Winter Kimono Kitty

For Tokyo, snow isn't unheard of. However, to receive 16 inches of snow in the course of a week is enough to raise any local's eyebrow. (And it's still snowing..) This is the most snow that the suburbs of Tokyo has received in a loooong time. For many, it means delays, cancellations, and frustrations. But for me, it means snow day! And with that said, I believe it is very appropriate to release my newest kimono kitty addition...

Winter

So for all of you who are snowed in today, and for everyone else in this winter season, may your imagination whisk you away to a winter wonderland. ^^

Early Snow

Who knows what little surprises you'll find after the first snow...Just wishing everyone a happy December! :)-Jess

Autumn Kimono Kitty

I wanted to present one of other things that I've been busily working on in the last few weeks. After completing my first kimono kitty (Summer), I decided to do one for each season. Although it took me longer than I though (26 hours!), I finally completed the Autumn Kimono Kitty, and am quite pleased with the results.

This picture in particular holds special meaning to me, as right now the leaves have just started changing colors in Japan and the maples will soon don beautiful scarlet mantles. I really enjoyed creating the environment--down to all the plants and the tsukubai (Japanese water feature). This time, I did more research on the kimono itself and feel as though I know a little more about drawing kimonos better. I feel as though I could have done the maple tree better by somehow adding more depth. I guess I just wasn't sure what a maple would appear like looking through it from the inside (although reference pictures helped a little). Overall, I'm very pleased how it all turned out, and yet I'm really excited that it's FINALLY done. :)6"x9" watercolor and sumi & walnut ink on 300lb watercolor cold press paper

Cats, Cats, Cats!

Salutations to one and all! Dropping in to update you on some of the things that have lately been keeping me busy. In September, I joined a Children's illustration group on Deviantart to practice my picture book style. For those of you who don't know me, I started art as a very young child by drawing cats. In first grade, I made little picture books about cats and all the adventures they would partake in. The dream I had as a child to make picture books has now carried on into adulthood--amazingly, I still find myself drawing cartoon cats. I guess some things never change!So every month, this children's illustration club posts a word or theme, and you are supposed to draw an illustration inspired by it. September's word was "moonlight", and for the month of October, the theme was any memory or inspiration related to the month of October itself. Here's what I came up with. Enjoy!

"The Cat Vigilantes STRIKE AGAIN!!"(Aka: "THE GREAT BONE HEIST")

Honestly, this crew needs to get a better hobby. This is the seventh time in ONE MONTH that they've pulled the wool over the dog's eyes. And bones? Complete mockery. I almost feel bad for those dogs....but--alas--they're dogs. I'm sure they have another stash of bones hidden somewhere, safe. For now.In the meantime, it seems that the neighborhood won't be getting much sleep...--------------------------Watercolors & sumi ink on 140lb paper. Done in record time (cumulatively one day!!)

"Soccer Saturday"

Aahhhh....there's nothing quite like a Saturday morning soccer game. Remnants of mist drift through the valley, the leaves boast their brilliant autumn shades, and a nice chocolate mocha offsets the crisp fall air. Be supportive fans, graceful winners, and even if you don't win the game--at least you still get orange slices and a juice box at the end. Game on! :)-----------------------------Watercolors & sumi ink on 140lb paper. 7 hours

More to come! In the meantime, take a break and enjoy a nice cup of tea. ^_^

Project DAVE (the Moon Man)

Hey folks!Just dropping in to give a quick update on what I’ve been working on. So lately (meaning the last few months) I’ve been thinking of ways to find a vector for my art. What I mean by that is that I want to have a clear direction of where I’m going with my art journey—not just doing random drawings here and there without any definable objective (although random pieces are good to do now and then). One of the biggest questions that I find myself facing (and consequently other young artists that I talk to), is where exactly am I going with this? This…art thing. What am I doing with it? What is my purpose with it? And for me specifically, how can I bring glory to God and show others how amazing he is through it? I believe I’ll be working through these questions for a while, and I believe that they will become clearer in time. But one thing I know is that it is good for me to work on a solid project. A project that has a beginning and an end, that carries more meaning and weight than a simple doodle or drawing done on a whim. And a story achieves that perfectly.So, I’ve been working on a short-story comic. Specifically one drawn to the lyrics of a song. There are several good things about this: A.) I don’t have to worry about writing the story, and instead can just focus on illustrating what I envision in my head B.) Continued practice in comic creation C.) Sense of accomplishment on something larger than just a stand-alone drawing.  Since the story is not my own, I won’t be able to sell the finished comic, but it’s really alright. In the end, it’s just nice to have what I envisioned for this song down on paper for others to enjoy.The song: Dave the Moon Man by LooperIt’s a good song that I’ve been listening to for a number of years now. It’s been one of those specially songs that you have childhood memories associated with, and it wasn’t until this past summer that I realized I wanted to give this narrative a visualized representation in the form of a graphic short story. If you have a chance, you should listen to the song. It’s a very interesting story, and I’m excited to share it with you soon visually.

