Rakuyou Rakugaki

Moved

2010-09-11T01:38:00.000-07:00

Alright, I'm moving this thing cuz quite honestly, I hate Blogspot. Not sure why I didn't just stick with Wordpress in the first place.

New Sketchblog

Find me there.

Catch Up

2010-08-30T14:31:00.000-07:00

Wow, I haven't updated in a long time.

I haven't done too many things, but a couple pieces here and there.

Here's this year's Yoshida Brothers piece. I really like this one. I made a poster out of all the pieces I've made and got an autograph. : D

Media: Watercolors, pencil, Photoshop, Illustrator

A graphic illustration of the Japanese legend of the "Red String of Fate". I never knew until now that this is Eastern Asian cultural legend. I always thought it was international. Oh well. Crop crop crop.

Media: Pencil, Photoshop

Holding Back

2010-07-09T00:35:00.000-07:00

Hm. Not much I really want to divulge about this one. Visually, I was very influenced by The Tatami Galaxy. I really like the design-y look of the animation. Conceptually, it was motivated by my own reflection upon recent events. I plan to give it digital flat coloring or perhaps some cell shading.

Motivation

2010-06-11T14:37:00.000-07:00

A simple motivational poster I designed for work. It's not really interesting, but I just wanted to play on a variation of the grid system and direction.

Media: Photoshop

Love Thief

2010-06-08T04:20:00.000-07:00

神様の言うとおり

As God Dictates

天国いくため毎日こそっと
In order to go to heaven, everyday, secretly
内緒でいいことしてたけど
I did commit good deeds

涙ひとひら
One by one, the tears
あたまくらくら
Waver down my head

あの娘はすっぱ恋泥棒
That girl is a clear love thief
わたしけなげいいひと
I am really a good person
叶わなかった恋心
With a heart of love left ungranted
神様どうして
God, why?

天使になるため毎日だまって
In order to become an angel, everyday I stay quiet
みんなにやさしくしてたけど
I was nice to everyone, but

涙ひとひら
One by one, the tears
からだふらふら
Wander from my body

あの娘すけべ恋泥棒
That girl is a perverted love thief
わたし素直いいひと
I am an honest good person
乗りそびれた恋の波
Missed my chance to ride the wave of love
離れた引力
Separated attraction

ゆるさなくっちゃ恋泥棒
I have to forgive the love thief
わたしけなげいいひと
I am really a good person
あの娘の馬鹿死んだって
How could have that stupid girl died
なおりやしないけど
It seems it won’t be cured

ゆるさなくっちゃ恋泥棒
I have to forgive the love thief
あの娘たぶんいいひと
That girl is perhaps a good person
あの娘の馬鹿死んだって
How could have that stupid girl died
なおりやしないけど
It seems it won’t be cured

ゆるさなくっちゃ恋泥棒
I have to forgive the love thief
あの娘たぶんいいひと
That girl is probably a good person
忘れなくっちゃこんなこと
I have to forget about this
わたしは天国
I am heaven

鏡の中問いかけた
Asked a question inside the mirror
わたしけなげいいひと
I am really a good person
あの娘悪魔恋泥棒
That girl is a demonic love thief
地獄が待ってる
Hell awaits

ゆるさなくっちゃ
I have to forgive

_________________________________________

I really like this song. It's the ending theme for The Tatami Galaxy anime. It's a really strange show, but I'm really drawn to it, for some reason. The song is quite strange as well. And I'm not sure how the drawing relates to it, but I just kinda started drawing with this song playing on repeat and didn't really think until I was done sketching it. Maybe this girl is the love thief? Maybe she had her heart stolen by the love thief? Maybe I'm just retarded?

Media: 0.3mm mechanical pencil, Copic Multiliners0.03mm/0.05mm/0.1mm/0.3mm

Cased Feelings

2010-06-03T15:06:00.001-07:00

I started this sketchbook-style illustration a while ago. It's a bad picture, but it's a little too big to scan. I haven't really touched it in a while, but I kinda like it how it is.

I'll probably paint a few more things and maybe draw some more things. We'll see how it goes.

Media: Pencil, watercolors.

Hiding From

2010-06-01T03:12:00.000-07:00

言ってしまった…

Media: Paint Tool SAI

BFA

2010-05-29T18:59:00.000-07:00

I have no art to post.

BUT I HAVE OFFICIALLY BEEN ACCEPTED TO THE GRAPHIC DESIGN BFA PROGRAM.

Yeah, motherfuckers.

Dance

2010-05-27T02:58:00.000-07:00

A random drawing I made in class a few weeks ago. I'm kinda fond of it, even though it was just a simple scribble.

Media: Cheap pens

Empathy/Apathy

2010-05-22T03:16:00.000-07:00

An ambigram tattoo I'm designing for my good friend since kindergarten. I like how it looks. I might remove some of the decoration or add more so that the current decoration doesn't look so off.

Media: Illustrator

Content Map Version 2

2010-05-09T10:46:00.000-07:00

First version...

Second version...

I'm redoing my content map. And I like this new version a lot better, but there are still quite a few things I need to fix. *Sigh* Can you believe there's only 8 days left until the portfolio is due?

I'm going to die.

And I fucking have the worst luck with typographical orphans.

Media: Illustrator

Rising Over the Sun

2010-05-05T00:38:00.000-07:00

Photo manipulation for my good friend. I made him a different photo manipulation 2 years ago and he liked it, so he asked me for this favor. I kinda needed a break from school work and work on something experimental. The type is kinda fail and the cityscape wasn't a great choice, but it's from an original photo I took of Tokyo. But overall, I love the textures and I like it for its basic composition.

The Japanese text says, "Taiyou yori takaku tonde, hinode no kuuki wo suikonde yaru" which means "Flying higher than the sun, I'll go and breathe in the air of the sunrise".

Media: Photoshop

Political Logo

2010-05-04T10:07:00.001-07:00

A logo I made for my Communications class cuz we're having a pretend Presidential election. In terms of graphics, our political party is a winner. But I'm not so confident in my group's speaking abilities...

Media: Illustrator

Running From

2010-04-22T02:08:00.000-07:00

Frustrated. A pretty random sketch to just relieve the stress. Life has been so unsatisfactory. I just keep running at full speed, yet still nowhere closer to where I want to be.

