Cat Lightning

My cat. Shooting lightning. Out of her paws!

Puffer Beastie

This one's for Ryan, who requested:
I want to see a beastie that floats in the air like a bird, but without wings. Instead it's like a little puffer fish, round and plump and alabaster with prominent spikes protruding in every direction (except the spikes aren't dangerous, but are kind of cuddly).

Hmm.. This one took a while to get right. Cuddly spikes was a bit of a challenge. And puffer fish are pretty hard to top in general, since they're so awesome already. I can only hope this beastie fulfills Ryan's lofty expectations. She's a little bit of puffer fish, a little bit of bird, and a little bit of diva. (YEAH I aint got no WINGS! Don't NEED em, 'cuz I am FIERCE and I GOT IT like THAT and I don't CARE if they WATCHIN'!)

La Lizard Beastie

It's Beastie #3!
This was inspired by Natasha, who asked for:
- cycloptic lizard
- tiny scales
- stunted, can't fly for crap wings
- large talons
- smiling stupidly

There aren't any talons, but those shoes! Those legs! She's a man-eater! I had a lot of fun with this one, because it could have gone in several directions. Ultimately I took "lizard" and went with "dinosaur," because I love dinosaurs. And I thought having a ferocious velociraptor with dinky wings and vixen legs was a ridiculous combination.

The 1st Annual Big Bad Beastie Contest!

Because it's Halloween season and because I love monsters, I have decided to launch the 1st Annual Paper Beats All Big Bad Beastie Contest! For the month of October, I will be taking submissions for Big Bad Beasties. You come up with an idea, I draw it, and at the end of the month we'll have a little vote on the best one. The proud mommy or daddy of the beastie wins a prize!

So without further ado, I'm very proud to unveil the first (of hopefully many) Beastie!

The idea was submitted by Mr. J.T. Trollman who wrote: I want a monster based on a Puffin -- but with tentacles for feet, and an over-sized beak with serrated edges.

Very interesting, Mr. Trollman. The challenge here was to combine the endearing features of an aquatic bird with a disgusting octopus. I'm pretty pleased with this one.


Keep those ideas coming! :)

At last!

Well, it's been an eventful two months. Shortly after my last post, I returned to the United States, which as you can expect, was a pretty big deal. Since then I've gone on "vacation" to Los Angeles and Chicago and have also been working on my portfolio. So, sorry about the long wait! Life gets in the way sometimes, and I haven't been completely lazy like the meatball you see below:

Here's a bit of a glimpse into my domestic life. Everyday for the past two weeks I've been waking up with this beastie (Mimi, or as I prefer to call her, Mi-chan), asleep on my leg or otherwise crowding the sheets. I repay the favor by interrupting her naps throughout the day. Usually this the response I get.

Frogman

I've noticed that all the characters I make up are males. Maybe I should work on some female ones? Anyway, I drew this guy quite a while back. People who know me know that I loath/fear frogs like nothing else, but I like the idea of this sour looking dude who wears a frog suit... Or is it his skin? Is he half man half frog? Does he dress up like a frog to catch frogs to make balloons? Either way, he must resign himself to an amphibian life, and from the looks of it, he isn't too happy about it.

*On another note: Four days left in Japan.

Beasties

Just felt like drawing something cute. Enjoy the beasties.

Why we use batons...

Instead of cats for relay races.

Slug Attack!

Last weekend, I came home from a great Golden Week vacation to find my house taken over by slugs. Oh my god. They were everywhere. Thus, I've begun my slug extermination campaign. In English Club today, I drew this little scene to illustrate the my current position in the war on slugs. On one side you have slimyness, rain, and general unhappiness. On my side, I only have a salt shaker and a tendency to freak out.

At times, the problem at hand appears unsurmountable. They can hide in tiny cracks that I can't see. They are slimy and icky. When I kill them, they dissolve into a sticky pool I have to clean up. But take heed, slimy ones! You may be constantly lurking in the moisty places waiting to strike, but I have dogged determination and LOTS of salt (and don't forget slug poison).

Relakkuma

So recently, I bought a Relakkuma pencil case. I don't really need another pencil case, but I've seen some of my students and even my supervisor with one, and it's so fucking adorable that I simply had to have it. Relakkuma, if you don't know, is a hugely popular Sanrio character; the name means "relax bear." I've fallen so in love with it, that I drew myself emerging from its plushy insides. Maybe I woke from a nap. Maybe I'm being born!

Hey there, little guy...

It's been rainy and dreary for the past two days in Shizuoka. Not only has it affected my mood and productivity, but it's brought forth the slugs again. I found this little guy on the edge of my tub yesterday. I paused to watch him, and imagined what it'd be like to be perched on a blindingly white cliff, surveying the vast basin below. Then I hosed him down the drain with the showerhead. I hate slugs.

A page in the life

Ok, this is a semi cop-out because it's only a page from one of my sketchbooks. But I find these doodles pretty amusing and have no recollection of drawing any of it. Looks like I had birds on the brain that day...

Caption Cat

What's this cat so angry about?

Myawn....

My thoughts exactly, cat. My thoughts exactly....

It's Friday!

(Well, it's been Friday for me already, since I live in the future). Have a great weekend! Here's a scene of some marine creatures crashing an onsen.

Nyan Nyan

So there's this cat I'm kind of obsessed with. She's one of two that live on the school grounds. It's nice to be around animals from time to time, and the five minutes I take to feed the cats is a therapeutic break from work. At first, this cat, Nyan-Nyan (which is the Japanese version of naming your cat Meow-Meow), shunned my advances. What a tease. But now, true to her namesake, she's learned to come yammering to my door of the teacher's room for food. I think she likes me...

'Living Fossil'

You may or may not have seen the news about a rare frill shark being caught off the coast of Japan. It just so happens that it was in Numazu, the city where I live. I saw the footage on a Japanese news show while I was at the gym, and for about 10 minutes I gawked at the tv in awe, unaware that I was pedaling a little too fiercely on the stationary bike.

I've always had a fixation for the bizarre and grotesque, Mother Nature's little experiments. I went through a small obession with goblin sharks and similar deep sea creatures once. So it thrilled me to bits to see live footage of the rare frill shark, especially in my own town! There was a newscaster on site to see the (already dead) carcass, and he lay down beside it on the tarp as a size comparison. But there was something about the way he just lay so still, gazing thoughtfully at shrivelled, lifeless animal, that was rather poignant.
So I decided to draw the relationship as a man/shark fantasy. I'm still working on using the brushpen, but it's fun, despite a lot of my attempts looking terrible. I colored these two in Photoshop because school is slow on Friday afternoons.

Ironically, there was news this week about an Australian abalone diver getting chomped on by a Great White, but that's another story entirely...

Horseman

Not much to say about this one... An idea I had.

bull

Trying out the calligraphy brush pen. Needs work, but I like the direction it's going.

Sheep

Inspired after reading Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase.