AV_anp.Foolie_Facer

Here's more from the main April ALT poster. 

 

This is a process of the anchor image's face.

 

It was fun drawing a girl with a mustache.  

 

I drew groucho glasses before, once, and I remember it was fun then, too. 

Anyway, now we have copic technology.

Here's a breakdown of coloring in the head.

I tried stacking these images vertically so that they can appear larger here by default.

But it leaves a lot of space to fill here.

So I'll say that I just got some new yellows for this one, and I was pumped to use them.

The other thing was, like I mentioned, I was excited to use the Groucho glasses symbology.

And one of the coolest thing is when a girl is unafraid to be goofy.

So that's why we drew her being goofy.

Does that make sense?

Anyway, the styling was inspired by Harley Quinn, which is why the shoulders--well, we'll get to that next time.

I did spend a lot of time pondering coloring half her hair black, half red.  

 

But I couldn't convince myself beyond reasonable doubt that such a color choice was wise. 

 

So I backed out of it and went on a purely Harley Quinn route.

This was also fun--drawing money. Luckily I still have a US one, five, and ten in my wallet, which I was able to use as a model.

 

I didn't go as detailed as I would have liked for time limits, but it was still fun.  I kinda wish I hadn't used such a bright green, though--even though a real ten is more pink than anything.

 

And the whoopee cushion! That was really fun coloring, perhaps because red is such a bold, dangerous color; it's really hard to mask red errors. 

 

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AV_anp.Foolie_Doodads

Here are some doodads from our main April ALT News poster.

The theme was comedy, so I was excited to share some light information on comedy. When people say "comedian," I feel like they mostly mean a "humor-based TV personality," rather than somebody who stands in front of a crowd and tries to make them laugh via monologue. 

As it was April Fools, I also showed them how to do traditional US pranks.  I did a mime demo for elemkids and they really enjoyed it.

 

I also added an interactive part of the poster, where you can spin the Pocari Sweat to learn how to play Truth or Dare.

Here are some headings that I thought came out pretty neat.

Plus there's a simple little joke, illustrated to boot, for easy Japanese consumption. I was pumped to learn from a jKid that he actually got and laughed at the joke!

Success!

Something neat I learned was that Japanese people think "Punchline" is Japanese-English, rather than English-English. That was kinda funny, itself.

I wonder if anyone understood the Groucho part, though.

Anyhoo.

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AV_DontPlay_Cowboy_Preview

Fade to etc.

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AV_DontPlay_Bang_Preview

That's what he said.

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AV_DontPlay_DontLook_Prev

Don't be a fool.

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AV_anp.EmoKidz

Here's the second half of our second March ALT poster, first half here.

I finished this right around closing time, hence the nightshot photo. Consequently, I can't remember what doodads I had here.

This was kinda inspired by last year's finale poster, in that I wanted to capture a slice of possible reality. More on that here.

I can't remember why, but I decided not to track the process as closely on this one, so not too many process shots, unfortunately.

For example, here's the process of the dude character. His hair ended up a bit too Final Fantasy...

The girl character ended up looking a little too ice-queen.

I wanted here to look sort of like Terra in that final episode of Teen Titans, aloof and oblivious to the guy, but she's just too distant.

The uniform swirl into mist was ok. Wish I had a deeper black-substitute. I try not to use pure black, so I have to make due with C-7 and maybe mix in a super dark blue or purple, but need something better...

Here's how our two characters meet.  To help these two pop, I had the background reduced to basically cutouts, silhouettes.  I liked the effect, but wish I could faded them out a bit more. I was right up on the deadline on this one, so I just had to tear in with pure black markers and pens, but if I could do it over, I'd try a light gray wash or something, with a light blue to push the background itself further back.

This  is what I call the "staff photo," and I love that feeling of finishing a piece and looking back at all my team who helped me to the finish line.  The paper I use to test colors is now packed with colors from future posters, and it itself looks kinda like an abstract piece.

