Winter Sale is back. $100 off Schoolism

*What is a self-taught class? It means you can activate the class whenever you chose. At which time you would have 100 days to finish the course. You can also watch the previous critiques of other students assignments. The only difference is that you won't receive personal critiques on your own assignments.

Christmas Herald

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season and POSITIVE New Year!
xo Kei

*print

MIB3 trailer

You can see one of the creatures Tbear and I designed at around 17 sec mark. It's the blurry one in the tank :)

I'll post concept art pics after the film comes out and I get the ok.

Bobby

'The Perfect Bait' is Now Available on the App Store!

You asked for it. We listened.

The Black Keys for Rolling Stone

The Black Keys for Rolling Stone! I'd like to say thank you to Steven at RS for thinking of me for this one.




Ever since I was 15 I dreamed of painting for Rolling Stone. This is my fourth painting for them and I hope to do many more. Besides the personal high of painting for RS, I am a fan of The Black Keys and have been listening to their music for years, so painting them for RS was quite the honor.

A Christmas Shopping Message from the Purchasing Dept.

Hi everybody!

First of all, we'd like to thank you all for your patronage of our site, our blog, and our store this past year! We are truly humbled and grateful for everyone's support!

As you know, the holiday season is fast approaching and always, if you choose to visit our online store for your gift-giving ideas, we will always ship your purchases for FREE worldwide via Canada Post regular airmail.

As advised by Canada Post, due to the increased postal volume during this time of year, to ensure that your purchase will arrive to you before Dec. 24, please kindly complete your order by December 2.

If you have any questions regarding holiday shipping, please do not hesitate to email us at purchasing[@]imaginismstudios.com!

Happy Holidays!

Purchasing Dept.

The Perfect Bait is now available

My new book "The Perfect Bait" is now available on www.theperfectbait.com. For a limited time there is free shipping world wide and you get access to the audiobook version as well. If you like the book, share this please :)

Bobby

Here's some reviews and testimonials.

One thing that I've learned knowing the author and that his book The Perfect Bait wholeheartedly confirms, is that Bobby Chiu knows what he's talking about. Having developed an art style and built a career for myself, I've done much of what Bobby lays out, but had I this book my path would have been much more clear. Though not any easier mind you. You're still going to have to work your tail off. Bobby gives a usually unpleasant dose of reality but with an optimistic enthusiasm that makes his book truly motivational.

Bill Presing
billpresing.blogspot.com
Cartoonist / Pixar Animation Story Artist

--

The Perfect Bait is a tremendous amalgam of philosophical and practical knowledge which can only be dispensed by a true master artist in Bobby Chiu. In it Bobby selflessly imparts the knowledge, truths and systems that have made him the sought-after talent that he is. His candid and honest views are based on real-life experience and is a source of genuine inspiration. The Perfect Bait is a benefit to us in the art community and more importantly, it contains useful tools that transcend art that can help us improve our daily lives

Louie del Carmen
www.louiedelcarmen.com
Dreamworks Story Artist

--

Bobby has done it once again in The Perfect Bait, combining both inspiration, perspiration and aspiration. With a series of interviews with the art industry's top professionals -- combined with his own experiences -- Bobby has written a most inspiring and knowledgeable how-to book. In this five step method, The Perfect Bait is the perfect book for aspiring artists.

Marcelo Vignali
vignalistudio.blogspot.com
Sony Pictures Animation
Production Designer / Illustrator

--

If I could have heard this when I began my career it would have been a game changer. It's what I wanted to know at the start and would have needed along the way.

Bobby filled it with wisdom and insight beyond his years and importantly it is backed up by the solid experience and skill of your self and those he interviewed. I will be giving this as a gift to any artist beginning a career and when asked by parents or students where to find advice, this will be number one, if not the only one. I am truly impressed. This should be listened to by every art student. I definitely will be sharing it with my students when it is released. Most importantly, it is something you will not only want to listen to once, but repeatedly over and over as your career progresses. I'm sure it will inform and influence many artists just as you have already.

Werner Zimmermann
wernerzimmermann.ca
Life drawing teacher / Educator

--

The Perfect Bait is an inspiring and informative audiobook for visual artists. In this book, Bobby have generously shared some philosophies that extremely useful not only for those who want to pursue an art career but to professional artists alike.

