St. John's Cathedral

A week after drawing Breaux Bridge, Iceman thought I should draw something iconic from downtown Lafayette, the St. John's Cathedral. I took a few pictures, but I just wanted to try it out with the highest point of the building. Initially I wanted to sketch it, ink it, and color it just like how I worked with Breaux Bridge. I got carried away with the details while sketching, and ended up having a full pencil sketch instead.I must say, I love pencil sketch, but not with buildings. It's difficult to get an even tone, and straight lines, and it's a lot messier because you need to use rulers and all. It's a lot more fun with water colors IMHO, and I might try to sketch the entire building and color it when I get the time and the mood to do so =)
Thank you all for your encouragement on the Motorcycle Ice Project. A lesson learned indeed and I don't regret doing what I did ^^ It's a great experiment anyway for both Iceman and me. And the postcard thing, I'll keep you guys posted if there is any news as promised.

Motorcycle Project

Someone might remember that I mentioned something about doing motorcycles on ice sculptures about a month before. No I didn't forget to post it, because my version did NOT make it to the ice and was completely out of specification.
Here is the sketch on computer which looks very similar to Jennifer Edwards' line art, and the bikes are Suzuki Hayabusa and Suzuki Katana for those who wants to know:-
The problems were many. First, you can't have too much detail on ice, hence the lines can't be too close to each other or the bits will drill right through and creating a lot of cracks. Secondly, the size of each ice block is 40"x20", there's no room to fit both of these to show any details anyway. Thirdly, ice sculptures work best if you draw on a flat 2D view, these have a slight perspective, the effects on computer might look nice, but due to the crystal clear nature of the ice, it won't translate well and the audience would not see what they were. Simply said, I broke the rules of the game, so I lost. But I learned the limitations of the machines, and it's a mistake I will always remember ^^

Thank you all for your kind comments on my Breaux Bridge sketch. I'll be heading to the printing shop in town tomorrow to see if there's anything we could do to market it as postcards. Wish me luck =)

Breaux Bridge

I've wanted to sketch the town I live in since the beginning of this year, and it's already May o_O! Time really flies, and finally I did it, and it's my first sketch of a town with buildings and cars, with a bit of WIP and I don't think I nailed any EDM challenge, boo hoo!
Breaux Bridge is the closest town to where I live, and I love going there to shop for groceries as people are just so friendly to you. There are a few antique shops, and some really classy eating restaurants, my favorite being Cafe Des Amis where they serve really nice breakfast and awesome Cajun cuisines throughout the day. The town itself is artistic and it shows. Murals, sculptures, paintings, potteries... all of these can be seen and appreciated if you look close enough.
Thank you all so much for your comments on the ice sculptures. A lot of you asked how it's done, basically it'd done from sketching on paper, and then transfer onto computer, and let a machine with computerized drills to do the lines. A lot has to be taken into consideration while doing so, drill bit size, depth, speed, and all. And most of the time final detailing is done with a good old fashioned chainsaw. ^^

Click to Enlarge (5x8" Moleskine Sketchbook)

Sports Themed Ice

2 weeks ago I was involved in designing 4 ice sculptures for a dinner function held in Baton Rouge River Center with around 500 attendees. The client requested ice sculptures to be sports themed while displaying the company logos for the 4 major sponsors. Apparently it's related to someone who won the Heisman trophy last year(I have no idea how vital that is, but it's something to do with football).
I didn't get the chance to set it up myself, but Iceman told me the reaction he got from the chef who ordered it was really good(you could tell from his face captured on the Louisiana Select Seafood sculpture), and they used the sculptures for the next morning as well. Next is the motorcycles sculptures which was held last Saturday, I hope we've got some good shots so that I can share them here with you guys. Thank you so much for your comments on my wrist drawing. I am getting better now I am glad =)

Bad Wrist

Thought I would take up last week's EDM Challenge, #269 Something Annoying.
I've never had a wrist problem, but for the passed 2 weeks it's been bad. I tried Bengay, and those Heating pads, they don't do much good. I tried the wrist guard for 2 days straight, seems like the pain only gets sharper. I drew this while I had my wrist guard on. Tanna asked "are you going to color it?" I said sure why not ^^ I struggled through the whole thing in sharp pain every once in a while. It's not my usual style, but it's something I don't mind having in my journal.
Thank you all for your comments on my sketch on Oni. He's getting bigger now and very vicious. He'd hide and charge at you when you are passing by, leaping with his claws aimed at you, like a tiger...but he's just a kitten so no harm was caused ^^

Oni(鬼) the Katze

Oni (鬼) means Demon in Japanese, the same character applies for Ghost in Chinese. That's the name we picked for the little kitten we adopted on April 2nd. He's got a black coat, with white paws and white strands of hair over his coat with white whiskers and brows. Looks kinda like a hedgehog. I wanted to call him Sonic(like Sonic the Hedgehog) at first, but we picked the name in between instead. A demon he is, but a smart, hyper and funny kitten as well. You can watch the video of him being hyper here ^^
I haven't posted any WIP for a while now so hopefully people still like it.

(Click to enlarge) Pencil on 5"x8" Moleskine Sketchbook page

Initial sketch and some shading done in sections

Working from left to right. Almost done.

Thank you all for all the comments and feedback on my previous post. I am glad Mr. Iceman made the right choice with the Pink logo. ^^

IceSlicers Logo

As I mentioned a while ago in Rainbowbox, I have designed the new company logo for Mr. Iceman. I couldn't post it earlier because they were in the process of getting it registered, and that's finally done last week! So the logo is official, with the certificate from the state government and all ^^
Just to do a recap, they have settled for the pink version. It started off with the Yellow and Blue(and notice the spelling error too?) And then we tried with the words floating around, and finally we have decided that the targeted audience of the business is mainly ladies, and pink is the color that says the most about that.
I had lots of fun doing the drafts and then playing with Photoshop while doing it. Thanks to Lawrence for giving me the chance to do this. Next project is the motorcycle ice sculptures, I did the draft sketch today, we'll see how that turns out later.
Thank you all for your continuous support to my work. I really appreciate all the response and comments.