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.

2008 Review in Pictures part 1- Graphic Design

It's been forever and a day since I've posted. Things have just been so busy and I haven't really been able to compose myself to the degree of actually posting what I want to.

In any case, I just wanted to take some time out and talk about what I did in 2008.

Before coming to Japan to teach English to the various members of the Japanese population I was but a lowly assistant. An assistant in the financial aid department of the school I formerly attended, Pratt.

It was often a source of frustration, but looking back, it wasn't all bad. It was also my first "real" job and I learned quite a lot from the experience.

One of the perks of the job was that I was able to take some credits at Pratt at reduced cost. I really would've like to take a graphic novel class they were offering or if possible, another figure drawing class, but unfortunately I was unable to do that and I ended up in Communication Design II.

I took it mostly because there wasn't much else that I could take that wouldn't be a hassle, but also because graphic designer is always a fall back for anyone in the visual arts field. Graphic Design has some really great talents out there, and I don't think I have what it takes to be a great or anything, but to make money as a graphic designer doesn't demand as many skills as it would to make money as a fine artist or an illustrator. I guess because an annual report has more use than a painting of a nude figure... I don't understand the world sometimes.

Anyway, the class was interesting. We had about two projects throughout the semester. The first was a brochure for the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. It was interesting and I think I did a decent job, but I'm not going to show it off.

The second was identity, branding, just about everything, for a salsa of our naming.
I went with Piquant. Which is reminiscent of the words in Latin based languages that mean hot or spicy. Which I believe come from a root word that means something like prick or thorn.

First we had to come up with a bunch of logos and a brand identity...

By the by, the colors aren't as vivid as the originals...sorry, save for web sapped the energy out of them.


A southwestern theme, with the wanted poster type lettering. Three peppers for the symbol set against a desert night scene. Second one was a lighter theme, more of a Florida, Caribbean thing.


First two variations were supposed to be more "sophisticated." Like a wine bottle label.
The last is using colors as more of a theme. Though the green and off white is supposed to be a cross section of a pepper with seeds.


And finally, fire and warning tape! Everyone had to vote on each others labels to decide what we would go with and this is the one that everyone voted on. I like this one, but I think I liked the southwestern and the colorful one a bit more. Oh well.


After that, we had to create some print ads with a slogan. Here's one of my sketches...
The main image has a tag line of "Pure Awesome." I put a bunch of things that I considered to be of the awesome persuasion, such as Vikings, and dragons, and unicorns.
My other ideas were on the side and have a tag line of "Natural Kick." It was supposed to be an all natural salsa, so in my sketches I adorned the bottle with various fighting gear, thai boxer shorts, a lucha mask, a black belt, etc.

All those ideas were shot down in rapid succession. I struggled and struggled. I must have made about 5 or so tag lines with tons of variations and sketches for each, all of them shot down. It started to get to me, and I was getting rather annoyed. So I threw up my arms and decided to make a kind of passive aggressive slogan and ad...


...because if the salsa is so good, why do I need to catch your attention with some "jazzy, hip" copy. It's just good salsa, that's it. Enjoy.

I gave it to my friend to submit it to him and didn't come to class (I had an excuse, but I forgot what it was) and I heard that he was really annoyed with it, and said something like, "I don't want this trash."

Which further frustrated me to the point that I almost felt like I couldn't continue the class. I had to talk to him, and basically say, "Tell me what you want, so we can get this over with."



...and this was the result. A random picture of salsa with a "hip" slogan. *Stereotypical African American voice* "Yo, Piquant is where da PARTY iz AT!"
Can you sense the sarcasm in my writing?
Anyway, it passed and I could finally finish up my project.

After that we had to make a poster for an event our brand was sponsoring. I did a jazz festival in New York.




With that finished I was able to wrap things up and do my final presentation, which required us to present our ideas to a professional chef who was considering launching a real food brand.

Surprisingly I was one of the top three picks for best design and ideas. I was shocked and amazed, but of course happy.

And that was my brief experience in graphic design for 2008.

More 2008 writings and drawings coming soon.

Bear Cards

Wow, illustrations finally right?

Well, if you didn't know, I've been working as an English teacher for a Japanese middle school for the past two months. While doing this, I've basically tried to take advantage of any conceivable opportunity to using my drawing skills.

So, in this case, I was asked to make some cards that would make it easier to divide the kids into random groups. So, I made this cards which I dub 熊カルタ (Kuma Karuta or Bear Cards). There are six of them so that when passed out, they will create six groups based on the card that each child receives. As an extra, each card has a theme or vocabulary word associated with it.

They were painted with watercolor and were very fun to create.

