19 year old who is always drawing!
Contact me at: michellehiraishi@gmail.com
Various drawings/gestures from this month, first year of college is almost over with!!! :D
This is for Arielle and Janet’s That’s So Sugoi! zine they will be selling at both Anime Next and Anime Boston this year, so be sure to get one if you’re going! The theme was a crossover between American nostalgic cartoons/Japanese Anime SO OF COURSE I chose Spongebob because that show was my childhood.
And haha, I had to google how to write “Spongebob Squarepants.” (((Also the paper on his desk is supposed to be from that procrastination episode with the super fancy “The”))))
This was basically an excuse to experiment more with Flash. From the gorgeous Kairos trailer by La Cachette!
Prelude
Last weekend I was at WonderCon and was able to see Pascal Campion (he drew in my sketchbook!!! I died) and whether it’s evident or not, he is probably the one artist who has inspired me the most EVER. There’s a small video (link) from two years ago that shows a glimpse into his creative process and I remember there being a time where I would just listen to it on repeat while drawing. One of the things he voices in the video is:
“Everybody’s drawings inspire me, even the artists that are not considered to be good artists, even simple art because there is something in everything…So someone who actually doesn’t master the art of drawing, the way academy wants you to master it, who can’t even draw a human figure, but draws stick figures… if they can tell a story through it, if they can make me feel something, I will absolutely adore those drawings. On the other hand I have seen so many great artists or great drafts man whose art leaves me completely cold, that it’s really about the emotion I find in something. There’s the skill, there’s how you use your skill.
Man, I misread the challenge a little and thought it was “What DID you want to be when you grew up?” BUUUT the answer’s still the same! I went through a ton of phases where I thought about and considered different professions, but whenever we had to write down our dream jobs in elementary school I always wrote “artist.”
When I was little, one of the things that I would draw a lot (besides Spongebob) were maps. I would spend SO much time trying to make them detailed and would search through the dictionary and thesaurus for ridiculous fantasy-like names for my forests and mountain ranges. And I tried looking for some so I could scan it into the drawing instead of making one up, but I couldn’t find any!
By Strange Coincidence
It’s been waaaay too long since I last posted anything. I’ve been busy with school projects and I’ve also been in a bit of an art rut, so it feels good to be drawing again :’)
Thanks for the detailed reply, you're a darling! I was actually wondering how you did the "painterly" texture in your work. For instance, on the green tree on the right background of your latest drawing, the light green "watercoloresque" texture. I'd LOVE to know how you did that. I've done a texture on dazid*dot*net/post/14670911311/good-morning , but I don't like it nearly as much as yours and it took FOREVER to do (not very feasible to reproduce.) Thanks again for being awesome.
@dazidOh I see what your talking about, and yours actually looks lovely! I think for me it’s mostly the result of me messing around with different brushes while keeping the opacity low. For that one drawing though I mostly used just one brush! I honestly cannot remember if I downloaded it from somewhere or if it’s a default brush, it’s brush 29 “Pastel Medium Tip” if you have it.
The first thing I do is just draw the tree with flat black, then by adjusting the opacity I’ll add in the other details. I also keep adjusting the “Scattering” of the brush to make it even more textured. And lastly I add another layer and use a white gradient to make the image appear softer, this layer can either be set to Soft Light or Overlay depending on which you end up liking. I think it’s the gradient that makes the image end up looking more watercolor-like.
Omg I hope this helps, I’m still learning new things as well so it also takes me forever to do!
Love story :)
I had a whole story planned out for these two characters last year, but I didn’t like the direction it was going on so I put it on hold :’(
Your work is charming, original, and just plain ole' awesome. Keep it up, I wanna see moar! P.S. Will you some day show me how you do those lovely textures? -David
@dazidHello thank you so much! Someone else asked me this on anon and adding the texture (I’m assuming you’re asking about the grainy texture) is actually ridiculously easy!! This is done in Photoshop CS5 though, so I’m not sure if the process is similar in other programs. I hope this is somewhat understandable, please let me know if you have any other questions:
