As you can all see, I have decided to use WordPress for my blog from now on. You can still access the old blog from this Link to News & Weblog entries prior to 2006.
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I should mention this in advance, just in case some of you might be planning on visiting Singapore around July. 3dsense Media School in Singapore has invited me to be a guest speaker at CGOverdrive2006 from July 14~16. I’ll be doing a workshop/demonstration of my approaches to digital painting, and there will most likely be a wide-range of topics covered–from workflow tips & tricks, creative inspirations, aesthetic preferences, personal habits and stuff that make me tick..etc. I’ve never been to Singapore (although I’ve lived in Malaysia), so this is pretty exciting for me. I’ve always heard great things about Singapore, so I can’t wait to see it all in person. If you’re going to attend CGOverdrive2006 in July, I’ll see you there!
That full-length interview and painting tutorial for U.K.’s Future Publishing’s new magazine seems to have been delayed, but I’m sure it’ll be out soon. I don’t think I can mention the name of the magazine yet since I’ve signed a NDA.
I’ve got a piece accepted in
Ballistic Publishing’s Exotique (Memories of Hangzhou) recently, but didn’t get any in the Painter book though–which is kind of ironic since the Corel Painter team personally emailed me once to tell me that they had purchased one of my prints (Mood1) and hung it in their office for inspiration. Oh well, guess you can’t expect to hit a home run every time you swing.
WEBLOG:
Yay, A brand new year! Are you starting this year with a sense of hope, or are you faced with challenges that makes you nervous? I’ve got a bit of both in this coming year, and I hope everything will work out in the end so I could look back on 2006 with a smile instead of a frown.
You probably noticed that this section is now called “News & Blog” instead of the old “News & Updates.” What does this mean? It just means I’ve merged the old “Journal” section into the “News & Updates” section. What prompted this you ask? Well, some recent changes in my life made me rethink my priorities and attitude about where I’m going and where I want to be, including the way I feel about this website.
When I first made this website way back in 1999 (It was called Enchanted, then changed to Ethereality in 2003), it was meant to be a portfolio site featuring my works, with the focus on getting jobs in the game industry. Once I did get jobs, I started to add other aspects to the website–stuff like personal information, a journal, writings, tutorials..etc. Over the last six years, this site has grown to be quite big, and its focus has changed from being a portfolio site to an online representation of who I am as a person. I’ve had just as many people write to me because of the thoughts and feelings I’ve expressed on this website as because of my creative works, and that to me is a wonderful thing because it’s now a two-way communication instead of one-way. Of course, I could just add a guestbook or a forum to this site and make it a truly open communication, but I’m afraid it’ll make maintaining the site more problematic than needs to be (maybe a guestbook isn’t so bad). Besides, I hang out at so many online forums already, so that need for social gathering is well taken care of.
One of the major changes coming this year is that Elena and I will be starting some new business ventures, and although we are optimistic, we’re still very cautious and nervous–as one should be when playing with both your own money and borrowed money. This new development means I won’t be returning to the video game or CG industry again anytime soon. Although I’ll be involved with planning and running of the new businesses, it does not mean I’ve turned into some businessman–I’ll still have plenty of free time to do my creative works (composing music, painting, writing, photography..etc). I had to do some soul-searching to arrive at this decision, as I’ve always been an anti-business kind of guy and only wanted to do creative things. But now at thirty-three, I’ve realized that calling your own shots is more important than being an employee at some company (unless your business is sucking the life out of you and working for a company appears easier by comparison). Luckily for me, these new business ventures will have other partners and they’ll shoulder a hefty share of responsibilities, leaving me with free time to further indulge my creative aspirations.
The downside of all this is that these new businesses ventures will be in China, so my stay here will be even longer than I had anticipated. Most of you know that I’m not a fan of China as a place to live, but I think if these new businesses take off and can afford me the free time I need to do my creative works, it would be a fair trade-off. It is something that moving back to the States won’t give me. In the States, I’d have to slave away for some game or CG company, often working crunch hours with no free time left for personal works, and with the living standard so high in California, we’d be lucky to have money left for our savings. In China with broadband internet, I could still keep my fingers on the pulse of the other side of the world–I get to download the latest episodes of Lost, Battlestar Galactica, or whatever TV show that’s hot in the States at the moment, and I can sample or purchase any latest new releases on amazon.com, listen to podcasts of various shows, participate in online forums..etc. Although all of this will be done virtually, it’s not like I’d be some lonely guy sitting alone in a dark room with the monitor glow as the sole illumination–I’ve got Elena, the best wife a man could have, and I could still visit my family and friends periodically in the States (ever since I’ve been living in China, I’ve gone back to the States for visits averaging once a year). Truth is, even when I lived in the States, I pretty much kept to myself mostly, as I’ve always been a habitual lonewolf anyway.
So how about some New Years Resolutions? Hmm, I guess just making sure the new business ventures takeoff and run smoothly is plenty enough, but I’m also looking forward to doing some major growing as a composer this year by writing some challenging new music. I also need to finish a bunch of WIP paintings that’s been stacking up in the last few years. I’ve submitted some works to Spectrum 13, and it would be great if I get at least one piece in. I’ve wanted to submit to Spectrum for many years now, but never got off my lazy butt to do it (or when I did, the deadline already passed), so even though I’m a huge fan of the publication and owns every single volume published thus far, this would be my first time submitting works to it.
Elena and I will be flying to the States in a couple of weeks. This will be her first time in the States, so it’ll be pretty exciting for her. However, she’s already visited Europe before and lived in Hong Kong as well, so she’s seen plenty of nice cities–maybe she won’t be that impressed with San Francisco and L.A.. I’ve lived in the States for 17 years and I haven’t even been to New York yet, so I can’t say for sure if she’ll be impressed with New York. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who wasn’t impressed by New York though–it’s one of those cities where whether you like it or not, you have to pay it respect for being what it is–a world-class city leading various trends.
