End of an era

The 27th of September was my last day to draw caricatures for Caricature Japan at the Enoshima Aquarium shop. I'd like to thank all the coworkers and customers who I was able to share this experience with.

９月２７日を最後に、カリカチュア・ジャパン新江ノ島水族館店での勤務を終えました。

江ノ水スタッフの皆さん、この店舗で一緒に絵を描いてきた同僚の皆さん、そしてご来店下さったすべてのお客様、すばらしい時間を共有させて頂き、どうもありがとうございました。

Lady Gaga Meat Dress

After seeing Lady Gaga's meat dress, I thought it would be a very interesting subject, so I tried to come up with some gags of what it would be like to be walking down the street in a meat dress.

Gift drawing

Here's a gift drawing of a family who lives near the ocean. They wanted to have their drawing done windsurfing together.

Dog Days of Summer at the Aquarium

There's a special day for dog owners at the Enoshima Aquarium on Sunday, September 4th. Sunday evening until 9:00 pm customers will be allowed to bring their pets with them into the aquarium to share the fun!! And maybe get a drawing too!

Tube Aquarium

Come for Tube, stay for the Aquarium!! On Saturday, Aug. 27th the Enoshima aquarium will be having a promotion in conjunction with the band Tube after their beach live concert. The aquarium will reopen at 6:15pm for special admission until 9:00pm for a special evening experience.

Baby and Penguins

This is a live sketch I did of a baby and penguins. The baby was still pretty tiny and I came up with this idea on the spot, so the composition was done kind of quick, but I still think it was a fun new pose.

Studio Work

Here's another studio work. It's of Japanese handball player Daisuke Miyazaki. He's known for his jump attack and muscles so I wanted to make a drawing of him catching some air. I did the line drawing with a Japanese sign pen which has a small brush like nib which is used mostly for writing Japanese characters, but it's also great for drawing too. I finished the color using Copic color markers and Artstix. Then I finished the background in Photoshop.

Atsushi at Osaka Caricature Convention

Just last week a nationwide caricature convention was held in Osaka, Japan. Caricature Japan's very own Atsushi Saito represented our company and preformed admirably. Here's a peek at some of the works from the convention. Check out Atsushi's blog for more pictures and details. (go to the following link)
http://3110-a2c.jugem.jp/

Tanabata

The 7th of July is the time to celebrate Tanabata in Japan. I made a little sketch for the fun of it. The big Tanabata festival in Hiratsuka starts on the 8th this year and continues through the weekend.
Dolphins are still Number 1 at the aquarium. This little girl fell asleep before I got here picture.

Lady Gaga drawing

This month's drawing is of the very popular vocal artist Lady Gaga. Her performances and visual style are very artistic, so I had the idea to draw her in a modern art influenced style similar to cubism, hinting at multiple view points. I didn't have as much time as I wanted for this drawing, so I wasn't able to develop the water coloring in the way I had envisioned. I wanted to express the different color fields with different textures too. I had fun doing something different with the line work as well.

Turtles are back

During the wintertime at the Enoshima Aquarium it's too cold for the sea turtles to be in their outside pool. Now that things have warmed up, they are back out and better than ever.

Here we have a charming little baby with his very own turtle.

Brad Pitt

With Father's Day coming up next m0nth we wanted to make some drawings of famous fathers. Brad Pitt certainly qualifies for that. With six kids he must be very busy indeed. Always playful, I wanted to sh0w Brad with his kids in a very playful drawing.

Tamura-san surprise present

Last month one of our coworkers, Tamura-san got married. So all of us artists got together and made him a surprise present by drawing him an his wife. This is the drawing I did. Since I'm close to the ocean, I thought it would be fun to draw them with an ocean theme.

Gambarou Nippon! がんばろう日本！

For those of you unfamiliar with the expression Gambarou Nippon, it means "Lets do our best together, Japan!" It has been the phrase that everyone has been using to support and work with each other to recover from the March 11th earthquake and tsunami.
Even the aquariums have been working together to support the Aquamarine Fukushima Aquarium. Several animals had to be evacuated from this aquarium and several other aquariums in the region have been taking in animals.

The Enoshima Aquarium has accepted and is taking care of a seal from the Fukushima Aquarium.

They have created a design with the seal in support of the other aquarium and are contributing donations to the recovery of the aquariums and earthquake victims. So everybody, let's Gambarou Nippon!

Check out this link to the Ensoshima Aquarium for more details in Japanese...

http://www.enosui.com/newsentry.php?eid=00307

Momoe Yamaguchi contest drawing

I made this drawing of legendary Japanese idol singer Momoe Yamaguchi. She gave up a big singing career early in life to start her own family, but she is still known for the her songs. I was playing around mixing markers, artstix and watercolors for this. I'd like to do more work with the watercolors in the future.

Pink Lady

Here's a studio work I did of Japanese pop singers Pink Lady. I picked the them UFO from one of their famous songs in the past. I was going for a strong graphic style with pink oriented coloring (of course).

Koi Noboru 鯉のぼる

Getting in the mood for the Golden Week holiday season, we're having fun drawing little boys with the flying Carp!

Japanese Earthquake

On March 13th 2011, a devastating earthquake struck north eastern Japan. Our deepest sympathies go out to everyone affected by this disaster, the people of Japan and those in many other places suffering from the tsunami. Our sincerest condolences to all those who have suffered and to the families and friends of those who tragically lost their lives.

Fortunately our Enoshima caricature location and the Enoshima Aquarium was spared the damage that other areas of Japan suffered. The aquarium structure itself is very strong, but safety inspections were needed to assure the total security of it's customers and staff. Unfortunately, due to that and other inconveniences occurred by the earthquake, the aquarium has been closed for one week. We are very much looking forward to it's reopening and hope that people will come to enjoy themselves and relieve the stress of these difficult times.

Contest Drawing Kanako Murakami

This month's contest drawing is of Japanese teen figure skater Kanako Murakami. She is an up and coming contender in the world figure skating scene. Also, I couldn't resist wanting to draw her big smile.

Contest Drawings

Here are two recent contest drawings of popular television celebrities in Japan. This first one is of Kanako Yanagihara. She does a lot of television commercials and I made a Valentine Day pose of her from one of her well know commercials which she was selling shellfish flavored ramen and I also included the company mascot (a fisherman) in the background pretending to be a cupid.

The next one is Matsuko Deluxe which may be confusing because this is a transvestite performer and what looks like a she is really a he. The comic element of his performance is to impersonate a really large lady and so in my drawing I wanted to give the impression of LARGENESS by drawing him in the shape of a mountain.

Dolphins still Number One!

The dolphin is still the most requested sea creature by our customers. Here are a few live sketch drawings I've done of customers having fun with their dolphins...