Thank you International District community! I was given the opportunity to work with the city to have these switch boxes wrapped in my designs. It was an extremely thorough process, and to see this finally in the world feels great. Drop by the ID and you'll spot them! Below are some pics (not all of the boxes are installed yet), and you can check out my full album of these on this Flickr album.
I had a great time demoing my drawing process and the pattern making software. Thank you for your support! Here is a recap of the event in pictures. Grabbed some pics from the GR blog post as well!
The talented Sho Murase and Mari Inukai who did some live sketches, awesome stuff!
Eric trying out the Wacom Cintiq Companion. Seen in the foreground is my spread of new resin blocks. Prints mounted on wood, poured resin coating (cured for a couple of days), signed, stamped, and branded, they are hang ready for your walls!
Showed our work in progress game MatchFu and she was fully engaged with the game. I'm impressed, but a testament to all the kids who've played it so far, it really keeps them occupied for a long time. :)
Here is Mari Inukai's sketch of my drawing demo, thank you Mari!
If you're in the West LA area you can browse my prints, cards, and book at GR2 or you can see them sold online here. I've dropped off a couple signed books, and you get a free special print with the book!
Thanks Tofugu for the great writeup, and AyaPizza for the cute illustration! My thoughts on process, how to get into the game industry, how I viewed Big Hero 6's environment, and much more.
UPDATE: 1/28 12pm at Kobo Seattle this Mini Seahawks 2014 Season poster will be on sale for $15, and some pretty awesome resin blocks for $20. For those of you who can't make it there physically, you will also be able to purchase this poster online at our Etsy Store here! The resin blocks will be available online soon.
This piece I finished on 1/1/2015. It is just the start of my exploration of a new series of large images I'd like to create. What do you think? I hope you like it. While working on my many other projects my hope it to make many more of these and some time make a show. We'll see. For now, enjoy this large GIF I made showing my process of drawing it. As you can see, I've used my pattern maker to make the busy background layer. I'm still not done with this piece, I've taken a break from it, there are still things wrong with it, but I decided it would be fun for fans to see my process anyway. So the final piece will look something like this.
2014 has been a great year. I released my book, released the app, did 28 shows/cons/events, increased my merch offerings (shirts, stickers, etsy, leggings, wallets). All while doing Request Fridays almost every Friday, drawing a bunch of the Seahawks, and attended 2 new conventions (NYCC and RCCC). PHEW.
2015 will be a bit different. I will sadly no longer be doing the Request Fridays. It is time to retire that portion to allow me to focus on my main project. I will be focusing most of my 2015 on making a robust pattern making tool. Each drawing demo and software demo I do I continue to get interest in the proprietary software to make patterns. So I'll be focused on bringing this tool to market.
Here is a bit of a preview of some of what will be coming from enfu in 2015. A mini documentary from the Seattle Channel, some enfu control boxes on the streets of the International District in Seattle, a book signing at Giant Robot in LA in February, more legging designs coming soon, a whole new batch of my popular resin blocks of the Ghiblets, Cosplayers, and for the 12s the chibiseahawks series.
I appreciate all the support I've been getting from my fans, you guys really help me continue to do what I love to do. So thank you so much for a great 2014. Looking forward to 2015!
Below is my contribution to the Emerald City Comicon's Monsters and Dames book. It made it in, be looking out for this excluse at ECCC15, proceeds benefit the Children's Hospital.
Many many many of you wrote me telling me to make shirts. Well here you go! This service takes about 2-4 weeks for production with an additional week to ship these shirts so get them early!
Skittles, sparkles, and BeastQuake 2.0! The large 30"x30" original file is free for you to use to print out to bring to games, or whatever you'd like. I'm just a fan.
Go Hawks! In my own way I'm cheering on our Hawks throughout the regular season. So before each game I'd draw how I'd hope the game would end up. Obviously not all games ended up that way, but I've compiled them up in this image below. If you want each individual image I've stored them all in my Seahawks Flickr Album. You can feel free to print them out, use them in any way.
Last year I created this 12th Man poster and I've compiled this gif of the process of me drawing all 25 of the Hawks in that image below. All the Hawks are included in my new book Enfu Cute Grit, which you can buy the signed and embossed copy here.
ENFU Cam Timelapse from Ken Taya on Vimeo.
This footage is part of an upcoming mini documentary by the Seattle Channel on Enfu. Can't wait!
This sticker, as well as thousands of others are available for you to send via text from my ENFU App for the iOS! You can get the App and rate it here!
The final result is this image, normally the average creation time for one sticker is 30 minutes, but this one took probably close to 45 minutes. I've been doing drawing demos as well as demoing my proprietary pattern making software (more on this at a later date), my next event will be at the Asian Art Museum doing a drawing demo as well. The Asian Art Museum now also carries my book and is running an awesome show you should all see from Kai Kai Kiki's Mr.
