A Baby Boy Greeting Card

A card I did for fun for my best friend's baby shower (I already know it's a boy).

Some greeting cards illustrations

Well, I've been working on the rest of The Foreigner. I've decided to make it into a single graphic novel as opposed to multiple 6 issue series.

In the meantime, my wife has been having me do some greeting cards for friends and family. A good number of my friends have been having babies this year so I've been doing some baby shower card marker illustrations. I've placed several of them on my Etsy Store.

The Foreigner #1 Featured in Brooklyn Paper.

Hope everyone had a Hoppy Easter!

A recent interview I did with Chuck O'Donnell is now featured in the Brooklyn Paper. You can read the full interview here. I'll be doing demonstrations at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden Cherry Blossom Festivals this upcoming weekend. Hope to see you there.

The Foreigner #1 Set to Debut at MOCCA Festival.

I've been busy working at Saatchi and Saatchi for the past couple of weeks. Although it's a shame I can't post any artwork due to confidentiality reasons, I have always enjoyed drawing comps and storyboards for them. Over the past few years, pharmaceuticals, have been a huge cliental for me.

I'm excited to announce the debut of a new original graphic novel series titled, The Foreigner. It's the first of 6 issue series which focuses on a 36-year-old business accountant, Kaz, who finds himself in the midst of a war ravaged world torn apart between three powerful brother kings feuding over each other's share of land and riches. A huge part of inspiration came from recent studies of The Seven Deadly Sins. I will be selling Issue 1 at my booth,# G9, at the MOCCA Festival this weekend at the Lexington Avenue Armory, 68 Lexington Ave (Between 25th &26th Streets), New York City. I'll be posting a link to an interview that I did with journalist, Chuck Jones writes articles about graphic novel artists for publications such as the Princeton Packet, The Brooklyn Paper, Northjersey.com, and The Oakland Press.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Norman Rockwell at the Brooklyn Museum of Art

This past weekend, I visited the Norman Rockwell exhibit during their First Saturdays event. It was a bit too crowded to fully enjoy with so many kids running around. I'm planning on revisiting the show before it closes with my friend and colleague in a couple of weeks.

What I will say is how impressive it is to see how Rockwell shoots and uses his references for his paintings. He physically cuts and pastes part of the photos together to get the right body language before translating them into his final works. It's almost like starring right through his personal lens which is full of quirky humor and optimism for peace and happiness in the midst of conflict and chaos. It's probably for this reason (among many others), I find myself drawn to his works every time I see a new exhibit.

Recent Figure Drawing

Java with goggles (oil painting)

Not too long ago, I started exploring what it would be like to render my caffeine charged character, Java, as if she were a mix between real and more manga-ish (dare I say?)

This is probably my second attempt to render figures sans reference. In past, I would hire models or get friends to pose for me. I found painting without too much reliance on a photo to be quite refreshing.

On a side note, a colleague of mine has suggested using Tumbler as a blog posting site. Not sure right now if I want to take that leap after becoming so used to using Blogger.

Drawing for Dummies is finally here!

I just got copies of my official third Dummies book - Drawing for Dummies. This time around, I was responsible for the artwork (hence you don't see my name in the cover credits much to my disappointment). I did, however, get to put my name inside of the cover art work I did. Needless to say one can tell which famous illustrator I got the composition idea from (hint - he's got a huge exhibit going on at the Brooklyn Museum of Art). The marketing manager at Wiley liked the cover so much he wanted the original artwork to frame in his office.

A great time in DC

I just returned from DC this past weekend to visit the galleries. In particular, the exhibit of Alexis Rockman was just simply amazing. I definitely recommend visiting this show. Here's a link:
http://eyelevel.si.edu/2010/11/alexis-rockman-a-fable-for-tomorrow.html

First Piggy Back Studios Newsletter is out!

Well, it's finally here (hopefully along with warmer weather now that the snow storms seems to have passed).

I have finally gotten around to create my studio newsletter which announces updates and events. You can view it at the following link:

http://mim.io/f552a

If you would like to be a part of the mailing list, please email me with your email address.

German Translation is now out for Figure Drawing for Dummies.

I certainly didn't expect this, but I just got a package from my publisher today as I was redesigning my blog site. I opened it up to find several copies of German translated copies of Figure Drawing for Dummies. As you can see, they decided to go with a different drawing of mine for the cover.

A question from an old friend about drawing comics

I got a text message from a good friend in Naperville, Illinois this morning asking me about how I work.

When you're doing the artwork, do you draw each panel larger and then shrink them down, or do you draw it to the size of the final product?
Pat


Answer is that I do draw larger and scale things down to production size (thank heaven for In Design.) However, I don't use the traditional 10 by 15 inch formate like most mainstream comic book artists use. Rather, I use the back of the manga paper which is 220 by 310mm because I like the surface texture and quality. The tips of the quilt nibs don't bleed on the paper which is great (and plus the paper is quite affordable.)

Another issue is that you need a scanner that's going to be large enough to accommodate large artworks (good quality ones from Epson run around 2,500.)

Etsy Store is now Open.

I have opened up an Etsy Store featuring my original artwork of recent figure drawings. I expect to build more content on a weekly basis. At this beginning phase, artwork will consist of mostly figure drawings. I plan more diverse content depending upon the response. Please be patient :)

All comments and feedbacks are greatly appreciated.

Paypal added to piggybackstudios

I've set up the studio website to include paypal. The page which was named "info" has been renamed to "store". All book purchases including the new release, JAVA! Recaffeinated, can now be made online safety and securely. You can follow the link by clicking here.

Roller Girl

Seated Nude

Projects

It's been quite crazy with work for the past several weeks. I've finally wrapped up the drawings for Drawing for Dummies Second Edition. I'm very happy and excited with the book (it's also nice not to have to worry about writing the corresponding text). I'll post updates and drawings. I finished working on storyboard frames for Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness. I'm currently working on the cover for Drawing for Dummies for this week.

Now accepting email / online orders JAVA! Recaffeinated #1

For those not familiar or have yet to read the original classic series of JAVA!, here is premise:


“It’s the year 2073 in Neo-Seattle. Humans must consume coffee in order to survive. It is up to Java and her sidekick, La-Te, to protect America’s most valuable coffee bean resource from the evil Bean Bandits.”

To place an order inquiry, you can email me at kensuke@piggybackstudios.com. When requesting copies, please indicate the number of copies that would like signed. - Thanks!

SVA Ink Plot Exhibit Opening tonight (Thursday, 14th)

I'll be attending a group graphic novel art exhibit opening at my alma matter, School of Visual Art, in New York City. For those in the city, I hope to see you there! They will be displaying original pages from JAVA! as well as artwork from my previously published works including The Five Dysfunction of a Team (Manga Edition).

Show Opening: 5:30 - 7:00pm
Location: Visual Arts Gallery, 601 West, 26th Street, 15th Floor, New York City.

This opening is free to the public.

JAVA#1 Recaffeinated Debuts at New York Comicon

JAVA#1 Recaffeinated is here! The revamped issue debuted this past weekend at New York Comicon. I'll be posting a link on my website for people to order online.

On a bit of a somber note, I found out a very good friend and an amazing artist, Pat Carlucci, passed away from battling cancer. We go way back 14 years. He did what he loved and he did it well up till the end. He always helped other artists and maintained a strong professional devotion to the fans. God Bless you.