Learning...

Look what I crapped out last night. Just messing around with the tablet again. Trying this whole "color" thing. Really. Is there a market for it? Enquiry minds want to know. This was done in Art Rage. I'll post something better. I swear.

Breaking in the tablet....

Finally saw that tablet PCs were getting to the point of surpassing my desktop so I went for one of the newest machines out there. The Toshiba M700. It's spiffy and a little buggy being new and all but it's got a touchscreen and pen, which is really nice. I bought ArtRage 2.5 for the measily $25 and am just starting to get used to drawing on this. It feels like a Cintiq, only way smaller, but the resolution's nice at 1280 by 800. Here's a quick drawing I did in Art Rage at sketchnight.

More figures....

Yes, figure drawing studio continues and this time we created some nicer lighting to get some decent shadows and such. I'm thinking some under lit ones next time, but we'll see. Just three different media this time around. Ebony pencil, Verithin black and white on gray tone sketchbook paper, and some vine charcoal. Never really used the vine charcoal and I'll have to take a picture of it since that's on a larger piece of paper than my scanner and there's no way I'm putting a dusty piece like that on my scanner and decide to post if I feel it's worth it.

Figure drawing studio...

Signed up for a class with some Raven buds on Wednedays where we go to the UW art building and draw people. The first class was canceled due to the wintery weather where 2000 cars got stranded on I-90 between Madison and Janesville. But this week's was a go and here are some of the results. I mosaic the naughty bits in case any children were around. The only gripe I have about the class was the poor lighting set up. There was just too much of it and it was hard to get good shadows going from where I was sitting.

Waiting for an oil change...

The girl's not waiting for an oil change. I was. The girl is just what happened while I was waiting for an oil change. Original character here. Don't know what her story is. Is her outfit regular clothes or maybe some kinda sci-fi nurse thing...
I didn't have my regular lead on me (F or H) so I was using a pencil that had HB in it and didn't have a good eraser. HB is a little soft for my taste so I went with it and dropped a little tone in there. So I left the shop with clean oil in my car and a graphite palm... I call it a good day.

Arrr...Pirates revisited...

She started out as a rough sketch for a female warrior type but after adding the jacket and gloves and boots she pretty much looked like a pirate. So letting the drawing take me where it was going I added the eye patch and made it definite. The coloring took me a couple hours to figure out. Need to get faster and figure out what the hell I'm doing...

Fashion Gal

Here's a drawing from sketchnight colored up.
It's inspired by one of the things I noticed when I was over in Japan. I mean, how could I not. If you've ever heard the Cake song, "Short Skirt, Long Jacket" add boots to that and that's the trendy look. From what my friends say this look is more common around the Shibuya district, but you'll see it around the city and on the train. I'm not sure what the look is called, but I did pick up some fine magazines for reference (of course). It's a very cute to kind of a Pretty Woman call girl look. I'm not complaining either way. :)

Japan Trip: Musings...

Back home now and after a bit of jet lag, I'm almost back to normal. All said and done I had a wonderful time and want to thank Andrew, Miki, and Yoshio for hanging out and it was good to see Dan K. at Comiket. Should've taken a pic for the buds back home.

Being able to go to Japan and shop for books and figures was amazing, not to mention expensive. There's just so much good stuff there that you can't find easily or at all without having someone who knows where to look. My hats off to you Andrew. Thanks Miki and Yoshio for joining us and getting us some culture at Kamakura, I really enjoyed my time out there seeing the shrine and temples and my buddy Daibutsu. It was nice getting out of the city for the day.

This trip was more about satisfying the otaku in me but after spending the week there I would really like to return and do a more cultural experience, visiting historical sites, hot springs, maybe even cherry blossom viewing, if the season's right.

I will probably think of something that I forgot to cover and will post later on but for now there are pictures from my trip to look at (lots of cosplay and architecture it seems), and some commercials that I saw on tv with some American movie stars like Cameron Diaz. The ones with Tommy Lee Jones are great with the best. Try and catch them all...

Domoarigatogozaimashita!

P.S.: Here's a sketch I did in my book while waiting at the Narita Airport terminal. Eh, head might be a bit big, so sue me. Back to art!

Tokyo Tower

Yeah this is about a week late but better than nothing. After doing a bit more shopping at Akihabara, we went out to Tokyo Tower to do the touristy thing. Word of advice, don't go anytime around New Years. It was pretty busy and full of those pesky pushy gaijin. Probably better off going at other times during the year. I would've like to have gotten to the observation deck before the sun went down but I did still get some nice shots of the city and Mt. Fuji, so you can see what a huge city it is. After that it was time to pack it all up and return to the States. Picked up some boxes from Tokyu Hands and spent the night trying to figure out how to get it all home without having the check in luggage go overweight. Solution, put it all in your carry on. Not the best idea since you have to carry it around but it worked.

All is quiet, on New Year's Day...

Well, not so much as this is the day when you go and visit temples and make wishes for the new year. We met up with a high school friend Miki and her husband Yoshio and headed out to Kamakura which is about an hour and a half outside of Tokyo, where it goes along the shoreline of the Pacific Ocean.

Once there we ate at a very nice soba restaurant and then waited in line for the main temple. There's an honor guard at the temple that has some really spiffy uniforms. After that we visited the daibuttsu, the giant bronze Buddha you can actually go inside for a measily 20 yen and then went to another temple nearby where we caught an amazing view and sunset over Kamakura.

Couple of days left in the trip. Little more shopping at Akihabara and then maybe the Tokyo Tower. Hope it's a clear day so I can get a glimpse of Mt. Fuji