Fun_KappaKalmer_I

Excited to unroll what we're working on lately. But for now kappa skootches.

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Fun_Ame

I love the rain.

And sunshine is overrated.

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AV_anp.KappasLock

Here is our secondary ALT poster anchor.

The primary poster is here.

I didn't have any pics of the final board, but this is the only joosy part, really.

You can see the featured segment here.

This month's anchor is my favorite jCreature, the Kappa.

Here's
a
process
of
Copicking
this
guy
up.




I
got
to
really
get
in
there
with
the
greens.




And
contrasting
this
with
earlier
Kappa,
I
feel
I
got
better
with
the
stripes.

Here's
a
making-of
the
piece
at
large.

















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AV_wkst.Wally

This was an army of characters I drew for a worksheet about present progressive. The jKids have a sheet of these characters but half the names are missing so they have to look around the page for a character whose name they want to know and ask their partner, who has every name the OG lacks and lacks every name the OG has.  Thus the partners must interview each other using the present progressive to describe the character whose name they want to know.

For example, one kid digs j-Rock so he wants to know: Who is the [boy] [sing+ing] a [song]? The [boy] [sing+ing] a [song] is Yojiro (Noda).  Hiloonity ensues.

Many Easter Eggs, including but not limited to TV Reporter, RADWIMPS, Base Ball Bear's female bass player, Maximum the Hormone, the horrifically over-rated Ring, and Kaburagi. Oh, and Where's Waldo, which is called "Where's Wally" in Japan.  So pumped to get some jLaughs since even though the deadline was super tight, I took time to make the names and chars inside-jokey to the jKids!  The best part is when they excitedly chatter about getting a joke before everyone else then they break it to their neighbors and then they all enjoy it together.  So neat! Anyway.

Who is the boy whose art is making me the most happy?  The boy whose art is making me the most happy is Takeshi (Hosomi, sporting Ellegarden and The Hiatus gear, natch).

This was the one doodle I was most happy with.  It came out of nowhere, but I loved how he turned out. 

I'm not really into The Hiatus as much as Ellegarden (Hosomi's previous band which went on indef. hiatus in 2008, just as I became a fan of them soon after landing in Japan for my first visit here).

But I am definitely rooting for Takeshi Hosomi's success. And check out how fluent he is!!

This was also a neat one.

It's a splice of Naruto and Totoro.

Get it?

Got it?

Good.

In conclusion, I wish my Yojiro Noda woulda came out better.

Why is it that the ones you really want are always just beyond your fingertips?

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Fun_KappaTales

I drew this a while ago and colored it up in several versions. This pure Zebra marker version's a recent iteration to inspire jKids to do art and tell stories (in English).

It was a fun challenge writing a story that basic English-learners can get, while still striving to make it as interesting a story as possible. I was inspired by the elementary school textbook's telling of the Peach Boy story. It was beautiful and poetic, but everything you needed was there, even if in its most primal, basic state. "I am strong! We are strong!" goes a long way, for instance. So the goal was to approach that kind of code-worded storytelling to fire off imaginations without using a single word that could stumble the jKids.

I had to travel for work last week and we had to write a skit with some older jKids, and it's this whole writing for English-learners angle that really gets you thinking about story essentials. What tale can you communicate when your chief weapon--language--gets dulled at the forge before you ever get to wield it? It's a fun exercise, and we managed to tell a great story AND even work in wordplay (even winning an award for it, but I felt a bit guilty since it was more my idea than the jKids') but I am glad to be out of that damping zone and back writing more language-empowered stories.

In any case, regardless of how many arms I must have tied behind my back, I do love scratching that story-telling itch.

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AV_anp.Kapz_MO

This is an MO of the Kappa piece I did for the April edition of the ALT News dealio. Our first shot here is a comparison of the first, inked-Copic-Ciao'd version compared against the second, non-inked Ciao'd version we'll be spotlighting today.

These are the lines we worked from. I was concerned my markers might get worn or smeared from the graphite, but it was just like markering over inks, except no odd ink-smears as the markers randomly reactivate the dried inks. After Copic-Ciaoing over pencils, the lines get locked down onto the paper, so you have to make sure the lines are where you want them before taking CCs to them--it may as well be inks you're working with in terms of the lines not going anywhere.

