Back from BALI! What an AMAZING experience :D

10 min read

Deviation Actions

GreyRadian's avatar
By
Published:
5.9K Views

image



So just last week I went to Bali to attend an illustration workshop! I traveled there with my buddy Ev :icone-tane: on the 23rd November, right after my school finished :D

It was the most amazing week I've ever experienced so far! I'm so hyped still and everyone I met is seriously amazing and inspirational! This post is soooo gonna make me look dorky ahaha... ^^;

This was both of our first time attending a proper workshop with actual industry professionals so we were quite nervous, because we both know our standard is not very high compared to other people TT_TT

image


Met people from many different places it's surreal! I've never met so many people from many different places at the same time. Down side is everyone can understand all the languages I speak, in case I want to complain about something ehehe ^^;

Its even some people's first time overseas! I recall someone saying "I didn't know I had an accent until now'" XD

image


image
Ahahaha sorry stole these pictures off Ev ^^; But they are from our hotel! *w*


image

Got our freebies on the first day after meeting some of the group. ARTBOOKS!!!

DAY 1

image


This whiteboard already impressed me. Ok ok I do come from a nowhere where I've seen nothing yet.

So before the start of every workshop, we get our portfolios reviewed in front of the whole class... works up in front of the projector... all the mentors speaking on the microphone. Ev and I were nervous as hell, the first few people reviewed were already insanely skilled! 

image

image



So our first day is scheduled to be a lecture and demo by Karla Ortiz! Karla was incredibly informative and very friendly and cheerful, the lecture was a joy to watch :D

image

I stole Dave Rapoza's photo here ^^;
Also I was suppsoed to meet another favourite artist of mine :iconnovaeden: who attended the previous week's workshop! Unfortunately stuff happened and she fell sick, we couldn't end up meeting :(

image


Ev and I cried to sleep and had panic attacks during the first night D: We were in such shock! XD Never though there would be THIS many insanely talented people! (We are such noobs)

Here's Karla's drawing for me :)



image

DAY 2

Kekai Kotaki's lecture!! I was introduced to awesome concept art because of Kekai! I was so stoked and felt so blessed to be able to see Kekai live! Never thought it would've happened so soon :D

He draws insanely fast... I tried to follow his path but hahahaha impossible.

image

And look what he drew in my sketchbook! AHHHHHH cannot believe I have an original sketch from the artist who opened my eyes to what I want to do! Amazing bloke and friendly as well :D

Today for dinner we visited Cafe Menega, where you can sit by the beach and eat the best seafood ever! And it's so cheap as well :D One of the best experiences ever, if you go to Bali be sure to check it out!

image

image

It's amazing at sunset! *____*

Every night we go up to the hotel rooftop to hang out, drink, chat and draw! FUN TIMES!

image

DAY 3

Today was Saskia Gutekunst's lecture. We watched her draw characters with so much confidence, no need for frame work and everything, just straight on pen and clothes; as in Saskia didn't need to draw the body first o__o

I love Saskia's painting style! Its like my ideal painting style, with both western and Japanese influences in the style ^_^ Unfortunately we ran out of time for her workshop so we only got up to lineart part.

We were asked to draw some characters of our own. I was pretty tired and I felt my creativity ran out that day so here are my doodles ^^;

image



Ohhh and I met a couple of the classmates, and they work for CAPCOM! Hahaha if you know me you probably know how much I LOVE Capcom :D It was an honour to meet them, I hope they don't read this because wow I'm such a dork especially when it comes to CAPCOM. I'm very impressed :D

image

hahaha sorry... hope you're not scared of me or anything ^^;

That evening, 20 other people form our class envied us for going to Menega so they all went, I couldn't afford to eat there again for the third time (yes 3x in a row, I ate there on the first day as well). So the rest of us went to the Monkey Temple in Uluwatu!

image

image

image

image


And then...! Some sneaky monkey suddenly stole Eyecager 's glasses D:

image

Thankfully we managed to get it back thanks to our tour guide by replacing the glasses with some food, and shooting the monkeys with his slingshot hahaha!

image


Yeah he had a slingshot ready lmao XD He was really mad at us for not really paying attention though ^^; But it's ok he was a really cool guide otherwise X)

image

Saskia's drawing in my sketchbook! Oh, and the one on the left is eyecager's! (amazingggggg)

DAY 4

James Zapata's turn! I couldn't sleep the night before, only slept for 1 hr so I missed my scheduled portfolio review and came in late.