I actually kinda like how the face and hair is so detailed while the body is rather light and delicate in terms of line quality. I'm very surprised I pulled off a drawing like this. I've never been good at more severe 3/4th view (I guess more like 5/6th?) and this isn't too bad. The manga perspective of the hand is not too shabby either. I was thinking that this would turn into crap, like all of my other similar attempts.

One thing that bugs me is that it doesn't look like my style too much.

Media: Paint Tool SAI

Coy Koi

2010-04-14T04:48:00.000-07:00

Kind of a mock-up sketch/plan for the koi with type. I'm not wild about the font and the colors took a long time to find a balance for. So far, this is the only one that seemed to have held up its aesthetics and legibility, to a certain extent. I will definitely change the font eventually, but for now, at 5AM, this is what I have come up with.

...I LOVE THIS FISH. ASDGHGADGSHADGAH.

Media: Adobe Illustrator

3-D Koi

2010-04-14T00:41:00.000-07:00

This is my 3-D koi fish I am working on for my 3-D model in Graphic Design class. He's such a cute fishy. : D I don't know why I mosaic-ed my face, but I did, so, whatever. I just need to work on colors and type. And it's a shitty quality cuz I used my webcam.

Media: Wire, paper, construction paper

Natural Modern Energy

2010-03-22T03:01:00.000-07:00

Okay, I've finally gotten it printed. It's still not quite as good as I want it to be, but this is the best I can do for the amount of time I had. I'm pretty happy with the layout and it's nice that I have a cool looking brochure that made the fucking 12 hours of printing misalignment issues worth it.

And for my dear loyal fans, I've taken your thoughtful and uplifting suggestions into consideration and made this version. I HOPE THIS IS RAINBOW ENOUGH FOR YOU. : | Jesus Christ... My eyes hurt.

Brochure

2010-03-19T02:23:00.000-07:00

AHHHH, almost done. Need to tweak a couple more details... I don't know if my envelope is any good, but that's not really what we're gonna be graded on.

Goddamnit, where am I gonna get this printed...

Lotus Phoenix, Rainbow Love, Mock Product

2010-03-17T00:58:00.001-07:00

A tattoo design my co-worker asked me to do. She likes it, but she's gonna keep thinking about whether she wants this design on her body forever. Haha, can't blame her, that's a huge decision.

A sketch I did in Art History class. My friend keeps looking back to copy my notes and/or spy on me and caught me sketching. So I drew him and added stupid captions. : D He retaliated and said my hair isn't that nice. He is right though. OTL

A fake logo design for a fake product for my Communications speech this Thursday. Gotta market a video camera for better sales and market myself to be hired. Hopefully, they'll appreciate the graphic design and be distracted with the images instead of listening to my crappy speech...

Media: #1: Pencil, Photoshop. #2: Ballpoint pen. #3: Illustrator.

Know Your Roots

2010-03-16T02:47:00.000-07:00

Something I designed for my best friend at Sonoma State. She's the President of the Math Club. Thus all the math. I would never actually do this on my own because I loathe math... It's a neat and clever idea. I kinda like it.

Media: Illustrator

Brighter Future

2010-03-14T04:30:00.000-07:00

My brochure is looking pretty good now. Just need to work on the content and the backside. I hope I won't have too much to do after this...

Media: Watercolors, Photoshop, Illustrator

Just Dance

2010-03-12T16:00:00.000-08:00

I've been digging Lady Gaga's music lately. Maybe I'll finish it, maybe I won't. We'll see.

Media: Paint Tool SAI

Brochure

2010-03-11T00:17:00.000-08:00

I don't want to hear any comments about how it looks gay. Cuz I already know and I agree.

I don't really like it that much and it's not really my cup of tea. But the teacher likes this idea more than the other ones and since we have very little time for this, I will just go with it.

It'll make more sense later. This is just the background for now.

Media: Watercolors, Illustrator, Photoshop

Mag Illus

2010-03-07T01:30:00.001-08:00

An illustration I did for a magazine. Rushed like hell and it's really simple. But I actually like it. It's not as aggravating as when you make something with delicate rendering and it still turns out crappy.

Media: Illustrator, Photoshop, Paint Tool SAI

Dead Energy, Dead Bunny

2010-03-03T02:25:00.001-08:00

Content with outcome.

Dead Bunny

2010-02-25T16:58:00.001-08:00

Morbidly awesome.

I know it doesn't have ears. Ears don't have bones, goddamnit. But later on, I'm going to add ears with Illustrator as dashed lines. I wonder if I should make them pink to go along with the Energizer Bunny angle or if that's just stupidly obvious. And the perspective of the drum is not quite right, but I can fix that in Photoshop.

Media: Acrylics

Infinite

2010-02-21T02:48:00.001-08:00

This painting is 14x17, so I can't scan it and I don't have Photoshop installed yet. (Fail) I was also being too mathematical about the infinity sign and didn't compensate the sides for the thicker wind and sun designs on the left side for the thinner earth and plants designs on the right. Damnit. I don't want to add more foliage cuz then it'll look weird. I'm thinking about perhaps laying it out diagonally to make it more dynamic too.

I still have more posters to do...

Media: Pencil, watercolors

Renewable Sketches

2010-02-17T01:29:00.000-08:00

This sketch was some doodle I made in Asian Philosophy because I couldn't focus on the goddamn boring lecture. I have no idea why I drew this though. And I'm not sure what the hell he's doing.

Sketches for potential posters about renewable energy. So far, I really like the water drip, surfer dude, and Don Quixote (for comedic reasons). The other ones are... Eh. Not awesome or anything. I wonder what my class will think.

I just reformatted my computer and I'm still a long ways from restoring everything back to how it used to be. *Sigh* So that's why I have crappy camera images instead of scans. Well, actually, I did install my printer. The real reason is because I'm lazy.

Growth

2010-02-09T20:32:00.001-08:00

I forgot to post this DeviantArt meme. I did this a while back and it's interesting to see how much my art has changed. I laugh at my old artworks. They are so embarrassing. It's an interesting process and it really grows into something completely different from the start. Which I'm glad for. Other memes I've seen... It looks like their art/style hasn't changed much. It's nice to be in your comfort zone, but you never know your true potential until you dabble in everything.

