Whats up guys,

I haven't posted one of these in almost a year, so I'm definitely overdue for a revision of something. As noted by the title, I decided to remake an old character design of the now 2x US Open Championship winner. Originally I created a turnaround sheet of Osaka early last year, after Nissin's disastrous Cup Noodle ad campaign that featured a totally whitewashed Osaka. Because of that disgraceful mishap, I ended up rendering the turnaround sheet below. You can read more about this design on my blog, here. 

For the purposes of animation, the above turnaround sheet serves its purpose, but I can't help but notice that some poses are off model and the execution isn't as tight as it should be. Overall, the piece is not the greatest representation of my knowledge of anatomy and design; which makes it an ideal candidate for revision. So, for this "Throwback Thursday", I've scrapped this turnaround for a brand new composition with different goals; starting with the sketch seen left.

I wanted to focus my drawing skills in areas I'm particularly strong in, gesture, anatomy, and design. Using a few references, I designed a pose that exposes Osaka's power and grace on the court. I knew I wanted to keep Osaka's color blocked tennis outfit, but also incorporate those same colors onto the court in a dynamic way. Since this affects the harmony of the overall composition, I took care to apply value in specific areas, for specific colors to maintain compositional balance in the future.

The differences are obvious but there are a few key areas I paid special attention to. First, in regards to color/hue, the variety and depth of shadows, visible highlights, and subtle temperature shifts. Next, in regards drawing, a consistent line of action, linework, weight, and clothing anatomy(particularly the skirt). Lastly, in regards to design, economy of space, balance, and composition. Though I am fairly satisfied with this render, I still think I can make improvements. What do you think? Whose another athlete I should consider drawing? Whats the most difficult part of the body for you to draw? I had trouble getting the hand holding the racket just right; its super tough. Leave your thoughts in the comments below. As always, don't forget to like and share this post.

Until next time,
​Peace

Whats up guys,

Its been a while since my last post, but I've been extraordinarily busy with a surprising increase in commissions these last few months. I've done so much between a logo for  honey-infused water, Beelieve, album covers for DinoJr., and my marathon run of podcast thumbnails for the Musicks. Expanding the breadth of my services comes a commission that desired branding for a growing Twitch channel.

Next was the icon design. We knew we wanted caricatures of the two, so I collected their photos and went to work sketching. There weren't many iterations of face shape and technique, but I did play with different hairstyles for Cindy's caricature. Developing the sketches would later help me design various expressions for their emotes seen below. As for the application of color, I used a brush within the Krita suite that recreated the effect of pastel chalk. Again, I wanted to involve those previous ideas of a friendly and inviting nature at all levels of the design process, "painting" included.

Finally, subscribers to the channel are awarded emotes to be used during live streams across the Twitch platform. Using the above icon as  a base, I designed various expressions based off of the most common emotions. Since there was an upload limit of just 8 emotes, I provided some extra options just in case an image failed to communicate or otherwise be appealing to my clients.

Taking care to maintain consistency between the channel icon and the provided emotes, I elected to simply copy and paste the base painting, altering color and shape accordingly. What do you guys think? Which emote is the strongest? Weakest? What troubles do you have when drawing expressions? I occasionally have trouble staying on model, but I think I've improved since college. Leave your thoughts in the comments below. As always, don't forget to like and share this post!

Until next time,
Peace

Hello SunKing Design Blog Fans!

I am UntidyVenus aka Izzy. Today I am sharing with you some of my illustration and drafting process, which I won't lie, I don't document often. It's not because it's some big secret, but because I’m just too lazy and I never thought that anyone would be interested. Then the SunKing himself asked me to write something up and so I procrastinated for… 4 months? Yeah, four whole months. So here we finally go!

I start with an idea. Today I was feeding my pet shrimp (yes I have pet shrimp, that's another blog post) and was thinking about silly shrimp puns. So the idea came for a tee shirt/sticker design. I tried to come up with as many bad and terrible shrimp puns as I could possibly come up with, to get the bad ideas out of the way first.

