Fun_INTYWIDFAL

A shot of one of my desks. I know I've posted this delio before, but who's that tinkering in the background behind my MacGuyvered-out, jacked-up glasses?  I'll never tell. (It's Tinkerbell.)

If you squint hard, you'll find a draw I did on a kid's desk with his whacked-out Cruella DeVille style pencil.

And this is a drawing I made using chopsticks stained deep with food, sadness.

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Fun_hws.DreamRand

Almost out of the thick of the post-Tokyo time crunch.  But for now here's some homework sketches. Starting at the Panda and moving clockwise, here's what we have:

I turned a panda into a keychain after a writing prompt about a keychain.

Tulips fan gets two lips.  A kid writes about hitting the road with his friends, a shonen visual I'm a sucker for.  Next a fascinating description of a Japanese nightmare.  After that's a lionish stuffed animal in a crane game for a lion-fan.

A scooch to the left is a pooch with a besty, the jKid didn't know Woodstock's name so I transcribed it for her.  Under that is an extremely interesting piece that I hope was original but was probably copied off of something--anyway, it inspired me to drop in a rare Nemo. 

Following that is a sketch of a kid I can only imagine exists somewhere.  Beginning the upward swing is a pic for a jKid who cooks like an iron chef or not, I don't know.  Then a crash-course in homophones for a kid, and then we close with a pic for a kid who like a teacher's clothes. 

Ok, back to work,

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Fun_TestMatters

Studying that Nihongo, son...

Sketching that girl, son...

Catching up on delinquent posts...man.

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Fun_ChopDotCol

Here's a prize pic I colored using just Zebras for a change, for the jKid unfortunate enough to spot it posted on my posterboard space. Who won it? Who knows! First come, first served.

Hate when people write it as "first serve."

Post-Tokyo ketchup continues...

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Fun_100VoltElf

I've been in Tokyo for the past week, so slowly but surely we'll get back on posting schedule. So here we go.

On the way back from Tokyo I stopped by a store to get some ink.  I got lost, but I saw a Bamboo tablet sitting around so I decided to try it out after hearing so much about the legendary just-a-notch-above-etch-a-sketch technology.  It was indeed a bit rough to use compared to my trusty Intuos, but still an interesting test.  Anyway, here's our draw from the sesh.  One of the staff even came by to watch me draw and then he asked if he could snap some photos!

Don't worry, the pics weren't cuz he liked the drawing, he just wanted to make sure I warn't stealin' nuffin...yeah...that's it...

I'm bad at taking compliments, sorry. (Good thing nobody ever compliments me--ZING!--see what I did there?) 

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AV_FaceSmash.Pt2

More expressions from last time.  This one's supposed to look "smart."  In a related story, why does nobody ever call anyone out on calling themselves smart?  I noticed there's a recent trend, particularly in comedy, of  people flat out calling themselves "smart" or just overusing the word to describe anyone who references a some decidedly unintelligent thing like a reality tv personality.  I've been wondering for a long time, since getting into Yale, actually--what does smart mean?  I grew up thinking it meant someone with great intelligence (or a kid talking back to an adult) but now I know: it means a dude with some mean glasses and phantom math etchings floating around him. 

This dude is surprised I'm still doing all this all these years later. Me too, but no surprise there.

This was maybe the trickiest.  It's Nervous.  I thought I nailed it, but guess not...y'know? I dunno.

This one was ridiculous fun to draw.  It's "cool," but really fun hearing what the jKids came up with.  My favorite guess of theirs was "wild" and/or "rocker."  Neat.  I was surprised to see these printed out and in color, but they actually look pretty neat on paper!

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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_FaceSmash.Pt1

We're working on updating the outstanding backlogged posts, but my statistician informs me this is my 800th post published. And it only took 5 years!  This is my first post using the new blogspot interface, too.  A bit jarring, but so far it's better than the atrocious revamp they did last time.

Anyway, here's a recent selection of art I did for a lesson on expressions and how you're feeling. So with that, let's get emo, shall we?

This one was fun because I love drawing people crying. The jKids got a good laugh on this one, which was great.  The pattern in the back is a riff on the Japanese symbological graphic for despair--that snaily shape.

This was one of the two I drew on the day-of. I lugged my gigantic laptop and my trusty tablet to school and jammed this one out as well as one we'll see in this post's sequel. I knew I was facing 2 hours of sleep, so I knew I wanted to draw this one the morning of the presentation.  I was slightly worried they might guess his emotion was "Drugged-Out-of-His-Skull," but fortunately they guessed "Sleepy."

Sleepy's one of my favorites.

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Com_Ricky

A ricky Commission.

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AV_anp.BunsHuns

Here is the long-awaited sequel to the first half of this ALT news poster.  This half has our main anchor image, featuring our main theme, Easter.  This month, I tried including a little prize pack thingie on the bottom right, full of extra handouts and stuff for the jKids to pick up, and that seemed to go well, so we'll try more next time.

Here's a close up of the Easter Bunny.

Apparently the concept is alien to the jCrew.

They giggle at the word bunny because in Japan they simply associate the word "bunny" with Bahnee Garoo, or "bunny girl," for the layperson.

Anything with long ears, a fluffy tail, and an affinity for carrots gets the label of "rabbit."

You're missing out, Japan.

This, as everything else, was colored basically completely with Copic Ciaos, except I lined it with my Staedtler pens, more heavily on the light-distant areas.  I've since picked up a lighter blue and gray, so I'm eager to try those out to communicate volume on white.

