miki sato illustration blog

MOVING

2010-07-12T03:28:00.005-04:00

www.mikisatoillustration.com/blog/

So I decided that I would move my blog over to Wordpress, and to also host it on my own domain :)

It's kind of sad to leave this one behind, but I transferred over all of my past posts and the comments, and the appearance hasn't really changed either ... so hopefully it won't be so bad.

I hope to see you guys there!!

fish forest

2010-07-01T15:40:00.004-04:00

This is actually used as a background for another picture I was working on, but I ended up liking it just as it is.

originals now in etsy

2010-06-22T21:10:00.001-04:00

Just a small post to say that the originals that I posted in the last two entries are now up for sale in my Etsy store!

I'll probably be doing more of these things pretty soon : )

jellyfish and strawberries

2010-05-31T21:09:00.004-04:00

4"x6"

These two are photos instead of the usual scanned images... I did try to scan them at first, but because they're more 3D than my usual images, they turned out horrible : D

I wish I could take better photos of them, but these will have to do for now. I'll be taking more pictures later on anyways once I get frames (and hopefully they'll turn out a bit better than these ones!)

snails and robins

2010-05-27T13:26:00.007-04:00

Nice and simple : )
Both are 4"x6" and I'm planning to eventually sell these (and more once I make them) on my Etsy... but first I need to get frames!

surveillance

2010-05-19T09:53:00.003-04:00

Surveillance
3.5" x 2.5"

Yaaay, this is the last one in this size!
The colours ended up being different than what I originally envisioned, but it's all good.

I'll probably be doing the next illustration much larger... that will be a welcoming change.

palette

2010-05-09T18:15:00.003-04:00

This isn't really a post about anything, but I thought I would share it anyways.

I've been using this container for my painting water for a long time now, so the inside gets crusty with dried paint. I was just washing it out today to start working on a new image when I realized the different colours that were left over looked kind of nice together.

I was also just in the process of thinking up colours to use in the illustration, so I think I'll try to mimic these ones. Not sure how successful I'll be with it though!

perceptive

2010-04-30T10:00:00.006-04:00

Perceptive
3.5" x 2.5"

I said in my last post that this one will be simpler... but I ended up changing things around so it became a bit more complicated. Especially the background.

One more to come!

recycle

2010-04-09T22:20:00.005-04:00

Recycle
2.5" x 3.5"

Another one!

The next one is a bit more simpler.

unorthodox teaching

2010-03-30T11:42:00.001-04:00

Unorthodox Teaching
2.5" x 3.5"

1 of 4 new illustrations I'm doing in this size.... it's tiny!

insects

2010-03-21T00:50:00.008-04:00

This is something sort of different than what I usually do. Some of you might remember that I drew some vectored images of a ladybug for my dad's robotic company last summer.
Well, recently he asked me to do a couple of new images of new insects, so I thought I would share them here again!

Cockroach
- - -
Worker Ant
- - -
Rhinoceros Beetle

I think I'm becoming an expert at insect anatomy by looking at so many reference photos!

cumulonimbus cloud

2010-03-13T01:45:00.005-05:00

Its been a while since I last posted an entry!
From now on I'll try to post more often like before.

But anywhoot
I bring new work!!

This is just for something personal I'm doing on the side.
It's supposed to be a book cover of sorts... I designed it with the title placement in mind, so the illustration itself might look a bit barren without it.
This is how I imagined the title and such to be placed on the image.

The bird took me forever to do, with all its little pieces I had to cut out.

happy valentine's day!

2010-02-14T14:36:00.005-05:00

The poor little angler fish is all alone in the deep sea
....

I hope you all have a happy Valentine's Day!
And take advantage of the chocolates that go on sale tomorrow!

flower language 5~8

2010-02-05T11:22:00.006-05:00

lavender, magnolia, daisy, pansy

So here's the other 4 in the flower series.
I may do more sometime in the future, but for now I'm all flowered out.

(and of course like the others, they're up for purchase on my Etsy store)

flower language 1~4

2010-01-27T15:36:00.007-05:00

daffodils, lily of the valley, forget me not, lotus

So I've been recently working on small illustrations of some flowers. This is the first four, and I'll be working on and posting the others soon.
I'm also selling them mounted and framed at my Etsy store.

merry xmas!!!

2009-12-25T19:11:00.004-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone!!

I hope you guys had a good one : )

I had a rather stressful time this past week, due to my cat getting sick... She was at an emergency vet clinic for most of it, and there was a lot of going back and forth to visit her. She came home today and was very very affectionate...until it was time for her medication. Giving pills to a cat is a lot more troublesome than I thought. Needless to say, there was some drooling and growling.
We got it right for the last pill though, so from now on it'll hopefully go more smoothly. I hope she doesn't hold a grudge against us for too long (she's currently hiding under a table).

Anyways. For an awwww factor, here's a picture of her as a kitten.

Merry Christmas!!

time lapsed lotus flower

2009-12-15T13:46:00.007-05:00

Hi!
For those who came by the live stream a few days ago, you may have already seen me working on a part of this....

It's a time lapsed video of me working on an illustration of a lotus flower.
And it's about 5 hours squished into 10 minutes.
The quality may be mediocre because I desperately need a table lamp (to get rid of weird shadows and for my poor eyes), but I hope you can still (sort of) tell what's going on.

I'll be doing a few more flower illustrations to go with this one.
Some of them include: lavenders, forget-me-nots, and daisies.
They may not be very season-appropriate, but hey.

time lapse and live stream

2009-12-12T21:33:00.004-05:00

Recently I got myself a webcam to start doing some live streaming and time lapse videos of myself working. The quality isn't superb, but hopefully it's interesting enough.

