Hello guys,

Since I work in Japan, naturally I come into contact with other English teachers and since I'm also working as such, I'm pretty familiar to what's popular among the students and have some awareness of contemporary pop culture. I received a commission to create English language lesson materials utilizing characters from the popular anime/manga series Demon Slayer(鬼滅の刃). It was a fun gig that got to explore the children's favorite characters in a school related fan-fiction context. The theme of this particular series is "Yearly School Events and Activities", all of which are universally recurring in Japanese public schools today.

Looking back on some of these after working on my landscape stuff, I can tell that a few of these could do with some value adjustments in the backgrounds. I think its tough to see the silhouettes of characters if the draw distance isn't clarified with atmospheric perspective. I'd probably also change the value or eliminate the linework in the few backgrounds I did draw. 

I think if I ever do something like this again with another IP, I'll have a cleaner approach to rendering and clearly stating contrast and points of interest within the composition. Maybe there will be a JuJutsu-Kaisen(呪術廻戦) flashcard series in the future. What do you think? What anime or manga have you been into recently? What's a favorite anime from your past?
Leave your thoughts down below and feel free to like and share this post.
Until next time,
peace.

What's up guys,

So, for the past 8 months or so I've been trying my hand at narrative vignettes and  ​landscape paintings. Drawing and designing landscapes has always been one my weakest points as an illustrator, so why not take an assignment and improve. In some ways, this is record of growth, so lets reflect on the process first.

All of the pieces are depictions of nature with a surreal or fantastical element/quality to compliment the subject and inform a greater wonder/mystery. Some pieces are straight up studies done to increase clarification for design choices for later works. I've been producing these pieces in batches of 4, exploring alternative painting and design techniques to find the best method for communicating my client's needs. That said, for the sake of brevity, I'll only provide one example for each of the 8 batches with a carousel for the images in order at the bottom. I've provided a title for each piece to identify a point of interest that I wanted to develop and build upon sequentially.

I think after a few more refinements in line weight, vibrancy and variation of the mixed media elements I'll have created the best template going forward. Trees and stones aside, waterfalls and rivers are other subjects I'm looking forward to expressing in this design language. Perhaps enough assets can be created for legitimate world building. I've tried to stay away from manmade elements, but the introduction of ruins might pop up more frequently later if that is an idea worth pursuing. 

What do you guys think? What is one the most beautiful view of nature you've personally witnessed? Red striped mountains in the desert? A majestic waterfall in the rainforest? Black sand beaches at the base of a volcano? Leave your thoughts down below! Like and share if you care. Until next time, peace.