Extras - Day 2

Extras for Day 2
(Again, click on thumbnails for larger view.)

Ueno (in front of station at day.)

Ueno Park Natural Museum of Science (these turned out so badly because of the lighting!)

Ueno at Night

Sketches

Extras - Day 1

So starting today (since I've finished the final project for the classes I took and finally have time) I'm going to add some posts per day I spent in Tokyo and post any extra photos that I deem worthy.

I'll also post some of the sketches for the days.

Noone really wants to read anyway. Pictures are so much better. The internet isn't for READING.
What a preposterous notion.


Meiji Temple

Harajuku

Shibuya

Drawings


Didn't draw much that day.

Hiroki Mafuyu, and Ayumi Again

Today we were invited to the school where Hiroki Mafuyu teaches, Tokyo Communication Arts seemed like a clone of SCAD, but in Japan, of course.

On the subject of Mafuyu, I didn’t recognize his name, but some of his work I had recognized. The cover to “Calling” was the image that struck the chord of familiarity with me.

He himself seemed a very poetic person. I felt most of what he said was lost in translation, and it was a pity, but nevertheless it was still a very good motivational speech. He left us with “Draw until your heart reaches the boiling point.”

After some Q/A over his prints and originals, he invited us to one of his classes. We were all pretty stunned, and rushed to the nearest convenience store to get some lunch beforehand.

Not that it’s very interesting, but I had Takoyaki for the first time, alongside a Final fantasy Dissidia potion, which apparently debuted on this very day. I bought many more later to sell on eBay to other unfortunate Americans. I have to reimburse myself for this trip somehow.

But they tasted really bad. The black ones at least.

The workshop was prety interesting, it was mostly on cross-hatching, but what I was more interested in was seeing the Manga students.

But, I had to leave early as I had plans to see Ayumi one more time.

It was pretty fun to show off who I’d just been with. I showed them photos of the originals for Calling and her mother muttered some awe in Japanese.

We just went around Ginza a bit, specifically to a paper store in he middle. Her mom knew quite a but about calligraphy so I learned a lot about sumi-e brushes and their specific uses.

Of Fresh Fish, Drawing at the Temple, and Christmas Shopping

A note on the entries. I have a lot more photos that I want o post but have no time nor decent version of photoshop to post them with. I'll have better, more descriptive recaps later.

But On a quick side note. I’m watching TV as I write this, and all I’m actually like watching is the commercials. They’re much shorter, is all I really have to say, and I just saw a commercial for Patapon 2 and Loco Roco 2. It’s been hard not to buy all these games.. And I don’t even have a PSP. But the DS Eye came out here, and I want to snatch up the first one I see... But aw man. I’m a college student.

Oh, Cooking Mama’s coming out on Wii!?

So it was pretty early today. Set the alarm to 4:30 and went to the fish market. It was mainly a reference day. I wanted some sushi, but seriously, it must have been about 10,000 yen. Not to mention we were trying very hard not to get ourselves killed by speeding lift carts. The professors informed us that “you will get smoked” if you get in front of them.
Anyway. There’s a lot to say, but I think I’ll leave it to “the fish was fresh.”

See for yourself.

Oh, and the next day, we found out that the fish market was scheduled to be closed to tourists because of a mishap the morning we went. We were raised into a state of panic for a bit, thinking it was our faults, but found out later some Australians apparently were obnoxious in the tuna auctions rooms. It was too formal for us, so we tried to stay as far out of those as we could, so there was some relief there.

The Asakusa Temple was lots of fun! I actually got myself to draw there without anyone yelling at me.

Got to a point where there were about ten other students sitting on the front steps, drawing the crowds in more ways than one. We may have been drawing people, but also people come to watch us. It was an interesting feeling after all this time people seemed to avoid having you know they were watching you. Some even went as far as to photograph us.

The coolest part had to be when this guy came up to the girl behind me and asked her to draw his portrait (by means of charades and Japanese that may as well have been gibberish) in his own notebook. As he was sitting still, I decided to do the same in my sketchbook. I offered my own sketch as well, but instead, after I handed him my sketchbook, he took my pencil and wrote his name in Ramanji, and handed it back. A few minutes after he left, he reappeared and had us pose for a picture with him. I manage to get a snapshot myself.

After this we drew such a crowd that a policeman shooed us off as he thought we were blocking the entrance. We were actually quite flattered, and it was time to shop anyway.

They had a lot of interesting shops and stalls. Mostly traditional stuff, and katanas were everywhere. Of course I wanted one, but alas what is a poor college student to do but to turn from school and become a wandering samurai in the 21st century?

Instead I bought ‘Taki boots’ or rather, ninja shoes. The ones with the big toe separated. They’re so amazingly comfortable.

Bought a lot of Christmas gifts which will remain confidential until they are given away. I must remember to talk about the p---r shop later, when I know the surprise won’t be spoiled. I was shopping most of the time with Mark Shultz and his wife Denise, who are so amazingly nice. I hope I didn’t drag them down. They paid for dinner! So amazing! I love them!

In Which There is Collaboration

I've been thinking lately... how incredibly cool it is to be at a school where collaboration is so encouraged.... or maybe it's just my major.

I got to be a werewolf in a friend's Vis. Effects film. Dressed up in this awesomely bad costume and run around in a graveyard. Then another friend who's in Interactive Something-Or-Other Game Design is creating a game (on paper) and was encouraged by his teacher to get friends to do some concept art.

Despite thinking I had absolutely no time, I did some anyway. I like this kind of thing. There isn't much pressure so I can just draw whatever. I even convinced myself I didn't have to take time looking for reference. True enough it doesn't make for a good drawing, but it helps to loosen up a bit. I need some time to draw for myself during project crunch time.
Since the game is based on Dante's Inferno, and there was no specification on what I should do, I had to draw Lucifer (Final Boss? Heck yes.). Of course, I spent no time on research so I didn't really remember what the 9th Circle of Hell looked like other than ice and Lucifer halfway encased in ice. So I just made a Biblical kind of Lucifer, like a pretty angel with horns or something. Nothing very creative.

He told me later about Dante's Satan having three faces and six wings that beat the air to get free and constantly re-freeze the area over.

So here's a more appropriate vicious dragon sort of boss. I don't really like the drawing though, so it's smaller.

Then a character design of Dante, based on said friend because he asked for it. I'm trying to get more stylized with my imagined figures, but this is ridiculous. So much for practice.