Spent a fun evening at the Cary Arts Center Family Friday Open House

Just got back from the Cary Arts Center Open House. It was a fun evening drawing about 60 manga-style cartoon portraits in 4 hours for guests and volunteers. That means I managed to speed sketch 15 caricatures/hour, so I am pretty pleased to have beaten my average speed of 12 caricatures/hour. Though gotta admit that my left hand feels a tad numb as I type this post. I need to remember to take a few breaks every hour in future events. My brother managed to take a few photos of the evening, so I uploaded them to Flickr: photo 1, photo 2, and photo 3.

The bulk of the requests were ninja, mermaid, fairy, dragon rider, and cute animal sidekicks. A few guests even managed to go through the line 2 or 3 times to get additional cartoon versions of themselves drawn. Thanks to all the kids and parents that stopped by the sketching table, and hope you find some inspiration from your souvenir portraits and start or continue to develop your own sketching skills. With the general positive reception to this Manga-Style Cartoon Sketching event, I believe we'll be able to quickly fill upcoming drawing classes for kids and teens in the Cary area.

Sports Cartoon Portraits

Couple of caricatures drawn with Sakura Pigma Sensei 0.6 mm and 1.0 mm pens. Gotta keep practicing the proper gear and get some more references for other sports-themed cartoon portraits.

Couple of Art Reference Book recommendations

Greetings Grasshoppers! Just wanted to share a couple of book recommendations that I recently acquired for my own reference library. The Monster Hunter illustrations is a massive tome filled with creature and character designs that reminds me a bit of the style of the Final Fantasy series. The creative team drew inspiration from many different cultures when creating the Hunter characters of this Capcom game. This is the full review I wrote for its Amazon listing:"Just received my copy of this absolutely awesome Game Development Art book, and I'm quite pleased with the visual quality and variety of the creature and character designs featured in this massive tome. Flipping through its pages should provide hours of enjoyment and many examples of how the talented artists went about the process of creating the world and fantastical inhabitants of the Capcom game "Monster Hunter" (which I have never seen nor played). While I really appreciate the opportunity of reading the text of this book originally published in Japanese, I have to agree with my fellow reviewer that the numerous spelling and editing errors detract some from what could have been a flawless experience. Highly recommended reference book for anybody interested in creating their own monster creatures and fantasy warriors despite its lack of proper proof-reading."
The second book: Illustration School: Let's Draw Cute Animals by Sachiko Umoto is a very useful drawing guide with a distinct Japanese flair suitable for artists of all skill levels. It is packed with many step-by-step animal drawing demonstrations that are easy-to-follow. While at first glance Umoto's style might come across as deceptively simple, it is a very effective method of reducing a complex subject to the fewest lines possible while retaining its charm and appeal. Kawaii!

Archaeological comic find

Found some examples of comic book pages drawn by myself or my brother on the back of an old math notebook long ago in elementary school. Early on we often sketched action scenes featuring underwater creatures or Kaiju battles with missiles and lasers streaking across the page.

Most recent additions to my Class Drawing Reference Figures

Spotted these large PVC figures in the clearance section of a local big-box store. While I'm not terribly familiar with these Ben 10 characters, I figured they would make fine additions to the pool of reference drawing manikins used in some of my Manga cartoon sketching classes. Their design certainly reminds me of Kaiju or typical Japanese giant monsters. So remember grasshoppers, keep an eye out for suitable reference models in the clearance sections of retail stores as they gear up for the next big holiday season. Much of my class reference manikins have been acquired in this manner.