Today I'll be finally starting a live stream of myself working on a final illustration.
It's about 9:30 EST right now, and I'll possibly be on until midnight EST (or more!)
Here's the link!
The schedule on how much I'll be on the air is pretty random, but I may announce it like what I'm doing now.

I'll be working on some flower illustrations that will be eventually be up for sale in my store.
Here's just a quick time lapsed video of me sketching out the flowers:

You can see my other videos when you go to my Vimeo account.
There isn't much now, but I'll hopefully keep this up to fill it with more videos of finals.

So drop on by?
I probably won't be chatting though.

When I'm done with them, I'll be time lapsing it like what I did with the roughs.

Power in Numbers 4

2009-12-11T01:07:00.002-05:00

The Power in Numbers show is starting this Saturday!

"The White Rabbit"
- - -
"The Prism"
- - -
"The Lucky Clover"

These three are the pieces that will be showing.
I previously blogged about the one with the clovers, but here it is again!

The location is at:

Gallery Nucleus

210 East Main Street

Alhambra, CA 91801

December 12th from 7PM - 10PM

So please drop by if you have the chance : )
The show goes from December 12th, to the 28th.
Sadly, I won't be there... California's a bit too far for me!

TCA Craftoon #1

2009-12-08T01:13:00.006-05:00

The small, 3-paneled illustration I did for the blog Toronto Craft Alert is now up!
You can see the post about it here!

It's been a while since I did anything with panels in it.
I hope they call me back for another one soon!

etsy crafts

2009-12-04T21:18:00.006-05:00

Aaaand I'm back with some new stuff. It's mostly crafty things.

I made these 3D magnets in the shape of mushrooms! The tops are made from needle felting undyed wool, and the stems have a core of polymer clay and wrapped with canvas.
You can buy some at my Etsy store if you're interested!

Needle felting is something I just recently started. It's where you take a barbed needle and stab wool many many times until it starts to felt due to the wool inside tangling up.

And these are some of the other things I've been doing.
To the left was my first needle felting attempt, and to the right is a keychain that I put together for a friend in Germany : )

small, TCA, PIN4

2009-12-04T16:27:00.005-05:00

Hello! It's already been about a month since I last posted, which is bad of me.
But I come with some news!

The people at Small Magazine has recently featured me in their Winter issue!! Please go check it out, they have a lot of great features of small things! My images start from the 90th page, or just click here : )

- - -

Also, I did a small illustration for the blog Toronto Craft Alert! It seems like it hasn't gone up yet, so I'll post a shot of it once it does. TCA is awesome for anyone in Toronto that's looking for some local crafty stores and artists.

- - -

And finally, this is just a quick preview of the 3 illustrations in the Power in Numbers show. It starts next week (Dec. 12), so please check it out if you're in the area!

More updates to come soon~

PIN 4 Show - The lucky clover

2009-11-07T15:11:00.005-05:00

5" x 7"
The Lucky Clover

This piece will actually be one of the illustrations for the Power in Numbers 4 Show (PIN4) at Gallery Nucleus from December 12 - December 28!
It will be up for purchase for $100.

If you're in the LA/Alhambra, California area please go and check it out once it starts : )
The image will be in exhibit for the entire duration of the show

I'll probably be doing one or two more for the show : )

happy halloween

2009-10-31T20:55:00.002-04:00

Just a quick one for this holiday~

etsy + website

2009-10-26T23:10:00.005-04:00

First thing's first!
My online store is now open~! Find it at: www.mikisato.etsy.com!!
It's not much right now, but I hope to fill it up with stuff as the year goes on :)
Right now, I'm itching to try polymer clay for 3D sculptures and needle felting!

And yet another thing!
I've put up a section called "Personal" on my website.
I decided to have it as a place to put illustrations that I wanted separate from my other works.

And that's all for today :)

terrible yellow eyes

2009-10-22T01:15:00.006-04:00

wild rumpus
(4.25" x 6")

This is my submission for the Terrible Yellow Eyes project organized by Cory Godbey for the popular children's book "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak!
I'm very thankful that he invited me to join in, even though it took me quite a while to get to it.

The image ended up being a lot more elaborate than I originally planned, so my whole desk was practically filled with tiny paper bits.

PIN4 exhibit and layout

2009-10-17T04:21:00.003-04:00

I subtly changed the title image of this blog! Rounded edges, yay!

Also on a more interesting note,
I'll be participating in a group show at Gallery Nucleus this coming December for their Power in Numbers (PIN) show!
It's not for a while, but I thought I should write about it :)
I don't know what I'll be doing for it yet, but it'll be fun!

autumn alpaca

2009-10-09T05:13:00.003-04:00

Autumn is here
(5.75" x 7.75")

Alpacas!
It feels like it's been a while since I depicted a nonsensical, laid back scene that doesn't involve a lot of concept.
It's also been a while since I did an illustration this big...

workspace

2009-10-02T03:20:00.007-04:00

Why hello there! It feels like it's been a while. It's also already October! Time flies

I actually received an email a week ago for an illustration job for a annual University magazine (Canadian University Report/GlobeCampus) that's run by Globe and Mail! So I've been working on that for the past week or so.
I can't post the illustration yet, but the magazine comes out October 22nd :D
I'll make sure to post some shots of the magazine when it comes out~

Also,At the ShareSomeCandy blog, they've been recently doing a series called Workspaces and was asked to contribute, which I gladly did :). My desk is nothing special, small, and is always in a state of organized chaos, but if you'd like to take a look, check it out.

welcome (illustration friday)

2009-09-17T02:41:00.004-04:00

Illustration Friday time!

