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Review your responses to the above questions.
What sort of an illustrator are you?

Right now looks more like a traditional illustrator.

What sort of career do you want to have?

Illustrate children's book, book cover, newspaper and create character for animation film.

I also want to work for the company that is a green company

Does your present body of work reflect your aspirations? Could it do so more strongly?

I think it does reflect my aspirations sometime. Yes, i think it could do more strongly

List ten images/themes/techniques/subjects/formats that your portfolio needs in order to become more in line with your aspirations.

Ink work, mixed media, watercolor, stronger composition, use of color, 3D format, creativity, green subjectmatter, books, newspaper and books layout illustration.

sketches

sketches

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If you had to spend the rest of you life illustrating one book, what would it be? Why?

If I had to spend the rest of my life illustrating one book, it better be a long book, because I still will live for long time. But it do not have be too too long. The book will be a children’s book in a fantasying world. I am going to spend the rest life to imagination about it. A children’s book illustrator is what I wish I could do after I graduate.
If you could go apprentice with any two artist's in the history of the world, who would they be? Why?

That will be Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso. I would like to hear about what’s there creative process, where the idea from specially during that time period.
If you were banned from the art world, but could have any career you wanted that wasn't in art, what would it be? Why?

Coffee shop, restaurant owner. I always want to open a store, and that is what I am going to do when I retired. I like to manage a restaurant, and I can go for a vacation and still make so money.

Describe the project you would propose under the following circumstances. Describe the project in detail: what would it be, how would you spend the money, how would you schedule the time alloted, and how would the work be presented upon completion?

1.) You have one month and one thousand dollars (all of which must be spent on art expenses).
I will go to New York and take a one month illustration class. I will make a piece from what i learn from that class.

2.) Six months and ten thousand dollars.
Traveling and sketching. I will make a book that records all my sketches and things that I collect from any where I have been through those six months. I will use one week to plan out where i want to go and booking ticket. Second week, I will start my journal. For the last month, I will stay at home and organize my book and sent out to print.

3.) One year and one hundred thousand dollars.
I will make an animation movie. First of all I need to find some investor, use money to make more money. I will spend money to hire all kinds of great artist and technique people that i might need for this film. Durign the first month, the story and concept will be decided. Second and Third month, I will look for the team members. I will use the rest of my time to try to make the animation film. About the half way mark, may be around six month, start the commercial for the film. And we will play this movie in the theater around the world.

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List ten illustrators whose work you admire, or whose career you would like to emulate. Provide images.

Who are their clients? What sort of work do those clients look for?

There are many illustrators that I love, but these ten are the name or their work come up my mind the first ten; Peter de Seve, Yuko Shimizu, Norman Rockwell, Charles Dana Gibson, Peter Hoffmann, Bobby Chiu, Kei Acedera, Sergey Tyukanov, Nick Dewar, Robert Carter.

Peter de Seve’s work is used in many areas that including magazines, books, print/television advertising, and animated feature films. He is most know for illustrating New York magazine cover, character designs for film Ice Age movies. I think his client is looking for a character. Every character that he illustrates has a special personality.

Yuko Shimizu’s clients include Microsoft, Pepsi, VISA, MTV, TARGET, The Gap, T-Mobile, Neiman Marcus, Warner Elektra Atlantic Music, NPR, FUSE TV, M.A.C. Cosmetics, Pentagram, Sagmeister Inc., TIME, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, PLAYBOY, GQ, etc. Shimizu’s works mostly are ink and color in Photoshop, and has lots of line work and detail. Her client must be looking for some ink work and it has Japanese style.

Norman Rockwell’s client was The Saturday Evening Post magazine and he also worked for the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) for their publication Boys' Life and calendars. For Both Saturday Evening Post magazine and BSA, I think they are looking for the work of illustrations for everyday life scenarios.

Charles Dana Gibson works for Life magazine over 30 years, best known for his creation of the Gibson Girl. He also works for major New York publications, Harper's Weekly, Scribners and Collier's. Later he became the editor and eventual owner of Life. Most of his clients are magazine publication, and they are looking for a black and white inking work that illustrates about our society at the moment.

Peter Hoffmann is working as a lecturer for drawing and layout at the University of Applied Sciences, Trier, Germany. He has been designing logos for person and company. Hoffmann is not only an illustrator and also a graphic designer. And I think that’s one of the big reasons his client chose him, his work is very playful with lines.

Bobby Chiu and Kei Acedera are working in the Imaginaism studio, there work specializes in movie pre-production and children's books. Bobby has designed Disney, Warner Bros., and Star Wars toys at Thinkway Toys in Toronto, Canada. He presently works as an illustrator for film and teaches digital painting online at Schoolism.com and publishes art books. Kei is the art director and co-owner of Imaginism Studios Inc. Kei's works in upcoming films from Sony, Warner Bros. and Universal Studios, and in children's books from Harper Collins. Their client is mostly deal with children, so I believe they are looking for some work that is playful and full of imagination.