Concept sketches of Dave--still working on nailing down what he looks like in my head; here, he still appears a little too boyish, but he's slowly coming together

I’m currently still drawing compositional thumbnails, but once I finish those, I plan to get feedback from  peers on the flow, imagery, and layout of the story before I commit those designs to the finalized pages. I’m still undecided if I want to traditionally ink it and color it on the computer, or do both the inks and colors digitally. I’ll do some practice pictures and see how they turn out.Sample of compositional Thumbnails (in no specific order); thumbnails are small, sketching drawings that grasp the basic feel for the page layout, flow, and feel of the story and will be redrawn and perfected later. Thumbnailing takes the most amount of brain power, because this is when I'm thinking about how I want everything to look and takes a lot of time, redrawing, and research to achieve the basic idea of what I want to see.

2013 Massive Catch-up (aka: I’m Not Dead Yet!)

Really, I’m not!

(get the reference, and you get a cookie)

 So one of the purposes of this blog was to practice the “professional” side of my craft—that is, keeping people informed on current projects and so nurturing the artist-audience relationship (not to mention keeping myself motivated and disciplined to work on new projects, so that I wouldn’t become complacent and fall off the end of the earth.) Yes, it’s been five months since I’ve made a sound—but I’d like to contest that I have in fact been busy and have lots with which to update you! I’ll be concise, and try to show more than tell. So here goes!

• Started off the year teaching art classes at the local art center. They’re simply beginner art classes, but I’ve really been enjoying it and have a whole new spread of classes coming out this summer. Take a peek at the Facebook page if you live locally (and are interested in participating!)

Fundamentals of Drawing

 When my mom came to visit, I got to teach her some art tricks. She caught on fast and is quite talented too! :)

She drew that apple! (and you can, too!)

• In February, we met up with some high school and college friends in South Korea to explore Seoul and to go skiing and snowboarding. Needless to say, we had a blast! Not only did we carve up the slopes, but we got to explore the beautiful and interesting culture of Korea. I admit to have a bit of a crush on Seoul--definitely need to go back some day!

Chibi Cat-Jess Explores Seoul...

• Also in February, I started working on a book children's book commission for a friend. When she was a kid, her dad would tell her and her siblings a cute story about a frog that disliked water, but eventually learned to love it. I'm still in the process of illustrating it, but I've been really enjoying it. It's nice to have a piece that you can just relax and have fun with, and I've really been learning to illustrate faster and looser. Here's teaser pic:

• As you may have noticed, things look different around Leaping Squirrel Studios. That's because--with the aid of both my wonderful husband and my amazing brother--we were able to consolidate my portfolio website with my blog. Now I no longer have to direct people to two separate sites. Whoo-hoo! So check out some of the spiffy new links (and sorry if it still takes a bit to load...we're working on that.)

• Also, in junction with the website update, I've been working on my in-progress children's story: Lily's Garden. I've done a lot of reworking of the manuscript (made it a lot shorter), and have been updating some of the drawings in the dummy. After submitting it to an editor for a critique, I received a lot of good feedback that I will be mulling over for a while. For right now, though, I'm putting the story on the backburner. I realized that I need to simply explore Lily as a character and simply practicing more cat drawings before moving forward with Lily's Garden. It'll come eventually, but just not yet. Here are some recent expression studies of Lily.

• Amidst all of this, I've started my first real garden! With the help of my mom, we built a raised garden bed and planted a number of vegetables: tomatoes, lettuce, onions, beans, peas, beets, strawberries, corn, and even a few pumpkin plants. My morning regiment now includes enjoying God's creation while watering my cute, little garden. Not a bad way to start the day, if I say so myself!

The garden box and fruits/spuds of our labor.

• During March and April (while simultaneously juggling much of the above), I was working on a personal piece for...well, just for fun! I got the inspiration one day when Rainy (our little black kitty) was sitting under my red Japanese parasol. That's all it took for inspiration to hit. Hence, Kimono Kitty was born!
• I really liked how this piece turned out and am considering doing a few more of cat-and-kimono pieces. Funny story...Rainy no longer likes to sit under the red parasol. In fact, she's rather scared of it now. Thinks it's some kind of evil red monster that spontaneously pops open. Silly cat.