A welcoming treat

Actually. I just wanted to illustrate a peanut butter + jelly sandwich :D

I had my first PBJ sandwich just yesterday (if you can believe it). I don't know why I waited 22 years to try it, but it probably has something to do with growing up with parents that weren't born/raised in Western culture.

According to Wikipedia, "A 2002 survey showed the average American will have eaten 1,500 of the sandwiches before graduating from high school."

I've eaten a total of 3!

After doing finishing image, I suddenly had an urge to try and illustrate other kinds of sandwiches... If I do, the next one will probably be a BLT!

strong (illustration friday)

2009-09-11T01:13:00.003-04:00

This week's Illustration Friday!

strong smells make my brain hurt

I have a sensitive nose... so whenever I smell something (most commonly perfume), my nose starts to sting, then it goes up my sinus, in behind the eyes, then throbs my brain

the original measures 3.5 inch x 2.25 inch

being back, updates and robots

2009-09-06T21:39:00.006-04:00

So I'm back from Hawaii.
I've got to say, I miss it. At first I was skeptical because it felt overrated, but once I got there and saw how nice it was, I gave in. It was also my first time at a tropical place so it was pretty fun.
I got pretty badly sunburnt, but I look forward to going there again (sometime in the distant future).

Anyways.
I also updated my website a bit. I changed the "Miki Sato" image to a more fitting typeface to match everything else. There's also the "Wrapped" image I did for Illustration Friday.

And another thing.
The ladybug drawing I did for my dad a while back has been put into production, and being sold in Japan!

It's a small robot made by my dad with his company JS Robotics. You can program without using a computer, uses the bristles of toothbrushes for it's "legs" and also uses the vibration mechanics in cellphones to move along.

If anyone's interested, there's a video of him talking about it (in Japanese) on Youtube:

You can program the thing to play sumo with others, make music with light sensors that are underneath the robot and such and such. They were created with children in mind, and I believe he's doing a summer school type activity where he teaches how to use it.

I'll also be illustrating other types of bugs for him as he expands on this robot series more (like ants, fireflies, etc).

phew... lots of stuff in this entry...

be right back

2009-08-23T16:26:00.005-04:00

I'll be (yet again) going somewhere for about a week. This is probably the last time in a long time.
I'll be going to Hawaii! It's my first time, but I don't really do well with hot weather, so I hope it goes okay...

So because of that, I'm not going to be able to do the next Illustration Friday, which is too bad.

Oh, another thing.
You guys should have fun playing with Translation Party.
You type in a phrase (nothing too long, or it doesn't work) and then it proceeds to translate it into Japanese, then back to English, then to Japanese etc. until it reaches a point of equilibrium where it can't translate anymore.

I tried it on my bio I have on my website, just to see what happens...
This is what I got...

Toronto, Canada, is working on a freelance illustrator living in Miki Sato. Surface layer, optical fiber, found in her mixed media create a unique part of three-dimensional and tactile. Ontario karejji obu ato ando dezain She is a graduate degree in the figure.

YEAH!

wrapped (illustration friday)

2009-08-20T17:32:00.002-04:00

For this week's Illustration Friday!

wrapped up in (too much) thought

pelican and envelope

2009-08-16T03:35:00.004-04:00

I haven't done an illustration with just a white background in a while...
I had this rough lying around for a while (like the "mangrove" illustration a few posts back), so I thought I would take a stab at it... this weird pelican-human hybrid...

On another note:
Also, just the final look for the promo envelopes.

promos step three and four + cat

2009-08-12T15:05:00.003-04:00

Sewed them up, folded the flaps, ironed them down, made ribbon closures...

Cat!

promos step one and two

2009-08-10T18:56:00.005-04:00

Sewing them up now...

I changed the design a bit since last time, so I'll be posting more pictures of progress (with the ribbon closures and such).

recently

2009-08-06T03:23:00.006-04:00

For the past few weeks, I've been here and there a lot.
In a span of 3 weeks I've been to Ottawa (my hometown), back to Toronto, then back to Ottawa again. AND, at the end of this month, I'll be heading out for a few days to Hawaii....
weeeeeeeeee

But anyways.

A few days before I left for Ottawa for the second time, I updated my site so that now you can full view an image and see it bigger. woop.

And on another different note, I've been featured a few times in the blog Share Some Candy! They have a lot of awesome work, so please go check it out.

I also have a picture or two with the progress of my mail promos that I plan on updating here tomorrow. I changed the designs a bit, so it now involves some clear cello envelopes and ribbon closures.

Anyways, it's past 3:30am. Sleeptime? Maaaaaaybe.

new illustration

2009-07-29T19:57:00.004-04:00

Secrets of the Mangrove

I actually had this sketch lying around for about half a year. I found it in a pile of unfinished roughs, so I may go back and finalize more of them later on.

etsy and fridays

2009-07-26T16:27:00.004-04:00

Long time no post! I hope everyone's doing swell and their summers are going excellently.

I've had this thought for a while, but as the title says, I am hopefully opening an Etsy store sometime in the future. For those who don't know: Etsy is a place where people sell handmade things, vintage things, and all sorts of supplies to make said handmade things. All in all, it's filled with really great stuff, so go take a gander!

In the store, I am planning on selling prints (and possibly originals) of my illustrations, pins, magnets, keychains, and random plushie things. If you think of something that you would like to see in the store, don't hesitate to message me!

Another thing is that I may start participating in Illustra tionFriday. I think it would be a good opportunity for me to do something every week. I'm finding myself putting aside illustrationing for other smaller side projects, which probably shouldn't be the case.

We also got a kitty condo/cat tree/climbing structure thing for my lazy, senile cat. She has yet to climb the thing by herself....

cmyk mag and promos

2009-07-10T16:41:00.007-04:00

First thing's first....