Listen to it with positive mind and I'm sure you'll find wealth of gems that you can use in your career and life in general. I personally will listen to it more than once. Definitely something that I wish I had own years ago.

Charles Santoso
www.charlessantoso.com
Concept Artist/ Art Director, Animal Logic

--

This audiobook is a real asset for anyone who is serious about a career in visual arts. Bobby has compiled some of the best practical (and inspirational) information for success in this field. If you're looking to make an impact in this industry, you need to listen to this.

Everett Downing
www.edowning.com
Pixar Animator

--

There is a lot of great practical advice in this book. I found the last two sections to be particularly useful to someone wanting to build a career in the arts. It's stuff that isn't talked about enough in art schools, so its good to know someone is putting that information out there.

Alex Woo
www.woohoopictures.com
Pixar Story Artist / Pixar Gesture Drawing Instructor

Happy Thanksgiving! Schoolism Black Friday Sale starts Tomorrow

PoseBook by Silver

I wanted to share with you a great new resource that I created for all types of artists. here is a link to the website to watch a video and links to the app.
video
female PoseBook
male PoseBook
How does an artist get better at drawing? Very simple, by drawing. That practice,the act of being inspired and finding new approaches is what moves an artist to the next level.

The purpose of this book is to provide you with images to inspire you. A book dedicated to help guide every artist, to learn about, construction, form, balance anatomy, proportion, folds in clothing, gesture, silhouettes, portraiture, lighting, hands, perspective, and contrast.

New Bobby Chiu Original Watercolor for Charity Auction

CTN expo in Burbank. Table 40-41

CTN expo is happening this weekend. One of our favorite shows. It's quickly become a must for people wanting to get into the feature animation industry.

Oils back in Effect

Been working with some traditional Oil Painting again recently between projects. I have a lot of pieces scheduled in the next months. Will be updating on the progression throughout. Here's one for now, before going into the 'color' stage.



This technique used is the dutch flemish technique which is taught by Tom Fluharty from Schoolism. It is a great technique to build your confidence in oils first with tonal work before going into colour. If you are interested in this, go ahead and check out the class, there is a lot of great info to be learned.

Happy Halloween 2011!

Happy Halloween everyone! The Imaginism crew spent the day carving pumpkins with our 4 wonderful artists that are participating in our 30 day In-House workshop.

So much fun!

Bobby

Leisl & Po by Lauren Oliver

A while back, I had the pleasure of illustrating this wonderful childrens book, "Leisl & Po" by Lauren Oliver. Its finally in stores and now I can show you some of the art inside. It is a unique story about a girl, who is visited by a ghost that tells her her dead father is stuck on Limbo and that only she can help him cross over...
I heard the book has been getting alot of praise from the children's book industry, and I am just happy and proud to be a part of it.










Some preliminary sketches..



from Youtube..




If you'd like to know more about Lauren Oliver and her books here is her site :
www.laurenoliverbooks.com

Also, I would like to send a BIG THANK YOU to the fine people at Harper Collins for being such great people to work with~ And to Lauren, for writing a terrific book!



-Kei

Kei Acedera Drawing

A drawing of Kei Acedera.

FYI: Kei, Chanp and I will be at the NY Comicon next weekend! Come by and say hello. Table U15 & 16

The Familiars - "Secrets of the Crown" Released!

Recently the new children's novel that I have been busy with drawing and painting late 2010 to Early 2011, has been released now.

You can purchase a copy of it either in your local Chapters, Indigo, Borders, or Barnes and Noble or Amazon.

On Amazon.com, you can purchase it as a hardcover book or an e-book on kindle.

After illustrating the first book, the adventure continues in book two of 'The Familiars - Secrets of the Crown'. The book will be a continuation of the first book.

When human magic disappears suddenly from Vastia, it falls on the familiars, Aldwyn the telekinetic cat, Skylar the know-it-all blue, jay, and Gilbert the gullible tree frog--to find the Crown of the Snow Leopard, an ancient relic that can reverse the curse. They learn that the only way to do this is by following in the purple paw prints of Aldwyn's father, who'd gone missing while searching for the Crown years earlier. This magical spirit trail extends into the Beyond, where our heroes encounter new enemies and danger, while Aldwyn learns about his mysterious past.

Full of high-flying adventure and heartwarming friendships, SECRETS OF THE CROWN shows how great it is to be familiar with The Familiars!