Btw, these are my images...please don't use them without my permission...just have to get that out there.


Bright Bear


Bad Bear- A Yankee, or the Japanese version of a punk student. This was my vice principal's favorite.


Bed Bear or Sleepy Bear- This was the favorite of the teacher who asked me to create these.


Big Bear


Boring Bear


Brave Bear

From SFO to KIX

My final day in the states. On the plain, waiting to go to Osaka, where I currently am.



Some notes that I wrote on the way...

- There was a man who was probably of high status in some Muslim sect that I sat next to while waiting in JFK. He was wearing a long black robe, with a matching, black head wrap. He smelled a little raw, but other than that seemed like a very nice guy.

While boarding the plane, I was slightly upset by a lady ahead of me in the line, because she made a very ignorant comment about that guy. Something like "I hope that man in the black robe isn't on the same flight..."

But kudos to the flight attendant who she said this to, because she kind of rolled her eyes and assured her that he posed no threat. Sometimes I feel embarrassed to see people like that lady...


- When I came to the waiting area for my flight from SFO to Kansai International, I noticed a familiar looking man sitting rather far from the other passengers.

Lo and behold, who could it be, but Billy Blanks of Tae Bo, and "Billy's Boot Camp" as it's called in Japan. He was on my plane, and I spotted him again in front of the line when I went through customs in Japan, but I opted to not bother him. I thought it might be a little awkward.

July in Union Square

Uploading some sketches that I did before I came to Japan.
Here's one from Union Square in July, before I went to Miami, and eventually to Japan in August.

...Without a doubt, I miss New York.

Memes I've missed

Sorry for the random post.

There are a lot of things going on for me here in Japan, but I'll start writing about that in due time. I got internet rather recently and it's bit hard to organize myself, start writing, and get the ball rolling.

In the mean time, via Lifehacker, I found the Internet Meme Timeline featured on the Wired Blog, and created by BK Gupta of Dipity.

Looking at it, I noticed a few memes that I missed in the past year.
So, I present them to you, my reader(s).

First, is Yo Tengo Miedo. Which was interesting to me because it was a meme in Spanish (Mexican, I believe.) It's interesting to see the memes that each section of the world has. Of course there were some other foreign language means that were brought to my attention, but I can somewhat understand what's going on in this one.

Basically, this guy is being stopped by the police for being drunk, and I guess they want to do a breathalyzer test on him. He displays his degree of inebriation by constantly say, "I'm scared, I'm scared" and so on.




Next is a video that features IT/Helpdesk humor, which I found amusing. I worked briefly as a tech in college, I didn't do very advanced work...but I understand how things are. Actually, if you've worked with people or in the service industry you should understand this.



Finally, is the most recent meme that I've missed. Which is that Oprah got pranked by Anonymous. I'm not going to explain about this. I'll just provide the necessary links and you can learn on your own.

http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/IT%27S_OVER_NINE_THOUSAND! (ads are nsfw, click at your own risk.)



Enjoy.

A small update

So...I'm in Japan.

I want to make this short...because I'm in an internet cafe and I can't stay too long. I won't have stable internet for at least another few days, but I'll be able to get into more detail once I do.

So, let's see...

I've been　in Osaka, Japan for almost 3 weeks now. My trip over here was fine, and until recently I was staying with an old friend. Luckily but not without an incredible amount　of hassle and frustration I was able to acquire an apartment of my own...but that's the first jumped hurdle of many many more that are here in　the land of the rising sun.

I'm here teaching English, which is what everyone and their mothers do to teach English...and I haven't started yet, but tomorrow is my first official day.

Right now, my mood is a sloshy mix of excitement, frustration, lonliness and hope. ...though my frothy mix of feelings is tipping over with large helping of frustration.

Most of it lies in that I truly am a "foreigner." I'm a spectacle, a walking curiosity, yet I feel untouchable and at times unwanted.

This could be for a myriad of reasons, but I'm afraid that being an unstereotypical black guy on top of being a foriegner itself has a smidge of blame in this.

I don't want to knock Japan at all. I do like it, and when I've been introduced to people or had obligated interactions it's been nothing but good. But my day to day　involves being gawked at and mentioned in passing by people who don't think I can understand Japanese.

Of course, this could all be something with me too, and maybe I should be all smiles and put on a show of sorts...

Anyway, like I said I'll explain in more detail late, but from my understanding, it seems that I have to walk on eggshells and be a model citizen to get by.

Ugh...well...there are a lot of good things here besides that, and I'm happy to have good friends, good supervisors/coworkers, and most of all, my lovely girlfriend for their support and company.

