Jeffrey Lai

Sketchbook 39

2012-02-02T17:37:00.000-08:00

Why yes I do like One Piece XD

Doing lines in PS is such a mission.

How do people get such clean lines.

Just thinkin up somemore characters

(this is all 1 character, she can shape shift!)

a distant relative of 2 face

More curious about things.

Happy Chinese New Year!

2012-01-23T15:54:00.000-08:00

Happy Chinese New Year!

(I can't write chinese so forgive my hackjob of an attempt)

The whole time I was drawing this I could only think of the

DBZ opening theme.

Some other doodles

Katara from ATLA lookin badass

I love Sean 'Cheeks' Galloway's designs

Really great shapes and so fun to draw \o/

It's Pierre from B7

Llama madness!

2012-01-20T18:47:00.000-08:00

For my good (and talented) friend Natalie Hall :)

Go visit her blog! http://www.n-hall.blogspot.com/

I suppose you can tell she likes llamas and wears Boots of Doom.

She'll eventually take over the world.

Cars

2012-01-11T16:35:00.000-08:00

I can't remember the last time I even drew a car.

(I think I was avoiding them because I found them hard to draw)

So yesterday I thought i'd take some time to actually learn.

I memorized all the details and then using my head,

I try see and draw it from different angles.

I guess cars aren't so bad :)

Get out of my way!

I'm not really sure how to explain this though.

Ghost takin over

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T16:43:00.000-08:00

Still gotta work on my backgrounds.

Did a more detailed version of an older pic, just to get a

better sense of where everything was.

Now to do a really detailed closeup shot.

The amazingness of furniture!

Just making up furniture and using my brain to draw

them from different angles. Practice!

It's funny how I use a chair everyday and yet

I had to go and look at one properly.

I hope everyone has a Happy Holiday season!

Storyboards!

2011-12-14T14:47:00.000-08:00

Thought I would show my storyboards!
Heres a link to the page
(click!)

I'll put them in a section on the right if you are interested!
(I think I need to learn kung-fu..)

Some fanart of Final Fantasy 9!

I thought it deserved way more credit than it got.

And more drawing! Out and about.

Sketch travels

2011-12-07T18:03:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since I last posted!

Well CTN was all kinds of amazing!

Met such incredible (and talented) people.

I wish we could all hang out more!

(In time.... it will happen!)

I got great feedback showing my work around.

Now I have to work on some things!

Here's doodles I did on my trip.

I really need to go do more life-drawing,

I went to a class and felt so out of practice!

Punk.

2011-11-06T02:02:00.000-08:00

Those meddling kids!
I'll be at CTN-X! ah! Exciting!
If you see a tall asian and who talks abit funny
(NZ'er!) that's probably me haha

Tried my hand at an interior

Dream Shepherd

2011-10-30T15:45:00.000-07:00

Some more crazy~

Dream Shepherd!

Here's some characters I revisited

Choose your fighterrr

Characters!

2011-10-20T16:44:00.000-07:00

Some rendering!

A giant/cyclops!

The woman on the left kept looking at me.

Awkwardness!

Sketchbook 38

2011-10-11T17:46:00.000-07:00

Lots of drawing and some more experimenting!

Just more fleshing out/world building!
Quite the quirky demon :)

Trying to tackle buildings! (kinda fun I must say)

Sketchbook 37

2011-10-03T16:01:00.000-07:00

Trees!

Abit of experimenting~

I quite like the negative space.

Some more animation fun :)

(click it to see it move!)

Sketchbook 36

2011-09-29T16:52:00.000-07:00

Sketchin!

I figured someone implanted explosives inside and when it burst

all the spikes would detach to inflict some more damage.

Contract

2011-09-25T21:27:00.000-07:00

Probably not a good idea to be doing deals with demons!

Colour!

2011-09-24T18:51:00.000-07:00

Just experimentin!

So much stuff I need to get better at.

Also done in Artrage.

Facials

2011-09-19T22:39:00.000-07:00

Imagination heads!

Did these in Artrage.

Assortment

2011-09-15T18:22:00.000-07:00

A bit of everything in this post

Still need to work on my backgrounds

My continued efforts at animation!

This time it's effects!

It's funny how you don't look at simple things like a

drop of water the same again.

These are just from my brain. I think I need to study

how water moves and flows more.