Yaaaaay CMYK magazine (with cat)! I got it in the mail yesterday. I'm on the 56th page #02, so go check it out! Also make sure to check out my friend Nazanin Abedin's entry on the 60th page (the one with the unicorn, #11)
: )

On another note, here's an update on my mail-in promo!

I kind of changed it up a bit. So now, instead of a pocket, I'll just sort of wrap 2~4 postcards in this envelope and close it off with a safety pin. I just need to sew it a bit along the seams and such. I'll be testing it out and sending one to myself before making them all... just incase they're unsendable.

charger!!

2009-07-07T07:48:00.002-04:00

yesyesyes!!
The cellphone charger has arrived!!!
Finally, it's about 2 months since I last used my cellphone (one month in Japan, then one month with dead batteries)

wooooo

self promo

2009-07-07T01:02:00.005-04:00

Wow, it's already July! Time seems to pass by very quickly.
After spending much of June jetlagged and preoccupied, it's time to start creating promos for myself!

This is just a small screencap from Photoshop and I'm still fiddling around with it.
I'm planning on making an envelope from canvas with a pocket filled with examples of my work. It'll sort of be like how I made my business cards with paper sewn directly on canvas.

It might sound kind of weird, but I'll be uploading more photos of my progress as I finish them.

cellphone charger

2009-06-26T23:47:00.007-04:00

If you've tried to contact me via phone the past two weeks, and you didn't get through, this is the reason why:

Since I lost my luggage in Japan, my cellphone charger has also been MIA. It's mostly my fault for not going to look for the charger as soon as I got back, but I didn't think it would be this hard to find.

Seeing that my phone model is kind of old, I guess it makes sense that I couldn't find it in the stores I looked through. But through this process, I came to realize how many kinds of cellphone chargers there are in the world with different types per phone per company.

Why don't companies just agree on one design and go with it? Like a universal charger for all cellphones??
........
In the end, I opted for Ebay. Woo

< /minirant>

buggy 2

2009-06-22T03:51:00.004-04:00

I was also asked to do a simple comic by my dad featuring the ladybug.

buggy

2009-06-21T14:40:00.007-04:00

My dad asked me for some vectored spot illustrations of ladybugs for a robot he's making (you see, he makes robots for a living...)
The spots will be used in a brochure for promoting the robot, which will be making a debut at a children's summer camp this year~

I'm still working on them, but these are what I came up with.

that is all for today!

hey look

2009-06-16T19:55:00.009-04:00

I'm back!

Well, technically I've been back to quiet-Canada since the 10th, but things such as jet lag is severely cutting into my time. For some reason, I'm having a hard time this time around to get my sleeping schedule back to normal. Maybe because it's been about 4 years since I last traveled 13 hours into the future?

Anyways. Aside from the jet lag, I'll also be a bit preoccupied with my family members coming to Toronto tomorrow for a few days. That, and I'll be getting my chubby and lazy cat (naww) tomorrow as well. Reunited at last after not living with one another for years.

Oh, and I have a picture!
yaaaay

I got these rectangular and white headphones while in Japan, so it's like a tribute(??) to them - by sticking it on a llama's head. Everyone likes llamas (and alpacas).

All in all, I should be cleaning right now. So I shall go and do that... soon

sidenote

2009-06-02T15:53:00.005-04:00

It is currently almost 5am in Japan right now. I should be sleeping, but hey; the internet is a fun place.

I've just been looking at new illustration work done by my classmates' and it motivates me. I want to go back to Toronto right now and start working on new pieces!!
All these art and comic books I've been hoarding isn't helping either... They've given me a lot to think about and things to work on in my own drawings... I also want to draw comics again!!!

7 more days in Japan, and then I'll be back. I sense good things will happen when I do :)

(Apologies for extreme lack of pictures)

may 27 - may 31

2009-05-31T10:36:00.005-04:00

Just been wandering around Tokyo for the past few days. Mostly been seeking out bookstores and looking through their art/design/illustration sections.
Even tomorrow I'll be going to a "bookstore neighbourhood" in Central Tokyo to see what sort of stuff they have.

Some of my loot:

Some books and MUJI pens. I needed to stock up again on them, seeing all of mine disappeared when my luggage got stolen...

I've been holding back on buying all sorts of books, but maybe I should just splurge.

Moar photos here

may 20 - may 26

2009-05-26T12:51:00.008-04:00

So lots of stuff happened between when I last updated. I haven't had much access to the interwebs for the past few days to post anything, hence the sparseness.

Bad news is that my luggage is still MIA, but good news is that I got a new suitcase and new clothes. I still grieve about the stuff I lost though.

After my time in Fukuoka, we stayed in Hiroshima for one night, and on the next day we came to Tokyo. I've only gone to a few places in Tokyo (like Akihabara and Ikebukuro), but I figure that I'm going to be spending the rest of my time here in Tokyo, so might as well not do everything at once.
Very early this morning, we went to Tsukiji, the fish market. Very scary, mostly because of the fear of getting run over by fishermen on car-like things. Afterwards, we totally passed out and wasted a day inside...

It's about 2am right now, and we're going to the Ghibli museum tomorrow early in the morning, so I don't have much time to upload any pictures right now... But then again, I haven't really been taking them since I got to Tokyo, but I'll upload some eventually (and possibly drawings I've done in my sketchbook, seeing that these posts were originally supposed to be about posting them).

Japanese tv <3

May 18 - May 19

2009-05-19T21:03:00.004-04:00

Something fun happened... and by fun, I mean not.

