Tag: creativity

Kinokuniya Haul

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"Illustration Annual 2018" Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO1250
 “Illustration Annual 2018” Cedar Park, 2018

こんばんは。How’s it going?

Today after work I went to Kinokuniya to browse the stationery and books. It’s actually a great opportunity since I am alone – I don’t have to hurry and can take my own sweet time. 🙂 I was primarily looking for more illustration/art books to find inspiration and get some pointers to improve my own illustration skills and found a great compilation of artists. This Illustration 2018 book is huge – over 300 pages! There are so many great illustrations and each one has a little info about the artist, including their websites, email, or social media links. I went thru about a third of the book already and marked pages using the stickies that I also bought from Kinokuniya. I’ve bookmarked so many pages already!

"Cool Stuff" Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO1250
 “Cool Stuff” Cedar Park, 2018

I think it’s really useful to look at the illustrations in printed format, rather than just onscreen. You can really see the detail and technique a lot better. It’s weird to me because I thought that a digital format would be advantageous because you can zoom in and the colors are more vibrant, but the printed book is way better. Not only is the “zooming and panning” natural (moving your head and eyes closer), but it brings the artwork into the physical world and tangible reality. The only thing better would be to have the full-size print. It’s the reason that galleries and museums still exist. I highly recommend spending your money on art, illustration, or photo books. Skip a couple dinners out, and buy a book!

The bookmark sticker set I bought is pretty neat. I love the designs of these, but this is just one of several different sets, and they are great. I wish I could have all of them, but I’ll just stick to this one, which I liked best. There are 375 total stickers so it’ll last me a while.

"Bookmark Stickers" Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO1250
 “Bookmark Stickers” Cedar Park, 2018

I have a couple of Pilot Hi-tec-C Coleto multi-ink pens, and I’ve run out of ink in a couple of the cartridges. Happily, Kinokuniya has a big selection of refills. Now I just have to decide if I should change up the color combinations of my pens, or just get the same colors… ah what a dilemma! 😝

"Coleto Heaven" Austin, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO1250
 “Coleto Heaven” Austin, 2018

I hope you had a nice day!

またね～

Haircut, Shopping, Sketching, etc.

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"Haircut" Austin, 2018
Photo info: Motorola Moto G (4), 3.64mm, f/2, 1/30 sec, ISO100
 “Haircut” Austin, 2018

Hey there! Today was just Koa and I, but it was a busy busy day. Here it is in list form:

  • Finished my China travel visa application and dropped it off at the post office, along with a couple other packages
  • Took Koa to get his haircut before dropping him off at the mall to hang out with his friends
  • Got my own haircut
  • Picked up Koa from the mall and went to another store to buy him some nice pants and tie for his band camp
  • Dinner at a Mexican restaurant
  • Laundry and helping Koa pack for band camp
  • Evening sketching

Tonight’s sketch is from a photo from 1996 when I first met Mariko. It was a fun sketch to create!

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

I hope you had a nice Saturday!

またね～

"Sangria Margarita" Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/60 sec, ISO6400
 “Sangria Margarita” Cedar Park, 2018
"1996" 2018
“1996” 2018

Evening Sketching

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"Digitizing" Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO1250
 “Digitizing” Cedar Park, 2018

こんばんは。How’s it going?

Well, we made it to the weekend! Tonight I celebrated by doing some work on the artwork I started a couple days ago. I adjusted the eyes a bit, tilted the head slightly, and replaced the smile with a frown. I cropped it vertically and added a camera. I’m not sure how I will feel about it tomorrow (I need some time away from it) but I am happy with the progress! Maybe this weekend I will work on the camera some more, and figure out the body and background. But I think I like how the face turned out!

"In Progress" Cedar Park, 2018

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

I hope you had a nice Friday!

またね～

Inspiration

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"Inspirational" Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/125 sec, ISO3200
 “Inspirational” Cedar Park, 2018

こんばんは。How’s it going?

A couple weeks ago I bought Step by Eguchi Hisashi and it has been super-inspirational. I just love his style, and I’ve done a couple more drawings based on his style. I feel like I am also finding my own way of creating drawings that work for me. I watched a couple videos of artists’ advice, and one was to buy art books and study them. It’s important to have the physical book, and not just view the images online, and I have to agree that this makes a huge difference! You get to really examine all the line work and colors in a much more direct way. It’s great. I highly recommend it.

Funnily enough, when I was in art school, I never looked at books of artists I admired. I was too into just working on my own. But now that I am older, I realize that it is invaluable to look at other work and learn from them as much as possible.

The other day, I made this image, using fashion models as references for the pose, but since the Dodgers have been playing well lately, I decided to go with the baseball theme. I’m pleased with how it turned out, but I think it is lacking in dynamism – it’s very stiff. Something to work on in the future!

"Peace. Love, and Dodgers" Cedar Park, 2018
“Peace. Love, and Dodgers” Cedar Park, 2018

This evening I started a new picture, and my progress is below. Just for kicks, I applied some of Adobe’s charcoal and other brushes to the strokes to see how they looked. I think it’s pretty fun!

"Brushes" Cedar Park, 2018
“Brushes” Cedar Park, 2018

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

I hope you had a good Wednesday!

またね～

New Illustrator Discoveries

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"Summer" Cedar Park, 2018
“Summer” Cedar Park, 2018

As mentioned in last night’s post, I worked on a new illustration, this one was a combination of many sources. Sort of like sampling from different songs to make a new one I guess? The face is based on my previous illustration, for the body and clothes, I looked at some models at Old Navy’s website. The torso and legs are from two different models because the photo of the first model was cropped at her thighs so I found another full body photo from a different model and I think they matched up well.

I learned a couple new Illustrator techniques which will help not only with these illustrations, but in my professional work as well. The knife tool is handy for cutting shapes for shading and the blob brush is excellent for laying down solid color (actually creating shapes quickly using the stylus). A technique that I enjoyed was to use the pencil and smooth tools to create nice lines on one layer, then use the blob brush and eraser to create color fills on a layer below. It’s fast, clean, and can be very precise! And separating the stroke from the fill gives a lot more options for the stroke layer.

Lastly, I spent some time learning how to create custom fill patterns. The illustration above has a super-simple polka-dot pattern, which seems like it will be an important step to creating more interesting illustrations.

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.