Finally I found some time to scan a few of my most recent sketchbook pages. As you can see I am still enjoying using tea bags and coffee as inspiration for these weird creatures. This also marks the milestone of having filled another book. Now I have to find a new one. I plan to get something bigger this time around.

I enjoyed doing this one quite a lot. I got picky with the lines again so it took a little while. I have the impression I should do a series of these on canvas (or maybe skatedecks?) and a bit bigger, of course. Maybe even make some turnarounds and pitch it to a toy company. I guess I just fell in love with a sketch.

Oh, before I forget it. My good friend Markus Färber (check his art – it’s awesome) wanted to know the size of my sketchbook: 13,5 cm x 20,5 cm (ca. 5″ x 8″).

As advertised earlier (here), I am participating in a group show in San Francisco called “Heavy Hitterz”. Well, I just send the two paintings off over the ocean and if you’re in the bay area why not check out some of it.

For those two paintings I wanted to show some of the things that inspire me a lot here in Japan. Strangely compelling skylines created by ugly buildings that hardly leave the space for plants or breathing, larger than life monsters that destroy cities within the blink of an eye and of course all of that featured in the ever present mangas. Still, I couldn’t let go of my favorite way of inking and those cuddly cute faces inspired by early 20th century cartooning art. Realizing the differences between all those various elements I tried to bring these down into a working contrast. The result is a mixed media diptychon with screentone, acrylic colors and ink.