Creative Calamities

These days the freelancing lifestyle has been keeping me plenty busy. So much so that I almost didn’t have a chance to enter the Japan Day poster art contest this year.

The deadline came and went and I watched it blow by because I just couldn’t fit it into my schedule. Then they extended the deadline and added two free tickets to Japan to the prize. I finally had a couple of days off for the first time in at least a month so I pulled an all nighter just in time to make the deadline earlier this week then slept till mid-afternoon.

I wish I’d had more time to develop the illustration, but when a deadline comes a calling you just gotta let things fly. The dominate image of my illustration was a paper crane. I’d foraged around the apartment for a paper crane to use as reference and found this little guy my wife had folded and tucked away snugly in a sake cup on a bookshelf. To be perfectly honest, I think I like this photo better than my illustration.

Paper Crane in a Sake Cup

As the year winds to a close, I am thinking about all those blog posts that never developed past a scrawling on a Post-it Note, so now I make this last ditch effort to get one in before midnight. Over the course of the year I read several books that made quite an impact on myself. I would even say these books have caused pradigm shifts in my thinking.

The most recent shift was brought on by Drive: The Surprising truth about what motivates us. The video below is a wonderful RSA white board animation that was created from a talk by Dan Pink (the author) on the subject. If you can’t get into Dan Pinks unorthodoxed notions, you can always sit back and enjoy the clever animation.

Another book that made an impact on me was So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love by Cal Newport.

The book felt a bit academic in the writing style but it was an enjoyable and thought provoking read. The title of the book, a quote from comedian Steve Martin, which is his advice for those wanting to make it big.

A quote from the book which sums it all up for me is this:

“The first is the craftsman mindset, which focuses on what you can offer the world. The second is the passion mindset, which instead focuses on what the world can offer you.”

A third book that made a lasting impression on me was Blink by Malcom Gladwell, which is about rapid cognition or the thinking that happens in the “blink” of an eye. This book has taught me to trust my gut feelings, for more often than not, those “gut” feelings are simply my mind picking up on things and processing them on a subconscious level in the blink of an eye.

I’ve read that slow times for freelancers are the perfect time to work on self-promotion or learn something new. It’s a bit of advice that I am glad I heeded from Freelance Switch.

I was mulling around some ideas to promote my illustration during a slow work period when I noticed on the NY JET Alumni Association’s website that they were accepting entries for Japan Day in Central Park poster contest.

So I hunkered down for two days, hoping no paying work would come in and derail my plans.

A month later, to my surprise I received a phone call explaining that I had won the contest. It was a bit of a whirlwind. Within the New York City Japanese community I had my 15 minutes of fame.

I was interview on Japanese language TV and newspapers, interviewed on stage with at Japan Day this past Sunday, May 13. It was quite exciting to see posters of my work on display and people buying t-shirts for charity with my art work. It was also humbling to see the high quality of the honorable mention awards by Chris Dina, Keri Dodge, Ardith Ibanez Nishii, Ken Sheldon and my favorite entry being Sara Woolley’s Lady Japan.

Everything was capped off by attending a reception at the Japanese Ambassador’s residence.

The people at Gorgeous Entertainment who sponsor Japan Day held a wonderful event (as usual) and made me feel quite special. And thank you Megumi Sato-Shelly the designer who skillfully and somewhat anymously re-worked my art for the posters, flyers and multiple t-shirt designs while I received all of the credit.

Dear Japan Day 2012,

Arigatou Gozaimashita!

April 11, at a Cherry Tree planting ceremony in Central Park. The Japan Day 2012 poster contest winner was announced Pictured, left to right, Commissioner of the Dept. of Parks & Recreation, Adrian Benepe, Aaron Porter (poster contest winner), Kumiko Yoshii, Owner of Gorgeous Entertainment Inc., Japanese Ambassador Shigeyuki Hiroki and Central Park Conservancy President, Doug Blonsky. Photo by GION

Japan Day at Central Park 2012 Poster

I’ve been watching the Ken Burns classic documentary The Civil War the past few nights. The stories are told mostly with still photographs and read letters.

I have been moved to tears while listening to the Gettysburg Address. And I have eaten beans and collard greens two nights straight after listening to a soldier in a letter home pine for his wife’s (or was it sister’s) beans and collard greens.

Below is an except from the documentary 1990 documentary of a letter a soldier wrote to his wife before battle. (Sullivan Ballou Letter)

I recently read the book Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman. A day later exiting my digital art class, I felt as though a door in my mind had been unlocked.

As an adjunct instructor at a junior college I have been struggling find that right balance between demanding too much and demanding too little. And racking my brain to find ways to motivate my sometimes unmotivated students.

