Layne's Art Blog

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T15:08:00.001-08:00

It's my online Christmas card 2008, haha. Happy holidays!

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-02T23:21:00.000-08:00

I helped my friend Chris make a poster for his Halloween party. We wanted to make cute Chibi versions of known monsters and decided on costumes for each one. He drew the top portion and coloring. I did the letters and the bottom scene.

I also carved my own Barack O' Lantern in spirit of the upcoming election! The template was downloaded from YesWeCarve.com. Check out the site for lots and lots of pumpkins that other people have done.

Live Model Session

2008-09-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

So I finally took a sketch session with a live model (yes, a nude one). First one I've taken since 2002! Poses ranged from 30 seconds to 30 minutes. Here's the best of the batch:

10 minute pose

10-20 minute pose?

30 minute pose
Great way to study the human form, much better than the Google image search screen references I've been using. More to come in the future!

Bettie Page Sketches

2008-08-31T14:22:00.000-07:00

I needed a reference to test out some new sketch techniques so I chose 50's pin-up icon, Bettie Page. Here's some of the stuff I came up with:

Random Girl Sketches

2008-08-20T23:21:00.000-07:00

When I'm bored, I draw girls. They're much easier to draw than guys, imo. Here's some random sketches I've done this past year.

This started out as a girl sitting on a couch. Somehow, I turned her into a mermaid.

Hey, so I like cats. This is supposed to be a young girl and her kitty.

Haha, yeah. I drew this after a weekend of partying it up in Las Vegas.

Just a fairy. I intend on coloring some of these in the future. I had just been trying to get my groove back in the penciling department. Coloring comes next so stay tuned!

Anime Reproductions from Way Back

2008-08-20T23:19:00.000-07:00

The following are from wayy back to my high school days. We're talking mid-nineties here, haha, so these artworks are over a decade old! They were up on my original site that I made on AOL, lol, back when that was the only way to get online. (That's when I put those ugly watermarks on the images.) Ok, enough about me being an old fart, let's proceed...

Here is my attempt to draw Goku from DBZ using watercolor paint.

I reallly loved the art in "Ah! My Goddess" manga! Especially the cover art! This one was one recreation done in pen and colored with watercolor pencils.

Another "Ah! My Goddess" piece - Belldandy and Keiichi about to kiss? I did this one using acrylic paint.

Anime Fan Sketches

2008-08-20T23:03:00.000-07:00

Other than drawing, I'm also watching anime again after a long haitus.

Mugen from "Samurai Champloo". I don't know why I made his hair like Huey from "Boondocks".

A tribute to L from "Death Note". Ok, so I never watched the anime, but I did catch the movie at SFIAAFF and caught the first 10 issues of the manga. He's my fav cause he's a dessert fiend!

It's Misa-Misa also from "Death Note". This was actually based of different photo images of a cosplayer.

Harley Quinn

2008-07-22T00:46:00.000-07:00

OMG, just got back from watching "the Dark Knight", what can I say other than holy crap, what an awesomme movie!!! A must see in the theater, watch it on an IMAX screen if you can!

Ok, so Harley Quinn never made it to the live action movies, but I loved her in the animated series. If you aren't familiar with her, she was sort of the Joker's second banana.

I drew her on 07/09/08 with mechanical pencil 0.5mm HB lead (my current favorite sketch tool), and then colored in Photoshop.

Angelia Jolie

2008-07-19T00:21:00.000-07:00

I've attempted to draw Angie twice already so I'll repost it here.

The first time was on the Oekaki Doodle Board on here in 2002 using the PaintBBS applet and my wacom tablet. The board is currently down, by the way =(. It was basically a place where anyone could register and leave their own sketches. I've been trying to revive it and it may have a relaunch soon.

I drew her again recently in my sketch book in April 2008. I needed to practice drawing a realistic face again so I chose her. At this point, I used a dull 2H and HB pencil for shading.

Evolution of a Catgirl

2008-07-16T22:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have reoccurring character in some of these posts, so here's how it all came about.

It started out as something I modeled for the 3D modeling class back in 2001. She was molded entirely out of the basic shapes - spheres and cylinders. After her, all the other characters I made were molded from the default human form models that came with the program.

Luckily, it came out pretty good.

I liked it so much that she became the girl in the Trippun video. Since her torso was bent around so badly that I had to replace it completely for the animation.

She also made an appearance in GF Quest Game. By this point, she was a catgirl, tripping people and now kicking them in the face!

I toned her down for a recent sketch I did in her original form as catgirl.

Hmm, I never even gave her a name, just "catgirl". Oh yeah, and her bangs covers her right eye, because she doesn't have one -- literally! I only gave her one eye, lol.

The Infamous GF Quest Game

2008-07-15T23:59:00.001-07:00

Before you go any further, you might want to check out the actual GF Quest game or else you won't know what I'm talking about here. This post does contain spoilers so beware.