Here are a selected few illustrations that I worked on - all of them were done traditionally, in total I have completed about 20 illustrations for the book:









Follow @the_familiars on twitter for more future updates on the series.

Micro Rhino

Last week I posted a Micro Elephant and a lot of people thought that it was cute but they aren't as cute as the Micro Rhinoceros.

The "Micro Rhino" lives in the thick jungles of the Congo. The best way to lure out this very shy creature is by offering its favorite food... chocolate chip cookies.

Micro Elephant

The "Micro Elephant" lives in the thick jungles of the amazon. They are timid creatures due to their small size and inability to defend themselves. Very rarely scene with the untrained eye.

-Bobby

Shark and Spotted Tobi

In celebration of Shark Week last week. :)
Ball point pen drawing with a quick pass with Photoshop


The Spotted Tobi is a gentle, friendly creature that smells out tasty vegetation and roots that grow underground.

Bobby

Gary Clark Jr. for Rolling Stone

I did this painting last week for the music reviews section of Rolling Stone. It was a quick turnaround. I was called for the job at 3:00 p.m. last Thursday, and the final was due 3:00 p.m. Friday, the following day.

I truly enjoy every chance I get to paint for Rolling Stone, and I enjoy working with the art directors as well. For me, painting musicians for Rolling Stone is a dream come true, it's something I've always wanted to do.

I really enjoyed my time while working on this piece. Like the "blues", I just went for it, painted with emotion and feeling . . . and over all, my goal was to capture character and mood.

It's not caricature, but just as exciting for me. For me the challenge for capturing a person's essence and character is even greater when not caricatured, and so it's fulfilling for me to paint a piece like this and try to capture what I was seeing in my head.




I enjoy seeing how the work looks in print.



These are a few of my really quick thumbnails. The point of these were to help me come up with a nice framing, or composition and because of my short turn around, it had to be done quickly.




This is my color sketch, working out types of colors that I wanted to use.



This is an earlier phase in the painting that I saved to share some of the block in and process.

Tigeera

Tigeera is the giant prehistoric missing link between Tigers and Fish.

A late night sketch I did after finishing work in the wee hours of the morning.

Bobby

San Diego Comicon 2011

Hey all,

For those of you that will be looking for us at San Diego Comicon...

Imaginism Studios will be at Table G6 & G7
Come here first to get the full selection of prints and get them signed.

Schoolism will be at Booth 2042
Come here second to get portfolio critiques and/or watch free demos by one of the Schoolism teachers: Stephen Silver, Anthony Jones, Alvin Lee, Kino Scialabba and Bobby Chiu

We plan on being there on preview night as well. We will try to bring some originals to sell for that night :)

See you there!

Mawsey Toad

Here's a collaboration piece with Thierry Lafontaine (Senior painter at Imaginism Studios)

Designed by Bobby Chiu & Thierry Lafontaine
Painted by Thierry Lafontaine
Medium: Acrylic on Board
12"x12"

"The Mawsey Toad is a result of mating a Mawsey with a One-Eyed Toad.

It is often used by shamans to develop their ability at soul gazing. They claim that staring into the deep, silvery blue eyes of the Mawsey Toad allows one to gaze into the mind of one's enemy."

The Elephobi Rodent

Saw an Elephobi Rodent last night. Their slow actions make it much easier & fun to sketch.

The Elephobi is the slowest and heaviest animal in the rodent family but the extremely thick skin and sheer weight of the Elephobi rodent keeps this slow beast protected from any predators.

Average weight: Male 60 tons, Female 45 tons
Top speed: 3 mph/hr

Early Bloom - ImagineFX 72

Title: Early Bloom

Once every ten years, before the red flowers of the Rutilus Tree fully bloom, the Blossoming Dissimulic will come out of its nest inside the tree to feed. The bright red hairs on its antlers resemble Rutilus flowers and attract a huge array of little critters from the forest. This one week of feeding will sustain the Dissimulic as it hibernates until the next Rutilus blossom.

---------------------------------------------------------
This painting was done for the cover of ImagineFX 72. The whole issue is on creatures so I was more than excited to do the cover! I also added an hour long tutorial of the making of the cover. It's on the dvd that comes with the magazine. Big thanks goes out to Claire & Paul for being such a joy to work with. Look for it in your local bookstore or buy the issue HERE

We'll also have a few prints of "Early Bloom" at San Diego Comicon.


Close-Ups




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