Then I hit Google. There are thousands of types of shrimp. My personal pets are Cherry Shrimp, aka Neocaridina, Taiwanese shrimp red variety, etc. They are tiny, less than half an inch (about 12 mm) so my personal observations wouldn’t suffice and I don’t currently have a macro lens for my camera. After researching the shrimps every last detail, its time to start doodling. Finding your best way to “shortcut” real life is the way to finding your style. After a few shrimp doodles in my sketchbook, which a cat spilled coffee on before I could get a picture (sorry!) it's time to pick a pose and start sketching.

These guys are now ready for upload on your favorite sites! I have them available on Teepublic and RedBubble, as well as stickers on the way from StickerMule!

Thank you so much for reading, and supporting your local blog! Feel free to message me on instagram at UntidyVenus if you have any questions or comments, as well as on the Everything I Learned From Movies (EILFM) podcast!

Whats up guys,

Like many of you, I too am spending most of my days indoors. I typically work from home when  working on art anyway, so not much has changed in that regard. 

World looks crazy out there sometimes, but thats probably the best time to chill.  What do you all think? What have you been listening to these days? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. As always, dont forget to like and share this post~

Stay safe and stay healthy

Peace,
What do you all think? Are you interested in other genres of music? What would you like to hear next time? Perhaps more of the same artist? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. As always, dont forget to like and share this post~

Whats up guys,

Perhaps you all have been eager for an update. If not, oh well, I have a lot to post that I've been holding on to for the past 2 months anyway. So lets get into it!

I was contacted by a friend whom wanted to produce a piece of work to be used as a gift and simultaneously be used as an album cover for his buddy's music(Ghostpops). Intrigued by the prospect, I undertook the commission and got to preview(listen?) the mix. I was immediately impressed by the quality of production and unique implementation of samples throughout the 32min EP. Upon multiple listens, I generated a list to describe the track in a way that could lead to some visual references I could research while creating the Pinterest board below. Some of these words included:

• Lo-Fi Hip-Hop
• Dreamy/Spacey/Ethereal
• Chillwave
• Sample Heavy(Spongebob/Simpsons)
• Boom Bap

After I became familiar with the mood and tone set by Ghostpops production style, generating sketches became relatively straightforward and easy to layout the rest of the vision.

At this point in the process, I would generally elect to present my best ideas to the client, but since this was intended to be given as a gift, I elected to narrow the selection through my judgement alone. So, I figured the profile view maintained the integrity of Bart's iconic silhouette while providing the opportunity to integrate my own interpretation of what his anatomy could be in a cross-sectional "medical" illustration. However, just as important, was the placement and selection of specific types of plants to balance the exposed elements of Bart's anatomical design and framing. 

After I clarified my compositional design discrepancies through a line draft, I was able to move forward with multiple value studies that could demonstrate the most accurate expression of tone. ​

Finding the right balance between the values is arguably the most important step in keeping your audience engaged with the image. I took the time to write all sorts of notes that would incrementally fine-tune these subtle details until the final color stages.

At this point in the process, I began to allow my references to influence my color selections. I felt that this decision would allow the image to fit among its trendy contemporaries while increasing the possibility of its virility on the web. Since the above images were drafted in color pencil, they didn't quite capture the richness of the palettes I intended. However, I believe they captured the mood of the Ghostpops' EP in the most accurate sense. It was at this point, I allowed my client to choose which of the 3 palettes best suited his interest. From there I took the composition to a digital finish using Krita.

Though there are some areas I would definitely improve in yet another iteration of this design, I was satisfied with my results. On the other hand, both my client and design recipient were so pleased by the work, I was later hired again for an even larger project to be continued in part 2 of this blog. What do you guys think? Would you have chosen a different color theme? What is your opinion of using pop-culture to supplement design or composition? As always, leave your thoughts in the comments below and don't forget to share and like this post. 

Until next time,
Peace

Happy New Years!

How was your winter holiday? Full of good times and happy people I hope.
In order to start the year off on the right foot, I thought it would be a good idea to update the site with some of my most recent commissions. Whether the news is surprising or not, I received a few comments from folks whom were unaware of the extent of my artistic capabilities. I hope this year gives me more opportunities to showcase my skills, as it can only lead to my portfolio expanding in breadth. 
​
That said, I'd like to start off that conversation with an acrylic painting I was commissioned for during the holiday break. I was instructed to paint a couple rowing across a pond in a semi-impressionistic style. Here is a side-by-side comparison of the reference photos below.

