Fun_ScaryDood

Just got back from Tokyo (7/17/13) and I managed to draw a few sketches on the train. Here's one that made me frown.

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AV_anp.Bearlementary

Here's some shots of a mini ALT news poster I did for an elementary school. You know, same dudes.
Once again, I seem to have forgotten to pic the final. But we had to get this one done on extremely short notice/deadline, so I don't actually know how the final ended up--I told them to let students color in the little background bear buddies. Wonder how it went.


Here are some close ups.
Why bears? Because it was the first thing I thought of and since I seem to color a lot of things with earthy fur, coloring this wouldn't take as long to plan. And graduation cuz, well we covered that already, didn't we?

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Fun_hws.Chiko

Some homework sketches. We've got a pikachu, some fun with yoshi, dinosaurs, and Light Yagami from Death Note, plus monster energy (which I don't really like per se, but only use because I need it [when I need it]), and a little drummer boy.

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AV_Freddz

My name is Freddy Kreuger. I got the Elm Street blues. I got a hand like a knife rack.
And I die in every film.

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Fun_AllyGatr

A Copic-powered graduation piece for third grade jKids hittin' the bricks.

jGraduation is in March, ya know.

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AV_DogChaserz

To close out February, a quickdraw for a mail-themed worksheet that needed emergency art. I wonder if the jKids got it, cuz Japanese mail men are FREAKING FLY wit da style, son. So cool.

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AV_anp.Algernon

This is our secondary February ALT News poster, primary is here. Same ideas as the last one, just compact since we have less surface area for the secondary, but updated art since we have time to rethink stuff. Can you spot the latest Japanese fad incorporated into this edition?

Here's a close up of our anchor. This is another take on the nerd concept, except just one hardcore noid. The wacky hair is inspired by Daley. The monocolor concept was because we didn't have a lot of time to turn these two around, so why not just go with Valentiney red. I really want to be able to pull off that single color scheme, but I am not sold on these attempts.


Tell me, did you feel that?

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AV_anp.Noids

Here is our first February ALT poster. The doodads' detail is here. Features this month include a spotlight on rock love songs that I love cuz they rock, a dealio on black history month, and a report on Harvard's cheatyface cheaters.

Here's a close up of the noids. I wanted to draw a story-pic of dudes competing for a girl in their own special way, and have each repulsive in their own way. It made me laugh a bunch of times while drawing it, so it was worth it.

Show me ya moves!

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AV_anp.Algernon_Doodads

This is the New Expression section doodads from our secondary February poster. It's an updated version of the first one.
Here's what the full section looks like, complete with the header graphics I really liked.

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AV_anp.Noids_Doodads

Some support illustrations from one of my February posters. I didn't close-up photo their final versions unfortunately, but we'll see them revamped in our companion poster. The idea here was to see if I could make more abstract characters still work. I'm trying to simplify to speed up, but I don't want to lose expression.

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AV_IDersSanjeez

Today's Card: Sanji.
Fun Facts: I guess Sanji isn't very pops here, but I still like him. AND I liked his 4kids, Brooklyn-accent voice. Anyway, this was maybe my favorite card and the jKid who received it also liked it.

So ends our parade of self-introduction cards I made to give away to jKids who will probably lose, destroy, or eat them. But it's all good cuz we made some jKids super happy. AND THAT IS HOW WE ROLL.

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AV_IDersChocz

Today's card: Chocolate.
Fun Facts: I of course like chocolate, but I kinda of amp it up here since they seem to get a kick out of it. Still, I have to admit, however beautiful jChocolate stuff looks, it's really not quite as good as the US stuff. US choco is just better...if only jChoco tasted as good as it looked.

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AV_IDersMangaz

Today's card: Manga.
Fun Facts: I don't actually read a lot of comics, nor have I really ever. The only comics I really read were the Electric Tale of Pikachu and One Piece volumes--the first OP which I remember reading was before my first Academic Team match, in the parking lot. I had resisted reading OP because of the picture they used everywhere to promote it--they picked the worst, least appealing pic of Luffy I've ever seen, so I was quite repulsed by the series, but I finally picked it up for some reason...and I've reread that first volume so many times, studied its structure, took it with me to college, consulted it, everything.

Anyway, since coming to Japan, manga is so cheap here, you're losing money not buying comics here, plus you can practice your jReading skillz. And you can always study the art. So it's great.

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AV_IDersBullz

Today's card: Bulldogs.
Fun Facts: Again, kinda used this gag already, too, but come on who doesn't like Yale and Bulldogs and Yale Bulldogs? Communists, that's who.

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AV_IDersPizzazz

Today's card: Pizza
Fun Facts: I've had pizza at the pizza place down the street every Sunday night since roughly October of 2011, if I recall correctly. Only missed a couple days: New Years '12 because the principal invited me to their family dinner (New Years' is a big deal in Japan) and one other date when I had to travel and couldn't be back in time. Why Sunday night? Because I figure Saturday night's gotta be busy, and I don't want to bump into anyone while I eat, and so far Sunday night is pretty much ghost-town night, so I called it correctly. Maybe three times has there ever been anyone else there at the same time, one of which was just someone ordering to go. One time, though, was a great example of why you want to avoid people--most places in Japan are smoke-accessible, so while I was eating there was a dude with his girlfriend smoking up the tiny, tiny little joint. Puts a damper on the pizzaing experience.