(need to click it!)

Characters!

2011-09-06T19:14:00.000-07:00

Need more dynamic!

I found it quite hard to get my head around someone

fighting with a staff, since the range/type of movement is

quite different than without one.

I think i'll start fleshing out all these youkais and crazy world.

Now to do some backgrounds!
I haven't quite come up with names
but they're brother and sister.

Fragment

2011-09-03T19:47:00.000-07:00

Just letting my mind wander around

Korra

2011-08-31T20:24:00.000-07:00

Lately I've had animation on the brain

(can prob tell from my last post)

It's Korra! (link)

Just trying to be more dynamic!

Animation!

2011-08-25T21:30:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to see if I could try animate!

It's alota fun! needs alota brain power too,

coming up with choreography and thinking

about how people actually move.

Makes me appreciate it even more.
(and now want to learn more about it!)

Used Aang from Avatar as a base
(I guess you have to click it to see it move)

attempt at a walk cycle!

and just some lifedrawing!

Youkai

2011-08-22T16:31:00.000-07:00

Haha these were fun to draw!

Sketchbook 35

2011-08-18T19:32:00.000-07:00

Some more doodlin~

Sketchbook 34

2011-08-13T18:08:00.000-07:00

Zombies just for fun :)

(used a ballpoint pen for these)

Go Team Avatar!

Who doesn't like Avatar?

Sorry Sokka i'll draw you in next time :)

*edit: well I guess I will draw you

Looking forward to The legend of Korra!

SDCC Conclusion!

2011-08-01T15:31:00.000-07:00

SDCC was all kinds of crazy!

Met friends from over the internet! Met insanely talented artists!

It actually surpassed everything I was expecting.

The exhibit hall was huge and filled up with everything awesome!

If you ever get the chance to go, take it!

(I hear the tickets sell out so fast it's not funny)

Thanks again to Weta for inviting me along

I contributed a few pieces to Paul Tobin's artbook

(Conceptartist at Weta)

--> 'White Cloud Worlds' <--

Heres a few snaps!

What a fun trip that was!

(i'd love to attend more events! I somehow have to get over there)

This guy had an awesome costume.

Weta people being busy!

It was great meeting Jon Schindehette in person!

Rebecca Guay!

Jon Foster!! Happy that he liked my work!

I met others but forgot to take photos!

Loot! Well I didn't actually buy that much.

Nice group shot (Courtesy of the Weta fb page)

And some sketching I did at the airport O_o

Portfolio!

2011-07-05T16:58:00.000-07:00

Portfolio book! (and some bizcards)

It's nice to see it all in one format.

Overall i'm quite happy with how it turned out.

I'm flying to San Francisco soon

(before heading to Comic-con)

It would be cool if anyone wanted to meet up!

drop me a line!

Firefly

2011-06-25T18:06:00.000-07:00

I'd like that key back thanks..

Collision + Captive

2011-06-22T22:10:00.000-07:00

Painting!

Heres another revised pic
sky battle!

and the old one below
I only did this in March of this year O_o

I didn't realize I used such saturated colours.

Cleanse + Ambush

2011-06-18T22:10:00.000-07:00

Just revisiting some more pieces!

This was where I was at November last year

(O_o)

Glimmer

2011-06-16T17:45:00.000-07:00

Glimmer of hope!

Heres a work that I revisited.

(the old one is horrifying to my eyes)

Assault

2011-06-14T19:43:00.000-07:00

Get outta my wayy

Ah! excited about SDCC!

Dwarf and Forest Wanderer

2011-05-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

More colour!

Prophet

2011-05-17T17:05:00.000-07:00

Prophet spouting crazy

(Doomsday this Saturday right? >_>)

Faerie

2011-05-15T16:17:00.000-07:00

A Wild Faerie appeared!

Butcher

2011-05-11T04:55:00.000-07:00

In colour!

Maybe i'll render some more sketches later.

Goodbye~

Sketchbook 34

2011-05-08T16:03:00.000-07:00

Keep on pushin!

Sketchbook 33

2011-05-03T17:29:00.000-07:00

Somemore doodlings.

and some more drawing from life!

Sketchbook 32

2011-04-26T19:51:00.000-07:00

More! Oh I also got a pic in the Megaman Tribute book!

hm everything seems to have wings in this post.

