the bit blog

Happy New Year! (As if we had anything to do with it.)

raaballoon — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:31:30 +0000

And so we’ve made another loop round the Sun (that might very well kill us all at the end of this year) but still, there’s a cause for celebration!

Here’s wishing all a Happy New Year, and may the rest of it be shiney as lardy pie!

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and I suppose while we’re at it, here’s the Christmas card that I made for PlayMoolah, the gamey ladies who I work for now

Walking with Madrugo

raaballoon — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:09:22 +0000

Seems as though every time I’m back in Copenhagen, I make it a point to do some sort of personal project. The last time I was back here was in Spring, and now I’ve returned at the changing of the seasons once more to spend some time with a certain Hare. I had the initial idea to do a photo project here (a first attempt, really) which involved geometry, humans and the divine space in between. That one’s still in the making, but somewhere in the middle I got an idea about a wanderer character who would walk around with a sort of umbrella halo. And so “Madrugo” was created. Why Madrugo? I don’t really know, like all the characters I’ve ever named, the words pop into my head in the midst of thinking about them even when I don’t mean to name them, so that must be respected. This one wanted to be called Madrugo. Walking with Madrugo is the 1st part of 2 photo series that I’ve done here in the last 2 months, and they’re meant to be part of a larger project with the Hare. More updates about that to come. Till then, enjoy the walk with Madrugo.

Recent sketches at 5am, cafes and pubs

raaballoon — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 14:56:49 +0000

Transiting in Dubai (from Singapore to Copenhagen) at 0500 in the morning…and drawing to stay awake

1600, having a beer at Cafe Retro in Nørrebro…op ned op ned op ned, sove nu for Satan!

1200, having a coffee and a beer at Cafe Molka (this was a different day) while some Danes had their breakfasts.

2320 Hey Zayats, vi gå til Guinness Pub, yes?

Forest Crimes: A growing set of illustrations

raaballoon — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:34:10 +0000

It’s been a busy last couple of months since I got back from Copenhagen working at the wonderful little hole called Villains, where cool stuff gets made and people are magnificently trolled. There’s been some stop motiony business going on, but I can’t reveal anything other than that for now. Besides the evilly nice times at Villains, I’ve been up to other not-so-villainy things on the side, like health food packaging and illustrations for kids Aw.

However, between the cracks of work and shisha, there’s been a series of rather quiet mental explosions going on my dream space. After all, it’s always the end of the world there and some images have been haunting me enough to be drawn. I’ve been calling these Forest Crimes, and they’re mostly for reminding myself of the deeper feelings for the world that I don’t want to forget.

“Horse porno lit by the moon

a tender tango by a dark lagoon

I sat and watched as the moon became nude

I know I’m lewd and way overdued

I know I’m lewd and way overdued”

-Cocorosie

“We know.”

“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food,

and that it was a delight to the eyes,

and that the tree was desirable to make one wise,

she took from its fruit and ate;

and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate”

Poster for the Life Crashers!

raaballoon — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 17:28:39 +0000

Finally, a poster’s been made for the Life Crashers! What’s the Life Crashers? It’s something I’ve been involved in (on and off) over the last 2 years together with Anand Gurnani. Unfortunately, I’ve been so preoccupied with my other work that I haven’t had the chance to do anything with it in the last year and more! But now we’re back to it again, and here’s the poster that I’ve made for it. What’s it going to be? A sort of comic that’s a mash-up of musicals and a kind of surrealist real-life sitcom. It’s a project that’s been morphing over time, and the universe is slowly materializing beneath our twitchy fingers! We’ll be developing this further over the next 6 months – keep watching for updates!

poster front

poster back (copy by Anand Gurnani)

Dr. Sketchy – June sketches

raaballoon — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 20:12:04 +0000

It feels like a long time since I’ve done some proper sit-down-with-a-model sort of life drawing… and thanks to the discovery of Dr. Sketchy here on the island, I’ve finally gotten some life drawing time today! And not just any old model – cabaret ladies and stuff. mmm =) with weird prizes like cabbages and diapers. Anyway, here’re the sketches from today – they’re all done with the brush pen.

Drawing with your non-dominant hand competition. So we all tried drawing with our other hand (that meant the left for me) and it turned out to be incredibly exhilarating! It made me see the model differently, forced me to make different decisions and taught me how important the general arm movement is (and how sensitive it can get!) It was as though I was drawing with only my upper arm. anyway, I got some clothes pegs as a prize for this one (the picture above) heh.

what an awkward expression. I definitely need to work on that.

…and the whip came out, and some clothes were ripped off for the last pose

A new site, and the painting of a very special piano

raaballoon — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 17:06:35 +0000

So just an update – I now have a new site up and running! If you haven’t visited it already, the site’s www.thebitbin.com

I’ve sneakily put up a new project there, the Dash! Board game project that I’d finally finished in March. It’s not out yet, and I can’t put up images of the board and actual game, but I’ve been given the green to put up the box cover at least, along with some other illustrations from that lot.