• FINALLY! We come to the last update. I really used to be a huge fan of the old 1930s/40s Nancy Drew Mystery Stories. I decided to try rereading some and--now as an adult--had a good chuckle when I did so. Okay, so the writing is pretty...dated. Not to mention that the characters are all one-sided and we are constantly reminded how ABSOLUTELY PERFECT Nancy Drew is. Dream girl, really. Blonde, blue eyed, and beautiful Nancy is good at everything, "boasts" many friends, and is naturally talented at sports. She's considered attractive and is smart too. Oh yeah, she also doesn't need to work, as she has a housekeeper and a lovely house, with a charming attorney father. Perhaps the only flaw in her life is that fact that her mother passed away years ago. ............ *Ahem* SO. Now that we have that out of the way, let me move on to some reasons why I really enjoy reading these stories. First, these stories always bring up fond memories from childhood, and how I played "detective" with my friend Danielle. Also, there's something special about the prose in the original versions of these stories; the way they speak and call their friends "chums", or how they have "luncheon and tea"--it just takes me back to a by-gone era that I find intriguing. And that's the magic of a story--it transports you into a different world. Therefore, I can have a few laughs whenever the the story reminds the reader how flawless Nancy is (for the fiftieth time), and simply enjoy being immersed into a world of adventure and mystery. With this said, I bring you the illustration for "The Bungalow Mystery" by Carolyn Keene.

You know, I learned a lot doing this piece. Some things that I will make sure to do again, and some mistakes to avoid in the future. My first and foremost mistake: never use a billion ink washes on a flimsy piece of bristol paper. That sucker warped faster than Starship Enterprise. Not only that, but the quality of the paper absorbed the water so quickly that it left absolutely no room for correction of ink removal. To add on top the pile of OOPS, I realized that simply adding clear water on the paper darkened it (unlike watercolor paper, which preserves the natural hue of the paper when wet). This made predicting how much ink I accurately applied IMPOSSIBLE. I'd only know what it'd look like after the water dried. It took a ton of reworking to finally get it to its finished state. I also learned that in the future, I should apply a base layer of gray to the overall picture (except for the white areas, like in the lantern) to give the whole piece a cohesive look. The mistake I made was working each element to near-completion. I completed the tree, the silhouette forest in the background, and then it was Nancy's turn. When I started shading her skin, I nearly had a heart attack because against the stark white background, Nancy no longer looked like a lovely blonde with glowing skin, but instead like she just baked to a crisp under a tanning bed (I wish I got a picture of it...it was pretty horrid). Out of disgust and frustration, I ended up tossing the picture to some corner of my art room and left it to be for a few weeks, until I decided to come back and finish it a couple days ago. And wouldn't you believe it--as soon as I added a few ink washes to the rest of the picture, Nancy started to look more at home in her surroundings. MAGIC I tell you! And so I learned something important:Don't just give up on a project because it looks awful at the moment...push through that stage and work on it. With a little magic (and perseverance), it might actually become something you're quite proud of. :)

Well, everything is now updated! With that, I'll say...

 (for now ;))

