Today we went to KLCC for a picnic. Irfan, as usual, went straight for the extensive playground they have there, running up and sliding down the play structures. Later, I got to do what I haven’t done in a long time: spend an hour at Kinokuniya browsing and reading the first few chapters of several books, including Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash. Even read through the Marvel Spider-Man Encyclopedia. As usual I took a some photos, and here are some views of Irfan playing outside, and some view inside Suria KLCC. Inside Suria KLCC Mall
Continue readingMonthly Archives: June 2005
Hishgraphics Update
For a sneak peek of the project currently undergoing take a look at the pop-up image to the left, which is a hint to what our primary activity will be on the main website. Once I lock down the layout of the website design itself, it will be time to work on the content. Including the conceptualising, writing, drawing and pdfing of a whole bunch of e-books. In the meantime, more resarch on the industry (both online and offline) will also be needed on my part. More hard work ahead.
Continue reading
ArtRage, A Terrific Painting Program
I was randomly browsing when I suddenly found this fantastic piece of digital art on the net. It led me to a digital painting program from Ambient Design Ltd. called ArtRage. It can simulate realistic brush stokes on canvas or paper, as if you were really working with oil or acrylics. And it even gives you tiny congealed globs of paint if you move the brush in a certain angle. The colours will mix realistically when different paints overlap. Today, I tried my hand at it, using my trusty mouse in lieu of a graphics tablet, and here are the first two attempts at freehand painting, with no visual references. I’m really having fun with this and will have to practise more to refine my technique which currently sucks… the best I can with a mouse.
Continue reading
Duckie Approves of RPGs!
Duckie, the feline roommate of my good friend Shane Welin of Nova Scotia, likes RPG books very much. Eberron, a stack of D&D 3.5 books, Forgotten Realms, d20 Modern, and even some WOTC and WEG Star Wars books. Hisham: What does Duckie think of your RPG books? Shane: She likes em I guess, she sleeps on em all the time. Hisham: She ever join you gaming? Shane: We usually game elsewhere, but the few times we did game here she was all about watching and chasing after dice. Well, maybe she doesn’t read them, but she sure loves to sit on them. And everyone knows cats only sit on books that has high writing and production qualities. So, here’s to you Duckie! May all your d20 dice chases end up as Critical Hits.
Continue reading
Billy West Interview
Billy West? Who, you ask? Just a voice in one of the best animated TV series ever, Futurama. He wasn’t just Philip J. Fry. He was also the voices of Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg, Zapp Brannigan, and even Richard Nixon. Now based on the diverse characters he brought to life with his voice in the list there, I would opine that Billy West is one of the best voice actors in the business. Earlier this week he was interviewed by The Onion, which cast some light on how Fox Network saw Futurama (which ultimately killed the show) and how movie producers treat voice actors, which is shameful. Especially the part about the Space Jam premiere party at Grauman’s Chinese Theater at the end of the article. Here is an excerpt of the interview: The Onion: At what point did you realize Futurama wasn’t going to make it? Billy […]
Continue reading
Honeymoon in Redang
As Hisham has faithfully chronicled in here, Vin & I got married in Malaysia recently. A few days after the big kenduri (feast) in Sitiawan, Hisham’s and my hometown, Vin & I flew to Kuala Terengganu, on the east coast of Peninsula Malaysia where we were picked up by a bus and driven to the Marang Jetty. There, we got on a speedboat and left for Pulau Redang (Redang Island) for a 3-day snorkeling adventure. My father had taken us on a few of these vacations when Hisham and I were in our late teens, but the last time I had been to Pulau Redang and its neighboring islands had been at least 10 years ago. I had been worried that the last 10 years might have brought “development” (and its evil twin destruction) and that tourism might have brought about the destruction of the natural coral reefs that surround […]
Continue readingBatman Begins – A Review
It took more than 10 years, but I have a new best feature length Batman movie to replace my old one. Among the new generation of Batman movies (by new I mean, post-Adam West) I caught the first one on video, saw the second twice in the movie theater, raised my eyebrow at the third once on the big screen, and saw the spectacular train wreck that was the fourth on TV, and even then I wasn’t too eager to watch it through to the end. So I was very cautious approaching Batman Begins earlier today. And I left the theater more than 2 hours later very, very satisfied with Christopher Nolan’s final product. Spoilers shall thrive beyond this point. The movie deals with the origin of Batman. We not only see the formulaic parts of it, the parts of the Batman myth everyone knows. An Epic Tale I saw […]