The premise of Multipliers is that some leaders drain intelligence and capabilities from the people around them and others amplify it.

When I arrived to class I had no direct intention of implementing any of what I had learned recently learned, when a student who has been struggling asked a question. I gave him leading questions to allow him to solve his problem rather than answering the question directly.

So on to the next student who is quite capable but also quite lazy. He asked how to do something and I flat out told him, he should have known how to do this since the second week of class (we are in week 10). So without thinking I called over the struggling student and asked him to explain the technique, which he did perfectly. And he walked away with his often shaky confidence thoroughly unshaky. The lazy student sat up a little straighter after being shown, not by me but by a student with apparent capabilities below his own, how to do something. He went on in that class to produce his best work of the semester.

In a class critique of of student work I simply asked students what grade would they give themselves. If they declared they deserved an A, I asked if it was their best work. That exercise clarified the fact that that my expectations for what they were capable of was perhaps a little low. It also made them more accountable for their work and they seemed to change the way they saw the work. It was no longer simply an assignment in a class they “had to take” but now an example of what they were capable of, which they seemed to suddenly take ownership of.

I teach a Digital Imaging course at a community college and lately I have been trying to show my students some more graphic was of working in Photoshop. The assignment was to use some stock art and create a fictitious magazine cover. Today I got to playing with filters and really had some fun. Unfortunately I can’t decide which version I like best.

Four versions of a fictitious magazine cover.

My father once told me that it is not a good idea to purchase a car in its first model year. Granted I am talking about something substantially cheaper but I just might apply that advice here.

I’d been waiting for the Wacom Inkling to hit the shelves and already seen myself sitting in Bryant Park sketching the carousel. The product faded from my consciousness after numerous failed attempts for find them for sale after the scheduled release date. The concept . . . sketch on regular paper with a special ink filled pen and receiver, and the images are saved as vector based images to be uploaded to a computer.

The video demo by Wacom (the manufacturer) makes it look irresistible, but so far on Amazon.com there are 32 customer reviews with an average of 3 stars. A video demo by V. Hutson sealed the deal, or maybe that should be, sealed the no deal and has convinced me to wait for the next iteration. If there weren’t so many other electronic “toys” out there I might be more tempted to purchase the device which lists for $199. But I think I will wait for the model to be released.

While working on an illustration for the Central Park Japan Day Poster Contest I was finding myself increasingly frustrated because the piece simply was not looking very good even though I had spent hours trying to find a solution.

The piece just looked to cartoony so I decided to try to introduce some textures into some of the flat colored areas. After doing an Google search I found a nice Yellow Velvet Fabric Texture offered up for free use by Enchantedgal-Stock on Deviantart.com (Thank you Enchanted Gal).

My goal was to incorporate the texture into the pink areas on the tree. But when I pasted the texture into my piece, the wonderful gold fabric reminded me of an Edo period gold leaf painted Japanese Screen. It was a pure accident but I felt it brought the piece up to a whole new level with the rich yet subdued color and texture. I was able to wrap it up quickly after my happy accident.

The contest is for Japan Day in Central Park where they will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of Japan giving the gift of Cherry Trees to the U.S.

I thought the idea of placing the cherry tree in a bonsai pot was the perfect imagery, being that the bonsai captures the spirit of a full grown tree as a microcosm. And Japan Day in Central Park is a microcosm of Japan.

My serendipitous steps from being stuck to unstuck.

A while ago I read that Photoshop Extended had incorporated 3D capabilities into the software. I had also read that it was created to be used in conjunction with 3D software to paint and add textures to 3D objects so I never explored it further . . . that was a mistake.

I recently did a little exploration and came up with the image below after watching a Lynda.com tutorial by Deke McClelland titled Photoshop CS5 Extended One-on-One: 3D Type Effects.

The image below was created using a few textures, an appropriated image of a zombie from a video game, and everything else was done directly in Photoshop Extended CS5.

I teach a beginning Photoshop class and this practice piece was inspired by students that I have caught Facebooking and texting during lectures.

3D text, shadows and light created all in Photoshop CS5 Extended.

I am just ready to head out the door to go see the final installment of the Harry Potter movies. Last summer I read all the books to see what all the hubbub was about. I thoroughly enjoyed the books.

Last night I watched the made for television movie “Magic Beyond Words: The J.K. Rowling Story” which I found a little disappointing but inspirational nonetheless, which reminded me to continue chasing my dreams in the face of those caring souls closest to me preaching the value of being practical and safe. And that brought to mind one of my favorite speeches. J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, delivered the commencement speech at Harvard University in June of 2008 where she extolled on the fringe benefits of failure. I find it well worth watching.

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.