On the 17th, we were on the bullet train to get to Fukuoka. It was a 3 hour ride, so all of us just passed out at our seats.
When it was our stop, we went to go get our luggage, and mine was missing :D
We went to the police and I had to fill out some forms about what sort of things were in it and such, and we're hoping that someone took it by accident and I'll be getting it back....... but I doubt it.

nooo, my money, my clothes, my toiletriesss
I'm just glad that my passport wasn't in there. Then there would have been more of a problem.

But it still sucks :(

may 15 - may 17

2009-05-17T08:34:00.008-04:00

So it's our last day in Kyoto! Tomorrow we're heading to Fukuoka, a small city in the south on the Kyushu island. It's a short distance away by bus to a place called Saga city, where I visited a lot as a child because grandparents live there.

The past three days, I've gone to a lot of more touristy places in Kyoto, Nara etc.

In Kyoto, we went to Kinkakuji (then Golden Pavilion), Kyomizudera, and a rock garden called Ryoanji.
There was a lot of construction going on in a lot of the places we were going to, maybe because it's spring time?

On May 16th, we went to Nara, known for their deer park!
DEER DEER DEER!
It was lightly drizzling, so all the deer were slightly damp. We fed them some deer biscuits and got headbutted by those who wanted more.

On the way back we bought some Mister Doughnuts

May 17th, we walked to the Kyoto International Manga Museum. It had walls full of old and new manga where the visitors can sit down and read all they like. They had a small special exhibition for Moebius as well.

After that, we headed to a place West from the center of Kyoto to a place called Arashi-yama. There, we climbed a steep mountain to get to a place where wild monkeys come and lounge. It was drizzling this day too, so like the deer, the monkeys were damp.
We were specifically told not to stare at the monkeys.
Also took a stroll through a bamboo forest.

It's a shame that it was so wet these past two days, but monkeys and deers make it all better!

More photos here!

may 13th - may 14th (japan)

2009-05-14T09:35:00.008-04:00

It doesn't feel like I'm in Japan at all...

So yesterday I landed in Narita, Japan at around 3:30pm after spending 13 hours on an airplane. Because of the Swine flu business, we had to stay on the plane for a little while longer while people came aboard with thermal cameras and a face mask for everyone.

After going through customs and picking up our luggage, we went on another plane (about a one hour flight) to get to Osaka. Woo.
Except it wasn't all that bad. We had crazy seats that can completely recline into a bed position and everything inbetween. It's too bad that the flight only lasted about an hour.

We stayed at a hostel near a subway station, and I definitely slept well that night.

I woke up at around 6am, ate some toast, took a shower, watched some people going to work/school through the window, and then we went off to the core of Osaka.
The place is called Namba, and it houses some touristy locations like the giant moving crab display, and the Glico man.

We also ate some delicious Okonomiyaki and Takoyaki.

At the end of the day, we picked up our luggage and headed towards Kyoto (where I am now). We're staying here for 4 nights... Tomorrow, we either go feed deer at Nara, or laze around in Kyoto and look around the area. For me the last two days felt very hectic.

more photos of the trip here!

going somewhere

2009-05-12T06:56:00.005-04:00

Hi guys, I just wanted to quickly say that I'll be heading off to Japan from today (May 12th) til June 10th!!

SO, this blog will probably be used as a travel blog of sorts until I come back to Canada. I'm also bringing a sketchbook, so you may expect some photographs and some drawings I did in that said sketchbook.

I originally had some images to post here as well, but I seemed to have misplaced my SD card D:

Anyways... I'm still not really packed, so I should really go and do that now

business cards and framing

2009-05-06T19:26:00.005-04:00

YES! I have internet again~
It's nice to be able to leisurely and pointlessly browse the web for hours.

But aside from that, the past few days I have been getting ready for the 94th OCAD Grad show that I blogged about in the previous post to this one.

I snapped a few pictures of some of the things like framing and business cards, so I thought I would post them here.

This is the kind of framing I did for my illustrations. I'm displaying all my originals which are sandwiched between two plexiglass, both for protection and because it just looks cool.

Just a stack of my illustrations all framed up and ready to mount.
Underneath the pile is my first attempt at making business cards... which failed miserably.

So I came up with this
I printed my business cards on some paper, and then I'm now in the process of sewing (via sewing machine) the paper to canvas, and then I cut each card out of the print. Sadly it's a bit too flimsy for me, but there's no turning back now! (for now)

I haven't gotten a picture of my actual setup, but I'll make sure to do it at some point.

OCAD 94th Annual Graduate Exhibition!

2009-05-01T19:52:00.005-04:00

Hello all, I've recently been getting ready for the 94th Grad Exhibition at OCAD which is happening from May 7th to the 10th! (Click here for more information)
Definitely check it out if you're in the Toronto area! The illustration section can be found on the 6th floor.

For those who can't make it, never fear. This year a website was created solely for the purpose of displaying illustrations that were produced this thesis year. There's a lot of awesome stuff, so go ahead and click on the link:OCAD Illustration Exhibition 09

I'm currently still living out of boxes because of my move, so it might take me some time to settle down, but I will post photos of my progress of making my business cards and frames for the Grad show.

Till then~

Flickrvision

2009-04-25T14:44:00.005-04:00

So as I was stumbling, I came across an interesting thing called FlickrVision, and I thought I would share it.
It goes through images people have submitted recently on Flickr and pinpoints where exactly it was uploaded on a globe.

There's also another one called Twittervision which seems kind of creepy... but still interesting

moving and old stuffs

2009-04-20T22:32:00.015-04:00

Long time no write (well, it feels like a long time). I'm actually in the middle of moving, hence the very limited posts. I've been going through all of my old school work that's been piling up for 4 years.
I thought I would post up some old school assignments I did all the way in first year. Excuse me for the bad webcam quality...