Alright, I guess my time's up. I feel bad that I wrote what is seems to be a mostly negative entry, but I'll write a more balanced, in-depth look into my life once I can get internet.

...With pictures too!

好きなイラストレータ/Illustrators I like 7.4.08

ケン・ヲンはアストラリアからのイラストレータで最近HPが再開された。
作品は色使いが良くて特に感触がうまく出る創作を描くアーティストだと思う。
特にこのポストに載ったブルーと言う絵が大好き。

Ken Wong is an illustrator from Australia who recently has redone his website.
I think his use of colors are great and he uses texture to great effect in his illustrations. My favorite piece of his, is blue which you see in this post.

See more of his art here, http://www.kenart.net/

マインドハックス/Mind Hacks

最近、色んな事を整理しながら本棚の中身を見たら読みきれなかった本が気付いた。
実はほとんどのは漫画とアートに関わった本と雑誌だけどたまには情報的なものか面白い科学的な本を読んで楽しむ。
読みきれなかった本の中にはマインドハックスという本がある。
今から２、３年前ぐらい本屋を立ち寄る時にこの本がタイトルだけで注目を引かれた。マインドハックスというのはマインドのハッキングすると言う意味なのでふと考えたら脳の改善とか何かの超能力を得る事についた本と考えてた。それにオーライリーという出版社は普通にいろんなプログラムについてマニュアルとか一般の知恵に以外情報と手段を身に付ける本を出す会社なのでそのことをマインドという新たな分野につないだのは面白いと思った。

買ってからちらと見たら予想以外、本の中身は違う。本当は認知神経科学についての本だった。つまり脳の機能を調べてそれをもとにして日常生活に当然のことを深く分かってハッキングする。ところで、ハッキングは普通に言うとコンピュアターの不正侵入の意味があるけど現代用語（英語）ではハッキングはある物事か行動を元の機能以外、他の方法・手段で使う。

とにかく、当時、ちょっと読んでたらこの本がちょっと怖いと思った。基本的に言って我らのすべては脳に込めてそれで何かの機械みたいな者だからこの本に載った機能に限って人間の生命とか命は脳そのものだけだ。監獄のように考え、想いなどはこの目によって投獄された。その雰囲気でなんとなく読み切れなかった。

しかし、本棚に見たと再び読んでみたかった。ゆっくり読んだけどやっと終わった。結局、とても面白くて考えさせた本だった。脳はそれだけだと言うより脳はそれだけじゃなくてすばらしいと思わせた。

脳そのものは見事にこの世の資料などを吸い込みながら現実を見分ける非常に美しい機械だ。日常生活の当然の事はどんなにちっぽけと思われても事実的にいってその小さくてくらないことはたいしたことだよ。そして、そのことを受け取ってついた可能性を解放さられた者はその脳だけだ。

ってことはすばらしいなあ、人間は

っということでこの本はおすすめ！是非読んで下さい。

So, lately I've been reorganizing/going through a lot of my possessions and I came across some books that I hadn't read or just never got around to finishing. To tell you the truth, most of the books I own are comic or art related, but I have been known to enjoy a book or two about science or general knowledge.

Anyway, so amongst my books I noticed the books Mind Hacks, which was published by O'Reilly pubslishing a few years ago. I remember coming across this book at my local bookstore and just the title alone was able to grab my attention.

Thinking about this, as silly as this sounds, the title evoked images of improving my brain, and have super human brain abilities. ...not like ESP or anything, but being able to impress people with my awesome cognitive skills or something along those lines.

Anyway, with this though firmly set in my consciousness I set about purchasing it and glancing at it upon getting home. it ended up not really being what I expected it to be but it was interesting none the less.

The book itself is mainly a primer on cognitive neuroscience, and explains the various functions of our brain in our day to day life. Upon reading a little bit further into it, I remember actually having a sense of fear...because I had the impression that we are limited by our brains. We can only see reality only as our brain presents it to us...and to speak truthfully our brain is not the most efficient piece of machinery imaginable.

Of course, there is a kernal of truth in this, reality isn't exactly the reality that we perceive it to be, and by reading this book one can learn that the brain uses a lot of tricks to makes sense of things and isn't always giving us the whole picture for a multitude of reasons.

However, I decided to give this book another gander, and although I took my time reading it, I finally finished it last week.

I'm familiar with O'Reilly publishing as a company that often releases a series of hacking books in relation to various software and PC technology. Hacking is presented in the sense that we can make use of various technologies for purposes outside of their intended or basic functions by using "hacks." Along those lines, this series has been purported to the realm of the mind. Furthermore, through cognitive neuroscience, which is in essence, understanding the mind and it's functions, we can set the stage to "hack" our mind.