Now that I’m more or less back in sync being in Singapore again, I’ve finally decided to put up images of the very special piano that got painted when I was in Copenhagen over the last 3 months. It’s not a special piano because I painted it, no, it was special before that, and I was very honoured to get to paint on it =) It’s got a bit of funny history – and now the story’s getting more interesting. If anything, this piano was a Door…

So here’s the piano, painted with acrylics and ink.

(Unfortunately, bronze paint doesn’t show up too well on photos)

And quite suddenly, I have 2 New short Animations

raaballoon — Thu, 12 May 2011 13:59:42 +0000

Here’s a break from all that illustration and stuff – So I’ve been pretty busy over the last 2 months in Denmark working, travelling and figuring out what I want to do. It’s been rather drifty going from one project to another, but I didn’t think I’d be doing 2 animated videos in these 2 months, much less in Flash. I’m really beginning to like this whole Flash thing – it’s amazing what one can do with just Flash and After effects, …and of course there’s always the Stop motion to sneak in whenever I get the chance.

The first of these two videos is the “r U LOHAS?” promo video, conceptualized while I was still freelancing at Villains in singapore, and made in a month for LOHAS Asia Pacific. I would have loved to make it all in Stop motion paper cut outs, but place and time just wasn’t on my side and I ended up deciding to make it a mix of Flash and Stop motion.

and don’t forget to visit their site: www.lohas-asia.org and go green and stuff.

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So that was LOHAS.

And now for something that happened in 48hrs! In the first week of may 2011, Stick and Balloon came rushing in from different ends of the globe (beijing and copenhagen) to converge once more in dear old Stuttgart, Germany to take part in the 48hr Crazy Horse Animation Jam competition. Even the name takes a moment to spit out. I shall just call it the 48hr Jam to make things simpler. For 48 hours, Stick and Balloon (Yanyun chen and I) were stuck on the 2nd floor of a Cinema building animating non-stop while being fed endless monster pretzels and coffee. Being the natural hobos that we’ve been trained to be, we slept in the festival cinema at night, slotting our bodies under the armrests to lie on the nice cushy chairs. It was like sleeping strapped-down in a spaceship for 2 nights. Unfortunately, we didn’t win, but we enjoyed the ride anyway. Enjoy!

Jimmyfish: the first ever Flash game by Stick and Balloon

raaballoon — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 18:23:56 +0000

So apparently we make Flash games now, and I’ve struck out at my first real attempt at Flash animation! Introducing Jimmyfish, the first ever game by Stick and Balloon, conceptualized and designed by Yanyun Chen, with music by Jachin Pousson and wonderfully magicked together by Jason Poh. Download it here!

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In other news..!

I’ve just finished working on another Flash video and coincidentally it’s also about saving the planet and stuff. Keep watching this space and I’ll post it the day it’s published on the Internets! Other than that, I’ve decided to take a month off work (or well, just some light fiddling about) and so I’ve started painting on a very special piano.

The Little Dreamer: Warship and Wire men (Chapter 4)

raaballoon — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 08:50:31 +0000

Hej hej hej everyone! I’ve been tardy with putting up chapters from the Little Dreamer, so this one’s a little late again. Chapter 4 of the Little Dreamer’s out, and has been for a while now, but here’s an excerpt:

“Chapter 4 card: Warship and Wire”

Nearly two weeks after she met the fortune-teller, the child entered a new village that was said to be very close to Algondiz. As she walked, she saw two men coming towards her on the Big Road.

The first, who was built like a warship, was forcibly dragging his companion by the arm, which stuck out like wire on an ironing board. Together, they sailed forward combatively, the prow of the warship man’s mighty nose steering its wretched enemy to battle.

“This will teach you now, for stealing an honest man’s ideas!” roared the warship man.

“Ooh, how nervous-making,” whined the wire man in mock terror.

“Shut your whimpering, or I’ll box your ears!”

“If you do, we’ll have more to reckon with when we reach the magistrate.” The wire man sneaked a crafty glance at his formidable foe.

By now, the two men had reached the child.

“Why are you going to see the magistrate?” she asked curiously.

“To get my money back of course!” answered Mr. Warship.

“Has he taken your money then?” asked the child sympathetically.

Mr. Wire snorted.

Mr. Warship ignored the snort. “You could say that! He stole an idea I came up with, and has been profiteering from it since. That’s as good as theft!” In his anger, his mouth foamed like the sea.

“Don’t you see how brilliant I was in thinking of making wooden buckets for water instead of metal ones that heat up in the sun?”

PS. I absolutely love it when someone uses the line “I’ll box your ears!”.

Read the rest of Chapter 4 here: http://littledreamernovel.com/4-warship-and-wire-men-part-1/