I still remember working on this assignment and pulled an all-nighter to just finish it. The professor at the time really pushed the use of rubber cement, so that's what I used to put this together (and most of the assignments in first year).
Because of over-using it in a non ventilated room (and that stuff is pretty toxic), whenever I smell rubber cement now, it aggravates the back of my throat...

I was really happy with this one, but in a last minute decision (probably feeling slightly lucid from not sleeping much), I cut out the smaller rectangular middle part.
Seems like it was a mistake because even though I tried to justify my decision to the teacher, I don't think she really understood my logic behind it.... Looking back on it now, neither do I.

Along with the use of rubber cement, some teachers told us to use gouache, so I used it for mostly all of my first year assignments. You would think that I would have gotten the hang of using it after a year, but I never really did.

At the moment I have bags full of old assignments, artwork and life drawings surrounding my door, so it's a bit hard to get in and out. I'm planning on going to IKEA tomorrow to pick out furniture for my new place, and will be moving out next week : )

Time goes by waaaaay too fast.

cmyk magazine?!

2009-04-14T21:59:00.005-04:00

Above image is slightly older than the rest of the illustrations I've been posting on here, but it was chosen to be featured in CMYK Magazine #44!!

yaaay yaaay

Drawn!

2009-04-09T12:00:00.008-04:00

Wow, I was very much surprised when someone told me that I was on Drawn.ca yesterday (right here), it solves the mystery on why I was suddenly getting views on my Flickr page!

I would like to give thanks for the feature on Drawn, and also the people who came to look at my stuff, and those who left the nice comments : )

It makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

Motivation!! Rahhh

ps: I found the person who suggested me to Drawn. : D
You can visit her here!

stuffs

2009-04-09T03:35:00.005-04:00

Hay hay, it's another Paper Beats Internet. This one was replying to someone who asked how to get rid of onion smells from the fingers.
There are actual pieces of stainless steel in the shapes of soap bars for this purpose.
Also on a different note: some people actually like eating raw onion like apples. They say they can taste the differences between a good onion and a bad onion by how sweet it is.

This was also another Paper Beats Internet, but I like it without the text, and just as a simple illustration.
I guess you can also say that this is my first illustration I did after thesis.
Feels good!

promotion

2009-04-08T02:09:00.006-04:00

This was for my website class with Benjamin Rivers where we had to think of and make a mock-up of a promotional device that will draw people to our sites.

To have a little bit of fun, I decided to make a type of wall scroll that's made out of canvas with the images sewn onto it (also comes with free pencil!!). There's some flaws in the design that I can hopefully figure out if I ever do end up using this idea as my main snail-mail promo.

I think I need some sleep now...

website

2009-04-06T04:02:00.003-04:00

The website is now up and running!
You can clicky the linky on the side menu, or this one here:

www.mikisatoillustration.com

that is pretty much all....

lasts

2009-04-06T01:19:00.005-04:00

"I understand"

Emotion: Acceptance
Situation: Stopping daydreams and seeing reality

"I can do it"
Emotion: Joy
Situation: Pursuit of a passion

And that's all folks! The salmon-hair one was the last of my thesis series!

I still have things left to do for thesis though (review statement, and fixing up parts in one illust) so it doesn't feel like it's done and over with. Not to mention, I still have to get my website up and ready for Tuesday, and make a promotion proposal too. I also have another week left for the Paper Beats Internet.

After doing thesis for 8 months, I think I'm ready to do something on my own during the summer. I plan on making it BIG with lots of details. We'll see how it goes : )

Aieeee

countdown!!

2009-04-01T20:47:00.005-04:00

After about 18 years of education it's going to be quite weird to be finished school indefinitely in the next two weeks. There's still lots of work left to do though, and I guess you can't say I'm completely done until the Grad Exhibition in May... but putting aside technicalities, that is SOON.
Mixed feeling about it as well. A bit relieved and happy, but at the same time nervous and scared. I don't know what I'll do once September comes next year.

Added to that, I'm turning 22 on the 18th of this month. It feels like lots of things happened in the past year, and also the past 4 years of university life, but it also feels like it happened so fast.

This month is going to be busy-busy.

cyclops

2009-03-31T23:34:00.003-04:00

yet another Paper Beats Internet

model painting

2009-03-28T20:44:00.011-04:00

This was done about two weeks ago for my painting class where we had to paint the model on a patterned surface, so naturally, I used fabric. It was more dying the fabric with watered down paints rather than actual painting... but then again, that's what I usually do.

I taped the piece of fabric to an old piece of illustration board so it wouldn't be so flimsy while I painted. Once I peeled off the fabric off of the board, the results were pretty interesting.

The watered down paints seeped through the fabric and gave a sort of imprint onto the board. The texture it left was nice and bumpy.

I may try to use this technique some time later.

website

2009-03-27T05:15:00.005-04:00

Because my main homepage has been down for construction for a while now, I thought I should put up some sort of screencap to at least show that it's going somewhere. There's just very tiny things I need to do here and there, and then it's ready to go up.

In one of my classes, we have an assignment where we have to make a promotional thing for ourselves (an email and/or an actual mailer).
I thought it might be fun to make some sort of Flash game with one of my illustrations. It'll be like a puzzle with the different components of the illustration cut out as pieces. The person can then have fun reconstructing the image, and such and such.
I only know limited Flash action scripting, so I need to look into it and see how it can be done. (Hopefully before the due date)

sometimes bears

2009-03-26T12:30:00.003-04:00

more more more

2009-03-24T23:08:00.002-04:00

two times

2009-03-23T21:01:00.004-04:00

Just a quick one....