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AV_anp.EmoKidz_Pencils

These are the pencils to the anchor image of our secondary March ALT poster.

The main school's poster is here and here.

This poster's kind of inspired partly by the final episode of Teen Titans between Terra and Beast Boy, but a lot by that Tenchi in Tokyo opening bit when Tenchi meets Sakuya in passing and neither realize who the other is/will be.

That scene has stuck with me since middle school and is perhaps one of the main reasons I love trains so much: they represent that sort of fateful/unwitting meeting of future ties.

I love that stuff.

Anyway here's a close up of our female lead character.

For this one I wanted to end the school year with a more realistic take since I usually don't draw people too realistically.

The previous year I had done riffs on students, but it was just for that one school, so to get some balance this year, I just went with realistic possible-students.

So this is not a real student, but I was using photo reference to get the uniform and hair style.

Here's a process of coloring the girl's face. I had just picked up some new skin colors and was pumped to give them a try here.  Mainly super light E's, but I believe I had just read something about using light reds for more blood-rich areas like the ears and most noticeably the nose, so I was eager to try that here, but the red I had was still just too strong for my taste.

Here's the second part of the process I had also got a lighter brown since my browns were too intense for agreeable brown hair, so I anchored this on a brown called Campaign. I would go on pick up some more browns.  The glasses were also a bit curious. I need some more black-ish colors.  I heard a while ago never to color anything pure black, and I've stuck with that pretty well, but I'm not convinced I've cracked this.

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Fun_hws.HooHoo

This are some Homework Sketches.

In this episode, a literal interpretation of the name Casagawa (Umbrella River), an explanatory illustration of the difference between the words "Own" and "Owl," a sleeping student, a replication of the Akira poster over an actual katakana'd name Akira, a riff on a name that sounds like Mask on Hero, a dancing koala, and an illustrated explanation of the difference between afraid and scary.

Bears are afraid.

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AV_anp.CrossRoadShow

This is our main school's March ALT poster. This month's features, like the art, had to be a little lighter to meet deadline while still allowing time to make full-page art.  But as always, I wheel out that Conan quote I love so much.

The pencil process is here. I don't have any close ups on the poster's doodads, but you can also see a Rillakuma if you look hard enough.

The art concept was two kids at a crossroads for graduation, influenced by Gerard Way's Akira-influenced capsule jacket emblazoned with the school logo. I love how each school has its own logo, kind of how in the US we all have mascots. But the graphical style of the different logos is pretty sweet, I love seeing new ones. On the train you can see different logos imprinted on school uniform buttons or patched on shirts, it's pretty cool. The crossroads here are Past, Future, Next, Adventure, and Big Time, kind of inspired by the semi-randomy One Piece signage you can see Oda put in his illustrations, but also the sort of old-timey signage you can find in Winsor McCay comics.

Sounded like a good idea at the time.

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AV_anp.CrossRoadShow_Pencils

These are some close ups of pencils from our "main" March ALT poster;s anchor image. I use quotes since this one didn't give me enough time to color or othwerwise trick-out, but as it was the graduation issue, I did make it "full page" size.

I already do these posters on large sheets of paper, so making these full page means this is the largest drawing I've done since...well, last year.

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Fun_hws.buhDUMbuhDUMetc

Here's some homework sketches. We've got Beppo from za Haato Pirates, a T-Rex cuz I can't remember, Jaws cuz someone likes sharks I guess, and a character from Inazuma Eleven Go. I hate sports but something about Inazuma Eleven that's oddly interesting.

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Fun_LadyD00d

The final sketch from the Junekyo Sessions, my favorite one, colored with Copic Ciaos.

I don't actually have any of these; I drew them all in the excellent Tokyo Werewolf's sketchbook, my host.

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Fun_FireDood

Here's another sketch from the June Tokyo Sessions.

I didn't know what to draw, so I tried drawing a fire dood.

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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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