Demonstration and Book Signing at Brooklyn Botanic Garden

The weather is getting warmer here in Jersey City! I haven't had time to get back into the off site studio this week since Monday. It's been so busy, I've been working at my home studio (which can be nice since I don't have to commute).

I wanted to mention I'll be doing some manga demonstrations on May 3 and 4 (Saturday and Sunday) at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Sakura Festival. I hope y'all can come by and say hello!

http://www.bbg.org/exp/cherries/sakura.html

Spring 2008 Visual Arts Journal Cover

An illustration I did for Skyzone Mobile Entertainment was featured on the School of Visual Arts Magazine - Spring 2008. SVA is my alma mater. They also featured JAVA! on the splash page of the main article.

FIGURE DRAWING FOR DUMMIES!

I just got the contract back and signed and so it's now official! Just when you think there isn't a subject left that Wiley doesn't have in its "Dummies" series. I can now finally make the announcement that I've been approved to write and illustrate Figure Drawing for Dummies which is scheduled to be released in December. I'm very excited about this project. I look forward to keeping everyone updated about this event.

I just got done doing New York Comic Con! Had a blast my friends, Steve Uy, Becky Cloonan, David Peterson, Dorian Vallejo, Jeremy Jarvis, and many more. I also made new ones. Cyril is a fellow Magic the Gathering illustrator. I had fun sharing experiences in working for Wizards of the Coast. We had back to back spots in the artist alley. I'll be sharing my experiences later as I deeeesperately need to get back to work!

The beginning of two months in my "time capsule"

I just got the comments and go ahead to go ahead with the final pages of the Five Dysfunctions project (which needs to be completed very soon). I'm scheduled to have a brief meeting with editors to green light another project which has a deadline later this fall for a December publication.

Friends ask me what a "time capsule" is. I tell them it's my essentially my studio where I enter and don't ever leave. And by the time your finally done with the project and leave, time has passed and you're in a different century. In Japan, the comic book artists (manga-ka) refer this as kanzume - which literally means "stuffed into a can".

Five Dysfunctions Cover!!

Good morning to a new week! Finished off the overseas advertising storyboards this morning and sent it off to the client. I regret I cannot post any images for these projects due to confidentiality agreements but I hope to do so once they become "declassified".

HERE IS THE IMAGE FOR THE OFFICIAL FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS COVER!!

Storyboards overseas

Windy day in Jersey City. I'm currently taking a moment to work on a series of storyboards for an overseas food campaign.

Figure Drawing book compiled together.

Finally got around to putting together a figure study book of my own drawings. It will be up for sale shortly. I'm also brain storming and putting material together for the April NYC Comic Con. Can't go to the Kearny Studio today since my Powerbook is in repair. Working all day from my home built desktop PC that I assembled several years ago. It's nice since it does the job well and made from quality parts. The scary part is that it acts up on me from time to time and when it does, there's noooo tech support. Now, I'm looking at hopefully getting my first Mac Pro tower. Unfortunately, it's pretty expensive....

Thank Goodness for Apple Care!

Well, it looks like the warranty for my Powerbook is paying off. Brought it to the tech desk and it's off to the repair shop! I bought my "baby" 2 1/2 years ago.

Dummies Promo Month

Warm day in Jersey City/Big Apple. With my colleague's help, I finally set up the large ikea drawing table at the Kearny Studio. It's funny it takes so long to get organized.

Worked on some corrections for the Five Dysfuntions book yesterday. My day was cut short due to problems with my powerbook (yes, it's the old one). Bringing it into the Apple Soho store this afternoon. The wait there is usually terribly long even if you register a time slot ahead of time. Grrrrrrrr!

Brighter note, there's a amazon promo deal for the Dummies series! Take advantage of this deal at the following link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/ref=pe_24840_8575580_hi_img_1/?node=3199421

Manga for Dummies is in stores!

RIP - Digital Camera

A great weather for Jersey City/NYC and I hope it stays this way. I'm getting myself reorganized at the Kearny Studio and I must say, I'm really excited about the new set up. Sometimes all it takes for things to get rolling is to reorganize things.

My digital camera is dead - on my way to the studio last week, I foolishly packed my digital camera with my water bottle (which was leaking at the lid). STTTTUUUPIDDD!!!!!!!!!!! Anyways, time to get another one.

The cover for Five Dysfuntions is off to the catalogue and should be appearing online soon. One of the challenges is that since I did the cover first before doing the entire book, the characters' appearances starts to change a bit over the course of time. Hopefully i can adjust the final formats. The book is coming out in June - I'm excited. Spread the world, folks!