U - W Alphabooks

Ladies and Gentlemen—we are down to the final six of the Alphabooks characters! Are you ready? Well here we go!And in case you don't know what Alphabooks is, here’s the lowdown: Alphabooks is a blog in which all artists are welcome to draw a book character corresponding to the letter of the week. For instance, A for Aslan, B for Bilbo Baggins, etc. Feel free to check it out and participate! :)U is for Lady UnaStardust by Neil GaimanSo I didn’t realize this before, but apparently Stardust the movie was based off of Stardust the book (by Neil Gaiman). I admit that I haven’t read the book, but definitely am putting it on my to-read list! If you’ve never seen the movie, you really should—it’s a wonderful story of adventure, romance, and everything you wish to find in good story. Plus, it’s a fun blend of medieval fantasy and steampunk—and you cannot go wrong with either! :)This is actually one of my most favorite pieces that I have done for Alphabooks. It was done in watercolor and ink (the scanner as usual messed up some of its colors, but it’s really not too far off from the original.) I tried to go for an art nouveau effect with minimal shading and bold outlines—in the same style as Alphonse Mucha. Also, one of the biggest things I learned from this piece was how to ink with a brush. And I’m glad that I tried using a brush, since a croquil pen can give a rough and scratchy appearance, whereas I wanted smooth vector-like lines (thank you Doug Tennapel for the helpful and fun tutorial!) I’m just really pleased with how it turned out! I want to do more pieces like this in similar design. I’m definitely going to make prints of her, and I’m contemplating selling the original, but I don’t know if I will be able to part with her. We’ll see. :) (8 hours)V is for Jean ValjeanLes Misérables by Victor HugoIt isn’t unknown that I am one of the slowest readers in existence (especially compared to my book-loving friend Erin, who has practically read an entire library in her life), but at least I can still boast that I read the complete unabridged version of Les Misérables in tenth grade. And if you prefer classical literature to contemporary or fantasy, then I dearly hope that you have enjoyed this fantastic novel by Victor Hugo, which was also adapted into a musical and will soon be released in film.So the choice was plain for the letter V--Jean Valjean, the main character (in my opinion) and protagonist of the story. He is just so noble, and his story is about redemption and overcoming odds. I decided to keep it simple like the pen-and-ink illustrations in older literature—as well as to lack of time—and completed it in pencils. It was also good practice to draw an aging man’s face—narrower eyes followed by bags, a creased and weathered forehead, wispy greying hair, etc. One of the best pieces of advice I can give other artists is to try drawing out of your comfort zone—from time to time, draw things that you normally wouldn’t—it’ll really open your eyes and keep you sharp! (45 minutes).W is for Bruce WayneBatman comics by DC ComicsThe last character for this batch is none other that Danananananananananana BATMAAAAN!!!!:D(And for those of you who don’t know, Bruce Wayne is the man behind the mask.)Okay, yes….so it is more inspired off of Batman Begins, the movie. Regardless, I can use all the practice I can to draw male faces because, well…I’ve really sucked in the past drawing them. And I can say with confidence that I am getting better.Biggest takeaway: Man…. it is SO hard to nail a specific person’s “look”. So this Bruce Wayne is based off of Christian Bale, the actor who played Wayne in Batman Begins. It’s incredible how it only takes one line out of place to make him look like someone completely different. For instance, the hair. If not done properly, I quickly discovered that Bruce Wayne can first look like Elvis Presley, then again like Bill Clinton—it wasn’t until I added some very minor tweaks to the hair on his forehead that WHAMMO!—Bruce finally appeared! (Which is funny, because it wasn’t until later that I realized he now looked a bit like Nicolas Cage. …..whatevs).Bottom line: Lighting es muy importante, hairstyle is key, and if you draw his lips too round, he’ll look more like a Calvin Klein model than the Caped Crusader.Fin. (4 hours)

R - T Alphabooks

Alright, time for the long overdue R through T submission. If you like fantasy, then I think you’ll enjoy this grouping!And in case you don't know what Alphabooks is, here’s the lowdown: Alphabooks is a blog in which all artists are welcome to draw a book character corresponding to the letter of the week. For instance, A for Aslan, B for Bilbo Baggins, etc. Feel free to check it out and participate! :)R is for RichardSword of Truth series by Terry GoodkindOh Richard. Where do I even start? Well, if you never have heard of the by Terry Goodkind, you are seriously missing out. And no, I’m not talking about the television series Legend of the Seeker (the television series that completely botched up the books.) The Sword of Truth series are filled with epic adventure, romance, tension, struggles and everything you want to find in high fantasy. Plus, Richard is the kind of protagonist that you just can’t help falling in love with. He’s so real, sincere, and totally kicks butt.Although I could go on forever about the books, I’ll instead segue into the artwork. I’ve been trying really hard to better my photoshopping skills and decided that this would be a good piece to devote time in doing so (although take note that I did the lines in pencil, scanned that in, and then digitally colored it). I’m alright with how it turned out. I feel as though I’m slowly getting better with coloring in Sai, but it still has that Photoshop airbrushy feeling to it (something about the purity of the colors). I also feel as though I didn’t completely capture the Richard essence. But, ya know, I guess those kind of things take practice. I’ll no doubt do more fan art of him in the future and have a second shot at it. (8.75 hours)S is for SaphiraEragon by Christopher PaoliniI love me some dragons, and it was about time to draw a dragon for Alphabooks. Like with Richard, I still feel I didn’t completely capture the essence of Saphira. In fact, Saphira still looks different in my head (but oh well). I love using watercolor for my dragon pieces—it’s a very tactile and organic medium that compliments the earthy and wild dragon. I guess I should also mention that I have used acrylics in this piece as well since it allows me to layer (like watercolors) with less chance of muddying the watercolors, therefore creating deeper and richer tones. (4ish hours?)T is for ThorinThe Hobbit by J.R.R. TolkeinI hadn’t drawn a lot of men’s faces that were not youthful and smooth—and what better way to accomplish that then with drawing a dwarf? I actually have been finding it fun to draw this facial type, as I don’t have to worry about making sure it looks perfect, because after all dwarves have tough, leathery and beards that fill in most of their face. Let’s just face it, there’s not a whole lot of beauty on those mugs, but there’s certainly a lot of character! It sure seems to me that Thorin thoroughly enjoys a good tankard of ale. Or two…or three…And if you haven’t read The Hobbit, you should stop what you’re doing (which is reading my blog) and go do that RIGHT NOW.And yes, that is a Smaug mug. :3(2 hours)