The second image is one of those embarrassing old artworks. I think this was my first drawing on OpenCanvas with a tablet...? I made a really stupid story for them too. I think this was from... 2004. I always meant to finish the image, but never got around to it. Maybe I'll redo this drawing in the future. I had this really cliche Westside Story kind of plot for them, but it was so poorly developed and not interesting. Man, what's with me and my shoujo-esque manga stories?

From the Source.

2010-02-09T03:17:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I changed quite a bit. I moved around the lines so that is doesn't look so much like an "S" or "5". I also moved the general information for each resource to start from the bottom and curve out. I'll be adding statistics, labels for each level, and more information before I turn it in. I'm much happier with this layout.

Btw, the geothermal light gray might look really light, but when printed, the background gray turns out much darker, so on paper, it balances out. Sorry it's downsized, but I don't think you guys really care to read the content as this is a work in progress still.

Media: Illustrator CS3

Renewable Energy

2010-02-08T01:28:00.000-08:00

My concept map on renewable energy for my Intermediate Graphic Design class. I like it a lot better than my other idea, but I'm still a little unsure about it. I'll need opinions from tomorrow's class.

Guess

2010-02-02T21:07:00.000-08:00

This is a comic I drew 3 days ago for the manager of one of the restaurants that the owners of the restaurant I work for owns. He retired on Sunday and so we all signed cards for him to enjoy and remember us by. He could never remember my name... So one of the occasions of him trying to guess my name is being shown here. I'm not really gonna bother translating this since this was more of an inside joke, so it doesn't really make much sense anyway.

Media: Paint Tool SAI, Photoshop CS4

2010

2010-01-01T05:45:00.000-08:00

Too bad I spent New Years Eve at home, recovering from a cold. But it's actually not that bad. I feel better and relaxed. I wanted to finish this earlier, but, eh. I'll finish this tomorrow cuz I'm sleepy.

Happy New Years.

Media: Ink, SAI

Speed Paint: Cafe

2009-12-22T02:47:00.001-08:00

A speed paint that I randomly began to draw. I think I'm a failure at speed painting because it takes me too long. I don't think I'll finish this since I wanted it to be a one-attempt thing and I'm sleepy.

Media: SAI

Swallowtail

2009-12-21T02:43:00.000-08:00

And finally, the finished product! I am definitely gonna ask Mai to give me more drawings to color for more collaboration fun! I should prepare some drawings for her to also practice coloring...

Media: Copic Multiliners, watercolors, white ink

Fireworks at Sundown

2009-12-17T11:44:00.001-08:00

I've had this gesso-ed canvas sitting around for perhaps 2.5 years and I finally got around to doing something with it.

I wanted to challenge myself and use purple, my most disliked color. I laid down the blue and magenta as palette knife streaks and overlapped at the center to make a royal purple. But it looked really crappy and not at all what I wanted to go for, so I took a paper towel to wipe off the paint and start over. However, as I started smearing the paint vertically, it started looking interesting. So then I sprayed water over it and waited for the pigment to dissolve. I wiped off more paint and the white droplets began to stand out. Then I started dripping water down the canvas for the dripping effect and kept washing away the pigment until it was near white.

I kept doing this, but didn't know what to do with it. Then my housemate/friend who is also an artist told me it looks like fireworks. I stared at it and what do you know, it does! So I want to work off of that idea. Thanks Aimee.

Hopefully, I can finish this within reasonable time...

Media: Acrylics

10RI

2009-12-17T03:10:00.000-08:00

I finally finished it. Remember last year in October? Yeah. Well, I decided that I don't need a bunch of complicated things to collage into it and that I should try to stick to a concept instead of adding so many concepts. I've been learning quite a lot in my design classes. It's ineffective if it can't express its function and how true it is. I changed it from the original by blacking out the left side because I hated my handwriting that I had there and instead used stamps to put in that text. Then I added the seagull at the top left corner.

I'm pretty satisfied with this. It is a bit empty for my liking/style, but I should try to pay more attention to the "less is more" advice.

Media: Acrylics, Sharpie, white-out pen

Gourmet

2009-12-17T01:35:00.000-08:00

I never want to draw a tomatillo for the rest of my life. But this is the last project we had to do. An informative panel with diagrams. I'm pretty happy with it, but the typography bothers me a little bit... My teacher was really happy with it though, so I guess it's all right. Woo colors!

Media: Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop

Tinier Me

2009-12-13T02:56:00.001-08:00

I sometimes visit this forum called TinierMe and you can create your own little anime chibi-esque avatar. I've designed mine to be kind of urban punk (is that even a real style?) and I actually really like how he/she looks. (Probably a guy.) Instead of studying for finals, I drew my TinierMe avatar. Hooray! And yay fail perspective!

Media: Pencil, editing on Photoshop CS3

Oaxacan Recipe

2009-11-24T01:46:00.000-08:00

Yes, I cooked this gourmet-esque dish. As strange as it may sound, it was for design class because I'm designing a poster of this recipe. It's really tasty. I'll share the poster once I have it more refined.

Random drawing of Rakuyou. I felt bad that I don't have any recent drawings of my original characters. I don't like how his eyes look here. Something isn't right with this drawing... I'll fix it later.

Colored Sketch

2009-11-20T12:01:00.001-08:00

I'm uploading this for a Secret Santa thing, so you can ignore it if you'd like.

Test Your Skills

2009-10-30T03:39:00.001-07:00

Okay, out of these three, which one did I actually make?

I'm testing something out.

Halloween Plans Complete

2009-10-28T22:56:00.001-07:00

This costume is win. I love every part of it... Sorta. Okay, I messed up the right sleeve and the feather stuff keeps shedding, but otherwise, I love it. I'm gonna get white tights tomorrow and show it off at school... Well, hopefully, some friends will accompany me otherwise I will feel very lonesome. I walked around school like this and walking like this by myself was like, "Wow, I am such a loser." Hahaha!

Media: Fabrics of all kinds, thread, fake bling, feather boas, spray paint, foam, and lots of other things...

Rapper's Delight

2009-10-22T02:00:00.001-07:00

Two original characters that I made up. The first guy, I just made him up today and he is still nameless at the moment. (Maybe Kei?) The girl's name is either Suiren or Shunran or a new name. I haven't decided. If you read that cheesy manga page I posted a little while back, you'll notice that the girl's name is Suiren. Well, I don't really like how I designed her and her story is pretty boring, so I'm deciding to scrap it and thinking about re-using her name for the girl here. But as for a new name, maybe Hisakata, Kinpa, or Ryouya.

