A scene from Fisheye Placebo.
This image was inspired by a free Breadley Manning protest I participated in 2012. We were a small group of about 20-30 peaceful protesters met by an overkill of riot police. We dissipated peacefully to avoid arrest but the image of facing against a roll of riot police remained in my mind.
For those not familiar with Bradley Manning, he was the one who leaked the Collateral Murder video to Wikileaks. The video details the slaughter of innocent Iraqi civilians and journalists by American soldiers. Amongst the injured were 2 children whose father was killed. When the journalists' families asked about how they were killed, they were lied to. For revealing the true casualties of war, Manning was put into solitary confinement and tortured without trial. Learn more and support the cause at [link]
Feb, 2018
Frey overlooking city as he orchestrates his next plan against the Solar Eye.
This drawing features some silly programmer graffiti despite the serious atmosphere.
The pigeons with IPoAC (IP over Avian Carriers) is a proposal to carry Internet Protocol (IP) traffic by birds such as homing pigeons as a part of an April fool’s joke.
The 3 square icons next to it says eat, sleep, code.
The ones on the stairs refers to another April fool’s joke that created Error 418. Like Error 404, which means “Not Found”, Error 418 means “I’m a teapot”.
The urban jungle that never sleeps. Bright city lights masquerade as the stars above. A reflection of humanity. A testament to our hubris.
There's a comforting warmth to know that in the ruthless growth of society, you are nothing and yet the sky is within your reach.
Inspired by this photo series.
1 hour speedpaint of Robin from Fisheye Placebo :D I also made a captioned video tutorial on my Youtube! (It's also on my Facebook)
Robin from Fisheye Placebo looking melancholic in the city night. I wanted her eyes to resemble the fisheye lens of her camera. Many people think photography objectively captures reality, but that couldn't further from the truth. A photographer can only capture the reality he/she chooses to see through. The types of lenses used, what's included vs excluded in the photo, camera settings, and countless other things can alter the feeling a photo gives off, and thus reinterpreting the reality seen through the lens.
Street lights, clashing colors, the urban jungle never sleeps.
A scene from Fisheye Placebo that's been stuck in my head for a while. I wanted to capture the feeling of melancholy, and a desire to leave things broken are as a reminder of why you are who you are.
Fisheye Placebo Promotional Poster:
Living under an authoritarian regime is not fun. Extensive censorship meant no Facebook, no Youtube, and no porn.
Fortunately for Vance, being a hacker makes scaling the Great Firewall a walk in the park. With the free web at his fingertips, Vance should be happy but he’s not. Maybe there’s something missing in his life that porn just cannot replace.
Maybe it’s a girlfriend.
So it’s not weird at all to hack into the university to assign himself a hot female roommate, right? That’s just taking fate into your own hands, or something along those lines, right?
Too bad fate had other plans in mind and Vance is dragged into a crazy conspiracy to overthrow the government by his most-definitely-not-female roommate.
College is meant to be exciting, but not this exciting. Between failed dates, failed grades, and maybe not quite failed hacks, Vance will slowly come to question the morality of his actions and the true price of freedom.
Is this what democracy looks like?
Here Frey is waiting to make his next move against the Solar Eye. I really liked the concept of Strategy vs Tactics described by Michel de Certeau in his The Practice of Everyday Life.
“A tactic is a calculated action determined by the absence of a proper locus. … The space of a tactic is the space of the other”. A tactic is deployed “on and with a terrain imposed on it and organized by the law of a foreign power.” One who deploys a tactic “must vigilantly make use of the cracks that particular conjunctions open in the surveillance of the proprietary powers. It poaches in them. It creates surprises in them”
In the story, Frey falls under Tactics while going against the Strategies of the surveillance state. I will be revealing new antagonists in the following chapters so stay tuned!
Feb, 2018
Another paint over test using models built by my amazing team of 3D artists. This time Frey has updated hair and a new rig. The models work amazingly well and I'm excited to start working on the chapters again.
