Strange...

It seems as though not many people liked broiled fish- especially those people in the US or Europe. I wonder why :D


haha cultural shock- I guess.



People like whole fish as a whole in Japan after all.

Anyway, I'm currently working on next two wallpapers at the moment. I got a full schedule until six months later so it's being worked on slowly.


It seems as though SciFi drawing I was planning to create is not turning out that way but more like a modern piece of art. I might switch the order of wallpaper categories I declared earlier.


peek-a-boo:



I am using IllustStudio, Photoshop, ComicStudio, Cinema 4D and gosh... I use a huge amount of softwares at the same time. It's just that I didn't have IllustStudio when I started creating this piece that I drew line art in Comic Studio. Then, I still didn't know how to shade hair in IllustStudio so I used Photoshop. Cinema 4D is for 3D CG I'm currently creating at the moment.

Wips of Nature themed wallpaper I'm working on (which will be released after one above):
I changed from my gray to color painting style to color it in abstract style I saw people using in some places. For this piece, I want to create more depth to the piece than those I did before by using different color temperature and saturation of colors instead of making it blurred like I did before.

I decided to add something I imagined a few days prior:
and didn't like it so I changed its shape:

still didn't like it so I changed it to:

and decided that it still sucked so I started painting random stuff:
and still continued...

IllustStudio 1.0.10

Photos from the weekend when I went to Ako （赤穂） for oysters :D

Photos were taken with Lumix TZ-7 and edited with Photoshop CS3. I edited out faces of people to protect their privacy.

Ako is a town located in Hyogo Prefecture, famous for salt production and Ako Ronin.


1 for 100 yen=$1.12 (today's exchange rate)

Five BBQ oysters (500 yen)

They are cheap since it was eaten outside of the fishery place- right out from the bay.

The photo is kind a crooked since I pieced together two photos and would miss the details if I cut them properly:

This place had a fishermen taking out oysters from their shells. Oysters were probably from oyster farms in bay.

Tanks in other places had scallops, crabs, and more oysters.

This shop sold fried octopus on a stick (200 yen), oyster clear soup with noodles (300 yen), fried oysters (3oo yen per stick), BBQ scallops (300 yen?), and BBQ oysters (100 yen each).

This was how oysters were BBQ (I asked for permission before taking this photo):

And... ta-dah!

They were yummmmmmmmyyyyy!!!

After oysters were taken out from their shells, shells were dumped by:

for fertilizer or something?

Anyway, after eating BBQ oysters, I went to a place called Umi no eki (海の駅） (Sea station) right nearby to eat more.

I was really tempted by this sign at the bottom, which basicalled said, "Oppai yaki" (Oppai- slang for boob and yaki is stuff that's usually cooked on a hot metal plate or frying pans)

They supposedly named it that way since oysters are called as "milk of the sea" and yeah... boobs have milk.

Ordered fried oysters (ate the one on the far end before this photo was taken):

yep... hot and yummy:

and... the rumored Oppai yaki which looked like normal okonomiyaki but with two oysters in it.

It was soft and chewy. XDDDDDD

The shop nearby looked like this:

Day 2, 3 forgot what...

I lost track of when I did these but how the wallpaper is starting to look like:

Day 2 (oi... made her bald as a monk)

Day 3 (started working more on background)


I must say... not much progress since this last image since I was away most of the time during this last three day weekend, and I worked on the next wallpaper last night.


Anyway, photos I took over Sat:
This wasn't Sat but a practice with water drops. I used one of those water sprays for ironing... yeah... didn't turn out well:


Sat, my dog's stuffed animal in a miserable condition:


Sky:



and... me:

Canon Kiss X3+S18-55 F3.5-5.6 IS
Photoshop CS3


now... editing photos I took over the weekend while I hiked with a friend.



Please wait until I finish choosing and editing since I took so many....

Lumix TZ7
Photoshop CS3

Ugh...

For the past three days, I was down with cold... or so I thought... and was even absent from my job for the first time in my life.


It turned out that I had flu and have to stay at home until the middle of next week. Grrrrr!

It's due to Japanese policy in response to the new flu going around- swine flu. Confine or quarantine a person at his/her home for a week so he/she won't go about spreading the disease.

That sounded like something out of a newspaper until it came to me for treating one of my sick family members over the break. Ugh. Most people get it after they travel around places abroad. I got it locally. Ugh.


Well... it means that I can't go back to work until middle of next week.... It really sucks...

But, people around me were really supportive for the past few days so I really really appreciate their kindness and generosity.


I don't know if I have that one since the hospital that diagnosed me didn't have that much of detailed check up thing. Supposedly it's a paper chromatography method. Interesting... since it's pretty basic scientific method. I still remember the time when people had to grind up spinach leaves to do that and thinking of my snot running up the paper... Interesting.


Anyway, the CD I ordered yesterday came today!

It's Ellipse by Imogen Heap.



