“Take it outside“ - Did bunch of fun spot illustrations for LA Times FOOD section. Tight deadline - had 3 days with budget of $500. Usually the cover budget itself is $500 but instead of putting full effort into single colored cover, AD wanted multiple simple black & white line drawings floating around. It was fun coming up with silly idea together. It’s rare to talk to AD over the phone but this time, talking was faster so we discussed over the phone. I’m little disappointed that I couldn’t use my favorite - cat chef idea but oh well maybe next time XD Thank you AD Steve Banks !
Post link
“Veil“ - Quick doodle on Procreate and edited on PS. Originally wanted to draw more visible patterns on kimono but after tweaking colors a lot, it kinda got lost. I’ve been really trying to explore more color combo compared to my past where I only did paint bucket coloring but now I play around with gradient map a lot. Also right now I’m liking the vintage vibe by adding noise texture, applying RGB effect and choosing retro desatured neon color palette. It’s fun.
Listening to : Keina Suna - veil
Post link
“Urashimako“ - Piece for Giant Robot’s “Underwater“ themed show. Original is black ink with grey & red copic. This dark greeen grey is added digitally. The composition is actually a remake from one of my old drawing because I wanted to see how I improved since then. The inspiration / theme is from Japanese folktale of Urashima Tarou.
“Urashima Tarō (浦島 太郎) is the protagonist of a Japanese fairy tale(otogi banashi), who in a typical modern version is a fisherman rewarded for rescuing a turtle, and carried on its back to the Dragon Palace (Ryūgū-jō) beneath the sea. There he is entertained by the princess Otohime as a reward. He spends what he believes to be several days with the princess, but when he returns to his home village, he discovers he has been gone for at least 100 years. When he opens the forbidden jewelled box (tamatebako), given to him by Otohime on his departure, he turns into an old man.” - Wikipedia
So I drew deep sea creatures, added kimono, tamate bako and some literature books of Manyoshu & Nihon Shoki in the corner. My intention for the clothes on above was to illustrate 4 walls of season ( at the palace ) that was mentioned in the story but I couldn’t articulate well as I wanted. This was my challenge to actually draw a cityscape in copic and I think I did good job in small details but as overall - the values weak I think and making less dynamic. I actually scanned the line art beforehand and made a color composition in Photoshop ( which I never do ( and I know I should do it every-time) but I still felt need more practicing doing that. One concern is that copic is not archival so it will fade over time no matter how you take care of it so I need to start thinking about another material I can replace with it. It’s so hard because I love copic too much.
Listening to : SORARU - Yurayura
Post link
“Youkai Girls“ - for Giant Robot Gallery’s “NANA” show. Original was black & white with red copic accent. I wanted to emerge more youkainess with street fashion. I enjoyed it so much I wanna make it into more series collection.
Youkai is mostly referenced from Sekien Toriyama’s Hyakki Yagyo series and ukiyo-e artist Kuniyoshi Utagawa’s youkai illustrations. Recently I also see a lot of anime / Japanese culture inspired street fashion trend which I think its cool but I personally wanted to bring it to next level. So I researched in more depth about youkai & myth creatures & traditional Japanese tattoos that I can incorporated in design. I’m happy with the overall result, but I think I want to work on drawing more variety on clothes materials and styles. More close up and high quality images are on my Behance.
Listening to : Fantastoc Youth Meledy
Post link
Commissioned Nezuko - with ASIAN KUNG FU GENERATIONS’ Re:Re homage + Citypop vibe. It was super fun playing with neon colors. I also sneaked in some lyric words from opening song Gurenge in city signs. On the top right I drew the Mugen Train even though the movie isn’t out yet but I always love adding those small easter eggs :) Originally I wanted to draw city in Taisho era ( where Demon Slayer is taking place in ) but it was hard to incorporate the vibe of city pop / vaporwavey feel. But I’m happy with results overall. I can’t never say no to neon pink, always my favorite.
Listening to : ASIAN KUNG FU GENERATIONS’ - Re:Re
Post link
Susan Denise Atkins, one of three women who appeared for arraignment in the Sharon Tate murder case, Los Angeles, December 17, 1969 | via UPI
Post link