Continue reading
Old Blue Harvest Fanzine Art
When I was studying overseas back in the early 90s… very early 90s… I became acquainted by snail-mail to one Mary Jo Fox who was, with her friend James Addams, the publishers of the Star Wars fanzine Blue Harvest which ran for 21 “episodes”, another fine way of saying “issues”. They had a plethora of articles that you can read from, such as an interview with Michael Stackpole and A New Hope Special Edition review from way back when the EU was cooling down from its initial Big Bang. Although it ran for years, I only provided art for the fanzine in its early days, mostly for its back cover right below the “Next Episode On Blue Harvest” blurb they usually have there. Here are two of the black and white artwork that were featured in the magazines: 1993… man, that was a long time ago. These pieces were scanned […]
Continue reading
The Game Mechanics Update
It was official last week, Stan! of The Games Mechanics has thrust upon me another 1.5 pages of illustrations to be done for the d20 Future Player’s Companion. I’m very excited about this, and like the previous batch of work I’ll do my best to give them their money’s worth. To clarify: TGM will be publishing short three e-books in a series in the middle of this year. Later this year, Green Ronin will be publishing a hard copy book consisting of the three e-books. Imagine that. My science fiction artwork on actual printed pages that people will have to buy to see. I can’t wait to add these illustrations to my gallery. Hopefully I’ll get consistent work from other publishers as well. Another thing I have to look out for is an efficient way to transfer funds from the publisher to me, that wouldn’t be difficult to manage for […]
Continue reading
Sila Blogging?
Hisham has officially invited me to be a co-blogger on this site! Thanks Yope!!! Please forgive my non-professional looking beginnings. I will endeavour to get up to speed and will be blogging like a pro before too long (i hope!). Again, thanks yope for the opportunity to share this space.
Continue reading
My First Freelance Job With An RPG Company
Ever since I got this computer right here four years ago, the one I’m using to type in this entry, I have been developing a portfolio and sending them to companies for freelance work. An industry I have always wanted to work on is the role-playing game industry. There is a list of companies that I send my portfolio to every year, in a cycle. Most ignore my e-mails. Some like Chaosium wrote back with polite rejection letters. Very rarely, I get an e-mail asking for a quotation like the one from Final Sword Productions. But so far, I’ve not getting any hits from any of the gaming companies. Last week, it all changed. Thanks to my good friend Gary Astleford, Stan! from The Game Mechanics contacted me with work. As of today, I am officially working on 6 quarter-page black and white illustrations for Future Player’s Companion, written by […]
Continue reading
A New Location for the Blog!
So, here we are at the new server. To be precise, at https://www.hishgraphics.com/. Okay, now why did you just hit the link? You know you’ll end up right back on the blog’s index page. Now I have this webspace all to myself, what (you might ask) am I going to do with it? Watch this space for the news in the near future.
Continue reading
KLIA June 2005
Their time in Malaysia had come and gone. Vin and Sila left the country, back to their own lives in the United States last night. It had been a fantastic month, and we were all saddened by their having to leave. Irfan, on the other hand, took it well. Even after the evening claiming his Ayah Cik’s luggage as his own, Irfan waved his goodbye to my sister and brother-in-law without any fuss. Even this morning, when I asked him, “Ayak Cik mana? (Where’s Ayah Cik?)” Irfan cheerily replied, “Ayah Cik naik kapal terbang. (Ayah Cik got onto an aircraft.)” Here are pictures from last night sad event. Here are some general pictures of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport taken without flash and with long exposure.
Continue reading
A Stay At The Hilton: Another Photojournal
For the last year or so, after sending Irfan to day care, we drive to work together. After the construction of Hilton KL Sentral, we drive past it every morning. Sometimes we wonder if we would ever get a chance to spend a night at the newest and state-of-the-art hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Then suddenly last week, newly-weds Sila and Vin booked us on what would be a 2 night stay there. After their honeymoon in Redang we were to rendezvous with them at KL Sentral. Soon after, we were enjoying the air-conditioned, luxurious rooms of the hotel. Here are pictures from our awesome stay at the Hilton. Here we are settling down into the hotel room. Irfan warmed up to the bathtub immediately. He had to have his Ayah Cik Vin around for him to fill up the tub with tepid water, before he takes a dip in it […]
Continue reading