The story is still REALLY rough and haha, like all the other stories I've made, it will probably be eternally incomplete. But it's something like she wants to make hip hop music and working hard to rise above the stereotypes and images that stick with her in the industry. The guy is her best friend and also a musician and been together through thick and thin, but their friendship is in danger due to strong emotions that neither are willing to confess/approach.

Kei is a very kind and considerate guy. He wants nothing more than to help his friend reach her dreams, but has mixed thoughts about her and his indecisiveness makes it more difficult to allow her to reach her full potential while he is around. He is a guitarist and prefers to play acoustic.

Hisakata/Kinpa/Ryouya/Suiren/Shunran is a tough and independent girl. She hates receiving help from anyone and doesn't trust very many people. She is honest and humble and determined. However, her brash attitude towards anyone and everyone makes it hard to want to get to know her. She isn't particularly amazing at any instrument, but she likes to play piano every once in a while.

Sounds so laaaaaaaaame.

Tomatillo Project 2 Draft

2009-10-21T01:07:00.001-07:00

This is the layout I have so far. I like this the most in terms of the three being composed together. I'm a little concerned for A, but I think it's better than before because I modeled it after the shine on a tomatillo rather than randomly placing the letters...

Shoujo Manga

2009-10-17T03:13:00.000-07:00

Here's an old drawing for you. This is my first ever real attempt at a manga page and it was made for the local county fair like... 3 years ago. I won first place, but I kinda think this was one of the very few entries in the manga category... Haha.

It's SO cheesy and stupid. I didn't want to go with this story, but I was left with no choice as the deadline was creeping up on me and I had no other ideas at the time.

Drawing this manga was actually kinda fun. Having a story... Making progress from the start to the finish... Adding emotion and dialogue... I do want to make a real manga sometime in the future, but it won't be this gay, I promise.

Salsa

2009-10-15T02:26:00.001-07:00

I have more refining to do, but these are drafts I have for project 2 in Intro to Graphic Design class. I'm kinda floundering around at this point. But I'm going to keep tweaking them and then email to the professor and see what she thinks. She was so mad at us this morning... And for good reason, a lot of people were not prepared this morning at all. I felt bad. I wonder how I can get these printed before the turn-in date since we can only print during our own class time... Maybe during a lunch break.

I somehow spent 10 hours on the "paper as light as air" one. That was miserable.

Oh, I didn't sleep last night. I should sleep so that I won't die tomorrow at school.

Swallow Tail 2

2009-10-12T03:03:00.001-07:00

Man, I was planning to finish this painting by tonight, but looks like it won't happen cuz I gotta wait for the masking fluid to dry. (That's the yellow stuff on the left top corner of the painting.) I'm gonna add more masking fluid and then go over the background with black or very dark blue. Or another darker wash, but the paper is getting pretty warped with all the water I'm adding.

I'm sure that this painting will be a huge hit on DeviantArt since that audience loves to suck up these social trends and this is a rather "dark" image. I like painting what my cousin draws cuz most of the things I paint these days are not delicate like the old days. Maybe if this is enough of a hit, I'll start a collaboration account on DA for myself and Mai and perhaps we can do commissions together. But this is talking way into the future.

King Bling

2009-10-11T02:03:00.000-07:00

Finished with the Burger King bling. The main dress is about 90% complete, I'm trying to decide whether to sew the fringed collar all around the neck of the dress or to just attach it to the coat. I haven't made the coat at all and I need to make the sleeves. I also need to get white stockings and I went searching for a pair at Target and Marshall's today, but they only had off-white stockings! Wtf. I might go to the mall tomorrow to search...

Bling: Done.

Shoes: Done.

Dress: 90%

Coat: 0%

Sleeves: 0%

Mask: Waiting for it to arrive in the mail.

This Halloween is gonna be AWESOME.

Swallow Tail

2009-10-07T01:28:00.000-07:00

That type of butterfly is called a swallowtail butterfly. Do you get the joke on its title now?

This is actually a 2 years old collaboration that I've abandoned and forgot about until now... My cousin, Mai, drew and inked this and I've been coloring... At an amazingly slow pace... It's turning out pretty cool so far. I'm looking forward to the outcome especially since I've been putting it off for so long... Sorry Mai!

Media: Ink, watercolors

Early Inspiration

2009-10-06T00:14:00.000-07:00

I should be studying for my Graphic Design History midterm tomorrow morning, but I've been finding every single excuse to avoid it. It's really bad. So I was checking through my old artworks and found this. I made this senior year of high school for a report on a visit to the SFMOMA. At the time, it was kind of a BS-ed piece, but now that I look at it, I kinda like it. And back then, I didn't have much interests in graphic design, I was more of an illustrative person. I still think I'm more of an illustrative artist, but graphic design has really interested me. I hope to someday be able to make illustrative designs.

Okay, getting far from the initial point. Just a simple piece about the beach, ocean, and sky. Maybe I'll redo this in a more serious way.

Media: OpenCanvas 3

Ichigo Blend

2009-09-30T03:27:00.000-07:00

Trying out a blending style. I've been looking at works of KidChan and Tobiee lately. And then I was thinking today during class that if I am going to get a table at Fanime next year, I should get started on some prints.

So, here's the start of a possible string of fan arts, beginning with Ichigo from Bleach.

Media: Paint Tool SAI

Tomatillo Project 1

2009-09-23T03:58:00.001-07:00

Finished with the first project in Intro to Graphic Design. I really like how the watercolors came out. I think I'm FINALLY getting the hang of the salt technique on watercolors. I'm not too sure of the composition, but I tried many different combinations and this seemed to work the best.

Media: Pencil, watercolors, Adobe Illustrator CS3

Gold Medalist

2009-09-16T10:40:00.000-07:00

Murofushi Koji, gold medalist for the hammer throw in the Athens Olympics. He comes by Kubota (the restaurant I work at) often whenever he's in the area. He's really nice, so I was hoping to get an autograph, but he went back to Japan before I got the chance. But apparently, he's coming back later this year.