So the game basically spawned from that Trippun video I did. It was a project for a multimedia class where we had to incorporate different types of media. What better than a game where you can make interactive?

The initial goal was to include actual animations into the game, but being short on time, it ended up being just 3D images (modeling done in SoftImage).

There's actually a hidden kind of easter egg type thing in there where you try to hit on a girl with a pick-up line. It doesn't work anymore so don't worry, but what happened was it would save the line into another page where other people could see. Man, the people things wrote not knowing that it would be posted! I apologize to anyone who got angry about that, but it's all anonymous, so who cares? So if you haven't seen it yet, I have a bunch saved up until about 2003 in the "pick up line" link on the top bar.

I made the game in 2002 and it's actually the part of my site that generates the most traffic at the moment. I was looking for some ideas of stuff to draw, so I ended up doing some updated artwork based off the characters in the game. I did the above on 7/2/08.

And if you ever played it before, this would be a familiar scene, lol.

Sketch Practice

2008-07-14T23:50:00.000-07:00

I've been very rusty when it comes to my drawing skills. Here's some the practice sketches I've done based on real world references just to relearn the process.

Hands have always been a problem for me. I sat down one day and drew nothing but hands.

I'm currently in the process of "finding my style". I haven't refined it in quite some time now. So I tried to toon up some pics of different expressions. I this was done in April 2008.

About three months later, I revisited the same exercise. I'm getting more confident with my strokes and even getting more details on the noses! Yay!

Some time in May, I bought a hairstyle magazine and then tried to get some of the hairstyles down.

So I learned that the best way to get better is to draw, draw, draw. You learn new things all the time with the process and you WILL improve.

Trippin' 3D Animation

2008-07-13T22:33:00.000-07:00

3D animation is great. It's something that I intend to improve on again once I get my drawing skills back in good shape. The only thing that I have that's remotely showable at this point was an animation I did in SoftImage.

We were supposed to make a 30 second animation about whatever so I came up with that, haha. It took forever to get the walk down and ended up doing most of animating by adjusting animation curves. You really need a fast computer to do stuff like that and I didn't have one (still don't, lol).

I also have some experience with Alias Maya, which I really like! Great interface and easy to learn! Most of the stuff I've done so far are just exercises to learn the software so it's not anything worth posting here.

Drawing Class

2008-07-12T18:03:00.000-07:00

I took a three week crash course drawing class at DeAnza which turned out to be the most beneficial drawing class I've ever taken. I'm not sure if Lee Tacang still works there, but he's an awesome teacher.

I recommend anyone who wants to draw to people to take AT LEAST one class with figure drawing including nude models. No, not to be a perv! You actually really learn a lot about the human form that way. The pic above started as a nude, and then she put on clothes and we drew the clothes on top. It was a great excersize to learn how clothes hangs off the body.

In this pic, we had to draw the person in front of us, while they drew you. We only had time in class to do it, so you had to be quick.

This was a huge drawing where we had to use the grid approach to reproducing a photo. I chose a Nike ad where there was a lot of detail in the texture of the guy's skin and hood.

More details, plus other sketches can be seen on the pencil sketch page.

Self Portrait Photos

2008-07-12T16:21:00.001-07:00

I guess I'll start with some of the stuff I did back in the day. Here is a set of pics I took for a self portrait assignment from a photo class I took.

So I ended up having an unintentional theme. While others were taking studio-like glamour shots, in mine you can barely see me at all! I guess it just shows how I tend to be sort of a private person.

Intro to the Art Blog and the Artist

2008-07-12T15:59:00.001-07:00

Wowee, first blog post! Guess I should introduce myself. My name is Layne, a Filipina-American living in the Bay Area, CA, USA. I've had this website since 2002, but been making sites since around 1997.

I've been drawing for as long as I can remember. I used to doodle a lot when I was a little kid. Making little comics starring cats and stuff back in elementary school. In high school, I discovered anime and manga and have been a fan ever since. My style is definitely influenced by it, but I'm not one to "try" to make it look Japanese. Just trying to make stuff look how I want with my own touch. I also was a big fan of street art and tagger style lettering, which shows in my current illegible handwriting. I went to college and started with an art degree, changed it to Computer Science, and then later added Multimedia art as a minor. I graduated in 2002 from CSUH which is now known as CSUEB. After I graduated, I continued to take art classes at DeAnza and Academy of Arts. And then for a couple years, I kind of just stopped.

I had been reunited with an old art buddy of mine recently and because of him my love for drawing and art has found new life. (Thanks, mic?!) One day we went to an art supply store, bought some sketchbooks, and I've been filling it up ever since! So yes, I have now have new content to post in here. This poor website had been collecting dust over the years. It was about time for a revamp! Hope you all enjoy it!