GH #2 Reflection- Manga and Anime Drawing

For my second Genius Hour project, I chose to research manga and anime drawing, my research question being:

♦How can you learn or improve manga/anime drawing?♦

I chose this as I am very fond of Japanese culture (as mentioned in several previous posts), and drawing. I really enjoy drawing chibi characters, and like I wanted to work on a project that interested me, I chose this one.

I researched through asking people about this (and looking for online sources) and testing out different ways to draw anime or chibi. Throughout my research, I learned many interesting tips which would improve my current manga drawing skills, such as: study anatomy, never trace (not that I do), use an example, and take in feedback from someone you know wont take it easy on you.
If I were to use this project for a positive outcome in mine or someone else’s future I would say that this will increase the ability and speed of learning to draw, which will mostly be used for jobs such as anime or manga creators or artists. This is a job that interests me and improving my drawing skills now will give me a high chance to succeed in this career path.

For my next Genius Hour Presentation, I’m thinking that I would make one about photography or Dutch food. Photography because it is also an interest of mine towards a professional outcome, and because I already have a lot of knowledge on this subject. Dutch food because it is a very important thing to us Dutch; I know much about the subject and this will increase the audience’s global awareness by learning what the average Dutch diet consists of.

Work Cited:

BagoGames.”Nichijou Releases on Home Video By FUNimation”.Flickr,Feb 11, 2017,https://www.flickr.com/photos/bagogames/32795671076, Mar 30,2018.

Sⓘndy°.”Van der Breggen 荷蘭傳統糖漿煎餅”.Flickr,Jul 13, 2009, https://www.flickr.com/photos/sindykids/3716443930, Mar 30, 2018.

Danny Choo.”Chibi Characters”. Flickr,Jan 31, 2011, https://www.flickr.com/photos/dannychoo/5402535701, Mar 30, 2018.

Genius Hour Twitter Assignment Reflection

Summary of Steps 1 and 2

For my Genius Hour project I connected and reached out to ten experts on Twitter about drawing (online and by hand). These are their usernames and links to their Twitter pages:
Tea_Floof
Hanako Chan
Yuki
lil_janii
Milkoes
Francesco LO IACONO
Inky Illustration
Society Illustrators
Illustration Ltd
Artistz93

…However getting responces from only five: Tea_Floof, Yuki, lil_janii, Francesco LO IACONO , and Milkoes.
The people I have chosen are either illustration-specialized companies or highly talented and/or experienced artists.
As my genius hour project is about drawing manga/anime, I chose to look for experts on a less specific spectrum (drawing in general) to have a wider variety of experts to choose from.

As I contacted the experts I chose, I asked them about the tools and inspiration they use for their artwork. To ask them these questions, I tweeted publicly, @mentioning them, and asked them. In addition I made sure to like the original questioning posts I wrote so I could get notified when one of my experts answered.

From the five experts who answered me, most of the information giving to me would eventually help me out in my genius our project.

Reflection on the Process

After around three days all five of the experts who have answered me had answered.
Francesco LO IACONO had answered about inspiration. I had asked him what a good source of inspiration for art would be. He answered that family and friends would be a good place to find inspiration, or people we know in general.
I had asked lil_janii about an free downloadable software for virtual illustration, FireAlpaca. I had downloaded the program and asked her about how to use it. She answered and explained the whole process of how to use it.
I asked Tea_Floof about what makers she used for hand-drawn chibi characters such as this one. She answered that Copic markers are the cheapest and most descent to use, however she uses mostly alcohol based markers for blending and brush tipped markers.
Finally, Yuki (a video game and animation YouTuber which I have previously written about in another post) responded to my question about what tips could be given to a beginner animator, she along with Milkoes mentioned that a beginner should always learn by hand and not trace because it won’t teach them anything.

Two of my overall ten experts followed me back, one being amongst the ones who responded.
However none of my experts made contact again with me.

