TVB Reflections

This painting required approximately 60 hours of work to complete, with the original sized at 2500px on the largest side. The late Barbara Yung Mei Ling (翁美玲) was best known for her brilliant portrayal of Huang Rong in the unparalleled 1982 adaptation of Jin Yong’s The Legend of the Condor Heroes.

The images below may not be re-posted elsewhere. Please respect my work. Thank you.

Tools: Photoshop CS4 and Wacom Intuos 3 Tablet
Brushes: Customized with soft and hard edges

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Happy 2009, the year of the Ox!

First off, thank you very much to those who have been patiently waiting for my return. Your support is always appreciated and accepted with gratitude.

Initially, I had planned to re-launch the site in mid-January, but personal chaos coupled with a mysterious urge to build a new theme led to this long recuperation period. The new release of Wordpress 2.7 did not aid in speeding up the process as I was trying to absorb as much information about the terrific added features and PHP codes.

During my short winter break, I was also given the gift of time to continue pursuing my hobby in the exciting field of digital art, specifically painting in Photoshop. Skin remains the most difficult surface to paint realistically, but a pair of expressive eyes is the focus of attention. As the window to the world, they hold so much emotion and even betrayal of our true feelings. Since it’s been a long time I’ve shared artwork (insert non-TVB topic as space-holder), below are two different pairs of eyes cropped from separate paintings I’m still working on. In the first image, those are actually what I hope to resemble Tavia Yeung’s eyes (see, a connection to TVB!). What do you think? Unfortunately, it’ll be a while before the completion of either portrait. For now I”ll just leave the heads faceless or the eyes floating in midair – whichever option is less gruesome.

As for now, I have an Australian Open final (Roger Federer vs. Rafael Nadal once again!) and Super Bowl to get back to. TVB-related entries coming soon! Thank you again. Live long and prosper.

I’ve just been too busy with schoolwork and studying for exams these past two weeks to write any posts. However, I did manage to make a few minor site updates and a new banner. Originally, the banner featured Myolie Wu and Bosco Wong, but with the upcoming release of the long-awaited The Seventh Day next week, they were eventually replaced by Niki Chow and Kevin Cheng. I’m quite satisfied with the overall result and how the colors are complementary to the ones in this dark layout.

Regarding the series I’m currently watching, The Gentle Crackdown II has been the most entertaining. Wayne Lai and Steven Ma have great on-screen chemistry and the supporting characters are hilarious. I’m planning to write a few posts on it later. For now, here’s a Valentine’s Day card featuring Yumiko Cheng’s character, “Chan Sai Mui.” Happy Valentine’s Day!

Edit 2/16/08: a matching link button is up.

Edit 2/17/08: drop-down navigation has been installed at the top; please have Javascript enabled to see the menus if you’re using Internet Explorer.

Edit 2/21/08: a music player has been added. Simply click on the top menu to browse and listen.