Here are our doodads from this half.  It's a chocobunny plus a caramel egg, jelly beans, and a peep, all collected into a Easter basket.  Easter Eggs: actual Easter eggs.  And M&Ms.  Really happy with that egg and the caramel!  The bunny's also nice for essentially not planning my color, just going in and winging it.

These are today's lines.

I have to say I've been underwhelmed with Japanese candy.  They absolutely get A for effort, as most desserts look delectable, but they typically taste pretty weak, almost nothing makes you clamor for seconds.  Only pure Ghana Chocolate or Meiji or even Morinaga have satisfying chocolate impact.  But chocobread, for instance underdelivers on the regular...miss you, US-choco.

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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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Fun_hws.Yeahnimals

School's back in sesh and these are our first homework sketches.
Just warming up.

Just...

Yeah.

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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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Fun_BoneInHisMouth

If you can think of a better way to show Japanese children that their pronunciation sucks, I'd like to hear it.

The dog has a bone in his mouth...

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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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ZLM_QuittersNever

Puff the tragic drag on.

Zero Like Me #183:
Quitters Never


Easter Eggs: "Yale" in panel 2. Today's setting is Chokubu Junior High School. Today's guest star is Umezawa plus good ol' kocho-sensei.

Fun Facts: This is our first Japanese architectural study!  Isn't that exciting?  Well who asked you anyway?  Japanese people love smoking.  Oh, they love it.

Baa: I am feeling the crunch of four panels.  You can get magazines full of 4 panel comics here in Japan, but if I could have my wish, I'd do sequentials for Weekly Jump...

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Fun_PMash

These were the pencils of some recent draws I've done.

First was a gift to one of the strongest English students I've met.

Next was our biggest ANP anchor image, spanning two pages.

And last was a birthday gift for someone who is either way off in left field or right down the broadway, I can't tell.

Also, just so you know, Toriko is like a cheese grater on the eyes.

But you know that Toriko guy's raking it in like crazy, though.

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Fun_TitleAndRegistration

I designed some bumpers for some videos I made. The one above was pulled and tweaked from this old draw, to back my byline page. The cards only start showing up at the end of our second video here, though:


This next bumper was designed for our main credits, pulled from an old sketch I did almost a year ago! It was meant to be the least invasive since the information scrolling there actually deserves to be read (as opposed to my credit, which can just be safely assumed or extrapolated).

My first video only had a title card, no end cards, which was a nice start, but I definitely want to get more design practice in, as well as editing, cuz I'm finding this an interesting little new art universe I've stepped into.


So there are my first two Duel Masters videos live from Japan. I kinda like this film stuff, but man, it's time consuming...I feel the power though. I feel the power.

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ZLM_Smorking

Puff, puff, pathetic.

Zero Like Me #182:
Smorking


Easter Eggs: "Yale" in panel 1. Today's guest star is Umezawa and a reference to that one thing that happened at Harkness a couple years ago...

Fun Facts: Japan is quite smoking-friendly--or as the jKids call it, "smorking." There are vending machines everywhere that sell cigarettes. The cigarette ads all look like deodorant or sports-drink ads. Like it's a refreshing drink they're selling. There's also no non-smoking sections in restaurants or bars or anything--if it isn't designated a non-smoking establishment, you can assume people will light up at will. That foul stench will catch you out of nowhere if you're not careful.

Baa: On the plus side is that drugs are highly illegal here, so even if you have to deal with smokers, at least you don't have to deal with random onslaughts of weed stench. That's the one thing that life at Yale doesn't have over life in Japan: no surprise weed bombings.

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AV_anp.MarchIntoTheSeeYa

This is the final ALT News of the year, where in we march into the "see ya." This one is for my main school, so I wanted to put together extra punch, hence our first width-spanning illo, featuring a Totoro-y catbus, while also keeping it personalized with references to them leaving school behind and other subliminalities. We've also got my favorite Conan quote as well as some fun and/or games for the jKids in the form of a classmate-guessing game. I don't care if they prolly can't understand the memories listed, those were really just for me. And if you look really closely, you'll spot my very first comic written in Japanese. So much growth this "year!"

This is a detail of our anchor image in progress. This was my first change to really test out my Copic Ciaos (combined with my old Zebras) and I'm pretty happy with how it went for a first go. I learned a lot and the final image looks really neat in real life. I've added more greens, blues, and yellows to my arsenal since, and I taught myself how to color grass, skin, and fur better using CCs, so I'm pumped for our next major coloring piece.

This is our title image WIP. I wanted to make our final header extra special so I spoofed the Final Fantasy logo, which took a long time to do by hand! Plus I challenged myself to do that same color blending the real logo has and I'm pretty happy with how it went, particularly since I used only one single Copic Ciao to achieve that blend! It's was almost all hard-color Zebras plus this brand called Mildliner. M's are tricky because you have to get in and get out as soon as possible otherwise they can start to eat up the paper, but on the plus side you do get some nice, soft non-CC-able colors. The sky in our anchor image starts up top with a CC but blends into my blue M, which is also a "paint-able" brand, you just have that harder edge and a shot clock before the paper gnarls!

These are some off the some draws of some of our rogues gallery. I decided to test myself and draw these from memory, no reference, just whatever stuck out in my mind's eye, and I am really satisfied with how this went. I happened--happened--to be passing by this poster's hallway as some kids were checking it out and I could hear them giggling guessing the gang. How great was that? Very.

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