DRAW ME CUTE by julien

wedding gig

2011-01-30T06:42:00.000-08:00

usually it is difficult to take pictures on the spot when you perform live but i had the chance to be photographed by a professional at my friendz wedd. she did an amazing job.

enjoy it

new year sample japanese style in B&W

2010-12-27T07:10:00.000-08:00

studio work in progress

2010-12-12T07:05:00.000-08:00

i decided to challenge my self working on a series of hollywood stars. those sketches are done with art stix and stroke of black marker here and there.

i wish i could find a way to clean up my work and go to the next step and eventually complete it but so far i have been unable to finish a piece properly. i always give up half way thinking that it is not good enough...hope this time i can stick to it and finish at least one with a pro quality.

wait for it...

new ear sample tarako lips

2010-12-05T06:50:00.001-08:00

live sketch

2010-12-05T06:48:00.000-08:00

live sketch of the day

2010-12-04T04:43:00.001-08:00

winter holiday sample

2010-12-04T04:32:00.000-08:00

sketch of the day

2010-11-27T05:27:00.001-08:00

xmas sample (suite)

2010-11-18T08:27:00.001-08:00

oldies but goodies

2010-11-14T06:52:00.000-08:00

i forgot if i already posted this couple and their lovely child but in case i share it again...that is one couple i drew in Mallage...they had nice contrast in shapes i wish i could have had a bigger size of paper than A4 to play with better.

cattycature

2010-11-14T06:49:00.000-08:00

xmas come this time each year...

2010-11-13T06:28:00.000-08:00

as xmas is coming to town i started working on new samples.

i used memory references of my favorites artist like Rommel, Oakes and Bluhm to build up my models. for instance the face of the first lil' girl right above is almost copycat of a sketch from oakes. i drew this one to practice Oakes's style after having a glance on a cute babygirl passing by who looked just like brian's sketch.

holloween

2010-11-13T06:18:00.000-08:00

i was very excited about halloween i was all suit up in my pumpkin costume ready to draw some tricks but the mood was off in Mallage.

if my friend/repeater didn't come i would go home with no treats...here it is, the only body situation i drew on halloween day...thank you mrs M for making my day.

happy halloween suite

2010-09-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

happy halloween

2010-09-25T07:32:00.000-07:00

here is s series of body situation i have been working on to get ready for halloween...you may also know the modeles...

enjoy!

body situation from picture

2010-09-25T07:18:00.000-07:00

i have been posting samples of body situation before but those were from memory sketch and i wanted to update my portfolio with samples and pictures. i don't get the chance to have a lot of request "with body" in Mallage so as i had a bunch of pictures left from the practice session when i was still working for caricature japan i decided to use them (you may know few of the modeles) and i did that...

enjoy!

stupidon

2010-09-24T08:39:00.000-07:00

I was picky to choose the title for this post.

It could have been "tough love" but "stupidon "was just too funny to keep it for me...actually one day my wife called me that and i couldn't stop laughing since then i was trying to find a way to make it match to a model...here is my take on sly. i don't think he is that stupid though and i kind of like few of his movies...

enjoy

facecrook update

2010-09-13T21:00:00.000-07:00

i made few subtle retouch to make it smoother but basically this is it...here is my take on my challenging face...any artist who tried to catch my features would agree... ain't easy to get likeness cuz my face is seasonal and from one hair cut to another i could look a total stranger...

anyway its been a while i wanted to try an attempt on a new design inspired by Shane Prigmore Andy Bialk and others talented artist from animation industry like Lambley or Battle and i have a lot to figure out still about their style but i am pleased the way it turned out.

challenge of the month

2010-09-12T08:50:00.000-07:00

take 2
take 1

here is my take on a skydiving body situation...it took me 2 takes actually cuz the first one was a bit stiff. i didn't have any idea of what i was drawing and no reference in mind so i was the one who insisted for a redo and i am glad i did cuz the second take is much better and the customer much happier.

facecrook

2010-09-12T08:39:00.000-07:00

best customer of the month

2010-08-09T07:42:00.000-07:00

here is my take on one of a kind fan of caricature who always come up with new ideas to challenge our skills...today the theme was sunset sea creature surfer...thank you M for being so creative in your choice of request.