So manipulating the lines is not possible after colors lock them down, but you can always still manipulate lines that haven't been colored, and when you look at the finished work, the lines are usually light enough that they don't register immediately, just the finished colors. I've even seen a technique where you erase-lighten your pencils before going in with markers, so I tried that move on my next poster and was happy with it.

Here's a close up of the kappa's beak, using my three trusty yellows. It's really fun going for the shiny sheeniness of beakish material, I found.

Here's some progress shots of the body. I decided to go easier on the sort of freckling texture I used in the first version, but I did freckle closer to the negative spaces. Freckling is great even with just one color if you go in again after waiting for the prior coats to dry--CCs interact with themselves differently depending on how quickly you go back in over the same color after laying down those colors in the first place.

Finally, here's a look at the background elements coming into color. It wasn't until I got up to give this piece a final look over before publishing that I noticed I messed up the text so it makes even less sense than usual. Funny how that works...literally staring at the text for hours and hours and hours and yet, not until it's a wrap do I notice the glaring omission.

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AV_TwoLiveKappa

This an unused kappa I drew for an activity, re-purposed for a dictionary-searching activity. Why a kappa? The correct answer is: why not a kappa?

As an added bonus, I decided to color two of the handouts (one with Zebras, one with Copic Ciaos) and randomly insert them into the worksheet stack to be handed out during class. In both classes I ran this random-perk experiment, it seems the kids went crazy for the Zebra job but remained quiet-yet-enchanted with the CC.

Complicating these results, the Zebras happened to be randomly distributed to some of the genkiest kids in each class, while some of the quietest got the CC versions. This is kind of fitting since Zebras are quite in-your-face but CCs are more nuanced.

So do kids respond better to Zebras?  I'm still not sure. Perhaps it's just the more immediate punch Zebras have that makes immediate responses more vocal on the Zebrasiatic front, but I'll have to run another experiment.  I know the kids really, really like my CC-powered ALT posters, and I've had more than a few rando conversations based on kids' wanting to talk to me about them (which is really saying something since they usually don't have much confidence speaking their mind, particularly in English!), so I know CCs have a punch Zebras never could.

These were done on the basic linework, so the eyes are a little frailer and there's no signature thick outline around the figure (the second class got an updated sheet with 20 more words and a newly-thick-rimmed kappa with heavier-inked eyes).  I was a bit timid coloring this, but we pick it up in the next batch, going a little overboard even. 

He's holding a leek, by the way--the concept was a kappa using a leek like a guitar. Up next is the second run of the giveaway experiment. I screwed up the CC gut, but I'm happy with the cross shadows. 

Again, the kids exploded on the Zebra, but I spread the love a bit by including a few eyes-only-colored randos in the stack this time.  The kid who got the CC just kept staring at it and smiling, cheerily showing his delighted neighbors.  The kid who got the Zebra almost got in a fight over disputed ownership of the sheet--they hand the pages back as they receive them from the student in front of them, so I'm thinking he began handing the colored piece back and then balked to keep it for himself when he noticed it was colored! The page got some wrinklage, but survived well enough!  Anyway, that entire quadrant was really vocal about the piece, while the CC crew was just super appreciative and beaming.  What a contrast!

After the rows slowly buzzed about the quieter surprise--some sheets had just the eyes colored--one girl excitedly examined her sheet to see if she got one of the eye-colored versions.  She didn't, but one of the pages in my extras-stack had the final mode change (purple eyes!). So I traded her sheets and she was so, so happy! And I felt like a superhero.

I love this job. I can't believe this is my life.

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AV_anp.BunzToo

Here's the sequel to our first foolish April poster.  I was strapped for time, so I decided just to copy over the last poster, with small fixes to the lineart, and most importantly, I decided not to ink this one.  The good think about going inkless is giving our Copic Ciaos a chance to take center stage.  I'm definitely going to try inkless again. 