Debuting the Enfu line of shoes from ShoeFury! Click the image to get to the store!
Book signings were a great way for me to do demos of my drawing process and our new proprietary pattern making software. I hope you had a great time, I sure did. Pic of the calm before the storm. If you weren't able to make it, make your way over to Kobo and pick up the limited supply of exclusive prints. Also if you get a book there you're eligible for a $500 canvas print raffle!
I was hoping someone would take a picture of the full crowd, we didn't have enough seating so peeps in the back were standing. Thanks for standing while listening! One thing I've learned from doing the pattern making software demos...people want to know where to buy it. Right now there are no plans for selling it as is.
More signings to come in December starting with the Wing Luke Museum, Pink Gorilla, and Elliot Bay Book Company, as listed on my events page.
A KaiKaikiki troupe member Mr. made his debut in the US, so curiousity drove me to Mr.'s "Live On" show opening at the Asian Art Museum ...not knowing what to expect, and I'm glad I came with a blank canvas because what I experienced was a visual and audio performance which shook me. Its good to have many heroes, and identify how they've influenced you: Kozyndan, 326, Tekkon Kinkrete, Toriyama Akira, to name just a sample. I'm putting Mr. in that short list. Line heavy, colorful, busy, contrasting complex themes explored, all appealling to me.
The show touched on many themes which struck to the core of the Japanese psyche. Contrasting the hey day 80's consumption boom with the 3/11 destruction recovery efforts with sprinkles of Showa period nostalgia, Mr. presents the viewer with imagery of destruction amidst consumption, utlizing objects he's consumed and related to.
Peppered throughout the pile of broken records, stacked Shonen Jump weeklies, and Tv streaming footage hang Mr.'s colorful depictions of exuberant youth and idolization. One must reconcile the exported visual goods of a highly functioning futuristic culture of excess with the flooring devastation of broken physical manifestations of those goods both contemporary and nostalgic.
How do Japanese persevere through rebuilding AND consume arguably unapologetic sexualized 'Neo Pop' as he coins it? Well Mr. intentionally or not hit that theme by thanking the expecting crowd with broken stiff katakana scripted english wearing a formal suit and a bow tie, groomed to the tee. Then moments after entering on stage with consecutive Karaoke performances wearing a pink wig and Sailor Moon cosplay unbashedly loosely singing while throwing kicks and punches in the air while swinging about his mic and shaking his money maker....his persona. Peppering his perfomance Kinpachi Sensei- esque hair flipping, semi dry heaving "bwa!" ããĒs and self interupting narration, he leads the crowd through enka, anime, and the 80s with "We are the World".
He ended his Karaoke session by calmly placing the mic with both hands on the floor and described how this was how Yamaguchi Momoe exited her career performance the same way, a reference I'm sure sailed over all our heads as our mouths were agape. His mention of consuming anime, manga, and video games set the stage for the content of his chaos. I don't know the word which describes a mix of exuberance, feeling punked, trance inducing deer in the headlights paralysis, and inspired...but I do know that "Mr." sums that up and delivers.
I've compiled an album, which is a mere sampling, but experiencing this show is a must. I will be back to take it in again. I'm happy to have met Mr. and I'm looking forward to more Neo Pop!
My book Enfu: Cute Grit is now available at the SAM's Asian Art Museum.
Wow thanks for coming out to my first live drawing event. It always is great to connect to new people. I got to demo my recipe for how I draw in the enfu style. It isn't a secret, it is quite easy to replicate, like any visual form, there is a recipe for how...but not really the recipe for why. Below are some pics from the event:
Its always good to help people associate where they might know you. Uwajimaya!
My whimsical content is greatly influenced by the world Toriyama Akira creates in his manga Dr. Slump. One of my recent drawings was my own way of paying tribute to his covers. I watched this show growing up, I'm dating myself, and I recently bought the whole series on DVD to recapture that nostalgia. So you can see my excitement for Qpop's Toriyama Tribute show.
I'll be there at 1pm with a live drawing demo to show you all my process of drawing, and how really easy it is for anyone to get into drawing. If you have any aspiring artists out there, please bring them to see how fun it is to draw. Also I'll be signing books and whatever else you bring me. Event details below, if you love Japanese books make sure to like Kinokuniya USA's Facebook Page.
Book reviews are helpful. Parka Blogs is super thorough with their review of Enfu: Cute Grit. Check out their video flipping through all the wonderful pages of the book and a lot of pictures of many of my spreads. Parka Blogs carries thousands of other books and resources artists drool over.
Officially my first signing location was Kinokuniya NY (with a nice write up by Sonic Eclectic here) but Pink Gorilla kicks off my run of local book signings so I hope to catch you at one of these! Thank you fans for coming out, I had a great time getting to talk to you, and getting to know how you connect with my work. Enfu has a line of hats out for Pink Gorilla out as well so check them out in all their locations! I will be doing another Pink Gorilla signing December 13th as well.