For the past two, three days I've been getting back into animation. It's a nice change from all the illustration. It's also been about about 4 years since I last animated, and I've forgotten how fun it can be.

I finished the next thesis illustration, but the scan turned out pretty bad. I'm going to go rescan it ...eventually...

I also just tried to eat a chunk of dried glue by accident... I thought it was a bread crumb.

how I work

2009-03-19T00:46:00.003-04:00

Just a snapshot of my next piece I'm working on.
It'll be about stopping daydreams and seeing reality.

I learned to properly number the pieces (like the clouds and mountains) after the many times I got confused on which pieces goes where.

crocs

2009-03-18T03:14:00.001-04:00

pbi: summer air

2009-03-18T00:06:00.004-04:00

The scan was a weird one to work with... so the final imagelooks sort of off. Maybe it's over saturation? I may go back to fix it up later.

pbi: snake dance

2009-03-11T02:48:00.002-04:00

dance to it

pbi: yes!

2009-03-10T03:42:00.002-04:00

omnomnom

flickr + creative quarterly

2009-03-08T04:23:00.005-04:00

So I set up a Flickr account.
flickr.com/photos/mikisatoillustration/
I'll pretty much submit things I posted here

I also changed the look of this blog...

On a completely different note, I found out that I was one of the runner ups for the Creative Quarterly magazine competition (but by runner up, it technically means 5th)
The runner ups won't be printed in the magazine, but will be featured online on their website.

Either way, I am very happy.
Other classmates from school have gotten the actual awards, so that's great!
I submitted to a few more illustration competitions this year, but I don't know if I'll be as lucky for them. I guess we shall see!

Also:
Daylight saving time!!

pbi: nail biter

2009-03-08T00:33:00.002-05:00

paper beats internet

2009-03-05T23:34:00.003-05:00

I'm currently taking a course at OCAD dealing with the new directions in pictorial design, integrating type/design with illustration. I had Mikey Richardson as an instructor in the first half of the course (wherein I did the assignments with Sleepy Hollow and the Honda Mascot, which I posted in this blog), and Graham Roumieu for the last half.

During Graham's half of teaching we are doing a sort of experiment for the rest of the year involving the current internet phenomenon: social networking sites... except with a twist.

Like in places like Facebook and Twitter, we are to update thoughts/questions/statements, or just what we're currently doing at the time, but not using generic typed up text... we are to illustrate images with integrated type to describe what we want.
You will be able to start your own topics, or comment on other people's topics with more images, developing a sort of collaborative narrative.

Sounds weird? Probably. But it also sounds awesome.

All of this would be updated and posted on a website soon to be made (at paperbeatsinternet.com)

I'll probably also post my entries here as well, just for kicks.

Can't wait

the next one, and a little blab

2009-03-02T03:22:00.006-05:00

"I'm sorry to say"
Emotion: Disappointment
Situation: Hearing disappointing news

3 more illustrations to go until thesis is over.... This year went by fast....
What am I going to do once next September rolls by and I don't need to go to any more classes. It'll be a really weird feeling, I'm sure.

It's already March!
Next month I'll turn 22.

SO WEIRD

bully

2009-02-23T19:57:00.003-05:00

"I'm sorry, I'm a coward"

Emotion: Submission
Situation: Childhood bullying

stuffed hoddy

2009-02-23T15:11:00.002-05:00

Finally took pictures of the plushie version of the Honda Element mascot thing I posted about last entry.

hoddy

2009-02-02T00:54:00.003-05:00

So this is the continuation of the Honda Element mascot: Hoddy the hoppy Honda Element
After this, I think I'll make a small plush based off of him...

element

2009-01-30T03:39:00.005-05:00

For one of my classes, we were to design a mascot character for the Honda Element which touched upon things such as adventure, outdoors, versatlity, play, fun etcetc.

This isn't really Honda Elementy, but they're very fun to draw. She (?) wear different layers of clothes (??), and can take them off at will to fit her needs.

And this one if the design I'll be doing.
Hopefully it's self explanatory enough... FROGGY!

We need to do a character spread with a front, back, and 3/4 view of the mascot. And then aside from that, we can also do an extra something... for that, I'll probably sew a plushie type thing for it.
It should be fun.

flying

2009-01-30T03:19:00.003-05:00

"Wish to meet you soon"
Emotion: Optimism
Situation: Childhood dream of learning how to fly

So I've recently bought a new computer (iMac!) and it's size is so much bigger than my 4 year old laptop that using it is slightly mindblowing. It's almost as if I'm working on a television or something. All I need is my files and programs on here, and then I'm set.

twist

2009-01-22T00:18:00.005-05:00

Making things interesting by posting something I wouldn't usually do.

It's an assignment for a class where we had to make an illustrative logo of a movie (off of a list).
I chose Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow and played on the optical illusion (with the cage and the cardinal) that was used in the movie.

the other two

2009-01-16T15:13:00.002-05:00

"Glad you aren't here"
Emotion: Anger
Situation: Argument with parent

"Missing you"
Emotion: Sadness
Situation: Death of a first pet

So these are the two that I finished last semester, but my prof took it in for marking through the winter break.

yet another

2009-01-12T21:00:00.005-05:00

"I dislike you"

Emotion: Disgust
Situation: Rejecting childhood and becoming an adult

Tried something new for this one. I painted on some mylar, and it was actually kind of fun. Might try it again some time.

something quick

2009-01-09T13:43:00.001-05:00

Sharing is fun!

new year and new stuffs

2009-01-07T20:42:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year!!!
Last year went by very fast... I'm scared to think how quickly my last semester in school will go by.
This school year seems to be going well. I've had great teachers last semester, and it seems like this semester will be the same.