Last friday, I was up till 5 AM working on a sample chapter to turn in to my acquisitions editor. it's got a great potential to be really awesome and I'm hoping the final contract will see the day of light.

Kensuke

i Sight Rocks!

Just got my i Sight attached and working with Skype! My reaction - Totally wickedly awesome! Incidentally, I was checking how much they go for on Ebay. The average is going for almost 50.00 more than I paid for almost a year ago? Can anyone explain this?

6 inches of snow today in NYC! Wahooo!

The Night Before the Storm

A "snow" storm that is.

Spending the later half of the day at the Kearny Studio. It's been over a month since my last stay here and I'm finding it very hard to concentrate with many things going through my mind. On top of things, it's supposed to snow all day tomorrow starting from midnight tonight.

Worked to finish up some promotional project items this morning. Started to work on a sample chapter for review for a separate book project scheduled for December publication of this year. I got my production schedule for the remaining portion of Five Dysfunctions of a Leadership. As indicated on Amazon.com, the book is hitting stores nationwide in July.

As this month winds down, I'm gearing up for promotional stuff for the upcoming comic book conventions

Stay warm, all you East Coasters!

Happy Post Valentines Day

Sorry everyone for the delay in posting these days. I just got done with some animatic storyboards for LG Global Communications. I'm excited about it. Also turned in a Table of Contents draft for another book scheduled to hit bookstores in December Yesterday I was called in to be on stand by at Agent 16.

I'm still trying to get my headphone set to work with Skype. I need to get in touch with my editor that Wiley/Asia assigned to me. He's all the way in Japan! It's a good thing that Skype is free!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Finished penciling of Five Dysfunctions

Finished the pencils for the Five Dysfunctions book for Wiley/Asia. They're currently in New Years Celebration so it gives me time to work on other projects. For those interested in purchasing JAVA! #3, it's on Amazon.com as well. It's times like these I wish I had a year's worth of Starbucks Coffee!

The warning in the Google Search Engine Fixed

Just wanted to let everyone know that there has been some hacking problems with my website where silly redirect links were inserted into my online web portfolio. Google responded by placing a warning label under my website listing.

I have consulted with my host provider and have identified and destroyed the links. Please disregard the warning as it will take Google several weeks to reverify the website status. I apologize for this inconvenience.

LAST BLOG ENTRY OF THE YEAR!!

Well, this is it folks. A great year it's been with full of surprises. Finished off a tighter draft of 8 or so pages for the Dysfunction of Leadership for Wiley. Gearing up for another upcoming book project as well (hopefully I'll be able to make the announcement within the next month or so). I hope everyone drives safely and doesn't forget to keep drawing into the brand new year. Till then, Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I'm working on the cover edits for the Five Dysfunctions Book.

Week in Crazy Piggy Back Studios

Literally swamped since last Friday. Just when I thought that the Dragon Ball Z illustrations were finally done, got slammed with an overnight illustration project for Rebook. 8 color comp illustrations in literally 24 hours! Each one was pretty complex. For example, it was like "7 female joggers being chased by 50 puppies in a park with one falling down in the background. Behind the fence there's two male cheerleaders." That times 8?! Got that done and today I was at Cement Works Advertising working with art directors on their new medical product campaign.

Rainy rainy day today in NYC. On a bright note, I did find my scarf that I thought I lost at restaurant. I went back there and they had it in the office. Simple pleasures make the day go easier.

Anime Festival and Dragon Ball Zzzzzzz

Busy weekend at the New York Anime Festival. I had the pleasure of having a table next to my former classmate from SVA, Steve Uy. The table locations could have been better, but sometimes you have to just deal with what they give you. Although, I do recommend anyone stuck in the similar situation to at least complain to the convention office. They may be able to relocate you to an empty table.

The kicker was I was working on illustrations for the Dragon Ball Z video game for the Nintendo Wii throughout the weekend. Finally got it done after pulling an all-nighter on Sunday. It's done! Yayyy!!!! Get to sleep!!!! Yaaaaayyyy!!!!

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Reorganized my Kearny Studio

I think I'm getting used to getting up at 7 am (thanks to my girlfriend's wake up call.) It's amazing what a girl can get you to do for a week.

Anyways, here's another experiment I did using painter. I also finished an outline for a project proposal for one of my publishers which took a bit longer than I anticipated. I'm really trying to get into the habit of attacking the projects quickly. One of my reps called this afternoon - possible onsite location assignment with our good friends at Agent 16. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to get my colleague to print out a batch of figure drawing booklets. It looks like I'll have to do it the old fashion way like I've been doing in the past for all the conventions - printing the darn thing on my printer. Obviously won't be able to print it out in mass quantities.