Draw you soon :)

ALTA la vista

2010-08-08T05:30:00.000-07:00

the next session is not until end of September so while u wait for it here is my last take of this summer in Alta.

enjoy...

cute to the chase

2010-08-06T07:02:00.000-07:00

for some reason i am in the mood to draw mermaid these days...i guess its a good theme to practice cute poses...2 new versions:

one little mermaid and one grown up mermaid.

live sketch

2010-08-06T06:51:00.000-07:00

today in alta i finally brought my camera...enjoy

mermaid

2010-07-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

memory sketch

2010-07-26T09:40:00.000-07:00

this is a memory sketch of a couple i drew in Alta.

why "memory" is because i didn't have my camera with me but still i wanted to share with you this one so i redrew it.the likeness is a bit off from the original model because of the memory distortion but it is pretty much accurate specially for the guy... this dude was very cool, from texas and had a very great spirit and burst into laughter when he saw the final result...i felt great

live sketch

2010-07-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

here is my take on a very cute little girl that my coworker drew. as she was too cute i decided to practice my cuteish pose...

alhoa

2010-07-25T07:07:00.000-07:00

this weekend in sunshine city Ikebukuro was held the hula dance festa.

After watching few rounds of hula dance i went back to my drawing board and did this one...

I dig hawaiian dance

rock and lol

2010-07-19T08:14:00.000-07:00

snow ball effect

2010-07-18T07:01:00.000-07:00

i enjoy drawing wan chan too...it's funny how sometimes pet can have pretty similar human features...he is definitely smiling no?

body situation samples

2010-07-18T06:47:00.000-07:00

I am working on a series of body situation sample to display at the booth to promote this kind of caricature cuz its a lot of fun for the customer and also a lot of fun for the artist so here is some ideas...again inspired from brian oakes but eventually i tried to find my own line of work and i start coming up with original ideas.

enjoy it.

natsukashi

2010-07-18T06:40:00.000-07:00

i was missing drawing sea creatures too much so when my coworker challenged me with a dolphin request i ceased the opportunity...here is my take on Maiko an other artist from Drawing studio who happened to be also a former employee of Kage's company.

enjoy it.

its a lot brianoakesishhh but what can i say i dig his style.

retail work

2010-07-12T08:20:00.000-07:00

Here is my take on a very friendly customer who came to visit me in kashiwa Mallage booth.

commission work

2010-07-09T07:26:00.001-07:00

In japan the groom and bride often choose to thank their parents offering them flowers, sake and caricature.
those drawings are my first attempt of commission work and i have a lot to figure out to improve style, coloring and speed execution.
feel free to comment and give your feed back if you feel like sharing some tips to help me improve my work.

back in business

2010-07-09T06:52:00.001-07:00

hello fellas sorry for the "no post land" but since i have been let go from caricature japan 5 months ago i was out of job and therefore i was lacking of new work to update but its about to change because i got a new opportunity of retail caricature position.
I started working with one of Kage's former employee , the very talented Taka Watanabe who started his own caricature company:DRAWING STUDIO.
I am currently preforming live sketch in ALTA sunshine city Ikebukuro until mid August and work few times this month in MALLAGE in Kashiwa.
please stop by, have a drawing and laugh happily ever after.

In BUD we trust

2010-03-28T05:54:00.000-07:00

Grab a cooler, sit back and have fun watching this

This is a great piece of animation done by Rob Lilly.

I dig his style and i really want to give it a try and start working on a short animation movie using that technique.

Here is the link of the blog where i found the video:http://beermebro.blogspot.com/

enjoy!

work in progress

2010-02-20T22:19:00.000-08:00

i wanted to finish this drawing by valentine's day...oops. It will do for next year i guess!

please feel free to give your feed back.

work in progress

2010-02-06T04:47:00.000-08:00

It has been over 60 years since the US army planted the american flag in Iwo Jima.

Today the US army still occupies Japan in few strategic locations and doesn't seem ready to go home and the inconvenience for citizens living around the military bases is like a pain in the ass.

I got inspired...

This is just a thumbnail but please feel free to give me your feed back and critics it will help me to improve.

Japanese "bubble"

2010-01-23T04:40:00.000-08:00

Wait...Kim Jong II...for... Hatoyama...it...

The historic duel between japan which inflates its "bubble" and north korea which always tries to bother...

