“Sukra”

Sukra is possibly another character in the Pink Laughter Kingdom world concept.

She enjoys eating a lot of bitter and sour treats that make her cry and frown in a very intense expression. The treats are often very sickly sweet smelling which are deceiving to the noses of visitors to her domain. Sukra enjoys singing catchy but dramatic and tragic songs about misfortune, neglect, remorse and the like. Her melodies are sing-song, puckish, dark cabaret and vaudeville in style.

She was created in Illustrator and taken into Photoshop for further enhancement.

"The Land of Xroi"

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The Land of Xroi is a game concept...as well as a story idea. I am going to develop it further in the future along with all of my other game ideas. The game is kind of difficult to describe because the static view is so abstract. It would incorporate some functions of a pinball, time management and arcade game.

The object of the game would be for the guided rabbit-looking character with a face-eater belly to traverse through landscapes picking up and eating as many egg orbs as possible without getting deterred by random taunting and trickster-like creatures and objects in the game that would try to block him and/or take away the egg orbs before he reaches them. The more egg orbs collected, the higher the score and the more special abilities the character can unlock to help him in his quest.

The music of the game would be as quirky as the graphics and background images. Think Katamari Damacy in some respects.

As a veteran gamer since the inception of Atari 2600 and the mid-life of Intellivision, I am passionate about anything involving game design and gameplay. I'd love to develop one of my game concepts into blueprint prototype stage and perhaps after researching on protecting my work, network with various developers to see if I can spark a deal. That's definitely on my list of to-do's. I am interested in games for the casual games market as well as for consoles and handhelds.

This design will be also refined as I think of more ideas. It was developed in Illustrator and then taken into Photoshop. However I enjoy using feathering in Illustrator for creating the look of painteresque highlights and shadows on objects and scenes. I find that with this feature, you can do work that looks as if it was either created in Photoshop or involved using gradient meshes in Illustrator (without using gradients).

"Panash"

I have many alter egos that are based off of various sides to my personality and moods that I often fall into. Panash [PA-nosh] is a character that I created several years ago. He has a suicide king complex and he is also one of the characters to my Pink Laughter Kingdom word concept which I will be developing into fantasy-adventure a book series over time.

I created him in several modes. Sometimes he appears in a red rather than blue clown suit with knives as hands and amid a background of fireworks and brilliant light displays. His hair is wild, chaotic and has a life of its own. He often ties up his hair with balls of light orbs in the colors lime-green, purple and sky blue but sometimes he lets all of his hair down and they appear more like abstract snakes or dreadlocks shooting out in various directions in a reactive manner.

I started a company with some friends and former schoolmates about a couple of years ago. The entry, where I talk more about this, can be seen here on my post about the 3rd Eye Cinema website design.

He was created in Illustrator and Photoshop CS2.

"Cake Wonderland"

I am always full of ideas...especially concepts for products, services and businesses. What I love as much as design is the idea of taking an idea from concept stage all the way to prototype stage. Concepts for me need to come out of theory at some point and I am thrilled when I can do this with any of my ideas.

This illustration was inspired by my fondness for pastries, desserts and especially pastry shops and bakeries. I've dreamed of opening up my own shop in the future when money and time allows for this. I'd sell petits fours, cakes, cupcakes, tarts, creme-based confectioneries and much more.

It would be a place of delight and pleasure. Along with my intrigue for ideation, I enjoy the idea of branding. Branding goes hand in hand with conceptualization. An idea becomes an actual identity; a product or service which enhances one's lifestyle.

Cake Wonderland was one of these ideas. I plan to develop it further someday...to create a full blueprint for the business plan.

I find that having mascots or character icons is very effective for promoting a brand. Character depictions become the emboodiment of a business. I chose the character Airo from my Pink Laughter Kingdom world concept. He is one of the characters in this story world.

He is known as the elusive pastry chef. He head, always topped with a tasty cake on a platter, which acts also as a permanent hat, becomes iconographc for the cake shop, Cake Wonderland.

This piece was created in Illustrator and Photoshop.

"Interworldly Creatures"

What happens when two creatures seemingly from different worlds meet one another and discover that they are not only very similar in several ways but that they are linked together romantically through fate?

This illustration is a theme related to the real-world dynamics of interracial dating, particularly between black women and white men or within the arena of black and white relations. The subject has been reinterpreted in an imaginative out-of-this-world context.

I think that by bringing it into this fantasy realm, people can step back and take an objective look at the underlying message. I also think the story stands on its own as a playful and innocent love story between two different but similar creatures.

I created this illustration originally in Illustrator 10 and brought it into Photoshop for further enhancement. This piece, like many of my artworks, has gone through a few rounds of revisions. I am happy with the way it has turned out so far. I especially like the glowing and textural effects that I included on both of the creatures' bodies. I am intrigued and highly stimulated by anything that glows, radiates, shines and gives off radiosity. I don't see a lot of digital designs that incorporate the effects of radiosity.

Radiosity is a term often used in or by 3D programs. I like to use it outside of the category of 3D computer graphic jargon.

If a bright blue ball sits on a shiny marble white flooring with a top left light source, not only will that ball cast a shadow and display a reflection on the marble flooring, but the blue coloring of the ball will cast a subtle blue tint onto the marble flooring right underneath it. That would be an effect of radiosity. I love that effect both in nature and in art.

I try to incorporate this into my work whenever I can or when it seems that it would be a very effective element too add.