Happy Belated Chanukkah

I know it seems a little too late, but really I'm just super early! This is for NEXT Chanukkah.. sort of. I drew it today for the calendar Nelson and I put together as a gift to our families.

See the whole thing and/or buy one of your own at Zazzle!
http://www.zazzle.com/2011_calendar_of_illustrations-158415957304057199

Woohooo! an all nighter and it's done!

i am sooooooo tired.

Lady with bird hat - illustration in progress

I drew my own version of the lady with the bird cage hat, and now I'm working on drawing an overly elaborate background for her. I'm watercoloring the illustration and hopefully I won't screw it up.

hat with bird cage

more oil paintings from class

These were both one evening paintings. I wish I could have spent more time on them.

Old and funny drawings

I just spent a week at home in Michigan for Thanksgiving. It was too cold and too gray, just like I remembered it. :P

In spite of the grayness, I had a lot of fun. I saw my middle school teachers and hung out with my best friend in middle school, Gwen. In middle school we made these awesome Romeo and Juliet dolls for our Shakespeare unit. We made Romeo, Juliet, Friar Lawrence and the Nurse. They were supposed to be marionettes, but we never quite got that far.

I should've taken some photos of them while I was home.
Anyway, I DID bring back some drawings from middle school and even elementary school. My mom took out these huge portfolios with Ken and my writings and drawings from childhood.
Here's a few items:

This one is from 1988. I think the fairies are awesome, especially the weird angel one with turkey hand like wings.


The next two must be from some time in middle school, probably after I got my beloved 72 pencil set of Prismacolor Pencils. Some jerk swiped them from my locker in middle school. I was devastated. Eventually, I saved up enough to buy the even BIGGER pencil set. I secretly snuck out and rode my bike across Ann Arbor Saline Road to get to Office Depot. In spite of the speeding cars and lack of safe places to cross, I made it there and back with my precious pencils.
This Cinderella drawing was my masterpiece. I thought it was the best thing I'd ever done. I even used a gold pen and white-out to decorate the stars and gems.
I assume the other drawing is Snow White, also complete with white-out stars.

ASIFA drawing

Here are my last two drawings of the night. They're the only ones I'm mostly happy with. One is a 5 min and the other is 10.

unfinished landscape painting

Painted this from a photo. We worked on it for 3 weeks in class, but I think it could use a few more hours of work. Rocks are....hard...to paint

new mermaid illustration for King Con

Nelson and I are selling artwork and comics this weekend at King Con. Today went pretty well. Hopefully tomorrow will be good too.

Cheesy painting of a castle

just painting a castle for fun. I should've used watercolor paper. It probably would've come out better looking.

lady with umbrella

Zoo!

Now that I'm unemployed I have time to do fun stuff like drawing at the zoo!
And also drawing people eating at a diner. :P

more painting class!

Oil paintings

I finally scanned in some of my paintings from class. Each pose lasted for 2 classes, so I guess I spent somewhere around 5 hrs on each. It kinda bothers me that the 2nd painting has a lavender backdrop. That was the color of the sheet behind him, but it just doesn't seem to suit him.

Governors Island Jazz Picnic

Yay! I finally went to Governors Island for the Jazz Picnic. I love seeing everyone dressed up in period clothes. I did a little bit of sketching, but I think I will use them and my photos for better illustrations.

another oil painting from class

puffed sleeves

When I see photos of puffed sleeve dresses, I have to wonder what on earth was wrong with Anne of Green Gables. Why was she so desperate to get such a stupid looking outfit? I'm sure Marilla's dresses were ugly too, but they probably weren't absurd. I think I made the sleeves smaller looking in my drawing than in the photo.
On the plus side, if you had fat flabby arms I guess it hid it pretty well. You can't even see the waist with such humongous arms in the way.

Isa Bey Mosque, Selçuk, Turkey

We painted landscapes from photos in painting class recently, and I chose a photo from my trip to Turkey. I took this photo from the ruins of St John's Basilica. It was a beautiful view and Nelson and I spent a bit of time just sketching the mosque and the ruins around us.

The Isa bey Mosque was built in 1375 and incorporates stones and columns taken from Ephesus and the ancient temple of Artemis.

I love landscapes but I always feel perplexed when I trying to draw or paint them. I know my perspective is a bit off and the column looks weird, but I'm happy that I finally got the colors fairly accurate. We did an under painting using burnt sienna in the foreground, gradually mixed with a pale violet in the distance. It definitely helped me to divide up the painting and create a sense of space and atmospheric perspective.

photos of the mosque

Ken and Me, 1989

My aunt Yukari sent my mom and me copies of this photo, which we must've given to my grandparents 20 years ago or so.
It's 1989, the day after Girls' Day/Hina-matsuri. Those are my hina-ningyō behind us. They're a set of dolls for the holiday representing the Emperor and Empress with their attendants and furniture. And omochi, giant fake omochi.
My brother must be a little under 3 years old. It amazes me that he kept the kimono on long enough to take a nice picture. He was an obnoxious little brat back then. ;)

Here's my mom as a baby with HER hina-ningyo.

Rokurokubi color test

I was thinking about adding some color to my Mommy Monster drawings.

Self portrait

I painted this a couple months ago for a homework assignment. My favorite part is Unchii-kun.

sketchcrawl at the Harlem Meer

Yesterday was Sketchcrawl! and I actually went!
It was a long arduous journey from the depths of Brooklyn all the way to the distant north side of Central Park. I didn't do a whole lot of sketching, but I'm mostly happy with my watercolor paintings.

Getting our table ready!!!

Tomorrow is the convention... Nelson decided to lay out some of our stuff on the coffee table.
Nelson's new Shape Drawing book is awesome!

Battling the Why-Isn't-Your-Room_Clean Monster!

The only thing that can distract the Monster from its rampage is...........an A++ Report Card!

I drew this for the convention Nelson is dragging me to this weekend. ^_-

Saturday, February 27th - The New York Comic Book Marketplace.

Miniature Portrait

I'm taking a painting class again! Our homework was to do a 2"x2" portrait in oil paint. It's really really hard to paint that small...especially when you don't have any good small brushes.

Vikings and other fun stuff

Christi came over this weekend and we ended up sketching late into the night. We dressed up in blankets and Nelson's old Viking Halloween helmets, with props like a toy sword, genie lamp, toy guns, etc.
I think Nelson's sister thought we were weird. Nelson and Christi did some pretty awesome and funny poses.