I have been doing more sketches lately. The top one is of my friend, Krishna. The bottom one is Charizard for my friend Alisha. I always love going back to traditional medium. I find it challenging, and as a way to become more disciplined with other tools. Plus, I always love it when friends give me suggestions to sketch.
Circle Brewery mural
I’ve been a little busy lately with painting, hanging out with friends, applications and freelance work. Its been a very random month, but I’m starting to relax a little bit more. During the past three weeks, I’ve been working on a mural for Circle Brewery.
In the past, I’ve painted large murals at the graffiti park. The largest painting that I’ve worked on would have to be Anthony Bourdain at 12’ tall x 20’ wide. This mural is about double that size. This was my first commissioned painting and was quite an experience. During the first days, I was a little afraid to work on a 24’ tall ladder. By the time I was done, it became second nature and I felt comfortable putting in details in high places. It was really rewarding to see this painting evolve from day to day.
Stop by Circle Brewery and check it out!
The old mural, which occupied Circle Brewery since they moved into their space.
Circle Brewery staff, Joel laid out the initial sketch for the design. He wanted to tell the story about the brewing process and show the location.
I created a cleaned up version of the sketch and added some color. I wanted this mural to be clean, a bit cartoonish and a little technical looking.
Some shots of my progress
Gundam Gouf HG model
I was very pleased with how the Epyon model turned out. It was a very great experience from start to final detailing. For Christmas this year, I decided to get myself a Gundam Gouf. It made an appearance in the original Gundam series, and then another appearance in “The 08th MS Team”. Heres a link to see it in action.
The design of this Gouf is much more utilitarian and brutal than the Epyon. From a modeling perspective, this Gouf has a lot of potential in material depiction and wear. I loved depicting worn paint and gunmetal.
After making this model, I now want to make a Zaku with a camoflauge paint scheme. It’ll have to wait for later.
Weathering the Epyon model
After assembling the Epyon model, it didn’t look complete. Typically Gundam models are finished by inking in parting lines and adding decals. After I proceeded with that step, it still didn’t look complete.
I stumbled upon some youtube tutorials on weathering Gundam models. I tried some of those techniques on smaller parts and was very satisfied. I moved onto bigger parts, and then spent a few hours drybrushing to get the effect that I wanted. I wanted to indicate maroon and dark grey paint being worn out from use.
I was very satisfied with the results. This motivated me to work on another model.
Gundam Epyon HG model
With things slowing down, I have a little more time on my hands. I decided to catch up on things that I’ve been putting off. One of those things is a Gundam HG Epyon model. I bought this around 7-8 years ago at an anime convention in San Diego. Its traveled with me and been taking up space. A couple months ago, I decided to finally work on it.
It brought back many memories watching anime in my early 20s. I used to collect the 1/144 models from Gundam Wing. I rewatched some of those episodes now, and they were ridiculous! The series was very dry, but there were some great giant robots in that series.