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AV_IDersKattz

Today's card: Duel Masters.
This is a pic of Kirifuda Katta from Duel Masters. It's a fun game when you don't play hardcore serious. But I guess, that's true for Magic, too. Hardcore tournament Magic disgusts me, as does the DM equivalent. If you just want the best, most powerful stuff rather than a cool theme, then it's a spending contest. There's no heart to your cards, Yugi. No heart.

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AV_Boybook

This is a little activity I made for the jKids. I drew six pics of a story from their textbook on the back of a giant envelope, cut them up and then shuffled. The jKids then read their text's story and then we checked for any questions they had. Then after that we ran through the story one last time.

After that we split the class in two (it's a small class of less than 10) and then each team got a shot to use their understanding to put the randomized images in order. I used a stopwatch to turn it into a competition and it went pretty well!

They used this activity in another class the next day and though I couldn't be there since it was one of my away-days at another school, I heard it went riotously well. I'm always so thrilled to hear that they actually are having fun with English because of my art. I know English is ridiculous and I would never want to have to learn it myself, so I'm happy I can at least ease their pain a little.

Today's images are also out of order, but I'm sure it's easy enough to organize them, yeah?

Yeah.

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AV_anp.Med00s

Here's a spot illo from our secondary January ALT poster. It's based on the first one, but I decided to make it a little more interesting than just any old guy and girl eye-locking. It's Medusa and some poor sap. Much later I adapted it for a hee-hawlarious slide in a youtube video:


It pops up at round two minutes in.

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AV_anp.EmoSnake_MO

Here's our second January ALT poster's anchor image, which was actually drawn before the first snake design. Can you feel the passion in this thing's eyes? Can you feel it? Yeah.


Here's a walkthrough of the snake. Thrilling, no?


And here's some detail on how we Copic Ciao'd this into submission. Pretty excited using those greens.

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AV_anp.NooYah

Earlier detail shots here and here, this is our main January ALT poster, featuring that one book about tamales, a Timmy Turner reference, and subtle hints and some lil' hits.


Here's our anchor image, a snake achieving infinity. This one had to be churned out quickly, so we severely limited the colors.

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AV_anp.PartyWeather

Here are some title designs from our main January ALT poster.


And here's some spot illos for a common English expression (right) plus (left) the difference between when the US vs. JP plays Auld Lang Syne. In Japan, they play it every night before just about any store closes down for the day.

Still trips me up.

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Fun_StitchyPooh

A couple quick sketches from an jElementary visit before I had to bolt off to a second shift somewhere else.
These jKids don't hold back and level you with enthusiasm. Some struggle to contain their excitement, almost bursting from the effort. It's really neat. I could do without all the hand-holding, though. If they're not trying to shake your hand (I think they do that because they're conditioned to think of interaction with westerners as necessarily involving hand-shaking) they'll want to hold your hand--either to lead you somewhere or just for the sheer heck of holding your hand.

That's cute and everything but GERMS!!!!!!!!!!!! Please understand, dear jKids, it's not you, it's me. And the millions of tiny micro-organisms on your tiny, little, delicate snot-drenched fingers.

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AV_IDersChopz

Today's Card: Chopper.

Fun Facts: Ironically the jKid who got this card was like one of the two jKids on jEarth who just isn't that into Chopper, though the classmates went nuts, so that's something at least.

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AV_IDersWatz

Today's Card: Water.

Fun Facts: Japanese people canNOT handle it when I insist I prefer water to any other drink. And make no mistake, tea is not water. Get that filth away from me. Right now. Yesterday.

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AV_IDersRokz

Today's card: Rock.

Fun Facts: Rock is so great, it makes rap listenable.

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AV_IDersKaonashiz

Today's card: Black.

Fun Facts: I used this gag already, but hey.

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AV_IDersIcez

Today's card: Ice cream.

These are edited, by the way, so it's just the image, not the text that goes with it.

I should note I rarely eat ice cream in scoops like this since coming to Japan, it's all just tiny single-serving cup things mostly cuz Japan's big on tiny foods. And yes, ice cream is foods.

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AV_IDersJpz

Today's card: Japan.

I love Japan. I like the US. But I love Japan.

This was sorta designed to be a whammy prize in the card exchange activity...plus this was one of the last ones and I'll admit I was getting exhausted (I drew this whole series in about two marathon sessions).

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AV_IDersLuffz

Today's card: Luffy.
Fun Facts: I draw Luffy and Chopper a lot, so to make this one more interesting, I tried to give it a realistic take. When giving these away, I tried to match the card to whatever the jKid giving me a card talked about. This card's recipient liked this one and the class was abuzz, too, so that was pretty neat!

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AV_IDersDrawz

It's days shy of April as I write this.

My gosh.
Let's post some drawings...First a series I had to do--introduction cards for some jKids, kinda like last summer's cards. These were simpler for elementary jKids, so it's just Name and What You Like. The cards were roughly palm sized.

First up: drawing

Fun Facts: I've had the pictured pencil since college, maybe high school, but have recently lost it and am stuck on my awful, awful back up copy. Maybe I'm due for an upgrade since it was starting to stink anyway--my fingers have even worn down the rubber grip to nothing and turned the metal to yellow!

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