KENSUKE OKABAYASHI

IMPORTANT - NEW TUMBLR SITE :) !!

2012-02-15T23:32:00.001-05:00

Dear all. Thanks for reading and following my blogs. I have exciting news - I have opened up a Tumblr website. You can view it http://kensukeokabayashi.tumblr.com/. This blog spot website will remain open. However, I will be making the transition to posting more posts and images at the tumblr website. I have found Tumblr a more user friendly service that suits my needs for posting and re-blogging art images. For those of you following, check out the new site. I hope to see you join in the "following" at Tumblr.

THANK YOU ALL - SEE YOU AT TUMBLR!

The waiting room

2012-02-08T16:19:00.001-05:00

While I was waiting for my son, Xavier, to be delivered, nothing really describes the tension. You think to yourself, "I everybody going to be okay?"

Beach

2012-01-31T13:11:00.002-05:00

Life is a beach. Another recent illustration. Enjoy :)

A Walk in the Park

2012-01-25T23:09:00.003-05:00

Walking in the Park

I recently came across a print of scarlet maple trees by a wood block artist, Hiroshige. He's not as well known by the American public compared to Hokusai. But his compositions are simple beautiful. I thought I'd try to learn and apply some of his concepts.

BRRRRR!!!

2012-01-16T17:55:00.002-05:00

The cold weather has come!

An illustration to commemorate the impending colder weather. It's nice that it's been a lot better compared to last year's fiasco.

Smoke

2012-01-10T00:27:00.000-05:00

I wanted to experiment a little with cloud/smoke patterns that you would see in a Japanese wood block painting. Just as I finished it, another application idea came to mind. I'll be using it on another near future piece.

2012-01-03T17:13:00.002-05:00

The Foreigner Cover Mock Up.

I'm excited to post for the first time a Mock up cover for The Foreigner featuring Kaz. For those unfamiliar with this project, it was featured in the Brooklyn Paper as well as The Princeton Packet. The first issue is available for purchase at my website store, www.piggybackstudios.com.

2012-01-02T10:41:00.002-05:00

Dune Buggy sounded like a fun subject to illustrate.

Well here's to a fresh new New Year 2012.

Glasses

2011-12-09T14:32:00.001-05:00

Hello, It's been a while. My wife and I recently had a baby and so it's been quite a joyful chaotic season. I'm currently revamping a portfolio (looking for some new inspiration). My mother gave me some beautiful Japanese wood block print calendar. I'm trying to incorporate some aspects of it in samples I'm working on.

San Diego Comicon

2011-07-18T12:08:00.001-05:00

I'll be at San Diego Comicon this week. Would have loved to catch the Padres game while I'm there, but no such luck.

Princeton Packet Feature Article on Foreigner

2011-07-12T10:53:00.002-05:00

Hello all. It's finally here - the hot summer Brooklyn weather!!

And also the latest article about The Foreigner by Chuck O'Donnell in the Princeton Packet!

cow boy kate

2011-07-06T00:46:00.001-05:00

Came across a photo of a 60s model cow boy kate. I thought I'd do a quick spin off of it.

Mental Blog Shelf

2011-07-05T11:27:00.002-05:00

Working on some new paintings. One of the bummers about oils is that it takes some time to dry between stages.
It's easy to lost patience and/or get distracted.

A quick illustration I did for my wife's news letter.

I'll be traveling to San Diego Comicon again this month.

A Baby Boy Greeting Card

2011-06-15T11:45:00.002-05:00

A card I did for fun for my best friend's baby shower (I already know it's a boy).

Some greeting cards illustrations

2011-06-10T08:56:00.003-05:00

Well, I've been working on the rest of The Foreigner. I've decided to make it into a single graphic novel as opposed to multiple 6 issue series.

In the meantime, my wife has been having me do some greeting cards for friends and family. A good number of my friends have been having babies this year so I've been doing some baby shower card marker illustrations. I've placed several of them on my Etsy Store.

The Foreigner #1 Featured in Brooklyn Paper.

2011-04-25T09:31:00.004-05:00

Hope everyone had a Hoppy Easter!

A recent interview I did with Chuck O'Donnell is now featured in the Brooklyn Paper. You can read the full interview here. I'll be doing demonstrations at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden Cherry Blossom Festivals this upcoming weekend. Hope to see you there.

The Foreigner #1 Set to Debut at MOCCA Festival.

