At the gardens

Wonderful weather has been washing over Portland so I visited the Rose Garden and Japanese Garden again to clear my head. The blooming roses provided a lot of inspiration for some merchandise I’m making to sell at Kumoricon.

I didn’t catch the names of these roses, but they’re pretty:

Wandering the paths of the Japanese Garden always helps to relieve my stress:

Hope everyone gets a chance to find a place and some time to relax.

Contest complete, part 2

The deadline to turn in all entries for the contest was today at 11:59:59 PM PDT, and I managed to finish and submit everything by 9:55 PM PDT. The mascot winner will not be announced until the end of Kumoricon 2010, so I won’t know anything until after the convention is over in September. Regardless, I’m hopeful that my hard work, effort and design will win.

Here is a sneak peak of part of the mascot design:

I feel a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders now.

On a side note, there was a third contest going on to design Anime News Network’s new icons. I teamed up with Zack Corcoran to form: Feathered Robot Productions studio and swiftly created a set of icons for their contest. Supposedly the contest ends tomorrow, and DVD sets are the prize for each icon. They haven’t announced which series they’re offering as rewards, but I’m still hopeful it will go well. Wish us luck!

Contest complete, part 1

After a major overhaul of a design, I’ve finished the program book cover entry for Kumoricon 2010.

Here is a sneak peak of a piece of the cover design:

I had to create and revamp several assets to insert onto the cover, and I hope it is a cohesive enough design that it will win. Once the contest is over and the winners announced, I’ll place the whole image into the Design section of my site.

Now I must rush to get the mascot design going before the deadline hits. My fingers are crossed it all goes well!

Contest cramming

Happy July 4th!

I’m currently rushing to complete artwork for two contests: designing a mascot and creating a program book cover. The deadline for both is July 18th, so please wish me luck as I finalize the designs and color everything in. Once the deadline has passed, and my entries submitted, I’ll post them.

A sign of Summer

Summers are often full of warm weather and sunshine, but this year has been oddly cool and cloudy for the Pacific Northwest. Despite the tepid temperatures, one sign of Summer still sprung forth: Spiders.

One spider created this magnificent web on our deck:

I’m not sure what species of spider this was, but it created a very stunning web. I hope this sign of summer summons warmer temperatures soon.

Summer in the Lan Su Chinese Garden

Over the rainy weekend, I spent a day wandering downtown Portland. Towards the end of the outing, I managed to slip into the Lan Su Chinese Garden, twenty minutes before closing. Due to the weather and the late hour, the garden was wonderfully empty, and I wandered through the passageways and soaked in the rare serenity. Luckily, in the last ten minutes the rain tapered off, and I managed a few photos of the tranquility.

A duck found the perfect resting spot in the lake:

The exhibit of penjing, or landscapes in miniature, was taking place by the Four-Sided Hall:

This was my favorite penjing:

Here’s a view of the Mid-lake Pavilion through the leaves of the penjing:

With warmer weather in the forecast, I hope to visit the garden again soon.

Bubble Tea for the busy artist

While in college, I developed a taste for bubble tea, and would get one with my college work-study coworker. Over time, the local store closed, and I moved away to Oregon. Luckily for me, bubble tea exists and thrives in Oregon, and with the warm weather fast approaching, I find myself purchasing more of these tasty concoctions. My favorite place to get them is the nearby Bubble Bubble Tea store.

Here is a view of the inside of the uniquely designed store:

My favorite Bubble Bubble Tea concoction is the Mocha Coffee Slushy:

It’s a great snack and a cool drink combined into one. Not only is it delicious, it also improves my creativity and productivity. One of these giant drinks will give me enough buzz to keep me drawing well into the night. I’ll be drinking a lot of these when I get to drawing my comic’s pages.

Food is love

I grew up in Massachusetts, and was always able to get great Chinese food either by my Gramma’s cooking or from Chinatown. When I left for college in Minnesota, I found a distinct lack of my favorite dishes, but I managed to survive by finding replacements for Chinese food. I developed a taste for Vietnamese and Japanese foods. Sadly, those favorite foods and restaurants were also left behind when I moved further west to Oregon.

Luckily, Portland, Oregon, has a Chinatown, and while it’s sparse and seemingly abandoned when compared to Boston or San Francisco, a few great restaurants remain to tide tourists and Lan Su Chinese Garden visitors over. I found a hole-in-the-wall restaurant that mimics some of my favorite dishes from Boston.

This is the House Special Pan-Seared Noodle dish:

And this dish, Soy Sauce Chicken and Rice Combination Plate, is only available on the weekends:

It all definitely hits the spot and is a nice taste of my childhood. Visit Portland’s Chinatown, and be sure to stop by Chen’s Good Taste Restaurant for some great food.

“W” is for Workshop

On Friday I presented a comics workshop to the students of the Whitford Middle School, and I had a ton of fun seeing the students flex their creative muscles.

Here are some pictures of the presentation:

Here is a picture of a comic page I created specifically to display at the workshop:

The students were a pleasure to work with, and they created some interesting stories. One disheartening aspect of these workshops is how often the students will say to me: “I don’t know how to draw that”, and due to time limitations, I can only advise them to try their best. In reality, most students are drawing very well for their age group, and I tell them that they have plenty of time ahead of them to practice and improve their craft.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: “There are no shortcuts or secret formulas to creating art; I can offer ideas and guidance, and show how I draw and how I compose an image, but in the end, the path to being an artist is like the path to enlightenment: you must find your own way.”

“A” is for Art

On Friday, May 7th, I had the pleasure of participating in Jackson Middle School’s Multicultural day where I presented two workshops on the same subject: Manga and Anime Illustration. I was able to utilize my experiences with the library to streamline the lesson and provide a stronger sense of what the course goal was: to understand the underlying artistic trends that permeate Japanese illustrations and to implement them in an illustration.

This time I made it very clear to each session that I am unable to teach all the elements of design, illustration, or even drawing basics within a 55 minute course, and I think the kids respected that. My impressions were also that the students were also able to better relax and have fun without the pressures of drawing skill levels or style emulation looming over them.

I was surprised that several students asked if I had a deviantart account, and so I had to say no. I did, however, provide my portfolio address, and perhaps some might drop by.

(Edit: 5/26/10: I realize I don’t have permission to show the students’ faces, so I’ve removed the pictures. My apologies if anyone was offended.)

I have another workshop coming up in two weeks, and the Spring 2010 Making Comics course is nearly over. The completion of these events are coinciding with the finalization of my comic’s story. I hope to use the summer months to draw it and potentially turn it into a webcomic. Wish me luck!