Tomatillo vector drawings for my design class. I originally wanted to use the third drawing since it's my favorite, but my teacher prefers the first one since it has "style" to it. I do agree, but that means I need to make a new tomatillo drawing study since this project has 3 parts. The first is a drawing study, second is a vectored reduction, third is a graphic interpretation.

Ahhh, I'm tired.

BLING and Tomatillo

2009-09-02T03:34:00.000-07:00

I am planning to be The King from Burger King for Halloween and I am working on the costume. It's actually a lot of fun. The bling is so AWESOME. I wore it today to Safeway and I got some people looking at it and doing the double-take. Yesss! I bought two packs of 192 small jewels, but still not enough. Goddamn... It's made of foam, transparency sheet, gold spray paint, and jewels. Woo crafts!

The second one is my tomatillo drawing study. This is what I will be working on in DSGD 104 for the rest of the semester. It surprises me how many people in my class don't really have basic drawing skills. Oh well. It's drawn with a little bit of pencil and mostly with ballpoint pen. The details of the papery texture was a challenge.

Speed Paint: Semi-Realism

2009-08-23T05:11:00.001-07:00

It's past 5AM.

I was thinking about going to sleep 2 hours ago. Hahaha. Anyway, I felt like drawing, so I drew this random guy. I was kinda inspired by the manga, "Liar Game" character, Akiyama. Except I drew him sorta semi-realistic. I could've based it off of the drama version, but I don't like how he looks. Anyway, I drew this in about an hour and a half. It was fun. I haven't drawn straight on view of a face in a long time, mostly because it's hard to draw it symmetrically. So I guess I still didn't really draw symmetrically since it's cropped. What a pretty boy.

Reminisce

2009-08-19T02:44:00.000-07:00

I found some old drawings in the midst of moving my stuff to where I want them to be.

I think I drew this in summer of 07 when I was in Japan. I was just drawing off of my cousin's fashion magazine. I thought she looked cute, but her pose is kinda weird.

I was watching the 2007/2008 Kouhaku Utagassen (a Japanese special for New Year's Eve) and in one of the opening performances was some old Japanese guy singing enka and the Ultraman Bros. all waving flags in a kimono in the background, FOR SOME REASON. It was so awesome. So I drew this to celebrate the new year, but I never finished it. Maybe I will eventually, but since the reference is to 07/08, I don't know if it'll really be as awesome as I wanted it to be.

A Promise From Long Ago

2009-07-31T03:38:00.000-07:00

So, my usual place for blogging about my daily life (aka, meaningless things) is down for some reason. I'm hoping it's not permanent. But if it is, so be it.

I recently sketched out a couple pages for a doujinshi (fan comic) about Spirited Away and the above image is page 1, which you may recognize is almost a direct scene from the ending. For some reason, I really love that movie. I can't quite put my finger on exactly why, but it might be because I love everything about it. A lot of people say it's not Miyazaki's best work, and I agree as well, but I personally love it like insane. The one part that bugs me is that I wonder what happens afterwards! I know it's meant to be like that and Miyazaki leaves it for the viewer's imagination, but I wonder what he really thinks about what happens after Spirited Away. Anyway, I've made a short story about what I think happens after the movie and I actually think it's too short to be meaningful or to even give Spirited Away a slight bit of justice for its magnificence. At the moment, I'm estimating about 25 pages, but I'm going to go for... 30 or 40 pages. The ending is kinda weird and corny right now. I'm gonna try and actually do this. Since I've never been able to make a complete comic, I'm going to practice with a fan comic rather than an original.

I had to recently reformat my computer and frikkin Illustrator CS4 will not work due to error 147:20. I've tried several different ways to solve it, but I think I'll have to find CS3 and hope it'll work. Absolutely ANNOYING.

Yesterday at work, I met hammer throwing gold medalist in the Athens Olympics, Murofushi Koji!! It was AWESOME! He's a really nice guy and really handsome too. I was supposed to serve him, but the manager was glued to him. Oh well. I wish I could've gotten a picture or an autograph. Maybe I'll try to prepare a portrait of him, leave the original and a print at the restaurant, and ask the owner or manager to get his autograph for me.

I meet a lot of obscure celebrities.

Gonna leave to spend the weekend in LA tomorrow. We have SO much on our itinerary, it's almost impossibly stupid. Thank God for not having to pay for room though, huzzah.

Okay, I've said a lot of things. This won't happen again unless my regular blogging place really does go down...

SAI Styling

2009-07-19T02:27:00.000-07:00

A commission for a friend. He said it was for his girlfriend and wanted an NPC cut-in for Ragnarok Online. He gave me 6 hours and after about 5, I said that I need more time and he said his girlfriend went to sleep already so I had extra time. I took a long break, worked on it again at 6AM until 9:30AM and this is the finished product. I suck at sketching on the computer. I have to sketch by hand. AND I HATE INKING DIGITALLY ALTHOUGH INKING TRADITIONALLY SUCKS TOO.

I love Black Jack. I've been watching the 2004 remake of the anime and it's a lot different from the old one, but it's still very entertaining! Black Jack is such a cool suave guy... I think I need to elongate his neck a little bit and his arms bother me...

I'm really liking Paint Tool SAI.

Clouded Influences and Judgment

2009-07-03T16:33:00.001-07:00

Finished. Haha, this was a lot of fun and it's just so funky. Ahhh, so fulfilling.

Media: Media: Pencil, Sharpie, ink, colored lead, colored pencil, acrylics, spray paint, collage.

Mind Wanderer

2009-07-02T17:16:00.000-07:00

Completely changed the background and I'm much more content with this one. Still not sure what to collage. I left all of my collage collection in storage.

Damnit, I want my materials...

Free to Be

2009-07-02T02:11:00.001-07:00

I haven't updated this thing in FOREVER. Sorry. Honest truth is, I haven't been drawing much. I sorta work 3 jobs and doing summer school. Yes, time is a little bit on the scarce side.

I'm not sure if I like the red palette knife-ing. Well, I don't even know if I like the blue brush strokes. I think I'm going to paint the whole background as gray with a hint of silver. Or yellow. And then collage some commercialistic things.

I really don't have a direction with this.

Media: Pencil, Sharpie, acrylics

Storm Gust

2009-06-06T16:19:00.001-07:00

Just a quick loading screen for a friend. It looks like Graendol on ArchonRO...

