Thursday, June 19, 2008

Kiddies, Sketches and Oshima



So, top right is my bro Ryan, middle left is Ian and bottom right is your's truly. Even though Ryan has a soccer ball on his shirt, I've gotta brag because I have an elephant on my shirt. I love Elephants. Beyond cute aesthetics, this is actually the photo that I show people when I tell them that I have two brothers and one of them will be coming to Japan. Classic gold.

Getting back to the kiddes, this next set of portraits has two little boys in it. I have never met any children as intersting and as fun as these kids. Their father, who will be drawn on Saturday, drives the ferry going between Oshima and Ukashima, so I talk to him often and was incredibly anxious to draw his family.



The one on the left, Shinji, is in 5th grade and the one on the right, Uta, is in 6th grade. Interestingly, the elementary school only has 12 kids, so both of the 5th and 6th grades are in one class. These boys get along so well and compliment each other prefectly. While drawing Uta, Shinji would put on a circular blue scuba mask and say, "I'm looking at Sean. I'm gonna watch what he's doing." Then hide in a large plastic container with a blanket over it and look at me through the blue scuba mask. We watched Wallace and Grommet cartoons while they were being drawn. They would tell me to watch their favorite part coming up in just a few seconds about every 20 seconds. When the Wallace and Grommet sheep cartoon character named "Sean" came on screen they went wild.

I was so excited when they started to draw me! I wish I had smaller versions of these drawings to keep in my wallet! First up is Shinji's drawing of me:



Next is the drawing Uta did of me:



Before leaving Ukashima I went on a really long walk while it was raining. Carrying an umbrella, I walked for roughly an hour and a half down a road with all sorts of abondoned buildings, construction vehicles and shrines. However, what really grabbed my attention were the crabs! My home base is in Minnesota and I haven't seen crabs until I came to Oshima. They love the rain and were out in full force. I love to watch them and study how they move sideways.



After these drawings were made I came back to Oshima to be with Mako's family for a little while. Mako's momma has a huge interest in English and tries as hard as she can to learn new phrases and Mako makes sure that she gets it right like a Russian Olympic gymnastics coach. During one of these sessions I did some sketching...



I was intending on returning to Ukashima after 3 days so I could continue my project and play soccer with the elementary school kids on Wednesday, but when I called to confirm this with Mako's Grandma she had some sad news for me. Grandpa wasn't eating much and he had go to the hospital tomorrow. There's no hospital on Ukashima so she came to Oshima and Mako and I met here there to give her support. She told us that Grandpa is denying that he's sick and she's just getting a check-up.

I'm intending to go back on Saturday morning. I've got some pictures that I've still gotta get off of my camera, but in the meantime I drew some sketches of the area around Oshima.





I'll leave you with a little monster.

5 comments:

Hannah said...

homigosh baby sean
that made my day. thank you.

p.s. i love me a good phone pole.

Anna said...

I hope everything works out with Makos family and they all stay healthy and well :(

Is your brother for sure going to Japan then?

Also! Im loving the sketches! nothing's static in them, it all has such life and motion!

Evan Tickles Palmer said...

so there was a point in time where you weren't tall?
does the club know?
DOES YOUR FAMILY?!?

Evan Tickles Palmer said...

make a new post.

Hannah said...

p.s. http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff28/beatonna/musashi.png