I was picky to have Kim Jong II try to pop the bubble with a rocket but i thought after all that a finger could be as offensive as a weapon...depends on the finger...anyway it works the same.

Enjoy it.

share a dream

2010-01-18T20:37:00.000-08:00

Lately i've had a hard time with my artwork struggling with a lack of skills and lack of confidence.

I have been trying many techniques but yet i never really felt like i could do any good and i would usually give up from frustration not finishing or dash the drawing off.

So i decided to focus on what i really wanted to draw and stick to it to feel good then draw good.

Actually i have always been into animation. i even took classes while studying basic drawing 10 years ago but i never pushed it to a professional level thinking that i wasn't good enough and eventually i quit drawing.

It is only 1 year ago when Kage gave me the opportunity to get back to drawing and taught me the art of caricature introducing artist like Stephen Silver or Pete Emslie that i realized that this passion for animation hasn't died and thanks to their inspiration i could work my way back to what i like drawing.

Therefore i decided to brush up my skills and seriously study character design style to one day make my dream come true.

This is my first artwork of the year using character design style.

the drawing is actually in progress and will be completed with an additional character and a gag that explains why Kim Jong II is raising his finger like this so wait for it...

Your comments are always appreciated so feel free.

happy family

2009-12-05T15:07:00.000-08:00

3/4 view issue

2009-12-04T01:52:00.000-08:00

I don't know if you noticed but i tend to avoid drawing 3/4 view. In fact almost all of my live sketches are front views.

Well i wish i could say that i do have my reasons but i don't.

I just suck at it so i always go for a good old safe front view.

But the front view has its limits in term of exaggeration and the 3/4 view offers much more angles to play with so i decided to challenge my self for a change.

I actually found a good way to spare me some shame or reject by doing my experiment on coworker's customers performing a service gift. great success

Please feel free to post your feedback.

X'mas gift idea

2009-11-27T05:05:00.000-08:00

Here is a banch of drawings requested with asakusa background wearing a white X'mas coat.

I usually struggle to draw from picture in a retail style(only 15 to 20 mins to complete the sketch) because it takes longer to my brain to work on the 3rd dimension missing on the pictures but i am quit satisfy how this series turned out so please enjoy it.

doggycature

2009-11-23T07:34:00.000-08:00

toyosu lalaport is one of the best spot to chill around with your best fluffy pal.its also a nice spot for us to sharpen our skills on hair stroke cuz we have a lot of request for pet sketch.

today i worked there and i was in the mood for doggycature.

enjoy it.

work in progress follow up

2009-11-23T07:10:00.000-08:00

here is the new version of my monthly contest. i was struggling to find a good joke about the relationship between obama and hatoyama and after asking my wife for advice i decided not to use the army image with obama cuz we agreed that its just not like him.

obama then will seat on the top of the japanese bubble with a certain nonchalance in his body situation like " top of the world" and that will do for the idea of america still occupying japan.

work in progress

2009-11-21T06:23:00.000-08:00

here is a quick sketch i did for my monthly contest i always appreciate your feed back so feel freeto post.

asakusa here i draw

2009-11-21T06:18:00.000-08:00

hello fellas.

today i worked at the asakusa shop. here is a sketch of 2 funny budies with asakusa historic background.

enjoy it.

back in business

2009-11-17T01:53:00.000-08:00

hi dear followers and blog checkers, i have been away for too long sorry about that.

i was actually spending long holidays in France and haven't touch art tools for a month so it was hard to get back to good work right away.

i will need time to get back in good shape and catch accurate likeness so i will post live sketch to have a global vision of my weak point and work on it to improve so feel free to post your comments.

be good

"the beat" goes on

2009-09-26T07:46:00.000-07:00

contest of the month.

I wish i could have spent more time on this one because these fellas are not that easy to draw.

body situation

2009-09-23T06:53:00.000-07:00

here are a couple of drawings i did this week at the Enoshima aquarium.

You won't have any problem to guess who inspires me for my body and sea creature live sketch...i dig his style hope he doesn't mine.

enjoy it.

live sketch update

2009-09-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

REJECT: this blonde lady first had a great impact looking at my drawing, rolling around on the ground laughing out load but after reaching back her senses she said "am i that ugly".

you tell me...

the following drawings are from satisfied customers.

When you get the feeling that you are going nowhere and you are loosing in creativity, posting live sketch always helps to break through this period of doubt.