Handsome

2009-05-28T02:55:00.000-07:00

I'm working on inking an old sketch from last year. I wonder if anyone remembers it...

I remember why I don't like inking... It's so tedious and I get so obsessive about it. I'll finish it eventually...

Iwo Jima

2009-05-16T22:52:00.001-07:00

This is the final version of my final Typography project. There's an earlier version in an older post, if you care to look at it. I'm fairly satisfied with the turnout. I might tweak it a little more to get it just right, but otherwise, I think I'm gonna leave it like this.

I did want the background a darker blue, but a blue any darker than this keeps printing out black...

Media: Adobe Illustrator

Yoshida Brothers II

2009-05-15T12:26:00.001-07:00

1.

2.

3.

4.

So I went to the Yoshida Brothers' show last night at the San Francisco Yoshi's. ABSOLUTELY AWESOME. Goddamn, my favorite out of the 3 I've been to! I'm glad they added percussion again. And I love their new album, Prism! Go check it out!! I printed this out and gave it to the Yoshida Brothers last night!! Again!! And I got another handshake from Ryouichirou!! *_* Damn, I'm so fortunate... The couple sitting next to me and Aimee were impressed too and they were happy for me. マジうれしい！！

Anyway, about the picture... On Wednesday night, I made the sketch. Then on Thursday morning, I woke up and went straight to work on this picture. I worked on it for 10.5 hours straight, nonstop, except I took a shower for like 20 minutes, but otherwise, nonstop. God, I thought my hand was breaking because I don't like drawing with a tablet... It hurt so badly. I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to finish it on time, but seriously, once I finished it, I printed it and ran out the door so that I can make it to the show on time.

It was hell coloring this. But I enjoy blending with Paint Tool SAI. It's so smooth. It was just annoying once I got towards the end because it was taking so long to make it blended and painterly like the rest of the image.

I want to fix all the stupid problems there are, but my hand still hurts. And since they have it, no point in really fixing it anymore...

Haha, they're gonna have a collection of my artworks soon...

Media: Paint Tool SAI, Photoshop CS3
Time: 11.5 hours total.

永遠

2009-05-06T03:39:00.001-07:00

ポロポロ手のひらから　こぼれる悲しみ　My Love
今夜この街で　たぶん　私が一番　泣いている

君に愛されたから　私は私になれた
時を運ぶ風よ　どうか　あの日の永遠を

ネイビーブルーの空　そっと　手を伸ばしてみる
張り裂けそうな胸　もう一度　ただ抱きしめて

あの時　素直になれば　こんな事にならなかった
目覚めたら　全てが　夢であってよ
そしてまた　ふざけて

Bye Bye Bye...
Why did you say bye bye...

I draw way too lightly for this scanner to pick up. I miss my old scanner. Anyway, this is Asian pop princess, BoA. I really like her song, Eien, so I drew this while watching the music video a couple times.

BoA - 永遠

Type Type TYPE

2009-05-05T21:24:00.000-07:00

This is the final version of the jazz festival poster I previously uploaded. I actually don't like it all that much, but my teacher really liked it. Which is all that matters right now, so oh well. Got an A on it, woo!

This is what we're currently working on right now in Typography. We had to pick a historical event and depict it through type. I chose the battle of Iwo Jima. This is actually my second concept out of three, but I like this one the most. It's an outline of Mt. Suribachi with simple outlines of the tunnel system under Mt. Suribachi.

Bokeru

2009-04-14T02:21:00.001-07:00

Something I made during Art History. It's my OC, Rakuyou. Except I still haven't made a story or anything. I just designed him. Haha. You might recognize the jacket design from my typography assignment. If possible, I'd like to make a jacket like that someday.

A nonsense sketch made throughout various classes last Thursday. I really should pay more attention in class. It's just several sketches of my good friends here. And a sketch of a mini-cake thing... And a floating goldfish...

Artistic Delicacy

2009-04-07T01:35:00.001-07:00

Does this really count as art? Eh. Whatever. This cake took fuckin' 5 hours to make. It tastes good though. It looks pretty too. The caramelized sugar was ultimate fail cuz it frikkin melted in the fridge. I need to somehow get it right...

SFJazz

2009-03-30T00:44:00.000-07:00

For Typography class.

These are preliminary designs for the SF Jazz Festival calendar. I hate my color choices which are only black, white, and one color...

TYPE

2009-03-21T12:57:00.001-07:00

Both of these were assignments in Typography class where we had to make an illustration of a word using only the letters of that word and Helvetica font.

I really like how my illustration of "rain" turned out. I'm much better at making artistic compositions instead of making readable informative content.

I don't like my illustration for "signal" as much as I like the other one, but it's still simple and easy to read. Typography is actually kinda fun.

Where Am I?

2009-03-13T03:37:00.000-07:00

Robby, the guy from my beginning photo class and who lent me his sketchbook to draw in, lent me another book to draw in and I somehow conjured this random thing. Acrylics, Sharpie, white out pen, and collage. I drew from a picture in a Japanese music magazine. I'm not really sure why I did it, but why not? Just a quick drawing. Maybe 45 minutes?

Ink

2009-03-09T23:48:00.000-07:00

I want to do a piece about still being like a kid even as a young adult because the ink splatters look like balloons. I dunno if I want to do bleeding ink with watercolors or acrylics. Probably the former.

Dripping masking fluid and ink. I hope to spray paint over this and see how it turns out. It's a pretty big canvas. I'm not sure what to put on top...

Sunset Rider

2009-02-26T17:03:00.000-08:00

I forgot to upload my final drawing for Representational Art. I got an A on this. My teacher kept complimenting on how the zebra has such a nice ass. (Hah! Get it?) It was hilarious.

These are some sketches I made during class today. I originally designed this character named Rakuyou a couple years back, but I only made one sketch of him and then never drew him again. But lately, I've been observing the recent trends at school for guys and I really like the sort of simple scene, athletic, rock/hip hop kind of style. (I really have no idea how to describe it.) So I restyled Rakuyou to fit that look. I wonder why it scanned as gray cuz I drew with a blue pen...

JAPAN no HIP HOP

2009-02-19T00:19:00.000-08:00

Wow. I haven't updated in so long. It was mostly because I actually haven't drawn much at all since the spring semester started and my Firefox was borked so it wouldn't remember login info and so I kinda avoided the internet altogether.

