In the daily grind of day to day life, it’s really easy for me to forget that living in Japan used to be only an idea I had. Ten years ago I had sat down to go for a drive with my friend, that short drive had changed the course of my life. I still remember the giddy excitement I had felt while riding in the RB20DET swapped 240sx. The surging turbo had thrown me back in my seat, the car flowed in a beautiful dance of chaos and control . . . fear, excitement, adrenaline; describing what I had felt at that moment is impossible, but I had felt so alive.
I want to do that someday, but on a real Japanese road
-laidbackmarco
That simple idea had me studying Japanese, watching anime, consuming Best Motoring International, and recreating my favorite moments in GRID, Forza, and Gran Turismo. I had wanted to own a JDM RHD 180SX since my time in High School and here I was living in Japan and owning one. My sixteen-year-old self would have been ecstatic to just be here, but here I was sulking because life hadn’t gone the way I’d planned.
Art School
My plan after my college graduation in May of 2017 was to participate in the JET Programme, Start A YouTube channel, and then use my Japanese skills to get into the art school of my dreams Kyoto School of Art & Design. My plan didn’t quite work out, but I took a different path to get to where I am now.
In my time since then, my ambition has only grown, along with the disappointment of my current position. After working on my art, music, stream, website, and YouTube to no apparent success I started beating myself up. Feeling rather burnt out I quit making anything all together for a good three months.
Time and Perspective
Time and perspective allow you to take a step back and look at your work with a new lens. I realized that I haven’t put in enough deliberate practice. Sure I put in work, but I was working pretty hard and not smart. In real life, I’ve gotten into the practice of using a journal as a way to track my life. I thought that maybe actually using my website to explain my thought process will help me target things I need to improve as well as help others to do the same.
I Start With A Sketch
I have been making pencil drawings for almost every day out of the past year. I made this one in November of 2019 when I turned 25. The Chibi character is my own style while I used a tutorial for the car, in hindsight, I wish I would have squashed the car a little bit at the top to make it a tiny bit sleeker. I actually own a car just like this so it’s great to use for reference. You’d never get it out of me in person, but my pencil work has improved by so much, still have a long way to go!
The Next Step is to Ink The Lines
Because I’m trying to work in Japanese animation at some point in my life you’ll find that my style heavily leads towards anime. . . but for the style I’m going for I think my lines are way too thick. Some anime has varying line weights and heavy black sections(i.e. trigger) but I wan to go for a more delicate look in my next painting. You can also ink your lines on your paper and scan the result in!
My Work Flow
Follows that of Shilin, the artist who drew Sona, because she made a tutorial on YouTube that I watched almost 7 years ago now. But I’m happy that Ilya Kuvshinov and some other artists I watch follow very similar processes. This step focuses on laying down the flat colors of the image.
Backgrounds
I’m going to preface and say that I really struggle to paint backgrounds and that’s really something I should work on as it’s one of my major weaknesses in art. Part of it is that it’s hard for me to let go, lose control, and have fun sometimes. Working on drawing backgrounds might translate into being helpful at making me let go in other aspects of my life too.
Because Spring was coming up in Japan I decided to fill the background with spring colors. Pinks for sakura, green for new life, and white for purity. Because my laidback life’s brand colors are pink and blue I tried to sprinkle some blue into the mountains.
Giving Form
Shading/rendering and texture are other areas where I find myself lacking. It makes sense as normally I draw manga-esque characters in pencil with only lines floating in white space. My shading funnily reflects my personality of being soft and unsure of myself a lot of the time. The only harsh shadows I have rendered in this image are around the legs and hands of my little caricature, but at least there is a sense of some sort of form.
Finishing Touches
Finally, because I’m a fan of amamitsuki12‘s style I softened up the image a little more before drawing the wheels. . . I really struggled with the wheels . . . it’s like the hands of cars. Finishing up I learned that I have much studying to do in the area of painting and rendering, but I was really happy with the way the linework turned out. It would benefit me to draw a bunch of wheels again and again.
Hope this helped you guys a little.
stay chill,
-Laidbackmarco
All Together
