9/21/2009

American Comics Art Exhibition


American Comics Exhibition 2009 ~Superheroes~

This is it! My first produced group show!
If you're in Tokyo, please stop by!

Dates: Sept. 27 (Sun) to Oct 3rd (Sat) 2009 (closed Tuesday the 29th)

Times: 11am to 7pm

Place: Gallery Kopis (http://www.g-kopis.com/) located less than a minute from Kiyosumi-Shirakawa St. exit A3.

Address: 1-2-12 1F Shirakawa Etoh-ku Tokyo 135-0021

Phone: 03-5639-2381

Artists:

Official HP: http://patokon.com/amecomi09.htm

I'm working on a Spider Woman piece.
Here are some sketches:


5/15/2009

Dream Exhibition 2009!

Yes, friends I've been lax in keeping this sucker up-to-date, but it's because I've been busy moving! I'm no longer in Tokyo proper, but the suburb Saitama. Where I live it's a bit more sub than urb if you know what I mean. But it's nice and quiet with babbling brooks and birds singing and a view of the mountains!
And now, the first art pieces I've created in the new place will go on view from this Saturday the 16th (2009) to the following Saturday. I'll be at the Kopis Gallery on Sunday with postcards for sale. To get to the gallery, it's 20 mins from either Shibuya (Hanzomon line) or Shinjuku (Oedo line). Get out at exit A3 at the top of the stairs turn left and then take a quick left through a walkway. When you hit the street, take a right and it's on the next right corner. If you go to the dog cafe, Jolly Job, you've gone too far. The phone # of the gallery is 03-5639-2381.

I hope people can stop by on Sunday while I'm there, but if not please drop by on any other day but Mon or Tues when they are closed.

I'll have more news up soon!

Cheers!

3/27/2009

podcast, music videos, underwear and zen

*It's a Marvel Geekout!
New podcast over at Tim Young's Deconstructing Comics.
We discuss Marvel's latest crossover Dark Reign and deal with some general goofiness.
Other good podcasts here as well with Tim and guests.

*Been animating music videos for acoustic group Kirazuki. Good stuff.


here is a frame from "Elmore" by Kirazuki

*Been designing undies with a retro SF motif. Funfunfun. More on this later.

*Had a booth at the Tokyo Animation Fair with my Artist Army buds.

*Fresh off of two art exhibitions in Ginza and Tokyo City Hall.

*And I'm about to move to the country. Well, out of the city anyway.
Fresh mountain air, plenty of room, and we're gonna get a doggie!

*The good part about being so busy is that I'm getting more work. The bad part is that I haven't done any kind of promotion! Grrrrr! My next show isn't until May, so I should be settled in by then. I'll have my promotion plan put together by then as well. Maybe I'll even have a web comic started!

2/11/2009

LOVE WINTER TOKYO 2009 exhibition


Hello to all my peeps out there! All seven of ya!

From tomorrow I'll be in an another art show in Ginza. Doing group shows is always a good experience as I always learn something from other artists. It's also good to see your work among others'. It's humbling. I remember at one show where after I put up my work I was thinking, "hey, my junk is the best junk on the wall!" Then one last artist comes moseying in a bit late and throws this gorgeous detailed work on the wall blowing my work out of the water. Oh, well. You can't win 'em all. What's that you say? Art is about self expression and communication and touching something deeper in the soul and shouldn't be cheapened or made into some kind of contest? You're right. I'm letting my pride blind me to the true beauty of artistic expression. Each work has its own value and should be enjoyed in its own way. I've learned my lesson. I'll be good. (on a side note, that one amazing piece didn't sell, but I sold my pieces and prints of them as well. In your face!!)

Back to the show info.
"Ginza's nicest day" is the rough translation of the show opening at Gallery G2 in Ginza. It's part of a larger show called "Love Winter Tokyo". From what I can tell, it's mostly illustrators, but there are plenty of "fine" artists exhibiting as well.

Date: Feb. 12 - Feb 17. 2009 (thursday to tuesday)
Time: 12 - 7pm (last day closes at 4pm)
Place: Gallery G2
2-8-2 Ginza, Himurasaki Bldg. 1st Floor
Chuo-ku, Tokyo tel: 03-3567-1555 HP: http://www-gallery-g2.com/

Directions:
Take the Yurakucho line to "Ginza 1 chome" exit 11. Go up the stairs, turn left. Cross the street, go past the Neuhaus shop and it's a small entrance on your left.
If you can get to Ginza it's not too far from the Mitukoshi. From Mituskoshi go towards Kyobashi and turn right at the Melsa. Cross one side street and it's on your right.