Reau also asked me if I wanted to do a pic for his project

"Thor Thursday'

Can check out his work here

and some lifedrawing.

Sketchbook 31

2011-04-19T18:27:00.000-07:00

haha! more crazy.

May be small, but don't wanna mess with him.

Sketchbook 30

2011-04-13T17:30:00.000-07:00

More minions!

(I still wanna play Diablo.)

Sketchbook 29

2011-04-07T20:33:00.000-07:00

I wanna play Diablo.

Sketchbook 28

2011-03-31T17:34:00.000-07:00

Continuing previous post..

Damnn you save point!

Sketchbook 27

2011-03-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

Just trying to practice backgrounds!

(and a little people sketching)

Hatchery

2011-03-23T16:39:00.000-07:00

Just abita experimenting!

Crash

2011-03-18T22:29:00.000-07:00

Sky Pirates crashing the party..

Sketchbook 26

2011-03-06T17:55:00.000-08:00

I got this in the mail today!

JAMES GURNEY O_o

Very grateful he took the time to sign something for me!

Well I don't think anything can top that,

but heres some more doodlin.

Sunday Pet

2011-02-19T15:21:00.000-08:00

Benjamin Basso asked me if I wanted to contribute to his

'Sunday Pet' project and I said i'd be happy to!

Who doesn't want a pet dragon?

heres his blog! [link]

Sketchbook 25

2011-02-17T00:26:00.000-08:00

doodles and doodles..

Sketchbook 24

2011-02-07T18:23:00.000-08:00

Who is going to Comic-con!
Anyone wanna hang out/show me around?
Kinda want to stay abit longer than the duration of it.
leave a comment!

Some more doodlin/studyin.

Sketchbook 23

2011-01-30T21:46:00.000-08:00

Been abit busy, but heres some random stuff.

Sketchbook 22

2011-01-10T18:17:00.000-08:00

People drawin~

Festival

2010-12-29T19:27:00.000-08:00

Previous sketch, now in colour!

Well this one felt like it took ages.

Hope everyone is having a good holiday season!

Sketchbook 21

2010-12-16T17:26:00.000-08:00

Just a wip pic of an illustration, inspired by Miyazaki!

and some sketchin

White Cloud Worlds' Exhibition!

2010-12-14T14:26:00.000-08:00

Exhibitionnnn is open!

Go take a look if you're around!

Here is a little blurb.

The 'White Cloud Worlds' exhibition is on now at The Dowse Art

Museum in Lower Hutt. This incredible collection of science fiction

and fantasy artwork showcases the imaginations of 27 New Zealand

artists. There is something here for everyone; sketches, sculpture,

original oil on canvas pieces and large scale prints.

The exhibition runs until March the 13th and entry is free.

The 'White Cloud Worlds' exhibition accompanies the

'White Cloud Worlds' book which is available now at the

gallery and in all good bookstores. Check out the exhibition,

it's a great way to entertain your holiday guests!

The Dowse Art Museum, Laings Rd, Lower Hutt

[ Link! ]

and some lovely photos

Sketchbook 20

2010-12-05T03:39:00.000-08:00

Heaps of awesome animated movies been comin out lately.

We have to wait till next year to see 'Tangled' in NZ!
This here character is a wizard, who has a sort of crazy but soft
personality. I kind of liked how his hat would echo his mood.

Sketchbook 19!

2010-11-29T17:12:00.000-08:00

Some more things :)

Those people were fun to draw!

Sketchbook 18

2010-11-25T18:46:00.000-08:00

Bunch of new stuff!

Taunt - Colour

2010-11-22T21:22:00.000-08:00

Now in colour! fixed up a few things along the way,

so hopefully overall it looks abit better.
Is it just me, or does googlechrome disaply my work
way darker than in firefox..

Cleanse

2010-11-16T22:22:00.000-08:00

Gotta get rid of those pesky spirits.

Taunt

2010-11-12T22:04:00.000-08:00

Still at it!
Trying to push myself.

Think i'll give it a colour over soon

Skeleton King

2010-11-09T02:32:00.000-08:00

Workin on my tones~

Skeletons are cool!

Sketchbook 17

2010-11-04T15:35:00.000-07:00

A range of stuff.

White Cloud Worlds Anthology!

2010-10-21T16:05:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody!