Anyway, here are some new things!

For Typography class, we had to cut and paste found text into designs with no assistance from the computer that represented repetition, transition, and opposition. This is what I did for repetition. For some reason, I really like how it turned out.

A classmate from Photo 40 last semester, Robby, is a really chill dude who does graffiti and urban street art. It's really awesome. He was gonna be in my typography class, but he didn't complete the pre-reqs. Anyway, he lent me this really cool sketchbook and told me to draw whatever I wanted. I drew this random colorful sketch of Pes from Rip Slyme with a completely thoughtless train of thought about Japanese hip hop.

I'll update more often, I swear.

Numero 2: Sanchez-san

2009-01-05T01:59:00.001-08:00

I've been chilling with my co-worker (whom I call "Sanchez-san") lately and he's been paying everything for me. : ( I really hate that. I argued with him and kept telling him that I can pay for myself, but he wouldn't let me. I went to his soccer game yesterday and took a couple pictures of him. So, this is all I can think of to pay him back. I showed him some of my paintings on my Zune when we were on our way to the restaurant where we were gonna eat dinner and he said, "Don't forget me when you get famous. : D" so on the side, I wrote a message saying, "Don't worry, I won't forget you when I become famous. : )"

I wanted to just color in the blue areas of his jersey, but I was stupid and used a color pencil and it smeared the nice delicate details of my .03mm lead. Then I remembered I have blue lead. Stupid me... I managed to salvage it though.

Media: Mechanical pencil with regular lead and blue lead, colored pencil, Photoshop for editing.

Mouko Character Sheet

2008-12-21T04:18:00.000-08:00

A work in progress of a character sheet of my original character, Matsushima Mouko (or Mouko Matsushima for Western reading). I realized that I hardly ever draw my original characters these days. Well, I don't really draw in manga style anymore. Maybe when I'm done with school, I'll actually start a manga.

P.S. I think I update my sketchblog a lot. I thought I'd never update this thing since I thought I don't draw as much as I used to, but I guess I really do draw often.

Media: Photoshop CS3

Rain Lee

2008-12-20T22:00:00.000-08:00

I finished it fairly fast. I was freaking out that it was due today, but the deadline is tomorrow... Ahaha, good job me. Anyway, I LOVE Paint Tool Sai!! It's so much fun to blend... And I'm fairly satisfied with this drawing. It was good digital media practice and I'm starting get into the habit of drawing at 300dpi instead of the web's default of 72 that I've been doing...

I don't like his hair. I like drawing hair, but I did a terrible job here. I'm not very good with drawing highlights on SAI so far, but shading is awesome. The background was also very lazy. I wanted to do a city winter background with trees strung with lights, but when I was doing the rough sketch of the background, it didn't really look good with the funky coloring of Rain's clothes. Oh well.

Media: Photoshop CS3, Paint Tool SAI
Time: Roughly... 6-7 hours?

Paper Chain: Rain Lee

2008-12-20T04:22:00.000-08:00

This was done for The Paper Chain. I thought it'd be nice practice for digital media, although... It's anime... Oh well. It's fun to draw so far. Rain Lee is such a cute character. I haven't done cute drawings in a while. It's also my first attempt at coloring with SAI. It's a pretty interesting program with great blending effects. The deadline for the "contest" is tomorrow... Damnit.

Media: Photoshop CS3, SAI

Representational Drawing: Midterm

2008-12-18T02:08:00.001-08:00

My midterm drawing for Representational Art. Done in charcoal. I normally hate charcoal, but this actually turned out well. I really like this drawing. You can still see the rough lines I made since charcoal is so hard to erase, but I kinda like it that way.

I got a perfect score for this drawing and it was at the Foundations Art Show too! : D

18"x24"
Media: Charcoal

Walking Along the Shore

2008-12-14T00:05:00.000-08:00

I've had these blank shoes for a very long time. I finally got around to figuring out what to paint on them. This shoe will have seagulls along an ocean coast scene and the other shoe will have an urban skyline sunset scene with silhouettes of crows.

Originally, I was gonna go with a birds of paradise design, but it was too complicated for these shoes. I have a real problem with making art "in the round".

Media: Watered down acrylics, DecoMarker

ロッキング・アウト

2008-12-12T10:36:00.001-08:00

A drawing of my classmate/friend, Kohei. He's graduating this semester and today was our Japanese Modern Literature final. He's a really chill and nice guy. He's gonna move back to Japan to work, so this is probably the last time I'll ever see him unless we hang out in Japan or something. Anyway, it was a really spur of the moment drawing last night. I love how Kanye glasses look because it looks hilarious on anyone. They're so impractical, but I dunno. I think aesthetically, they're awesome. Based on one of Kohei's Facebook pictures. I added some Photoshop stuff to make it more graphic design-y.

浩平さん、いろいろがんばってね！

Media: Pencil, Photoshop CS3

Switch it Up: Final

2008-12-10T13:26:00.000-08:00

Click to watch the animation!

I'm finally frikkin finished. It's not as finished as I'd like, but maybe I'll really finish it another time.

Switch it Up 3

2008-12-10T04:03:00.000-08:00

Click to watch the animation!

Again... More frames... It's 4AM... So sleepy and hungry... Not finished... Tired... Looking good... Happy... SLEEP.

Switch it Up 2

2008-12-09T12:24:00.001-08:00

Click to watch the animation!

Okay, here it is again. Not too many more frames, but I fixed some problem areas. Major one being I forgot to color his hair black... He also blinks!

Switch it Up

2008-12-09T02:55:00.000-08:00

Click to watch the animation!

This is for my Design final which is to make a flipbook. It's only like 1/10th done.

*Sigh*

It's funny to watch cuz it's so awkward right now.

Keys

2008-12-04T00:44:00.001-08:00

One of them is not actually my key. GUESS WHICH?!

Homework assignment for Representational Drawing. Jason really loved this one, but in all seriousness, this was severely half-assed. I felt pretty bad when he praised it in class... He told me to push the values. I have a problem with making everything mid-tone. Done in pencil. I'm getting so lazy about this class. I would love an A, but I've missed like 3 or 4 homework assignments.

SHOES.

