David Nakamura

Anza Borrego

2011-12-26T00:23:00.000-08:00

Arthur and I decided to do a last minute camping trip out in Anza Borrego yesterday. It was great being out there on Christmas eve, despite the bitter cold that night.

Awesome shit, by Ronnie Blaze Bot

2011-12-15T18:12:00.000-08:00


8.5cm x 6cm, marker

23cm x 20cm, marker

Here are two of the graffiti art stickers Ronnie made. I can't stop looking at them! They're now residing inside the front and back covers of my sketchbook, and the third one is above my desk at work. I love the colors used to make the owl, especially the popping yellow and orange. And if you can't see it, the one that says Nakamura written in hiragana is done on a "Hello, my name is" sticker.

Blaze Bot!

2011-12-14T02:08:00.000-08:00

My friend Ronnie made me some really cool graffiti tag art stickers which are now residing in my schetchbook, so I decided to return the favor by doing this portrait of him. He's a badass dude.

Slowly but surely

2011-12-11T23:24:00.001-08:00

More progress. Came up with a composition I liked and did the first color comp. I'm a little anxious about starting the actual painting, as it's going to be in oil and I've barely worked with the medium... Kerry and I have been getting together to work on Wednesdays, so I should have some photos up of both our progress (as well as the awesome workspace he has at his Godfather's house) in a few days.

Also the figure has gone from being humanoid to being frog like. I have a feeling that it'll change again once I get into the actual painting.

More Progress

2011-12-01T22:28:00.001-08:00

I did another sketch for the project today, and I think I'm getting a little closer to the the composition I'm going to go with for the final illustration. The perspective is completely out of wack, but I had my illustration teacher look at it and he gave me a few tips to get the scale to read correctly.

I want to be sure the overgrowth to be apparent, so I think I'll need to add more foliage, and also adjust the trees so they're not perfectly symmetrical. If I can get them to look as if they just happened to grow on the opposite sides of this building that would be ideal - perhaps if I had their roots growing into the sides and front of the building, strangling the rusted frames of cars and debris from the collapsed wall. More to come!

Progress work

2011-11-30T23:02:00.001-08:00

Worked with Kerry today on our collaboration project. We were able to come up with a pretty awesome concept (I won't really go into it too much until the project is completed), and cranked out a few thumbnail sketches for our respective pieces.

Two of the ink thumbnails

I also used gouache for the first time, which was a lot of fun. I have no idea what I'm doing when I'm using them (pushing paint around, as Kerry says) but I really like the opaque watercolor look they give. I'm definitely going to try using them more.


Gouache color thumbnail

I'm still not completely satisfied with the composition I have as there's no sense of scale, which is what I really wanted to be apparent. I have an idea of where I'd like to reposition the viewer, so I'll do a few more thumbnails when I have time.

Zelda's 25th

2011-11-18T00:06:00.001-08:00

My first completed illustration! I did it for the Legend of Zelda 25th anniversary art show that Platt college in San Diego is holding. Here is their site, if you're interested. Anyway, a lot was learned from doing this painting.

Right now I'm working on another illustration I was supposed to have completed by Halloween (this one distracted me), and also a master study for school which I need to start and complete by next week (or at least have significant progress). I'm thinking of doing a study from Craig Mullins, but I'm not sure which piece yet.