​To be fair, I think some painters would take the time to make small scale sketches to inform the overall design and technique to be utilized in the final piece. However, considering that time and money weren't that much of an option in my case, I decided to jump in, prime my canvas and loosely sketch out my plans.

Its here that I would like to acknowledge the general misconception most people have between drawing and painting. Fundamentally, the two are different in how each applies the order of design elements and how strongly each individual element is emphasized according to the necessity of the final product. For those unaware, the elements of design are: Space, Line, Shape, Form, Value, Color, and Texture. When drawing, the artist is highly reliant on both line and space to express their vision. Since a single pencil/pen is limited by its lack or limited use of color, an artist need not worry about its effects as they progress the image to completion. Instead, the artist must constantly be aware of space and shape in the early stages of the work since accuracy is highly valued. On the other hand, the characteristics of a paintbrush prevent an artist from relying too heavily on line at all. In fact, depending on the painting style, there should be little-to-no line-work implemented until the very end of the painting process. That means painters often rely on shape and form to block-out areas within the space to create a composition. 

​Accuracy may still be important, but paint has the flexibility of being covered up by more paint. White space does not share this type of forgiveness for artist who draw(though an eraser may be enough in some cases). So, as you can see in the following image, I've blocked-out large areas of the painting to reflect the process mentioned above, eventually reaching a point where the only negative space left is of the subjects on the boat.

​I should also acknowledge the amount of strategy and planning that goes into painting. Since the medium dries quickly*, pigments must be mixed with enough quantities in advance, and specific brushes are necessary at various points in the process, therefore, the activity requires a lot of patience and discipline. This becomes especially true once a person becomes more focused in the smaller areas that require more attention to detail.

While I'm pretty satisfied of what I managed to complete in just 2.5 days, there are many areas I'd like to improve the next time I'm commissioned for a painting. Since I use acrylics, the medium tends to dry quickly which prevents the smooth blending capabilities common among oils. Since that is the case, I want to try "painting into wet" more often. You can actually see this technique along the hull of the boat in the photo above. Next, I want to improve my atmospheric perspective, i.e; diffusing background elements into the sky to produce depth in the composition. Finally, I want to buy finer brushes to paint smaller areas in greater detail should future projects require it.

Otherwise, what do you guys think? Would you like to see more traditional paintings in the future? What styles would you like to see me attempt? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. As always, don't forget to like and share this post~
Until next time,
Peace

Hello friends,

Welcome to another edition of Toriaezu Tuesday. This week I've decided to reflect on some of the music I've been listening to over the past couple months as I prepare for the JLPT(Japanese Language Proficiency Test). As that is the case, this list will be dedicated to exploring Japanese music exclusively. Now, I'm not sure what your impression of Japanese music is, but the production isn't tailored for everyone when considering the pop or rock aspect of the music industry. These 2 genres are by far the most popular among the general population, but fortunately for you guys, I have no horse in that race. 

What do you all think? Are you interested in other genres of music? What would you like to hear next time? Perhaps more of the same artist? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. As always, dont forget to like and share this post~
Until next time,
​Peace

Hello friends,
​
Long time, no see. Last month was extraordinarily busy between moving house, vacationing in Barcelona, accommodating my grandparent's first visit to Japan, and of course, work. October was joyful overall and I'm kinda sad to see it fade into the past as we move into the end of the year. Hopefully, 2020 will be just as eventful. In any case, I have a backlog of things to share with you all, so I aim to publish the content that has slowly been building up in my sketchbook over the past few weeks. Lets start with a long overdue, WIP Wednesday.
Not too long ago, I was commissioned to create a logo that could merchandise the image of an upcoming rap artist. I've worked on logos for bakers, business consultants, student organizations, pod-casters, Twitch Streamers, cannabis marketers, and others; but never a rapper. I thought taking on this project would be an exciting opportunity that would continue to prove my flexibility at challenging different markets; often requiring different artistic styles and techniques.

As always, I discussed the use-purpose of the logo, the message my client want associated with it, as well as stylistic options to be considered throughout its development. After concentrating our meeting to a few notes, later translated as keywords, I created a Pinterest board full of reference photos to help focus the vision of the final design.

