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picture book pages 1 and 2

Well, there are some things you can get accomplished 

if you know there are someone out there that maybe

looking for stuff like this.

I made this character out of whim, 

made a story and is MAYBE waited by someone to be seen.

already having an audience does help me keep going.
That's for sure.
I dunno, but here are some pages for it.

More to be posted soon. 

So some of you may wonder why page 1 was white background

but 2nd page is red and blue.

I really don't know why.

change of scenery.

....

..... yeah sorry, I don't have any answers for that.

I did what I wanted.

Well then, time to get to sleep.

Quote of the day:
There is no such thing as to how to do it.
It's just a matter of doing it or not doing it.
- S. K.

I'm here and alive

Well, since I haven't updated anything for like a year almost, 

here's one thing.

Boy this is old stuff.

Those little guys must be annoyed that I'm really behind with

creating their stories for them to actually come to life.

Not to worry little Puu, and ????(brown penguin)

I'm writing your story next.

as for ???(girl penguin reading book)....

well, I think you might have to wait a bit.

This picture actually does depict the situation I just mentioned now that I think of it....

ahaha...ha...ha... sorry....

I just have too many projects at once.

I need to stop fooling around.

and more than anything, 

I need to stop making excuses.

oh hey, I think I came up with another story,

ok, see you laters.

Paradaizu Day パラ大豆ディ

February 3rd is a Setsubun-no-hi (Bean Throwing Ceremony day) in Japan. It's festival that you throw handful of beans to Oni(demon/ogre) to drive away bad spirits and bad luck away.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setsubun The day before that, I chatted with hampty-dampty77 and realized that Setsubun-no-hi was on the next day. It all started when I mistyped Paradise as Paradaizu. Daizu means beans. パラ大豆. Coincidentally, or by fate, today was the Setsubun day so I decided to throw some bean to the demon. But there aren't anybody with demon mask so I drew a demon on a rice with Spicy hot sriracha sauce and decided to throw some natto (fermented beans) on it.

So here it goes! Oni face on a rice!　

おには〜そと〜

 And okame natto 

おたふくは〜うち〜

and now, I shall mix the natto.

and here it goes. I'm throwing (pouring) on top of little oni

Nyahaha~~~~!

...however....

the Oni got me.... Sriracha sauce I drew oni with was spicier than I have anticipated.

Well, fun time that was. This is all thanks to fun chat with hampty-dampty77 

I actually bought a an item from her ebay store. You all should try and look into her store if you're looking for any goods from Japan.

She's an awesome ebay seller!

http://www.ebay.com/sch/hampty-dampty77/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686

She has large selection of goods and handles shipping very very carefully.

Very thorough with her communication (and it's better if you speak Japanese) and handles shipping professionally.

Online shopping is just awesome.

hampty-dampty77 is even more awesome.

Kumon Summer Class Illustration

Volunteering work again. But this is for Kumon and not for Japan America Association.

Chronologically, I did these drawings for Kumon first and did the Dancing for Hope Poster second, but chroNONlogically, I posted this afterwards.

Those are drawings that goes along with email that is to be sent out to notify parents about summer classes during the summer to imprison and torture kids with loads of worksheets and homeworks.... ahem excuse me..... to improve skills with Reading and Math (and Japanese also). Hopefully, director of Kumon didn't read that part....

Well, to be honest, that's how I felt when I used to go to this Kumon as a student during middle school and high school....

But now I'm teaching here and I am realizing how important learning was...

and also confused by myself that I am teaching at a place where I absolutely shunned in going during my school years. I guess I'm here to fix my problem that I had long time ago.

Thanks to the director of Kumon Hideko Fujiwara, I was able to improve my math skills during middle and high school, and gave me an experience to teach by giving me a job as a Kumon tutor. So as a thank you, I volunteered in doing this for her.

This Kumon here in memorial drive in Houston is really one of important pivot in my life.

One thing I need to learn is writing in a proper English, darn it!

Houston Ballet Poster and Flyer

Poster

Flyer

This is a poster I made for The Japan-America Society of Houston. Volunteering work it is.

People from ballet dancing and gymnastics gathered to raise fund for recovery from earthquake/tsunami disaster that occurred in Japan.

I talked to my friend Yuri who is a graphic designer and we both agreed that I put too much text and made it too big after the project was done.

There was nothing I could do about putting tons of text in it since that's what client wanted but I could've made the font smaller... at least for the Poster.....

I still need training.....

It's been a while since I pulled all nighter to finish a project since I took the project at a bad timing. Next time, I'll make sure I'll take project where I can have more time to.... at least sleep. Ok, I'm writing too much and I'm getting bored by my own writing. Heading to bed. zzzzz

Adding to that, I made a typographical mistake on the website to go purchase. Luckily, I made in time to fix and to have it resent to the printer (I think). I needed to check from 3rd person point of view to see if all the info was correct but.... deadline was on press to the extreme and I didn't get to do that since this was overnight work. I know that sounds like a lame excuse but it was really tough trying to keep myself awake for 2 days without sleep. This project really pushed me to limits with many things and now I know what to do and don'ts when it comes to taking a project.

Penplex (Penguin Apartment Complex)

Somewhere in this planet is a place known as Penplex (Penguin Apartment Complex). Either an outcast animals from the society or being too smart to be surrounded by humans choose to live here. It's such a peaceful and quiet place for ones to stay. The founder of this building was from outer space, giving the right for those wandering ones to live quietly on their own on this planet.