Usually i don't take it personal when i get a reject drawing but i sometime wonder what went wrong as i still have a lot to learn about caricature, so today i took some pictures of my art work retail style and decided to post it hoping to get some feed back comments to figure out what i could improve and skill up.

So please feel free.

old timer

2009-08-24T19:34:00.000-07:00

August contest was "japanese showa period personality" some time ago arround the 50's

It was dificult for me to pick a model for this contest because i was lacking in refrences on the showa period but eventually i chose to draw the film maker Akira Kurosawa.

The first contact i had of the japanese culture was through Kurosawa's movies that i really enjoyed watching so i couldn't think of a better candidate.

HEADLOCK

2009-07-24T06:51:00.000-07:00

The theme of this month for the contest is: Celebrity who passed away.

I decided to draw Steve Irwin, the crazy guy who loved having fun wresteling with aligators or constrictor snakes that could have taken his life many times but never did.

Unfortunately for Steve, Manta has no sense of humour and one of them decided to put an end to his life by stabbing him straight to the heart...cruel for the animal lover steve was...but i guess he took it fare as he lived by the rules of the "wild" and knew the price to pay if you mess with it.

though he must have laughed a lot thinking about the irony of his death, as he was used to jeopardize his life with much more dangerous species but didn't see this one coming.

R.I.P steve.

fame,sex and rock'n'roll

2009-06-25T00:34:00.000-07:00

here is the revised version for the june contest. enjoy it and feel free to comment .

be good

work in progress

2009-06-06T08:04:00.000-07:00

"idol"is the theme chosen for June's contest.

i had no clear idea on the subject so i went a bit off the theme and decided to pay a tribute to Kage who may not be an idol yet but surely gathers already number of fans each time he appears at the booth to perform live caricature.

here is a quick thumbnail i did to illustrate the first idea that crossed my mind.

if you have a close look at it you will see red panties flying thru cuz i thought it was the most popular cliche of what fans would throw on stage but after showing arround the drawing to have a feedback on the impact it turned out that nobody got the joke cuz here in japan fans don't do such things.

so i will have to adjust a bit to the japanese standard but the final result should be pretty close to the rough version...i keep you posted.

be good

2009-05-25T01:23:00.000-07:00

contest of the month

2009-04-28T00:09:00.000-07:00

studio work of the month.

2009-04-28T00:04:00.000-07:00

a friendly couple i drew in toyosu lalaport.

2009-04-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

new sample for enoshima aquarium of karadatsuki with dobutsu.

2009-03-29T06:05:00.000-07:00

here is an attempt of a digital caricature inspired by Emslie...keep trying

2009-03-29T06:01:00.000-07:00

recent face with body...watch out dee brown

2009-03-02T08:41:00.000-08:00

here is my first digital wedding board. omedeto

2009-02-24T07:50:00.000-08:00

here is my first attempt of digital painting.

i struggled with a lot of issues and need to learn everything about it but that tool really give me new perspective about my work specially studio work.

there will be more coming up as i really enjoy that medium.

please feel free to give me your feed back and advice.

2009-02-03T05:02:00.000-08:00

old stuff but good stuff i wanted to share it with you.

ALTA la vista

2009-01-30T07:59:00.000-08:00

The ALTA Ikebukuro temporary Booth located in Sunshine Shopping mall is now open until February 16th.

Please feel free to pop in and have fun being caricatured by one of our artist from caricature japan. You will probably find me there as i will mainly work in alta through February.

Looking forward to drawing you!

2009-01-28T05:10:00.000-08:00

new studio work

enoshima sample

2009-01-10T07:48:00.000-08:00

enoshima aquarium is one of my working locations. i go there once or twice a month and work with my american budy Jerry who is the manager of this booth and a good friend of mine. we usually draw faces only or with sight seeing background but at that booth we have a lot of request of body with sea creatures or anything related to the ocean. surfing for instance is a popular request. here is one sample of surf attitude.

2009-01-09T07:09:00.000-08:00

2009-01-09T07:07:00.001-08:00

2009-01-09T06:59:00.000-08:00

2009-01-09T06:38:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! Well, the blogging world is totally new to me ,so it may take a while for me to get use to it, but i will try my best to make it easy for you to check it out. Anyway, please enjoy my work and feel free to post your comment.

Be good!