I have here two new things to show.
The first is my new thesis piece

"I'm sorry I'm not there for you"

Emotion: Remorse
Situation: Betrayal of a friend by spreading rumours

And here we have the next illustration I'll be working on for thesis

Sadly, my prof forgot to bring the two other illustrations that he took for marking, so it'll be another week before I can scan them in.

fishing

2008-12-26T02:17:00.002-05:00

It's new!!

and I'm back

2008-12-20T11:20:00.005-05:00

Well, I never really left... but I'm finally here to post something.

Emotion: Love
Situation: Lost love (long distance relationships)
"Wish you were here"

I actually have two other ones done, but I had to hand it in to my thesis teacher for marking. So I won't be able to get it scanned in until after school starts again.

2008-11-14T13:28:00.005-05:00

Sadness from the death of a first pet

is the next theme that I'm doing. There is also another one before this one, but I still have yet to finish/redo some of it. I'm hoping that I'll be done by the end of this weekend.
For some reason I'm a bit excited to do this one, mostly because I plan on sewing a lot in it. I guess I'll see how my finger/hands holds up to this abuse.

More thesis

2008-10-31T13:06:00.006-04:00

Emotion: Anticipation
Situation: Waiting during pregnancy
"Wish to see you soon"

Emotion: Awe
Situation: First riding a bike by yourself
"Wish you could see this too"

So I think I'll actually type up my thesis...
It is:
Postcards that depict little life situations that are ruled by emotions, using imagery that is usually found on postcards.

... yup
the next one I'm working on is "Love", with "lost love". Gary Taxali, my thesis prof, took out a part of the illustration that heavily implies a bad breakup, and instead suggested I put in something that is more subtle (which was originally in the rough anyways)... I guess because there will be text near the actual illustration when it's presented, it might compute and make sense being so simple...
Or that's what I'm hoping anyways.

Oh right...
Aside from nawafiai.com, I also snatched the domain mikisatoillustration.com, so I'll be updating the website soon. There won't be a lot of change, but I'll also be mirroring the two domain names together, so it doesn't matter if someone looks me up using my internet name (nawafiai), or my actual name (miki sato)

tadumda

Fear

2008-10-14T10:58:00.005-04:00

"Hoping you are well" - Fear for a loved one

It's my first final illustration piece done for thesis this year. There were some (aka LOTS) of things wrong with the "Anticipation" one I started and showed in the last entry, so I'm going to be redoing it (or cropping it... depending on which looks better).

Maybe I should actually write about what my thesis is about... but I think I'll do that in another post.

so for now, ciaooo

WIP

2008-10-05T23:57:00.004-04:00

To put it quickly: this is a WIP for the first illustration due on Wednesday for thesissssssss.
The colour of the background took ages for me to become satisfied with. Satisfaction mostly due to the fact that I like how the orange goes with it.

Time to mess it up!

random sketches

2008-09-23T19:48:00.005-04:00

For fun sake, I thought I would post two of my roughs that I submitted with my thesis proposal...This one was for my old thesis proposal that got semi-rejected.

aaaand, a sketch that I attached to my approved thesis idea
WOOO

That is all.

drawing class and thesis

2008-09-16T12:06:00.005-04:00

For my first Drawing and Painting class, we were supposed to use black and white to depict a random painting/image... So this is a horribly rendered version of J. Alden Weir's "Face Reflected in a Mirror" in acrylic on random board. The proportions are so very wrong.....
So that's that.

Thesis is a complete stress factor at the moment, mostly because the profs sent us a mass email pretty much saying that our ideas were a big disappointment. I guess it hits closer to home because I know I could have probably done better and utilized the time over the summer more efficiently for it. The one-on-ones are tomorrow (Wednesday), so then I'll be able to hear all the bad things about my ideas. But until then, I've been sort of rethinking my ideas and all the bad points about it and how I can maybe make it better, and also thinking of newer ideas in case all my ideas were all rejected to the core. But I think the initial reaction of "OHGODI'MSCREWED" is gone, but it's still slightly there.

So I guess I'll see tomorrow....

One Week

2008-08-31T19:29:00.003-04:00

Long time no write! Mostly due to the fact that I was back home in Ottawa for most of the month.
I thought I'd just post to say that I'm not dead yet

There's only one more week till school starts again, and it's kind of unnerving, seeing it's the last year at OCAD (but I also happen to look forward to going back to school again). I've finally started writing my three thesis proposals, but actually typing up my ideas (as opposed to thinking about it in my head) really make my ideas seem bland and mundane. It also brings up the fact that most of my ideas are still so vague and that I really need to hone in on it a bit more and flesh it out... I don't even have proper examples to give for each of them yet. Time's running out!

So when I was in Ottawa, I went through a lot of my old sketchbooks and drawings I did since childhood all the way to before I came to OCAD... It's really interesting to see what I do and don't do anymore, and it's kind of a shame, because I seemed to have lost a lot of quirky ideas since I started going to art school. The way I draw people changed as well (very expressive body language), so hopefully I'll be able to go back to some of my old methods, because I miss those times. That's what summer should have been for... but now it's too late.

Anyways, it's time to go back to work.

cup communication + thesis

2008-07-26T04:28:00.004-04:00

Above is a freshly made piece. I think it took me about 5 hours or so including the sketching out... It's some sort of commentary on communication

But anyways.
It's already July, and August is coming fast. It's weird to think that come September, it'll be my last year at OCAD. I've been (sort of) thinking of Thesis, and I think I have about 2 ideas right now that are a bit more fleshed out than the others, but it's still far from being presentable.
I have a long way to go

Oh yes!! And I'll finally update my website, and knock off some of the older illusts that I don't like anymore