About Sergey Tyukanov, I cannot find his client list, but his work is displayed in a lot exhibits around country. And he is also a children’s book illustrator.

Nick Dewar has work for many companies, such us GQ, The New York Times, Times, Playboy…etc. Corporate work has been done for Abercrombie and Fitch, Ann Taylor, Citibank…etc. Illustrated book jackets for Bloomsbury, Little Brown, Macmillan, Penguin, Random House, Viking and Vintage. Nick has a lot of clients. According to his work, I think his client is looking for work that is simple but also strong. His work is very clean and simple but it communicates very clear on the idea.

Robert Carter also has a long client list. There are American Airlines, Boy’s life magazine, Washington Post, CAA, Penguin Publishing…etc. His clients are looking for an illustrator that can communicate well and focus on today’s society environment.

Go to a bookstore with a large magazine section, like Barnes & Noble or Borders. Find at least ten magazines that you think you could work for. Consider both the content of the magazine and the type of illustration, if any, that they use. Record they names of the art director and any assistant art director's listed, and their contact information.

Time: D.W.Pine

Baga Traveler: Phillip Lee

GQ: Warren Jackson

Crafts: Stephen Coates, Henretta Mdiuavo (info@stephencoates.co.uk)

Communication Art: Tricia Seibold

If you were starting your own magazine and your livelihood depended on it selling well and your sanity depended on it being something you wanted to spend all you time on, what would it be? What sorts of writers and artists would you hire? What subject matter would it deal with? How would you want it to look?

If I were starting my own magazine and my livelihood depended on it selling well. It will be a magazine about Asian stuff, mostly will be art and it will also be about the culture, living and new invention. I will hire of course Asian writers and artists, who are from all over the world. Also some foreigner that live in Asian. Most important is that they have talent, their creativity make the reader not just like to read this magazine but buy it! Since it is a magazine about Asian, I want it to have mystery feel to it. I want it to attract the viewer’s eye, and would like to open it.

List ten non-magazine clients that you would like to work with. Why are these dream clients? Find and record their contact information.

Pixar(http://www.pixar.com/companyinfo/jobs/index.html), Disney(http://corporate.disney.go.com/careers/index.html),

Penguin Publishing(http://us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/aboutus/employment/index.html), Harper Collins(http://www.harpercollinscareers.com/careers/), DreamWorks(http://careers.dreamworksanimation.com/),

Studio Ghibli(post@ghibli.jp),

Coca-Cola(http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/careers/career_opportunities.html),

Hallmark(http://www.hallmark.com/online/careers/),

Nike(http://www.nike.com/nikeos/p/nike/en_US),

New York times(http://www.nytco.com/careers/).

Because they are all crazy famous company. If I can work for those company, I would feel like my work is being recognized and approved.

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My creative process is research, idea thumbnails, middle size sketch, color study, color sketch, final drawing and color, and fix. When I get an assignment I will do my research first, to decide what kind of direction I want to go for. Once I decide that, I will do more research for more specific area that I want to work on. And I will try to do lots of idea thumbnail, to play with different ideas and position. Choose a couple effective thumbnail, and draw more detail. Then I will do a color study, make a color swatch that also can guide when I actually painting. And try the color on my thumbnail; just get quickly to see how the colors go well together or not. To the end, I will blow my detail drawing up and make a final drawing and put color on it. After all done, check it again and fix the problem.
I think my creative process should be just like my typical creative but just more. More research, thumbnail and try out more media.
Yuko Shimizu is a professional illustrator and also a teacher. Her creative process start with research, She reads through everything related to the story on internet, and look at every photo I need to look at. Then she starts thumbnail sketches. From the sketches she picks ones she like and go to pencil sketches. She draws on xerox paper with a pencil. After the sketch gets approved, then she blows the sketch up to the size she wants to draw and print out. Often times, I print out a few A3 sheets and tape together. Because she thinks she does better when she draws bigger. Then she cuts cold press watercolor paper to the size she need and trace the sketch loosely with pencil onto the paper. And then draw with ink with Japanese calligraphy brush onto the paper. Scan the drawing and the last step is to color it with Photoshop.

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The Giraffe is my personal favorite piece because the illustration was fun to create. All the characters inside has a different personality, and I do like to create characters. The use of color, I like the way different colors lay on one and the others. At first it was a mistake and I learn from the beautiful mistake.

I think other people like the City in the Sky the most. They like the strangeness of this illustration. A castle supported by a pair of chicken legs in the air. Also the detail of the castle. I do agree with them. Because I did a lot of research about different type of castle in order to create my own one.

The play cards project is the one that surprised me the most. I start out with a very different direction. First I used ink to create, out line and painting in the Photoshop. But it end up every card seems has very dissimilar style and very close to the original character that Disney created. At that moment I learn how to draw the style I want to in Illustrator. And I love this style that I am going for. Is very flat and I know what I am doing. I keep all the cards in the same style and I also put design element into. So through this project I am not just learn illustration part but also design.

I do not have any sketches i like as much as my finished pieces. But I still choose five that I think they are not too bad as a fast sketch.