This is our revamped anchor image.  I got a bunch of positive feedback on it, which is surprising since I still feel like the kappa stole the show.  Especially as I was painting the kappa, I got a lot of really nice heat on it from passersby.  But at this poster's intended school, people were buzzin' 'bout the bunny.

Anyway, a cool little thing to do: open this in one tab and the first version in another tab and compare and contrast.

I'd say this lineless version wins it.  Although I keep wondering if some solid black lines would be good here and there.  The old version had all lines inked, but with heavier inks on the light-distant areas.  So maybe the best compromise between techniques is inks in those darkest areas and not even pencils on the lightest areas (notice how I erased out some of the ears, paw, and head).

These are the doodads from our second May Poster. I really like that caramel egg, and I want to say the peep turned out better than last time, although I'd say the basket took a step backwards (partly cuz I wanted to kill my dying E33 marker, but also I didn't have a good intermediate blue between the basket and the shadow tone).

And here's our little kappa.  I really, really like how this guy came out compared with our old version.

But there's something...amiss.  Laughably so (see the full shot above for the giveaway).

More on that later.

This month's art was colored with help from new tech: after our first run on this poster, I added a few key colors to our team, including those oranges in the binocs and some softer and darker greens for the grass, flag.  Really happy with the new recruits, but after completing this one, I realized my blues still aren't quite up to snuff--the doodads' basket and pants were too intense, as was the jump in blues for the kappa's water, so I drafted some new, softer blues I'm really excited about.

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AV_anp.KappaNoFool

This month's ALT news is the first of the new school year, and it's my first, fully-illustrated joint. No Internet printing, everything's drawn and colored by me. Everything colored on the paper is tuned up with my Copic Ciaos, with guest vocals by my trusty Zebras. We've taken the Copics for a spin or two before, but this time we're utterly reliant on them.

Since there's so much art in this month's poster, we're splitting it up between two posts, this one focusing on the bottom quadrants (that's not a euphemism for something, you cheeky tanooki, you!).

I wasn't sure how to close the poster out, so I thought I'd try something I've always wanted to do with these ALT News posters: introduce a new, practical, non-text-booky expression to the jKids. As a rain enthusiast, I was loving the rains we've been having recently, so I went with, "April showers bring May flowers."

With that quote, I knew I needed an illustration to go with it. Something that celebrates the rain. Enter the kappa. I love rain, and so do they. Fuelled with the immediacy of the eureka moment, this draw just flowed, but then I mouse-cookied myself into having to Ciao it to the nines.

Coloring was ridiculous fun, and I could feel the leveling up, but it did tack on another day of labor onto the already vaguely-due poster. But I'd say it was worth it, I'm quite happy with how it came out and it looks pretty neat live.

This is what the kappa quadrant ended up looking like. Did you catch the cucumber reference?

Easter Eggs: Kappa love cucumber, so I figured he'd sport a cucumber-themed umbrella. But wait, there's more! The brella's bright yellow to mimic the elementary school umbrella "uniform" since kappa are often associated with young kids. Further defining him a good-guy kappa (as opposed to other sorts of kappa), his cucumber's cut into a smiley face.

Fun Facts: When discussing this piece with a Japanese man who saw me working on it, I out-Japwnd him on kappa trivia! Take that, Japan! USA! USA! USA!

This is quadrant III of the poster, a breakdown of April Fools' plus a description of how to Easter Egg hunt. I was running short on time, but I knew I wanted to try stylizing a bit, so I went with a traffic light coloring scheme on the fool illo and a restrained, graphic style for the Easter Egg hunt bits.

Next time, how we anchored this image, proper.

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AV_NoKappaNoPreview

I love kappa.

They're cute, but cool.

They're quiet, but strong.

They're sometimes known to emerge from Japanese rivers and drag unsuspecting, at-play children down into their murkiest deep blue depths, and after successfully drowning their helpless victim(s), these child-like creatures commence in a nigh-cannibalistic feeding spree on what is more-often-than-not confused for a weak kappa being furiously consumed by its former school of fellows, at least, as is discerned between plumes of freshly red-wrought river.

That last part is unrelated to why I love kappa.

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AV_DotToChop

Hello. Howayu?
Super busy, but I'll post up our very first AV for this new school year, if that's all right. I trust it is.