​Its rare that I have a client with a vision simple enough to be distilled into a few basic ideas, but I think it worked out in the best interest of the overall design as I managed to fly through the sketch process with little resistance.

​However, due to the nature of the line-work and my ideas for how to approach rendering in the future, assigning the appropriate values in the correct order, in the right places was by far the most challenging part of the process. I think most people would not be so considerate in attributing so much time to this part of the production, but finding values that elevated and maintained the integrity of the design is paramount in how readable the work is. My exercises focused on no more than 6 values, with varying proportions over 20 different sketches. If you look closely at the images below, you can read some of the notes critiquing some the flaws and points of interest to maintain in each consecutive iteration.

​From here on, the next stages require a few color iterations to ensure the accuracy of my vision. Perhaps you can grasp what I'm going for by the references I've collected through Pinterest. Otherwise, you all can look forward to the final design in the coming weeks. What do you think so far? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. As always, don't forget to like and share this post. 
Until next time,
Peace

Hello friends,

Welcome back to another addition of random Japanese words you will likely have no use for in your daily life. As some of you may or may not be aware, Japan is suffering from population decline. Aside from the general public not having enough children to replace the current population, mass population displacement/migration isn't exactly helping the situation either. Since the economy is heavily reliant on the GDP generated from its largest cities, many people leave their homes in the countryside to reside closer to financial centers with more opportunities. That brings us to today's word, 秘境駅/ひきょうえき/hikyoueki・secluded station. Its a very straightforward combination of characters, so lets breakdown these kanji.

秘境駅
       ⦁ 秘/ひ/hi - secret/conceal
       ⦁ 境/きょう/kyou - boundary, border, region
       ⦁ 駅/えき/eki - (train)station

The best way for me to explain these kanji is by introducing you to some other words that utilize them in ways that make their individual definitions more apparent. So, lets start with (秘), which is most often found in the word 秘密/himitsu・secret and (境), commonly found in the word 環境/kankyou・environment. By extracting the definition of these two words and applying them to 秘境駅, it wouldn't be a stretch to assume that it represents a station in a secret environment; otherwise, a station in a remote/secluded region. 

So, how did I come across this word anyway? Well, Japanese television seems to make a mission out of turning anything into semi-interesting programming, so when I found a segment of a show in which a man waits for hours at a secluded station to see what type of person off-boards, I was pretty intrigued. I've included a clip for you all to enjoy below, unfortunately there are no subs available. However, I'm sure you guys are bright enough to figure out whats going on using context clues. 

Hello friends,

Welcome back to the blog. 
A few months ago, a former co-worker commissioned me to create a logo for a custom set of business cards. It was a simple identity/branding task, that was aimed at helping my client become established as a distributor of fine South African wines for markets here in Japan. 

This time I focused on the unique identity of the people and culture of South Africa. Therefore, I collected various imagery that resonated with these ideas and included those in the board as well. Using the reference materials above, I created various colored drafts and patterns to use in the final design. Though none of the patterns are particularly authentic to the country of South Africa, the purpose of the exercise was to simply interpret the data and create an impression of the multitude of cultures, languages and ethnic groups that the country prides itself in. 

Combining this patchwork of artistic identity would eventually lead to the painting seen below. Foregoing the typical paper labels pasted on wine bottles around the world, I decided a fabric label would not only heighten the perceived quality of the product, but better align with the more earth-bound and natural essence of the people. I believe my design evokes the unique hand-dyed and spun fabrics of kente cloth found in many communities and countries across the African continent.

I was quite happy with the result of my bottle, especially taking into consideration it was completely made in a brand new program that I have yet to become proficient in(Krita for those interested). However, I was still curious as to how I could make a proof of concept for potential advertising. So, I took this design to the next level and created a mock-up for a billboard. At this point, I imagined Istanan Wines to be more than a distributor of established wine brands, but a full fledged winery. Because...why not?

What do you guys think? If I go back and make edits, I would probably drop the contrast of the text by using an alternative color to black since it doesn't actually exist in nature. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the end product. What product should I design next? I'm considering making a package for my ChaTo project or moving on to something completely new; animation perhaps? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. As always, don't forget to like and share this post.
Until next time,
​Peace