We were given a surprise assignment today, make some character designs based on the name 'TJ Rex and the Prehistorians'. Obviously thought of it when they were drunk ^^;

James showed us some interesting techniques on making characters and illustrations just from random shapes. He had some cool brushes :D

image


Sorry for the blurriness but the projector was pretty crap. Anyway this is what James ended up drawing for the demo.

Then Dave Rapoza walked in and transformed it for us hahahaha!


image

Turned it into a bunny! LOL what an interesting insight XD


image

James' drawing in my sketchbook! He offered to draw Sonic so I was like YEAHHH but he drew me this which is, not Sanic. Hahahaha either way it's a cool drawing :D

Afterwards we all went downstairs to work on our assignments and chat ^_^

image

(Photo belongs to Thomas)


Day 5

Final day of the workshop; Dave Rapoza and Dan Warren :( I get my portfolio review done today! It was very mind-opening, I would NEVER hear these critiques if I asked my school teachers. Dan and Dave are extremely sharp-eyed, they impressed me with everyone else's critiques; like no matter how amazing the piece is, they always know how to improve it o__o

image

Dave's demo piece. They were both up there discussing things like scheduling and study. This process was done through greyscale first and added colour using Soft Light layer mode.

So about that TJ Rex assignment, I only manage to make 2 concepts ^^; Everyone was super fast just... check THIS out.

image

It sounded like Dave liked it ^^; Which I'm glad. he found my backstory funny though lmao. It's pretty dark.
Also is it sad that from our first conversation he already knows I'm a HUGE Pokemon fan? LOL


image


Dave's drawing in my sketchbook :D

image


Dan's drawing (not sure why he's apologising, don't ask haha)

And tonight was the party! Since it was the last day and all. I managed to get everyone's sketches in my sketchbook, which you can take a look HERE

image


I got pretty bored during the end so I made up this game, to draw pokemon from our memory! It was hilarious, it ended up expanding until everyone got excited XD

image

Here's our collective pokemon sketches!! It was so hilarious :D This is what we learnt from our intensive 5-day workshop!! XD

image


Here's one of my pieces XD That thing with the horns is supposed to be a pinsir >___>;;;;

Ahh and we all regretted not taking a group photo... we are idiots >.<;

Day 6

This is technically my final day, since I left the morning afterwards. Me and Ev ended up going with some of the remaining people to Ubud.

We first visited the Monkey forest; very exotic and different! Feels like a Legend of Zelda temple really! Imagine going there at night... creepy! :D

image

image



Day 7

image


Ev already left at 5am :( I woke up at 7.30 and went down at 8am kinda expecting people there but I waited and waited and only random people came down. It was really melancholic.

image

It's kinda usually like this

image

Saturday morning


image


Sunday Morning. But it was all good I managed to catch up with a few more people at the end to say bye.

After this week, I've just gotten used to always being with about 10 other people at the same time so... yeah I sure do feel lonely at home.

Oh man! While typing this up I took a short nap and I was still thinking I was sleeping in Bali! Then I woke up realised I'm all along at home :( 

Me now:

image

I feel like I know what to do now! Hopefully I can visit again next year :D It was very exhausting for me (didn't sleep well during the week) but it was sooo fun :D
Ok if people from the Bali trip read this please don't judge me hehe ^^; yes I'm actually a silly fangirl I tried to be normal the whole time ^^; But I hope you also enjoyed the read as well!

And that was my week! I'll be going again to japan in a week and a bit so that'll be another report! :D





© 2014 - 2024 GreyRadian
Comments33
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
Darkhikarii's avatar
PENGUINS!

I love this! it's so cute. I logged in to my dusty account just to say this hahaha
Wish I could have stayed longer to eat more seafoood *_* It was nice meeting you Steph :)