My tutor from Uni, Paul Tobin has created a anthology called

'WhiteCloudWorlds' which is full of fantasy and sci-fi arts

from New Zealand! An honour to be part of it!

The other artists in it are sooo pro, it hurts my eyes.

for more info you can check out the website or the blog.

--> Website : Blog <--

If you happen to be in NZ during December theres an

exhibition taking place at 'The Dowse' showing our arts!

--> Link <--

and heres some more arts!

Still Life W.I.P.

2010-10-07T15:57:00.000-07:00

Someone asked me if I had any w.i.p. pics

so heres a study of a tissue from life.

done in photoshop!

and i'll throw in some lifedrawing.

Still Life

2010-10-03T15:08:00.000-07:00

Done from Life in photoshop!

a wild zombie appeared!

Sketchbook 19

2010-09-18T19:04:00.000-07:00

Squirrel! He likes to collect Shiny things.
(I kinda wonder if I could get into animation)

heres his little den.

Blindsided

2010-09-09T16:04:00.000-07:00

Got blindsided.

w.o.w

2010-08-30T16:39:00.000-07:00

I've never played w.o.w. but I can see the appeal.

and a still-life of my headphones.

Sketchbook 18

2010-08-19T16:12:00.000-07:00

Looking for work!

More doodle/paints! Now to draw some buildings.
(oh man i'd really love to get into disneys intern program O_o)

Digital sketchin 02

2010-08-11T06:42:00.000-07:00

Thanks to those that responded to my previous post!

Looking for work!
Anyone have any leads i'd be eternally grateful.

Heres somemore digital sketching!

Environments and some characters to go with the

zombie massacre! (a different style which was fun)

Digital sketchin

2010-08-09T19:39:00.000-07:00

I'm looking for work! oh how i'd love to work at Dreamworks!
if anyone has any leads, i'd be more than grateful!
Did these in Photoshop!

(I like the zombie hermit crab, it ambushes its victims by hiding inside

the previous victims skull.)

The humanoid one, sews victims faces together to make a mask

Intruders

2010-08-04T14:52:00.000-07:00

More painting!

whoa 200 followers O_o

Wizards!

2010-07-29T18:03:00.000-07:00

I can finally show! My first ever work for Wizards of the Coast!

For #180 of Dungeon Magazine!

Thanks to Jon Schindehette for giving me a chance!

Was quite happy how these turned out.

Colour 2!

2010-07-27T18:51:00.000-07:00

Just a few more!
Trouble for the astronaut and a canyon city.

Colour!

2010-07-21T18:08:00.000-07:00

Needed to add some colour, since its mostly been sketches lately!

Was inspired by Disney's 'Brother Bear'. Beautiful BG painting!

Shadow of the Colossus!

Sketchbook 17

2010-07-16T18:18:00.000-07:00

Note to self: be more dynamic!

Gouache practice.

2010-07-09T02:33:00.000-07:00

I haven't used gouache.. for a while.

So got a cast and did a study! Done from life.

Cthulhu isn't very happy with BP.
Man why don't they just get their act together already.
The whole situation saddens me, esp for the wildlife.
How can they possibly make up for damaging the ecosystem.

Goblins and Bandits

2010-07-02T18:04:00.000-07:00

More pencil work!

Library Life-drawing 02

2010-06-19T03:33:00.000-07:00

More library lifedrawing!

gotta be quick!

Attack!

2010-06-07T19:39:00.000-07:00

This was fun! not many updates lately, been busy!

Targets

2010-05-14T20:39:00.000-07:00

A little more streetpunk doodlin :)

Library Life-drawing

2010-05-06T06:02:00.000-07:00

I go to the library to life-draw, because lifedrawing is expensive

after a while. I wish I could go more often though.

I guess it does make you draw faster. Its interesting to see the shifts
in weight and how people sit and stand.
*and just wanted to say sorry to the people that I stare at,
I sometimes don't realize you're looking back straight at me.

Sketchbook 16!

2010-04-29T18:28:00.000-07:00

I'm still alive! More doodlin! and lifedrawin!

(and a lemur playing tabletennis!)

Dragons!

2010-04-23T18:10:00.001-07:00

Musta been fun workin on that particular movie~
oh how awesome it would be to work for them!

Dwarf

2010-04-18T17:54:00.000-07:00

Dwarf sketch coloured!

