Photoshop practice 9.23.09

Been a while...I know.
Anyway, been tinkering around with photoshop lately, and decided to do a study of sorts.
I've realized that I need A LOT of practice to get to where I want to be with illustration/art in general.

So here's the first of many studies that I will be doing to get myself up to snuff, and to give myself confidence and satisfaction as an artist.

I have a long way to go...but first step is better than none at all.

The model was my girlfriend, who was nodding off most of the time...

Random tidbits

Here are some random sketches that I've done here and there from the past month or so.

As always, there's a lot to say, but I'll opt to just keep things short for now.


Tully's Cafe in Fukuoka


Same Tully's


Baseball Practice at my School


Elderly People at Mosburger


Baachan Chatting it up at Mosburger

Sketch Dump 5-16-08

Alright, so here I am, with some sketches of recent, with no where to put them.
Oh, where shall I put them?
Ah, that's right, I have this blog that I should use, shouldn't I?

Ok, so here we go...enjoy.


Guests at an all you can eat party in Osaka.

Bar in Namba, Osaka.

Same bar.

A cold night in triangle park.

One more thing!

I have a lot to say but I'll keep it short, because I know I'll waste a lot of time.
It's much better to just post stuff.

First, is one last little drawing that I did in my last school.
One student was fascinated with Alice in Wonderland and she was taken by the pieces that I did while I was at Pratt featuring Alice. So, sometime before I was supposed to leave the school, she asked me to make an Alice drawing for her. So, I took one of the days where I had nothing to do and made this quick drawing with colorpencils.



And here are some sketches I did recently that had nothing to do with the subway, so I'm posting them here.

2008 Review in Pictures part 4- Happy New Year

I missed my weekly update because I have to eat and I did extra work.
In any case, here I am, updating as usual.

This will be a short entry.

I did a lot of projects and lessons for my school that involved me using my drawing skills. If I didn't mention it before, the times that I could spend drawing were the happiest times I had working at school. Time just melted away as I lay strokes of ink and graphite across the page.

I did get stressed out quite a bit doing this, though it was often because I was pressed to do something that wasn't drawing, and would get anxious and frustrated in the process.

So, here are the final three illustrations that I will should you from the school that I was working in until recently.



This was an illustration that I mad and never used. It was a scene that could be divided into 16 different pictures as cards. I would ask the students to describe scene in the cards and they could be used in a sort of puzzle/matching game.



I was ask to make a composition for them to use as reference for a poster/banner they were doing about Okinawa for the Cultural/Club Festival at the school. Here it is.



Finally, I did a picture for the nengajo (New Year's greeting card) that the school produced for the year.

I have one more update from last year, then on to bigger and better things...like *gasp* paid illustration work.

2008 Review in Pictures part 3- Animal Pictures

So, last time I posted some Illustrations I did for the school newspaper and I believe that I mentioned that many other Illustrations were requested of me throughout my time at that school.

One such of those was a series of Illustrations depicting animals. The purpose of these was just to have some cards to use for naming animals in English for some Elementary school students that were visiting the middle school I was working at.

I'm not sure if it's a normal thing, but at my school, they had one day where students that would be coming to our school the following year would visit.

Actually...come to think of it, I remember doing something similar when I was in elementary school, and middle school.

Anyway, so I and a fellow teacher were put in charge of giving an English lesson to the students. Part of my responsibility was to make the cards that you will see below.

I had fun making these, though some of them could've been better. I was satisfied with most of them though.

Before leaving the school to teach at the school that I'm currently teaching at, I gave away most of these cards and the bear cards that I posted before to the teachers and students as mementos.

2008 Review in Pictures part 2- Editorial (?) Illustrations

Alright, so last time I briefly spoke about my time in the Graphic Design class at Pratt. Since that time, I took it upon myself to venture elsewhere, and if it isn't already obvious I have been in Japan working as a teacher for almost 5 months.

The truth is that it has been tough...or rather, a challenge to survive in Japan. But the reason behind that is not so much Japan, but really has to do with my own personal issues and situations.

Regardless, it has been a very big change from my lifestyle in New York City. One thing being, of course, that my job changed from being an assistant, working part time, and having a mild amount of responsibility, to a full time teacher. Though I am still considered an assistant, I have definitely had times where I have been worked as a real teacher, and my responsibilities are much greater than that of my former occupation.

One of my concerns about a job like this was if I would be able to continue my art and sketches to the same degree that I had been doing in New York. I expected that I would be really inspired by Japan, so the creative juices would flow, but I still have a job to do, which would probably take up all of my time.

The strange thing is that somehow, I am doing more art work here. Actually, the amount of sketching that I do has dropped, which is a bit of a disappointment. But while that has happened, my actual Illustration work has slightly increased, due in part to being able to use my skills on the job. *mini gripe* I wish I was doing paid Illustration though...

Once the secret was out at that I had some drawing skills, I was, at first, overwhelmed by the amount of work everyone was asking of me. This was on top of all the lesson making, and classes. Frankly speaking, I was not required at all to draw anything, or do half the things that I did, but I kept it up anyway. When it comes down to it, I really do enjoy making art for my job. Sure, I get frustrated sometimes, but the time melts away when I'm drawing or painting, as opposed to writing up a lesson plan. So I'd rather do than not do.

One of things that was requested of me was two illustrations for the monthly school newspaper. I think what happened is that they didn't have enough to write about and they needed something to fill the space, but I was happy to help anyway.

They asked me to do two illustrations...immediately. I only had 2 or 3 hours to come up with an idea and execute the whole thing, and I did it, without much problem.

Both were small articles the detailed on the achievements of the sports clubs in recent matches.


The volleyball team had won a local tournament. I didn't know it was the boy's volleyball team though, but no one said anything to me, so I guess they were cool with it.


Also, the baseball team had done well. The blurb in the circle just mentions that I had drawn these Illustrations for them.

I still have about two or three updates left. I could do everything at once, but I want to space things out so I have more overall content on this blog and so I have consistent updates.

Until next time.