It's Chopper, of course.

The kids LIT UP when they saw this (well the above version, since they have to learn their ABCs via dot-to-dotting letters.), so it was just a lightning way to get back into the school year (the Japanese academic year starts in April, and then there's a summer break during which new ALTs, for instance, can rotate in).

This was served up short order, pausing the coloring I was knee (knuckle?) deep into, but it came out pretty nice, considering.

I drew two candidates for dotting possibilities, but our old Kappa pal here didn't make the cut.

I had a monstrously fun time drawing him, though. I printed out a copy of him and colored it to take a break from my other major coloring piece, and golly that was fun. There's something so Oaklandishly satisfying about green and yellow together.

But why kappa? More soon, but for now:

Happy 5th anniversary, Removal!

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AV_EigoNoBuraora

This is a panorama pic of my very last day teaching at one of my schools. I invented several English-learning games that use Duel Masters cards as a component to them and they go over pretty well.

So this was the ultimate iteration of such a "DM" game, an English-powered battle royale brawler between three teams: team Kappa, team Ojiisan, and team DJ Sprinkle.

Since this was their last day of class, they had a year's worth of English to work with, so we went for conversational more than ever before. So basically the way it works is they use English to rally communal charge points and once everyone's out of ideas, the last team to opine gets to bank the points and choose a team to attack, using the charge points as damage. And then to cap each battle, we use DM cards as a randomized power/defense booster, as well as a special attack mechanic.

Even though we had a ridiculously short class period that day, that poor kappa took managed to take a BEATING.

Anyway, can't wait to try this with older kids who can really go even further with it. Gosh, I miss these kids! But fortunately, we're back for round two next year!

3...2...1...Dingdingding!

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Fun_BackToKappa

I studied in Japan for a few weeks one summer. I'm now going back for a year, starting Tuesday. I get nervous flying, you know.

 

She told me she was from West Virginia, she bought me a soda, and held my hand...And we were laughing out loud. And that's exactly who we are.

Love,

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Fun_BigKappa_MO

I just learned that I might be able
to return to Japan
as early as
this summer.

So here's the Making Of
that Big Kappa piece,
which I drew
in the land of the rising fun
in 2008.

And with any luck...

if I do return to Japan...

it will last a couple years

...

or so

!

And speaking of returns...

it's finally time to go

back to Yale.

Yes!

The only downside

being

of course...

this is my very last

"back to Yale."

No!

...

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Fun_KappaNoCool

Here are some development sketches from Pangolin Falls, beginning with Lynn. She's named Lynn to sound good with the last name "Zee," a reference to my project partner, whose name also stars with a Z, plus "Lynn" exists phonetically within "Pangolin," of course. So this sketch was to help figure out her mood, and as a writer, she sips coffee and muses.

I believe I was at a Purple Crayon show when I drew this redesign, which ended up being the model I would use.

Sweats and general comfort clothes were the ticket we were looking for, and I even modeled Lynn's sweats after those my partner was wearing as we were hauling away to the deadline. That was an insane marathon job, I felt stupidly thrilled (and exhausted) when I finished.

The other aspect was unbalanced hair: in our original story designs, she was considerably more foolishly oblivious, but as we began cutting stuff for space, it came across less so in the final comic, but the hairstyle remained.

Next is our Kappa hero, inspired by a dvd box I saw in Japan for this movie.

Although we played around with a couple of sounds he could make, we settled nearly immediately from the start with "Mrwak," which was both fun to say and write wherever possible.

Fun Facts: Kappa, which are my favorite Japanese mythical creature, can be quite dangerous, but if you bow they are so polite that they must return the courtesy, thus spilling the water they store atop their heads, betraying their severe weakness in lacking water, perhaps even resulting in death!

Pango looks like this from behind. Pretty hot, I know.

The shell was fun to draw for some reason, but then again, kappa are always fun.

The writing class is a great excuse to think about non-reality and get all imaginative and stuff, so I might have some neat stuff coming, hopefully, maybe even some Graffiti.

I love being able to think about original stories and reflecting on existing influences and not feeling (too) guilty; it's schoolwork!

