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.”

Go back to the source

When I was younger, I would spend some summer days in my grandma’s apartment watching TV while my parents worked. One of my favorite memories is of seeing a strange cartoon, very unlike the standard Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, or any other mindless children’s show of the time. I was only able to catch a glimpse of the second half of the episode, and I wouldn’t see the entire series until I was in high school, but it captured my imagination.

The show was an anime called Ronin Warriors, and I blame it for turning me into a comic artist.

High school and college have come and gone, and Ronin Warriors has vanished from most anime radars, but its influence on me remains. Now that I have the time and creative freedom, I’ve gone back to Ronin Warriors, found my inspiration, and drafted up twenty-seven chapters of my current, and most ambitious, comic project.

At twenty-seven chapters half of the story has been written and sits at a major turning point. While the second “season” stews in my mind, I’m again, reworking costume designs and getting to know my characters. I hope to have material to share soon, as this project is consuming most of my creative output.

Creating a comic is no small feat, and while this project is time-consuming and creatively intensive, I’m feeling artistically fulfilled for the first time. Wish me luck in avoiding writer’s and artist’s block.

“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!

Weird weather

Spring’s transition into summer has been full of very restless weather with pockets of pouring rain and hail, bouts of blustering winds, and a few stray spots of sunshine. This wacky weather pattern makes it very hard to dress for going out, but on one occassion, I was in my car when I got a view of a whole rainbow WITH a mirror rainbow next to it! I quickly pulled into a vacant business parking lot so I could snag some pictures.

It sits on the edge of the passing storm:

Amazingly, I saw the end of the rainbow:

Too bad there wasn’t any gold there, but I found it to be a great experience nonetheless. It’s a reminder that there is an opportunity to discover something new and beautiful every day!