So after drawing a dozen or so robots and a couple of cyborgs for a freelance client, I thought I’d take a break and draw a quick pencil sketch of this seaside landscape which real estate value would no doubt be way over my head should the location exist. I figure this would be a fantastic place to cook fried noodles. Anyway, enjoy. The art, I mean, not the fried noodles.
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Today’s Breakfast
Using whatever ingredients left in the fridge, I came up with this earlier today, took a picture of it, gobbled it all down, and now in my belly it will find a new definition of pain & suffering as it is slowly digested over a thousand years.
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JLU -The Cadmus Arc
I’ve been a comic book reader ever since I can remember. One of the best spin-offs from the DC Universe would be the DC Animated Universe, beginning with Batman: The Animated Series. The current series set in the same universe is the Justice League Unlimited, based on the Justice League of America comic book, where dozens of heroes pull together to keep Earth safe from evil from both within and without from their space station, the Watchtower. Sounds cheesy? Not if you watch it and catch the excellently written dialogue and tightly storyboarded animation that comes with it. JLU has become one of my favourite animated show ever. Here is a review of 3 of 4 of the Cadmus arc episodes, “Question Authority”, “Flashpoint” and “Panic In The Sky.”. Project Cadmus is no small matter in the comics. Among other things, it created the genetically modified clone which became the […]
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Star Wars Episode III – Backstroke of the West
I present to you screen captures from Star Wars Episode III – Backstroke of the West by way of winterson.com blog. There’s not much I can add to this, except for a whole bunch of loud belly-achin’ laughs. “The front is a lemon avenue flying straightly”? Comedy gold. We need the original actors to redub the movie reading off this subtitle.
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Excursion to KLCC
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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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.
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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.
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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 […]
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