Heres a wip of it too!

-->link<--

and some lifedrawin.

Street Punks

2010-04-08T03:04:00.000-07:00

Look at them limbs fly!

Some crazy sketchin

Practicing some perspective/pov

Artorder: Mutation Nation

2010-04-04T18:45:00.000-07:00

Heres my entry for mutation nation! Mantis+Deer = Manteer

and bunch of other stuff!

everyone needs dragonfly messengers.

Directions

2010-03-25T17:43:00.001-07:00

A Giant Tiger Chameleon asking for directions.

(or it could be sizing up to eat that person)

Some people have been asking how I paint or

wanted to see my process so I took a bunch of wip pics

Can ask me questions if you want!

All the steps were done in Artage and the last step in PS.

I uploaded it on DA cause blogger makes it all pixelated!

-->link<--

Experiments

2010-03-21T05:44:00.000-07:00

New Stuff and trying stuff! Abit late for the Beholder challenge on

Artorder but still fun to draw anyway :)

Procession of spirits in search of a new home, weeping for the
land that has been cut down and destroyed.

Firespit

2010-03-09T20:00:00.000-08:00

Based on sketch I did

Started off in artrage and then into photoshop!

Zombie!

2010-03-06T20:55:00.000-08:00

Look what happened to me!

One of Scott's minions infected me

Did this one in Photoshop!

Study Study Study

2010-02-27T20:18:00.000-08:00

I got my hands on a set of plastercasts!

They're incredibly fun to paint. I'm not sure why I hadn't done so

before. On another note I was reading Jon's Artorder blog, and made

me think what I really want to do. I'd love to do conceptart for games,

I kinda wonder how hard it is for someone from overseas

to get into the industry. (and doesn't really have any experience)

Would people want to hire little ole me haha.

(maybe be like a intern or something)

I don't really know where to begin! Is it as simple as just applying? or

is the process alot more involved? (I'd be thinking of moving overseas)

If anyone has any guidance i'd be more that grateful.

The whole industry seems abit of a mystery, since I don't have anyone

to ask directly. I'm sure theres other people out there that would

like to know too! My attempt at trying to start a discussion.

Ok, now for some arts!

2dartistmag

2010-02-12T11:46:00.001-08:00

Hi Everyone! just to let you all know, my sketchbook stuff is in the

new Feb issue of 2daritstmag! Quite the honour really.

you can download a pdf of my section .. (btw its about 60mb)

-->link<--

Big thanks to 2dartistmag!

and man thanks for all the comments!

where do all you people come from?

(Happy Chinese New Year!)

Now on to more sketches!

some environment work! and some lifesketchin!

(its where the people of the forest dwell)

Animal Spirits

2010-01-29T17:58:00.000-08:00

Just doodlin some animal spirits that live in the forest.

Theres pockets of forest scattered at different areas and different climate zones.

Elder tree spirits everywhere but in seclusion, where they protect them.

Endangered they are!

Calathea

2010-01-18T02:45:00.000-08:00

First painting of 2010!

This is Calathea, another one of the elder tree spirits

She controls most of the Northern tropical borders of the

forest, where she renews the boundaries to keep outside

visitors out. She has her spiritual minions to do her bidding

great quote from a documentary about Mongolia

'Mankind plunders the earth for her treasures,

thus driving the spirits away. We pray to bring them back'

gonna work that into the story!

Proposition

2009-12-27T17:59:00.001-08:00

Goblins trying to rip you off of course!

My first painting done in Artrage!

(based on a sketch I did :)

Happy Holidays to you all!

(and lookin for work of course!)

Assortment 2

2009-12-15T19:04:00.000-08:00

If someone paid me to draw all day, I would be so happy :D

Oh! try Artrage3! its super awesome.

Any Australian's know of anyone hiring? or would want to hire me?

(or anyone really)

I'm from New Zealand! (just incase some people didn't know :)

Assortment

2009-12-06T17:42:00.000-08:00

I swear I still paint stuff!
(mechas are o so hard to draw)

zombies zombies

2009-11-23T04:47:00.000-08:00

More crazy from the brain!
draw draw draw
MuYoung! my attempt to send you my brainz has failed.

SKETCHIES

2009-11-13T02:52:00.000-08:00

Even more!
I draw weird things..