I'm a great fan of her songs :D

Very inspirational

Progress

I started working on 3D CG for my next illustration. Hopefully, it's a matte painting.


I watched the first 5 min of the recent popular movie.


I don't like animation usually unless it's 3D CG, but I thought it was interesting. I might watch till the end if it get some sort of international award up to Academy or etc.

Doodle (still in progress)

Now that I started having an idea of what to do, I will start working on the next illustration.

I decided to try out Sci-Fi like city in color.

It still needs fixing and lots of painting involved, but this is the basic one I'll be working on:


I think I will change a lot with this one since the angle and shapes are all wrong since I didn't follow basic rules of perspective drawing. However, I am following 1/3 rule for composition and trying to draw things diagonally as I read in a tutorial and other people's works. Once I get used to this type of painting, I will start drawing in details in future illustrations. This one will be in color-perhaps in sunset or night time since I don't think I had much of those before.

Corel Painter X

update

I went to a book signing event today. It was for the illustrator who draws Ajikan CD jacket art. I got the illustration book since I'm a fan of that music band... and well... I was interested in learning how to draw in this artist's style so I got it last week- which came luckily with a book signing deal :p



He wrote my name on the book but I hid it with a mouse pad in this photo :p

This is a magazine (architecture) I got today to study lighting for 3D CG. :)

I think I want to explore using different materials for lighting and texture in future.

Ta-dah!

A moth....



That's big as a pen (lined up parallel to the insect):





I saw this after I walked the dog for its late night walk.

currently studying

manga techniques from this TV advertisement for a Japanese shampoo


I think films and TV are great place to learn framing skills- especially in makeup or shampoo advertisements since they try to depict people in a certain way to make them really attractive looking.

So... I'm currently trying to study with this method as I have done years ago when I took a film class in high school.

I really like the way this advertisement summarizes everything and like the transition techniques they have in this 30 sec. cut.

Eclipse 2009 Report

I woke up this morning and saw that it was part cloudy and sunny.

I tried to take many photos of sun peeking between clouds here and there.

Wondering... if I could see the solar eclipse today.

I took the shadow of tree leaves first (since they change shape during eclipse)

Clouds came back again.

10:45 am, about an hour after eclipse supposedly started.

It's cloudy...

I can't see it...

Wait....

Hey! Look! Look! There's a sun shaped like crescent shaped moon!

I guessed the clouds acted like filters for the camera.

11:05 am. It's supposed to be the time when you can see the biggest partial eclipse in my area..

Can't see it...

There's not even a shadow here...

But, since I got to see the eclipse even a glimpse, I was happy with it.

Practice...

Painting clouds with Photoshop:

(yeah... it sucks)

Trying to figure out how to do wireframe with sketch and toon in Cinema 4D:

(abstract 3D CG made with splines)

What I learned this time:
Finally figured out how to make brushes really smooth in Photoshop -> will try to paint in Photoshop more (since Corel Painter takes a bit of time with saving)for a while.
Rendering wireframe with sketch and toon- technical drawing, thickness of 5?



Next goal: improve- really improve- on painting techniques- perhaps try out semi-realism again since I suck.


I also updated my portfolio today:

7/2/09
I updated the new version of my portfolio:

Portfolio(English)

Portfolio(Japanese)

Finished translation

I finally finished all of the required translation for a small Japanese history translation project that my client asked me to do and handed in a day before the deadline~ Yaaaay!


So now, I will start doing 3D CG and restart coloring of my next illustration for a contest.


(Just a small clip of it)

Oi...

Today is the day when I curse my fate of being born Japanese in Japan.


Reason?


It's because I slept wrong and my neck is hurting me. In Japan, you have to bow in order to greet people- just a simple nod is fine- but gaaaaaah!

YOU DON'T WANT TO FACE THAT WHEN YOUR NECK IS HURTING LIKE HELL!!

Anyway, I was working on coloring last night of that side face so expect it to be up in a few days. I edited the Japanese version of p.1 of Ch 2.3 of TLOF so it has some lonely atmosphere with more space between phrases.


JOKE:

Another day

Ok... since I said that I will try to do at least a bit of blogging, I will try to write my everyday meaningless... diary to see how long I can keep up with this (since I gave up one last year for English blog).


I'll warn people though- that you shall see a side of me that's--- very random. I think people who can read Japanese got that part of me already. I can sound very serious one moment, and in the next entry, I might sound happy as hell. That's my style- very random. I think my Japanese one is worse since I sound like a middle aged guy one moment, in the next one, I sound like a female teenager. I change my writing style depending on the mood I'm in- though it's probably not as obvious in English.


Anyway, here I go with my real blogging entry!

with a smelly sock (just kidding)

p.s.

I just subscribed myself to additional English journal.
http://waterdr0plet.livejournal.com/

I will compare both Blogger and this live journal for a while to see which one I like the best. Once I make up my mind, I might keep just one or both blogs. They will have same content but hosted by different blog server.