spirited away

tumblr link / You'll never find another love like my love.

(A tribute to one of my favorite films of all time. You can download the brush set that I used to paint this piece here!)

abstract color studies

posting these here by request. sometimes my dreams consist of colors and patterns, which I then try to capture upon waking.

Adventure Time

Had a great time meeting artists and other nice folks at Sakura-con last weekend, now I'm itching to do more shows! So far I've got my eye on Emerald City, but I'm up for any suggestions.

And now for some schmoopy Adventure Time art. This show makes my artist-heart grow ten sizes!

waterfall goddess

The Waterfall Goddess of Jiuzhaigou Valley (九寨沟), carving out mountains with streams and planting the first tree of the Primeval Forest. I doubt I'll ever stop being inspired by that place.

a  younger design for the above character

red tree

close-up of the last image in the previous post. I fixed it up and turned it into a print, now just gotta figure out how to sell things...

life update + chinese mountains

These days I do my art blogging through Tumblr, so follow me there if you want regular updates:
http://blog.wendichen.com

It's been a year of many life changing events for me... last summer, I moved cross-country from Detroit to Seattle for a game artist job. All in all, life's been pretty good. Sam and I have definitely appreciated Seattle for its mountains and views, though the last 4 months of rainy season made me brood more than I would like! But it is a good excuse to stay in and paint all day...

You Don't Scare ME

Character sketches for a story. I'm trying to port everything over from my art tumblr, since I've decided that I don't want to quit blogspot after all

hoi polloi

ack, it's been too long since my last post! recently I've been trying to push the my characters in terms of exaggeration and simplification. I've been learning a lot about these things as part of my mentorship with the amazing Victoria Ying, through a program called Motivarti. here are a few character sketch studies from this week, all from imagination.

elusive mini totoros

a quick mini-print for Youmacon, featuring those adorable mini-totoros... I used to look for them in the woods when I was little! :>

sketched with a pentel pocket brush pen on Canson bristol (my fave inking surface)

brush pen sketch

Girlfriends vs. the World

finally decided to see what this convention biz was all about, so I got a artist table at Youmacon!  I'll be there this weekend from Nov 4-6, selling prints and sketch commissions.  If you're heading down, do stop by my table and say hello!

I'll have a bunch of Sequence prints for sale, as well as some prints for various games/movies/comics that I dig.  speaking of which, here's a Scott Pilgrim print that I'll be selling, featuring the super-boss girlfriends :P

finished line art

Sequence Steam Promo + BGs

here's an artwork I made to promote the PC version of Sequence, which has been out on Steam for just over a week now.  Prior to this, I had not realized just how incredible Steam is as a platform for indie games.  It was pretty cool seeing this banner on the front page for a week!

 

and here are some more backgrounds from the game... it was quite fun coming up with all the tech-y ones, got me out of my comfort zone!

Adelle

portrait/lighting warm-up from the other day, featuring one of my favorite characters in Sequence.   you can buy the game through Xbox Live Indie Games for just $3; it's only been out for a few days and has already gotten rave reviews!

here are some sprite alternates for the character... she's an astrologer who tries to read your fortune with tarot cards :P

happy mother's day

wishing all the awesome mothers in the world a happy mother's day!  this illustration was part of a card that i made for my mom, who always took care of me when i got sick as a kid, by making me lots of hot tea and letting me walk around the house wrapped in a giant blanket. moms really do know best!
i'd also like to note that the blue bathrobe/blanket thing in the drawing was a surprise gift from my mother-in-law, who is totally awesome and sweet.  i was feeling really sick and under the weather for the last few weeks, but apparently that gift was all i needed to be cheered right up.  :)

here's the initial sketch without the text... this style is really fun to work with!

Character Sprites

eep, it's been far too long! life's been busy on the personal front, but deadlines have loosened up a bit so i can get back to posting again... here's some backlogged character sprites from last year. these were made for Sequence, a rhythm/rpg game by Iridium Studios that's out on Xbox Live Indie Games! i also designed all the backgrounds, which i'll post later~

brush tests

 Royal Guardians, wip illustration

got a new computer and finally installed the newest versions of Photoshop/Painter, so i'm playing around with brushes like always (cross-posted from my art tumblr)

... hope everyone's been having a great 2011 so far! :)

Pixar Times TS3 tribute

Ken & Barbie disco party, drawn for The Pixar Times to celebrate the DVD release of Toy Story 3!  i was invited to this project by the very talented Jerrod Maruyama, you should definitely check out his work!

here's the thumbnail sketch for figuring out the placement/gesture

pumpkinman

hope everyone had a fun halloween!  here's a little fall-themed illustration to celebrate my favorite season... i was probably the only oddball who did this after halloween as a kid, huh~ :P

loose sketch + color test ... this step's always fun!

layout sketches

quick update, just some vizdev sketches for a story. done in corel painter on one layer with large brushes (no sketch underneath) ... this helps me keep things basic and impressionistic~

lone traveler

environment layout for a story, also a style/mood test.  here's a close-up~