2008-11-26T10:46:00.000-08:00

This is actually a pretty old drawing. It's from... 3 years ago. Wow. Our first AP Art assignment was to draw shoes, which was also our first ever art class assignment. Except hella upgraded. The shoe drawing I made in Beginning Art compared to this drawing is... Geez, amazing difference. This was enjoyable because of the oil pastels with pencil over it. So creamy... I should try doing it again. I'm posting this because I don't think very many people have seen this drawing.

Sorry I haven't been posting much. I've been really busy with school and I'm going home this weekend too. Damnit, I kinda don't want to because I have so much to take care of...

San Mai no Ofuda

2008-11-13T13:43:00.000-08:00

My assignment for Design was to Photoshop a bunch of images together to tell a mythological cultural story. I chose the "San Mai no Ofuda" story which means, "The Three Charms". It's a weird story and this is a really weird representation of it. It's not even accurate at all. But whatever, at least the assignment is done.

なんちって

2008-11-08T16:42:00.000-08:00

Music: Radwimps - Nanchitte

I bought this shirt from PacSun like... A year ago? And I started painting Noda Youjirou, vocals of Radwimps. For some reason, something about it really bothers me. But everyone else seems to think it's cool, so I should try finishing it. I'm a little hesitant about the face because it could either make or break this shirt. Or rather, make it look awesome or look like shit. I guess I'll only know once I try.

なんちってね！

Same A K I Same: Finished

2008-11-05T13:09:00.000-08:00

Done. Very satisfied. Woo!

Same A K I Same

2008-11-03T04:00:00.001-08:00

Yeah, another artwork of my friend. I feel kinda weird drawing him so much, but then again, I draw some celebrities over and over again. At least this is using an original photograph. I'm glad I went with a salt effect on the umbrella. It kinda shows an illusion that rain is hitting it. I'm very happy with the shading on his pants. His jacket is kinda two-toned because the paintbrush still had a little bit of teal when I started filling it in on his right side. Oh well.

This is the painted canvas that the previous painting will be collaged onto. I still have a lot of work left to do with this canvas... Ugh, shit. I'm gonna kill myself soon. But I like it. The newspapers were originally in larger chunks and kinda faded out, but I was really dissatisfied. While walking around Target and taking incognito photos in the store, I saw this curtain fabric that inspired me to do a geometric rain effect with newspaper. Funny how inspiration works.

Passion Project Part 2

2008-11-01T16:19:00.000-07:00

An unfinished watercolor portrait of the aforementioned friend who is modeling for my Photography project.

Hmmm. It looks more like him, but there's still something a little off. I can't figure it out. I fucked up the glasses too.

Passion Project

2008-10-29T02:28:00.000-07:00

A pencil sketch of part of a photograph I took today for my photography project. I asked an acquaintance to model for me and though I actually don't really know him very well, he said yes and I spent two hours of today taking pictures of him. My first idea for this photography project didn't work well, so I had to go with a plan B.

It doesn't really look like him, but it doesn't look bad just by itself. Expect more sketches of him because I actually need to do it as part of my project.

Planterium

2008-10-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

I've been working on this painting of Ai Otsuka, but it doesn't really interest me anymore. I should just finish it though. Bah.

Himitsu De

2008-10-19T01:19:00.000-07:00

Yeah, it's badly compressed and I draw too lightly. Oh well.

Messing around with sketches on Photoshop isn't really good for me since I draw too lightly.

Anyway, this was drawn due to... Recent events. Eh. I don't hate this drawing, but I'm not particularly fond of it either. It's too literal. But literal is sometimes better for just letting out some thoughts. I haven't really done a multiple character drawing in a long time. It feels weird to having characters interacting instead of just randomly there.

やっぱり好きな人じゃなきゃやだ。

Musical Inspiration: Ryohei - Set Free

A S A morning

2008-10-18T02:27:00.000-07:00

A painting in progress. I finished the background today. I feel a little stupid for taking all day to just do this, but I don't feel that bad because I was "watching" SO much TV while doing it. I've been taking a couple pictures of the process so that I can make a progressive picture collage. The shiny effect was made with gloss varnish. EFCEE used to use that stuff like crazy, so I finally bought a bottle to see what it's like. It's pretty neat!

However, after I've been trying to finish 10RI with the different collaged components, I'm a little hesitant about finishing this. Oh well, I'm thinking about using that Hayami Mokomichi sketch to add here.

Inspired by: SOUL'D OUT - Morning [Outro]

Will You Be My Valentine?

2008-10-17T01:12:00.000-07:00

Oh, I keep forgetting to mention that I tend to draw REALLY light in pencil. It's a habit so that if I make a mistake, it's not hell to erase. So, the scans don't pick up on a lot of the details.

Music: Ryohei - Valentine

The lyrics outside of his figure is also from the song, Valentine. I used a reference of his Cavaca 2 promo picture. I wasn't really fond of his songs until later. His voice kinda annoys me sometimes. It's just like he's just exhaling a lot instead of adding more emphasis in his voice.

I bought $80 worth of art supplies today since the art store was having a huge sale. But I only paid $30 cuz I used a $50 Visa rebate card from AT&T. I also bought blue lead for mechanical pencils and used it for this drawing. It's a lot harder to erase, but you can make some cool gradations from erasing.

Expect some works in progress of real pieces cuz I bought some canvases too.

Today in art class, we were on the second day of our three day drawing of a still life of boxes and bottles. I have almost everything in the right place and the perspective is close to real. I'm starting to render and I'm really enjoying it. It's turning out so nice, but almost too nice. Like, I need to make it less clean looking. Or something. I didn't know I would like charcoal this much. I still would rather watercolors or ink, but I'm not hating it. Weird.

Young P R O

2008-10-16T00:19:00.000-07:00

Sketch of Hayami Mokomichi, one of my most favorite Japanese actors. It doesn't really look like him and I actually like it that way because it looks more of my style rather than a straight up portrait. I was thinking of collaging him onto 10RI, but I think he'll be a stronger influence on a different piece with a different theme.

Yeah, it's badly compressed. Whatever. I sketched this during Japanese Modern Literature because that class is just... マジつまんねぇー (fucking boring). I don't know what he's doing. I was kinda inspired by the dress code at work. I like his hair, but it just reminds me of an old friend calling it something obscure.

I realized that I really should try to do a real acrylic painting again soon. It's just frustrating to mix paints all the time and that it dries fast.