New art

"Friends"

I am making some new art and I am getting ready for opening my etsy shop again. My new work will feature watercolor illustrations. The sizes will be 8 x 10, and I am creating them on watercolor paper. I hope to have them in my shop by the end of the week. These offerings will be different than my previous acrylic work, but will still be characteristic of my "touch of whimsy". I am excited about my new direction!

Tavuchi and Her Bear Bag Illustration

This is a new illustration I did of the awesome Tavuchi, owner of the "Spank!" used/vintage clothing stores in Tokyo, Japan. I'm sure most of my followers are familiar with Tavuchi and her shops if you read my blog often, but if you are new, Tavuchi is a very influential person in the Tokyo street fashion scene. One thing that I like so much about Tavuchi is that she has always stayed true to her concept of late 80's/early 90's cute, with her own personal twist. Many people have become fans of her stores and personal style not only in Tokyo, but internationally as well. It is amazing how when street fashion trends change, she is not defined by them, but still adapts and makes something interesting and relevant to people in Tokyo today. However, she is definitely a trend starter as well, as you can see many people on street fashion web sites and magazines that love what the "Spank!" brand has become, with a tribe of followers who also make it their own. The inspiration for this illustration is the matching green streaks with the green patched bear. I imagine it as an unzippable belt/fanny pack with stuffed animal parts patch worked together. I would love to see someone make it! If anyone does anything like this, I can possibly feature you on my blog, and could even deliver it to Tavuchi for you! :)



Recently, Tavuchi was also photographed by FRUiTS magazine wearing a Lactose Intoler-Art necklace. The issue is the July issue (7/11, no. 168). Pick up your copy locally if you live in Japan, or at Japanese book shops such as "Kinokuniya" in major cities around the world. The Lactose Intoler-Art necklace Tavuchi is wearing It is currently sold out, but please check out my other original necklaces here at my OFFICIAL online shop: Lactose Intoler-Art Online Shop
http://lactoseintolerart.bigcartel.com



LINKS:

Tavuchi's personal blog: http://yaplog.jp/spank-tab/
Tavuchi's DROPTOKYO blog: http://droptokyo.com/blogs/
FRUiTS Magazine Official Online Site:http://www.fruits-mg.com/index.html

A small journal

(click to make large)

I work in several journals at a time. This little journal is kept in my purse. I work in it when I am on the go. I started the drawing with tools I had on hand like watercolor brushes, graphite, and Pan Pastels. Then later when I am in my studio, I add acrylic paint and the final touches.

Mr Fox

My dear friend Mary sent me a little stuffed fox. This is my painted interpretation with a little hand written note attached to the page. So sweet, I love it.
This is the journal I am re-creating over old pages. I like how some of the old text and drawings show through.

Double Post+New Art, inspiration

I'm doing a double post today, so be sure and check out my other about "Art Drive Japan", a project that serves to raise money for the earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan.

Current Inspiration:
Tabi Boots
Platform Shoes
Highlighter Yellow
Grainy 90's illustrations
Art School Style
Japanese "Remake" fashion
Koenji
Tokyo Bopper
1950's cat eye glasses

Be sure and check out my tumblr for images of inspiration, and my etsy shop as well!
Also, my OFFICIAL online store is in the works! You can currently purchase some necklaces there. More details on the official launch soon.

http://lactoseintolerart.tumblr.com -Inspiration/images blog
http://lactoseintolerart.bigcartel.com-Official Online shop
http://lactoseintolerart.etsy.com -Etsy ShopArt+Vintage for sale

Artist Journal

I have been neglecting my etsy shop to be able to create more art in my art journal. I just love creating through each page and adding more,,,until I can finish and go on to the next one. These pages are about painting face profiles. I am really not happy with the way these came out. I need to work on face profiles more. I am obsessed with images with hearts in them right now, so a lot of my art has hearts. I tend to go with a theme until I get tired of it, and think of something else.

I think these characters have a lot of personality, but they just aren't "me" yet.   They had a need to be painted though, so here they are.  That is what journaling is about for me,,,exploring, creating, and becoming better at what I do.
xo...

A new print and an artist page from my journal

I have always loved this bird guy that I painted about a year or so ago, so I am making him available as a Giclee print,,,he will be in my shop later this week.

Here is another page in my journal. If I can paint a page a day I should be finished with this artist journal in a couple of months! Does he look like anyone you know? :)

Journal love

Journal pages

I created a couple of new pages in my journal. I really like how these are turning out. I wanted to show you the leather journal itself. It is made by Susie Shipman over at Island Bound Books (you can google her). The craftsmanship of her journals is amazing! Look at the stitching! And the fabulous hand made iron forged button! The paper is thick, can hold any medium, (I use acrylics),,,and they are works of art within themselves. I love them!  Since I loved the journal more than my old artwork, I decided to paint over the old pages.  I really love all the old texture showing through underneath.  I am happy I took a chance to re-do these.  Never be afraid to paint over something you have and start over.  I am sure you will be happy with your new results. 

My leather journal

I am re-working an old leather journal I have had for a number of years. I don't like my old art in it, so I am gessoing over everything and starting over. The journal is a piece of art in itself which I will share in a later post, I need to get some good lighting to do it justice.  The journal is small, about 3 x 5 inches,,,,and look at all the lovely pages in it!

Published!

Thank you so much Selin for making me the first featured artist in Pocketful Illustration magazine. You can find so many wonderful artists here and previous issues are available at Amazon! I love getting a theme to work on and it's so fun to see other artist's interpretation of the same theme.  If you look around the site you can find wonderful art there.