Who are those founders you ask? Well, one is our alien friend Puu. He's the blue fellow who's opening his Japanese Plum Soda-pop at the front of the apartment entrance. The other one is sitting right next to him drinking Blue Explosion Soda-pop, and the one who is sitting inside reading a romance literature book. What's their name you ask? Maybe you'll know when they choose to show themselves to the public. They told me to keep their names a secret until they choose to reveal themselves to the children of this planet. ;)

Bravebird... or rather Bravechick

Here's another piece I was working on for the portfolio. Bravebird!... or rather Bravechick!

With his special bandana and his wooden sword, there's nothing that scares him.

He even stands up against the monstrous twister... until he uncovers his bandana that's covering his eyes...

Don't worry, He survives the storm.

I mean he is the storm in some ways....

Chillin Pig (Dizzy?Lax?Still thinking what his name is going to be...)

This is the character I'm working on right now. Pig that's chillin~. I haven't determined his name yet whether it should be Dizzy or Lax or something else. I like this little guy a lot, especially for the fact that he doesn't really care much about his surroundings and he just does whatever that pleases him. He's pretty much the lazy bum who goes on his own tempo. He's the dark side of me, hehe.... Oh, and I've got portfolio to work on for children's book so I'll be uploading more stuff on this blog as I go.

Sherry Blossom

It's a little early in the season, but this is Cherry Blossom from a different planet of ours. It's a tree called Sherry Blossom.

Legend of Sherry Blossom:

It's said that the traveler from deep outer space seeks it in order to gain healing from their scarred lonely heart. Just by taking a look at it will heal the deep scarred heart caused in deep outer space.

-Traveler from Prutina

ORANGE!!!

Just wanted to set my little fellows to an adventure on a desert planet. Instead of using blue, I used the complement orange to pop them out for the background color. This one's painted and not a vector stuff that I usually do. Thanks to Linda C. I was able to make something different from my tendencies to make everything blue. Well, enough talking. Hope you like this. I do!!!

some stuff

some stuff I slapped in few minutes without much thought. nippon?

reflected on pond-ering (明鏡止水)

I always thought that the artist who comes up with work of art was amazing... but what's great isn't artists. It's the world that's great. I guess we artist simplify that according to our perception of the world. It's communication between viewer and the perception of artist. It's kinda interesting how it's viewers who create ranking of what's better than others of which perception is better than others.

Belated B-day present (奥義・画竜点睛)

birthday present... that's super belated. It's for my master Rin Aiello.

It's really been a while since I touched photoshop once again to finish this piece. I had the urge to work on this piece a little further since my friend Yuri suggested something about my work. He told me that if I were to bring in some textures into my work, it would bring out some depth. It really did! I think...

but I only realized that only brought me closer to what my master has already realized in her work long time ago. Ah well, I guess I still have a long way to go... but that's alright, I can work harder as long as I know I'm not good enough.

Anyways, Happy B-day Rin. (super belated)

I wish...

Sometimes, looking into deep sky makes me feel better when I'm feeling down.

On a fireflying Land

Update - 30% Done

Remaining Process - Shape retouch and Photoshop effect

(P.S. I am still alive)

New Journey

I guess it's almost time for me to pack up. Internship has ended and freelance extra work is about to be over soon...

Working at a corporate as an intern for 6 month, plus freelancing gave me some opportunity to know how corporate worked. It's just a part of the huge body.

TEAMWORK! 

Not just one person's ability, but to function well in a versatile manner for the company is what keeps the company healthy and wealthy. If one organ doesn't function well as an organ, the body would want to replace it with one that functions well. Healthy company keeps themselves real healthy like that, which may sound cruel but makes logical sense. Each role has it's own task and it's responsibility. It's not all that fun if you write down list of task and responsibility but once I became a part of it, it was pretty exciting for the fact I was functioning as a necessary organ of the company. 

I guess the luxury I was able to gain by working in the company is the joy of being useful to somebody and being able to make my own living out of it. Thanks Carter's Company!

Almost half of life as a human is spent at our work so I might as well find something I like. Time to start my new journey.

I'm yelling out to the ocean

... this is kinda wierd to say it here.... but I wanna do CHILDREN'S BOOK! Something that's educatable! Not like fairy tale stuff like happily ever after and poopy poo like that. but something more realistic message with more of thing that teaches for growing kid.... I'm yelling out to the ocean... no one heard this... ignore this post if you've seen it. I just wanted to write this down somewhere so I can remember what I said. It just had to be a place where I don't forget like on my computer's notepad program... that's all. ok

No one can predict the tomorrow

Something I've photoshoped from scanned drawing I did a long time ago... if this summer counts as long time ago that is... This is a drawing I did when I was thinking of friends I'm leaving behind in Sarasota. All the Ringling colleagues... I wonder how they're doing now... Once in a while it's good to think back of old days I had with dear friends. Well, I don't have that many friends, but that's why they are valuable to me. Thanks everyone, for who have concern of me, who cares about me.

I'm off to new life tomorrow... saying that makes it sound like it's big deal but it's nothing but a same routine of chronological order. Different Mindset brings new perspective to life. Living for someone else as well as yourself is what's important. That's what I come to realize recently. This world is not only a place for myself but for others as well. I'm just a part of it. Then why not, lets do something to contribute a little happiness to the others. I'll be creating more stories with these little guys having little bits and pieces of everyone I know. Good and bad, both of 'em.

Reflection of High and Mighty Colored Mirror

With the guilt from lack of post I've done since I started this blog, I'm posting the recent sketch I did for my character drawing. ('~') I'm thinking of using this guy for my comic/manga I'm thinking of starting.... in a few more upcoming years... (<.<) I randomly started drawing after listening and getting inspired to the song "Mirror" from "High and Mighty Color". That's my self proclaimed theme song I've given for this story! mwahaha. I'll be coloring this drawing with Adobe Illustrator. Drawing with vector has soaked into me since I started working for Carters. Maybe I'll give some gradient if I get to it...