Reunion

After almost a year of separation due to Chihiro’s immigration visa process, the family of three was reunited in July, 2020. They have started a new life in Portland, Oregon.

God’s Speed.

Solo Show

I had my first solo show a few weeks back. It was at a small cafe that my ex-coworker’s mother runs. Nice place, though a bit out of the way. The show lasted for three days. Though most people who came were my friends and family, it was still an interesting experience. Luckily, on the last day a friend of the cafe propietor stopped by in the last minutes before I took down the show and bought a drawing, deciding rather quickly to do so too. Chihiro’s ex-coworker was the first who came on opening day, and thankfully she was chill enough to help install due to a unfortunate circumstance the morning of. 

 

A cup

Here is a cup with one of my illustrations printed on it. Kawachi Artist Materials had a run of Artist cups for sale, and this was the illustration I submitted. I don’t know how many actually sold, but I got a free cup none-the-less.

Calligraphy Practice

I wrote the words using liquid acrylic by Holbein. Then I just fiddled around with some textures until I thought enough was enough. Maybe too much… but I didn’t want to start over. Don’t read it without adding some emphasis on ‘Now.’

 

Collaboration

My younger brother and I started a joint blog together, with Chihiro illustrating the characters and other images. Check it out.

Kawachi staff show

Chihiro’s work place, she works at an art supply store called Kawachi, recently wrapped up, well the final day is actually tomorrow, its first staff show. Here are the two painting/drawing that she submitted. They are not tributes to David Bowie, but, as she says, paintings done to process his passing.

 

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A portrait of David Bowie

After hearing about David Bowie’s death, perhaps as many others already have, my wife decided to draw a portrait of him. However, it is not a tribute to him, nor is it a ‘in memory of’ portrait, but instead is a portrait drawn as a way to process his passing. This was drawn without any prior sketching and rather quickly using Sakura Cray-Pas oil pastels and Caran D’ache wax pastels.

processingbowie01

A silkscreen

Here is a silk screen done by Chihiro. Silk screening utilizes a variety of stenciling techniques. The one used here to make the image is a masking film Rubylith, thus instead of a photocopy blocking out the image, the blocked out image was done through cutting out the negative.

 

hush...

Figure in charcoal

Here is another charcoal done by Chihiro. The cropping, the bold black lines, the gentle shading, and the slight color all work together to make a powerful image.

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charcoal drawings

A triptych done by Chihiro using charcoal. She doesn’t usually draw abstract images, but these three here show her ability to easily explore abstraction. While they are a bit old, they are still some of my favorite drawings that she has done. Perhaps it is the unrefined quality of them that makes them attractive.

 

abstract charcoal

Characters from our comics

Here are two quick character sketches of two characters in our comics that we are collaborating on, which you can read here. They are Jun’s older sister, Claire, and Claire’s best friend, Andrea, both of which will appear many times throughout the story.

Claire is sort of tom-boyish, even more so than Jun and Andrea. A bit moody, and aloof at times, she is perhaps Jun’s only real friend.

claire

Andrea is a true dork if ever there was one, which at times makes her rather obnoxious. Though more sporty than either sister, she never buys into the jock mentality and stays friends with them.

andrea