Also you can check out the Love Winter Tokyo HP at: http://www.love-winter-tokyo.com

So I've been drawing faeries a lot lately. Is there something you'd like to tell us, you say? Yes. I'm a secure heterosexual male who cries at movies and likes faeries. There I said it. Yes, I read my wife's favorite comic Candy Candy whenever I used the 1st floor bathroom and I cried. What's the big deal? Okay there's nothing more pitiful than a 37-year old man on the pot, reading a girl's comic and crying. I admit it. So why am I even telling you this. Because I'm cool with it, and if you're not, then who needs ya! I like that me. That pitiful me. Besides! Faeries are cool! and innocent. and are inspirational. and are a little bit cute and a little bit sexy. C'mon, admit it. Tinkerbell gets you hot.

That's enough ranting for now. I gotta go draw some unicorns and rainbows. (reality check: actually I'm drawing Bugs and Elmer for a puzzle book coming out in March. I got to choose which story I wanted to do so I chose my fave "What's Opera Doc?" You know, Kill da wabbit! Kill da wabbit! Kill da WAbbit! You wanna see a taste? Here's a rough of Elmer. Ok. Byeeee!)

12/07/2008

Karate Kid, IF "Similar" and SCBWI Tokyo Art Show

The Karate Kid changed my life.
The movie, of course. Not the Legion of Superheroes comic character.
I'm watching it right now as I type this blog and I was thinking about how many of my perceptions about karate were shaped by Mr. Miyagi. I was never big on "sports" movies, I never saw Rocky.
But I knew what it was like to be the little guy. The new kid on the block. And I knew what it was like going up against an institutionalized system of separating the "winners" from the "losers".
Luckily, I had friends in and out of school that liked me for who I was and not for who I desperately thought I wanted to be. It took me a little while and Karate Kid 2 to realize what I did want. The summer that KK2 was the summer where I decided to take control of my life and stopped worrying about what the @$$holes thought. It wasn't even a gradual thing. Once I had made that decision, suddenly things started changing around me. I had confidence and that made it easier to accomplish things which in turn fed my confidence. If there was one thing that fueled most of the bad decisions (mostly split-second decisions) in my life, it would be a lack of self-confidence.
Even now I sometimes have an art crisis where I'm not sure what I want to do. At those times I try to remember to listen to my heart. As Mr. Miyagi says when Daniel is worried about trimming his bonsai the wrong way, "as long as come from heart, never wrong".


Today's illo I finished just as Mr, Miyagi was whipping those Cobra Kai boys' asses. As soon as I read the theme of these week's Illustration Friday, I had my image. When I thought of similar I thought immediately how similar means "not exactly the same", which says more about difference to me than similarity fro some reason. I seem to like to come back to my "everyrabbit" character. The poor bastich! I'm probably going to continue to put him through hell. If so, I should think about giving him a name...

BTW I have two pieces in a show at the Tokyo American Club Genkan Gallery going on now. It's the SCBWI Tokyo illustrator's show. It's the first time I've used gel medium to bring some texture to my work and it's also the first time I've had my work behind glass like in a high-falutin' gallery.
The show runs to Dec. 14th and my fellow artists are below. Please check them out.
and my good friendwho I owe apologies to for taking out the "c" in his name when I designed the postcard. Sorry!
Postcard art below:

11/10/2008

Illustration Friday "Wise"


This week the Illustration Friday's theme is "wise".

I was going for a wise old pirate, but I think wizards are do "wise" better.
I actually need to get working on other things, but I thought I'd get this up. Need to balance creating with promotion. Doing the illustration friday makes me do both.

I'm teaching tomorrow. I wish I wasn't. I'd rather be drawing, sketching, or working on my craft.
As soon as I finish I'm zooming back home to finish up some roughs for the Tom and Jerry book.

All struggling artists go through this, I know. Having to work at something they don't wanna do in order to do something they do wanna do. But sometimes it eats at my soul. Deprives me of the energy I need to do my best.

What do you do? You have to find your fuel. My fuel is a mixture of fear, anger, hope, pride, and desire. Fear of mediocrity, anger at my own complacency, hope that I will be discovered, pride in what I've accomplished so far, and desire to make a name and make a living at creating.

What? Too straight for you? I'm sure you can handle it.

10/23/2008

IlloFri "late"


New Illustration Friday Illo.
"I'm late! I'm late! And I don't even have a date!"
I need to be finishing up my preperation for the Tokyo Contents Market starting Monday, but doing the Illustration Friday every week keeps me drawing!

Other news: I may be moving soon, so we' ve been looking at places. Found a really cool fixer-upper in Kugayama. We love the area so it's a definite possibility.