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Fun_Pangolin.6-7

Page Six

This is the finale for my Lit. 'nar final, a comic called Pangolin Falls.

Easter Eggs: Pokeball.

Fun Facts: This page was fun to act out. I forgot to draw the action lines in the last panel!

By the time I finished this page, I was so exhausted, and had been drawing for over 24 hours straight, riding two cans of Monster.

But there was just one page left, and there was no getting around it.

Fortunately it was supposed to be ridiculously simple...like a victory lap, I guess. I even finished with enough time to do a cover.

Page Seven

We were both wiped out from the marathon work, so no one noticed Lynn's absent final line, where she shouts from her house then is struck by a story idea.

Easter Eggs: The Kappa made off with loot from the reject mail pile before fleeing in terror.

Fun Facts: I thought it'd be cool if we could both draw, so we decided my collaborator ought not only to letter, but also draw for Lynn. Rock.

Thanks: Zoelle, Professor Bulson, LITR439: Graphic Forms, Yale, Davenport College, Toshihiro Ono, Eiichiro Oda, Humberto Ramos, Bill Watterson, and many more mentioned and unmentioned throughout these Pangolin posts.

So that's Pangolin Falls. Finally back at Yale Wednesday!

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Fun_Pangolin.4-5

Page Four

And now the penultimate post featuring Pangolin Falls, my literature final.

Easter Eggs: 2501 (one of my favorite phrases I picked up in Japan), Dan of "Be Square" fame.

Fun Facts: This room is based on my collaborator's suite; one of this project's highlights was hanging out in Davenport all day/night/day, including an acting session for Lynn's door-opening sequence in the D'Port DMAC.

I got worried when the first few panels just wouldn't come out well, but the clock was ticking.

Page Five

Visualizing difficult poses got easier with a partner to help out, rather than my photographing myself or staring at myself in a mirror.

Easter Eggs: JE desk, DC nook.

Fun Facts: I'd hit my 24th hour at this point, so it became harder to keep Lynn on model. Shoulda dug into my Monster supply earlier...

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Fun_Pangolin.2-3

Page Two

Pangolin Falls continues with a layout homage to the incredible Winsor McCay to unveil our creature, a noble little kappa.

Easter Eggs: The shadow in the biggest left panel is our hero, the kappa.

Fun Facts: The creature was originally a pangolin, but I pushed for a kappa for simplicity (and fun)'s sake, although the kappa's hair proved to be a hassle!

I'm not too handy with sound effects but took the opportunity to invent some. The middle bottom panel is based on a pose in a Yakitate!! Japan sampler. The final panel pose is based on how dogs shake off water.

Page Three

This page is Eisner influenced in the way we have seemingly identical stuff (like trees) shift perspective and usage between panels.

Easter Eggs: Loria is the name of the building our class met in, Kira's from Chushingura and/or Deathnote, Ono sweatpants.

Fun Facts: Lynn Zee's first name comes from pangoLIN, her last name comes from my collaborator's first initial. I used my gummy eraser to figure out Lynn's pose; really happy with how it turned out.

This page was probably the most fun.

Happy New Year,

Reuxben

Fun_Pangolin.0-1

Cover Page

"Pangolin Falls" was my final paper for LITR 493: Graphic Forms, Fall '08.

This was my first time collaborating on a comic, and although all the meticulous planning took place well in advance, the actual, physical drawing took place mostly in the last 24 hours; I had to budget only about 4 hours per page!

So after a couple Monsters, no sleep, and a camp out at the Davenport computer cluster on a rainy Thursday night slash sunny Friday afternoon, I finally penciled in this final page, the cover, which happily took under half an hour.

Page One

The original idea involved a pangolin, so as a testament to how radically this project changed from all our original concepts we kept the seemingly random title.

Unfortunately, my original of this page, which had the correct lettering, has gone missing, leaving only this proof version, relettered by me (we had thought it appropriate if I penciled only the non-Lynn text).

Easter Eggs: 493 is the seminar's class number.

Fun Facts: This is my favorite page so of course it is the one that gets lost.

Canadian geese, eh?

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