I'm Excited!

New Illustration!
So..I'm gonna have a show at my favorite vintage shop soon! I can't wait..More details later. I'm hoping to get her made onto a giant cut out! Online store hopefully opening within the next few months. Keep checking back!

New Illustration

OFF WITH HER HEAD!

Colored Hair Avant-Garde Kid

These last few days I've been really interested in Avant-Garde style. When fashion becomes something creative and unique, that is when it is truly appealing in my opinion. The inspiration of this illustration was based on Avant-Garde style, strange shapes, and Japanese hairstyles with crazy intense colors. On my street fashion blog http://streetsnaprecap.blogspot.com , I did a recent post about really interesting Japanese hairstyles. Be sure and check it out and follow if you're interested! Let me know what you think about this illustration, and be sure to blow it up for the full detailed view.

RIDSNAP Illustration

RIDSNAP is probably my favorite street fashion site on the web. I have personally met the owner and some of the people behind the scenes. I think one of the reasons I love it so much is not only because they capture the coolest styles from my favorite area of Tokyo (Ura-Harajuku), but because the people they seem to take pictures of are absolutely amazing and interesting in some way. They are snapping people that some could say are possibly up to 5 years ahead of trends in the west. That's one thing that's so great about Tokyo. People take style and they are creative with it. Trends are started sometimes by being anti-trend, or just starting something completely true to theirselves and their personality. Then street style sites and magazines like RIDSNAP pick up on this oiginality, and before you know it, all the coolest kids in Tokyo are mimicking these styles in their own way. I hope you guys enjoy this illustration, and be sure and check out www.ridsnap.com if you haven't yet. I check it daily, haha. *CREDIT GOES TO RIDSNAP for the photo.

Tokyo Girl Likes Her Backpack

New Art Again! Quirky Dog and Blue Haired Girl

New Art!

What does this make you think of? Does it inspire you? What do you like about it? What do you gather from this illustration? I want to know what you guys are thinking! :)

Artist Feature: Nozomi Miyazaki

So I want to possibly start doing more features of my favorite designers, artists, etc, that I feel are somewhat relevant to the blog.



When I was in Tokyo over New Years, I found a great publication called "LIPP" in the basement of LaForet in Harajuku. I instantly fell in love with the cheap illustration/design publication.



One of my favorite artists in the publication was Nozomi Miyazaki. Her quirky character-based illustrations instantly caught my eye. (Maybe because I also do quirky character-based illustrations?) haha



There was a link to her blog which I instantly added, and contacted her right away! We are now online friends, and I am happy to support her art.



She say's that her style is very influenced by American fashion. I feel like we are somewhat the reverse of each other. Me being an American guy doing character drawings inspired by Tokyo street fashion cultlure, and Nozomi-san being a Japanese girl inspired by American fashion. Its just really cool to me!



Her work is very quirky, and really fun! The colors are bright and vivid, but my favorite thing about them is kimo-kawa, but amazing illustration style. This is the kind of art that I really enjoy seeing. She has been featured in various publications as well, and I wish her the best of success!



To check out more of Nozomi Miyazaki, check out the following links..



Official site: http://nozomimiyazaki.main.jp/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/nozomimiyazaki

Flickr Page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nozomimiyazaki/



Now cut and paste this Koenji gal into your browser! Let her know who sent you if you contact one another. Best of luck Nozomi-san!!! You're great!!

RIDSNAP Illustration+"Art School Style?"

From www.ridsnap.com (check it out!)
So I did another illustration of one of my favorite more recent RIDSNAP shots. What do you guys think? I enjoyed making this one..There was a lot more detail in the outfit than normal! haha.

Also..Recently, I've kind of had this concept of "art school style"...The name might sound cheezy, but I don't have a better word for it. I'm just imagining a Tokyo/Harajuku/Koenji concept store. I did some sketches in class yesterday..haha. I'm wanting to maybe do some illustrations along these lines..So I'll explain..

The concept would be kind of like workwear/Japanese art school student. After visiting my friend at Zokei Daigaku, it really kind of sparked this interest in me. The look would consist of lots of color, but not too bright. Custom drawings and illustrations on clothing, D.I.Y., paint splatters(but not cheezy), overalls, ragged jumpsuits, artist hats, ink dyed jeans, and even maybe good ol' colored stained rubber gloves.

Is it weird that I think about concepts like this when I'm daydreaming in class? Haha. I want to do some more sketches, and relate it to my art. Let me know what you guys think! It would be a dream to somehow have a store in Harajuku, with used clothing, and something along these lines, which I could incorporate my illustrations into. Just some thoughts! Let me know what you think!
*(Taken from www.dropsnap.jp, check out the site! This was part of the inspiration to this concept, emphasis on color but not too bright, personal illustration, etc..)

Rid Snap

So I've made various references to Ridsnap on my blogs. Ridsnap is one of my FAVORITE street fashion web sites that exists. Ridsnap covers street fashion in Tokyo, and they do a great job of it. There are even party snap shots, and videos as well. The videos give even more of a sense of reality to the great styles that many young Tokyoite's have.

I did a newer illustration from a recent favorite ridsnap photo. If you haven't gone yet, check out www.ridsnap.com , one of the best street fashion sites on the net!

*Photo credit obviously goes to ridsnap. Be sure to check em' out! Click the 2nd photo for enlarged detail.