Frey watching over a city painted in flames by the sunset.
12/23/2017
It's been so cold lately that I find it hard to draw. Frozen fingers are no good for painting.I'm dreaming of the warm sunny day in a greenhouse of plants :)
Cocoa and Jen's art studio is basically just my dream house <3
"Why live when life is but a walking shadow?
Because between the sound and the fury, there is a thirst, a curiosity, for tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow."
More drawings for my future graphic novel, Fisheye Placebo This is Frey playing the electric violin. It's plugged into his headphones and silent to the rest of the world. He does when he needs to plan out the next strategy to fight against a totalitarian regime.
You can see the violin design here.
The background words say "WAR IS WAR" on repeat. This phrase is traditionally used as an excuse for extreme war time cruelty. It's essentially saying "war is meant to be cruel so that's what you get." Although Fisheye Placebo will be more about cyber warfare, I think the war time mentality can still apply and can cause extreme psychology damage to those involved.
Frey is silently playing the violin on the outside, but a war is ranging on the inside.
I don't know why they're posing like they're part of some action thriller with explosions, when in actuality they just sit on their butt and code all day.
This is Jen, the graffiti artist.
The title "All City", in graffiti lingo, refers to the state of being known for one's graffiti throughout a city.
Jan, 2018
A paint over test of a new Fisheye Placebo character using 3D models built by my wonderful team. I'm excited to be creating new chapters again after such a long hiatus due to hand pain.
Old concept art for my graphic novel called "Fisheye Placebo"
The story but it will be about information wars, hackers, and bad roommates. The guy on the left is Vance and the guy on the right is Frey
The fish symbol in the title is often used to stand for Jesus in Christianity, but before Christians adopted that symbol, it simply meant fish. So please do not associate any religious meaning behind this work.
As for the title, I won't give away the metaphorical meaning since that's for you to find out when you read the story. However, the technical term for "Fisheye" refers to a type of lens used in photography to produce a wide angle view that also results in a rounded distortion of the image that gives of the same result as a 5 point perspective drawing. "Placebo" refers to the medical term of a fake medicine that's used to trick the patient into thinking they are getting better, and the psychological effects of that false belief might actually make the patient heal. Hence the quote "Through the distorted lens I found a cure."
Early concept art of Robin from Fisheye Placebo.
Testing out new styles :)
Here’s a teaser drawing of the main antagonist from Fisheye Placebo. His identity has yet to be revealed, so stay tuned ;)
A moment of peace, a moment of introspection.
Testing out how to integrate 3D backgrounds with 2D characters in preparation for the story.
Jen from Fisheye Placebo, doing one of her legally dubious hobbies. Subverting the surveillance state on a Friday night is what every college student does, right?
Inspired by the street art of Banksy.
Another color test .
- 2600 refers to the technique of phone phreaking by using a 2600hz tone (usually of a whistle) to get free long distance phone calls. They have long since fixed this issue decades ago so don't try this, it's not going to work.
Speed paint and color test.
Many of you have heard about the Knite reboot I've been working on, and today I am proud to also announce the reboot for Fisheye Placebo!
After many months of script writing and plot tuning, I've concluded that dystopian cyberpunk stories are a thing of the past, and the future is all about the moe~moe~kyun!
I am rebuilding Fisheye Placebo from the ground up with all new characters and none of the boring old casts. No more Frey, Robin, or Vance. Allow me to introduce Freya! The cute hacker girl who does cute hacker things in lingerie! Did I also mention she's part cyborg?
But don't let her cute innocent appearance fool you, her real goal is to find her Senpai who has been captured by the evil government. And for that, she must go undercover as a maid at the hip new Cyber Maid Cafe to gather intel from the pervy old governor who frequents there. What crazy shenanigans and sexy outfits will she have to wear to free her Senpai?
The first chapter of Freya's Cyber Maid Adventures will be released on April Fools, 2017. Stay tuned!
