interesting to look at :)

Another Overdue Post!

2009-07-27T04:43:00.000-07:00

It's been so long since my last update haha. I'm still alive but I've been a little busy with my class assignments. Anyways, here are some rough thumbs of a Mars scout vehicle that I'm working on for one of my classes. I learned a lot from doing these small designs; I learned that having too many sharp and curved edges can lead to an "alien/very futuristic" design while squared off edges can make the design feel more "man-made." I'm not sure if my ideations reflect this observation haha. I guess the trick is to balance interesting and dynamic shapes with squared off shapes; oh well, I'm gonna need more practice to get the hang of this process. I'll be refining some of these thumbs so stay tuned in!

Fantasy Creature Designs

2009-05-24T10:20:00.000-07:00

Medical Emergency!

2009-05-13T21:09:00.000-07:00

Another Rework

2009-05-10T10:13:00.001-07:00

NEW VERSION:

OLD VERSION:

I finally got around to finishing another design that I've been working on. The bottom image is a design that I did a couple of months ago; I was not satisfied with it, so I completely painted on top of it and fixed many parts that wasn't appealing. I found it difficult to turn a bad design into something better because I kept on finding more errors as I fixed one problem in the design. I realize now how important it is to put as much effort as possible into solving all the design issues during the early planning phase rather than trying to go back and fix things later on.

Mutant Creature

2009-05-05T01:38:00.002-07:00

Final Update

2009-05-03T21:54:00.001-07:00

Finally! Here's the long overdue final version of this creature. I ended up removing the raised arms because it made the creature appear a little awkward. Overall, I'm satisfied with how this design turned out when compared to the initial version of this creature :)

Creature Update!

2009-04-29T22:43:00.000-07:00

Here's another update of the creature head that I was working on a while back. I really took the design into a new direction where I really pushed the pose and repainted the face into a more frightening glare. It's still a WIP at this point and I should have waited to post a more finished version but I'm so sick of displaying the previous awful designs of this creature without any show of progress on this blog. I'll be finishing up this design soon and moving onto other projects, so check back later!

Another batch of portrait sketches!

2009-04-28T04:13:00.001-07:00

Well, here's another batch of portrait studies that I did. Overall, I'm getting the hang of painting more loosely and suggestively in my sketches but I sometimes still get drawn back into fixing and adjusting the minor features of the face. These obsessive distractions are really annoying, but I'll try not to become too attached to my future sketches for the sake of efficiency and speed.

Portrait Sketch

2009-04-27T01:43:00.001-07:00

Here's a quick portrait sketch that I did during the night. I like the looseness of the painting but I still need to work on capturing more of the person's likeness.

Creature Head Sketch

2009-02-28T19:42:00.000-08:00

*Update 3/30/09*

(I recently got some time to fix some of the errors in the initial sketch. I focused on reestablishing the forms on the creature's face and I pushed the pose of the arms and shoulders. I learned that the design is more successful when I keep things simple as opposed to rendering out the details. I plan on taking this piece further, so check back soon!)

Here's a creature head sketch that I did. I still need to work on resolving my edges more. This was part of a group of five creature studies (with an emphasis on the head and shoulders). Unfortunately, only this painting barely turned out ok while the rest failed and will be forever archived under my "rejected" files...*sigh* I need more mileage in painting and creature design.

Clean Up

2009-02-26T12:17:00.001-08:00

Jekyll Designs

2009-02-26T12:04:00.000-08:00

Here are some character designs that I did a while back. These are based off of the Jekyll and Hyde concept. My character is a 19th century farmer version of Jekyll. The overall style of these designs are geared more towards animation.

Creature Designs

2009-02-26T11:17:00.000-08:00

Here are some creature designs that I made. These creatures are redesigns of the monster from the film "Pumpkin Head." There are still a lot of mistakes that need correcting, such as the "comical" designs of the creatures. I'll be redesigning these creatures and in some cases completely starting over from scratch. Stay tuned for updates!