Monday, July 31, 2006

   Better late then never!
So I finally finished my Fanart for the ‘Art of Otaku’ July contest- Horray!!
(click HERE to see it, phew- barely got that in on time...)
It is a tribute to the creative process and the things I love most about fanart. If you’ve already seen it- here’s some info about this piece that made it very special to me. (I’m starting in the lower left-hand corner and working my way around counter-clockwise).

1.) The Computer/’Art of Otaku’: So if you’ve been to my site before, you’ve noticed that all my fanart is done on the computer, so naturally I felt it was necessary to have a computer in my picture. Although, this is the first piece I’ve done where I chose not to recreate my line art on a computer. This was a very challenging and big step for me artistically (although I still colored it on PS ^_^). Secondly, the ‘Art of Otaku’ logo, although it was required, is important to me because I do not own a copy of the guide and I would really be thrilled if I was able to get a copy through this contest. I’m always looking for ways to improve my skills!

2.) The ‘Hang in there’ Poster: I thought it was funny.

3.) That guy drawing (a.k.a. Me): That’s right, this is a very chibi/sloppy/South-park-y self portrait of myself. I plan on making one that’s a little more accurate eventually.

4.) The Art (Paper/Pencil/Sharpener). No matter how good of an artist you are or how you create your art, chances are we all start in the same place- A blank piece of paper and a sharp pencil (soon to be dull!). Originally I drew this part with the tip of the pencil on the paper, but if your artistic process is anything like mine, you spend most your time erasing ^_^!

5.) Lamp/Clock: Since majority of use have school or a job and we do not pursue art as a career, we end up staying up to the wee hours working on our art. I put the clock at 1:5… AM because it seems like that’s when most my creativity happens.

6.) The ‘Anime Dream Bubble’: This is the most important part of the piece- not because the characters are done well or it’s really cool anime. It’s most important because it represents what I value most from fanart/art/theOtaku/being a human/life. I love our (humans) ability to be creative, whether it is making a cool Anime fanart, writing an amazing poem or discovering gravity. This piece really represents the creativity we all possess and for that reason I choose to make only original characters without any kind of visual assistance. It’s so amazing for me to browse the fanart at theOtaku and to see what people are capable of.

Anyways- On to the anime! (Characters in dream bubble from right side to left side)

7.) Pirate Vs. Ninja: This was my first idea for the bubble when I planed this piece. Where else but in the creative mind of an anime fan would you get to see an epic battle between a Ninja and a Pirate?! Obviously influenced by the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie that came out this summer and the ‘Ask a Ninja’ website. The look of the Ninja definitely is stored in my mind from the Countless hours I used to play the Original Virtua Fighter on the Sega Genesis 32x – Maybe still my favorite fighting game!

8.) Cat and Mouse: I just thought this was a funny image. I was trying to make each set of characters a different style.

9.) The ‘Rock Bot’: My first attempt at Mech drawing. I love the guitar so I felt that needed to be incorporated. A lot of influences here: Transformers (the toys I used to play with for hours with my brother)/The Gundam Series (I’ve never actually seen a whole set of episodes, but those have to be the prettiest robots in all of anime!)/ FLCL(‘nuff said)/Classic ROCK!

10.) The Witch: If there is one thing that sticks out in Anime, it’s the amazing detail and emotion that goes into there characters. This can’t be seen better then all the elaborate, sexy, sometimes mysterious, sometime outrageous women of Anime. Nothing says anime like the amazing eyes of beautiful anime female (although I didn’t quite pull them off ^_^). One influence here would be watching a couple episodes of Sabrina the teenage witch back in the T.G.I.F. days (if you don’t know what that is, you’ve made me feel old!).


That’s it!! If you’re still reading, I commend you! Sorry about the drawn out description, but I wanted you to have a chance to really see into my mind, even though the piece dose it pretty well! If you haven’t checked it out- please do, and let me know what you think of it. Thanks for your interest!

Your brother from another mother (Mark 3:35),
Brad (Jethro)
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