I might use this process in the future of my education as most of my top job interests involve drawing, one being manga/anime creator or even a cartoon creator.

GH #1- Japanese Food

For my first Genius Hour project, I chose to research Japanese food. I chose to research this because, as you might already know from my previous posts, that I’m a fan of Japanese culture. To help me in my research, I used the question: What is ‘normal’ for the Japanese diet?


https://pixabay.com/get/e83cb80928f3063ed1534705fb0938c9bd22ffd41cb0134093f6c17ba0/sushi-1996077_1920.jpg

Throughout my research, this is what I learned:

Daifuku is a glutinous rice cake stuffed with sweet filling, most commonly anko, sweetened red bean paste made from azuki beans.

Japanese Diet: In Japan, people mostly feed on large amounts of rice, seafood, fresh vegetables, fruit, and a bit of meat. A lot of their dishes include soy sauce, fish, or alcohol from fermented rice called sake, but rice and tea make up or are included in practically every meal. Some Japanese dishes are also made with miso soup (bean paste soup), ramen/ noodles, curry, sashimi (raw fish), tofu, or pork.

Sushi: One of Japan’s most popular dish worldwide is sushi which is made out of rice, raw fish, fish eggs, dried seaweed (nori – nori maki), egg roll, or even vegetables or fruits such as avocado.
Sushi can be purchased at kaiten sushi bars (restaurants which serve sushi on a conveyor belt) for around one U.S. dollar. Good quality sushi and sashimi is expensive and usually reserved for special occasions.

Western Food: Japan is quickly adopting food, for example, American fast food. While sushi can be bought at kaiten sushi bars (restaurants that serve sushi from a conveyor belt) for as little as one U.S. dollar, good quality sushi and sashimi is expensive and usually served and eaten for special events.

Deserts: Japan, like any other country, has many desserts, however some of the most popular desserts include the following: wagashi, raindrop cake, mochi, and taiyaki.
– Wagashi. Wagashi is a kind of sweet made with plants. It is much like mochi. It is commonly served with matcha tea.
– Raindrop cake is simply just water and agar agar mixed and cooled. This dish can make a really nice desert but can as well be a main dish. It can be eaten along with almost anything but mostly with sauces or powder such as chocolate sauce or sugar, or savory-wise soy sauce or so.
– Mochi is my personal favorite. It is a rice cake made of a glutinous rice called mochigome. It is normally in a round shape but can be formed into any shape or mold. It is really sweet and tastes a lot like tapioca flour cakes if you know what those are.
– Taiyaki is a fish shaped cake filled with bean paste. Commonly red bean paste made from azuki beans. Some other fillings however could include custard, chocolate, cheese, sweet potato, sausage, etc… Right now taiyaki is trending world-wide, being stuffed with ice-cream.


https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4475/36838576814_76410f34e7_b.jpg

It helped me grow as a student and person because knowing this helped me improve my cultural knowledge and diversity, as someone only from Europe and Africa.
A reason why knowing this is helpful is because statistics from 2013 report that in that year, Japan had a 16% rate of poverty (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_Japan), which leads to starvation. If more research is done, many kinds of Japanese cultural foods could eventually be made and help against starvation in Japan.


https://static.pexels.com/photos/590478/pexels-photo-590478.jpeg

For my next Genius Hour projects I will research on animation (illustrations and maybe moving pictures into a clip). This project will help me start animating online and brainstorming ideas for illustrations. One of the ideas of future jobs would be a cartoon/anime creator or even video game creator, therefore this could help me head for that career once I graduate.

Here is my final presentation for GH #1.

My Class Expectations…

I expect this class to improve my knowledge in the usage of technological devices. I expect this class to be interactive and simple to learn complicated things. I think/hope that we will go step by step into more advanced things with computers and other devices. I hope we will do a lot of fun projects to help our learning along the way too!

Overall, I hope that this class will help me (and the rest of the class) learn new things by using fun, simple and interactive methods throughout the trimester.

Image result for emoji