2011-04-03T22:35:00.006-05:00

I've been busy working at Saatchi and Saatchi for the past couple of weeks. Although it's a shame I can't post any artwork due to confidentiality reasons, I have always enjoyed drawing comps and storyboards for them. Over the past few years, pharmaceuticals, have been a huge cliental for me.

I'm excited to announce the debut of a new original graphic novel series titled, The Foreigner. It's the first of 6 issue series which focuses on a 36-year-old business accountant, Kaz, who finds himself in the midst of a war ravaged world torn apart between three powerful brother kings feuding over each other's share of land and riches. A huge part of inspiration came from recent studies of The Seven Deadly Sins. I will be selling Issue 1 at my booth,# G9, at the MOCCA Festival this weekend at the Lexington Avenue Armory, 68 Lexington Ave (Between 25th &26th Streets), New York City. I'll be posting a link to an interview that I did with journalist, Chuck Jones writes articles about graphic novel artists for publications such as the Princeton Packet, The Brooklyn Paper, Northjersey.com, and The Oakland Press.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Norman Rockwell at the Brooklyn Museum of Art

2011-03-07T10:17:00.002-05:00

This past weekend, I visited the Norman Rockwell exhibit during their First Saturdays event. It was a bit too crowded to fully enjoy with so many kids running around. I'm planning on revisiting the show before it closes with my friend and colleague in a couple of weeks.

What I will say is how impressive it is to see how Rockwell shoots and uses his references for his paintings. He physically cuts and pastes part of the photos together to get the right body language before translating them into his final works. It's almost like starring right through his personal lens which is full of quirky humor and optimism for peace and happiness in the midst of conflict and chaos. It's probably for this reason (among many others), I find myself drawn to his works every time I see a new exhibit.

Recent Figure Drawing

2011-03-02T01:14:00.000-05:00

Java with goggles (oil painting)

2011-02-26T15:59:00.003-05:00

Not too long ago, I started exploring what it would be like to render my caffeine charged character, Java, as if she were a mix between real and more manga-ish (dare I say?)

This is probably my second attempt to render figures sans reference. In past, I would hire models or get friends to pose for me. I found painting without too much reliance on a photo to be quite refreshing.

On a side note, a colleague of mine has suggested using Tumbler as a blog posting site. Not sure right now if I want to take that leap after becoming so used to using Blogger.

Drawing for Dummies is finally here!

2011-02-10T15:00:00.004-05:00

I just got copies of my official third Dummies book - Drawing for Dummies. This time around, I was responsible for the artwork (hence you don't see my name in the cover credits much to my disappointment). I did, however, get to put my name inside of the cover art work I did. Needless to say one can tell which famous illustrator I got the composition idea from (hint - he's got a huge exhibit going on at the Brooklyn Museum of Art). The marketing manager at Wiley liked the cover so much he wanted the original artwork to frame in his office.

A great time in DC

2011-01-31T23:51:00.003-05:00

I just returned from DC this past weekend to visit the galleries. In particular, the exhibit of Alexis Rockman was just simply amazing. I definitely recommend visiting this show. Here's a link:
http://eyelevel.si.edu/2010/11/alexis-rockman-a-fable-for-tomorrow.html

First Piggy Back Studios Newsletter is out!

2011-01-25T18:35:00.004-05:00

Well, it's finally here (hopefully along with warmer weather now that the snow storms seems to have passed).

I have finally gotten around to create my studio newsletter which announces updates and events. You can view it at the following link:

http://mim.io/f552a

If you would like to be a part of the mailing list, please email me with your email address.

German Translation is now out for Figure Drawing for Dummies.

2011-01-21T01:30:00.004-05:00

I certainly didn't expect this, but I just got a package from my publisher today as I was redesigning my blog site. I opened it up to find several copies of German translated copies of Figure Drawing for Dummies. As you can see, they decided to go with a different drawing of mine for the cover.

A question from an old friend about drawing comics

2011-01-13T09:48:00.002-05:00

I got a text message from a good friend in Naperville, Illinois this morning asking me about how I work.

When you're doing the artwork, do you draw each panel larger and then shrink them down, or do you draw it to the size of the final product?
Pat

Answer is that I do draw larger and scale things down to production size (thank heaven for In Design.) However, I don't use the traditional 10 by 15 inch formate like most mainstream comic book artists use. Rather, I use the back of the manga paper which is 220 by 310mm because I like the surface texture and quality. The tips of the quilt nibs don't bleed on the paper which is great (and plus the paper is quite affordable.)

Another issue is that you need a scanner that's going to be large enough to accommodate large artworks (good quality ones from Epson run around 2,500.)