Reading this book has brought a sense of wonderment to me. The book is divided into a series of experiments and explanations for the various activities and functions that we experience in our daily lives. Often taken for granted, one can discover that these things, no matter how small, are not very small at all, but incredible feats of engineering worthy of amazement.

Sometimes, in life, we tend to lose perspective. We can get lost amongst the grandiose manner of the universe itself; but sometimes you have to stop and smell the flowers and realize that even the ability to walk and talk in something to revere and admire.

...Humans are amazing creatures aren't they? That's the sentiment that I can take away from reading this book.

With that said, I'm going to wrap this up and say that I recommend this book as an interesting read.

So, yea...buy it.

ご無沙汰/A long silence

Been a while since I've updated
From now on, I'll be heading towards a new direction with this blog.
Right now I can only offer you this sketch but I'll be updating soon with more information and posts.

Thanks for reading.

ご無沙汰、長い間更新しなかった。
でも今からちょっと新たな方向に向いてる。今はこのスケーチだけを提出するけどすぐこのブログについての詳しい事を書く予定がある。

このブログをお読みになった方に感謝しております。

Photoshop Skills +1

Alright, I've gained a sense of accomplishment from this picture for two reasons.

1. I actually did a painting/drawing on something larger than 8X11. This was probably about 18X14...something around there.

2. I successfully scanned it using my regular flatbed scanner and assembled it using photoshop skills. I feel like I've leveled up.

Gotta keep doing more stuff like this...stay tuned.

Slow Jams

Things have been a little slow lately, I've kind of just settled into the way things are going for now.

Normally, this would upset me, but I need to just give myself a break and ride the situation out sometimes.

Right now, my girlfriend is in the city for the month, and I'm waiting to see if I get the good or bad news from SVA concerning my entrance. So, until I get the news I'm just going to relax a bit, enjoy my time with my girlfriend and organize what I'm dealing with right now instead of getting ahead of myself and consequently mixed up and confused.

I still have a lot of ideas and projects in my head though, and i'm making an effort to get things done, so when those start I will be posting here.

Anyway, enjoy these two recent skecthes...one is from a Japanese restaurant I went to with my roomate and the other is from my friend's apartment.

I had some time on my hand at my friend's place because I don't play first person shooters (i.e. I am terrible at them) so I sat back and entertained myself by drawing them playing Halo 3.

Slow

Not much to say right now... but things at work have been a bit slow lately. As you can see by this picture.

Rehash

This year hasn't exactly been going the way that i've been wanting it to, but it's still early in the year.

From now on, I want to use this site to write more, particularly to ask questions and to have a conversation with myself and whoever else may be reading this.

So from this point, this will be mostly text based. I will put up pictures and sketches as they come a long. But for the most part, those will be distributed amongst my portfolio site http://www.ajanioloye.com and my two other blogs...which I will mention after this.

So, before I go into the heavy writing I would like to give an update on various events in my life.

-I came back from Japan unscathed. I had a good time.
-I didn't get into the JET programme... I'm still a little disappointed about this, it meant a lot to me. What gets me is that although I have my hypotheses on why, they never tell you why, so it makes me wonder if there's something wrong with me.
-To balance out the bad news, the good news is that I passed the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) at level 2. Level 1 is the highest level, I will take that, but I'm not sure when excatly. (I think I would have to spend time in Japan before I can do that.)
-I've applied for graduate school. Specifically, the MFA in Illustration and Visual Storytelling program at School of Visual Arts. I'll be informed of the results before April 1st. This is a very important thing for me. If I don't get in, I'm not really sure what I will do.

-I started a blog with Shaun Peterson so that we can keep drawing illustrations and characters... http://illchallenge.blogspot.com
-I've also started a blog just for my subway skecthes...it's supposed to be collborative blog...but no one else is really posting except me. http://nycsubsketch.blogspot.com

Other than that, I'm just chilling out in New York. A lot going on in my head, so I'm hoping I can clear things up with this blog.

That's all for now.

Classy

It's official... I can no longer stand to watch an episode of Flavor of Love...

I think I have grown as human being, I can only hope that others will join me.

Night Owl/ 夜型人間

Since returning from Japan my schedule has been kind of weird. I work in the morning come home, fall asleep, wake up in the evening and stay up until some absurd time. The I still have to work the next morning, so the result is that I've been sleeping less.

Anyway, today is one of those nights, and I decided to sleep in the morning because I have to pick my friend up from the airport early in the morning.

I've been meaning to upload some new sketches, and finally got around to scanning a few things, enjoy.

I'm going to really try and update with more work from now on. I'll write when I can but will focus on the pictures for the most part.

Enjoy.