Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Radiation Fun
Monday, March 28, 2011
The big earthquake hit 232 miles from Tokyo, but I was working on a huge advertising project so i just had to continue working through the aftershocks and the threat of nuclear radiation. I ran to the bathroom with my laptop many times that day during a big aftershock (what we deemed to be the safest place in our tiny tokyo apartment) in order to keep working. That project literally could have killed me. The exciting life of an illustrator right? Eventually after the radiation scare got bigger and all the foreigners I knew were leaving Japan i decided there is something going on here and maybe i should get out too. So on came the triumvirate of stress of moving my whole life out of a country, the biggest ad project i'll ever work on, and the stress of aftershocks and radiation. I had no time for any of this, i had over 3,000 animals to draw in 10 days!
bread and some other kinds of food was no where to be had even in tokyo. they were talking rolling blackouts until the summer.
a refugee scene and mass exodus at the Narita airport. that line goes faaaar back and around corners. It took two hours for me and everyone else to check-in for flights to Korea. everything was over booked and every flight was bumped and everyone was p!ssed and stressed. I am now living as a nuclear refugee in Seoul at my friend's house for a month until i move to Barcelona.
for my whole earthquake story see my travelblog: www.MisadventuresofJason.blogspot.com
another full page illustration for Risk magazine about financial terms I know nothing of. Thank god the AD boils it all down for me. instead of darwin's evolution of man they wanted the evolution of swap pricing with monsters. it's a pretty good day when you get to draw monsters for hours. We had a hard time nailing the evolutionary stages. At first i went too early with a single eyed blob organism and then there was a phase where it looked like a baby growing up into an adult as opposed to evolution.
spot for THE (time higher education) in the UK. its dealt with something about possibly losing funding but that it wasn't really a big deal if people relaxed and the title of the article was "The end is not nigh"
Posted byJason Raish at 11:02 AM 1 comments
Godzilla and Jeopardy - Jason Raish
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Washington Post Sunday Outlook cover. Article is about human brains vs. computers, knowing things vs. just looking it up online, etc... It asks how important is knowing things now that its a click away on your iphone/ipad/smart phone/computer? IBM's super computer Watson went up against two human Jeopardy contestants and blew them away. It did get some questions wrong. Watson was the only contestant to miss the Final Jeopardy! response in the category U.S. CITIES ("Its largest airport was named for a World War II hero; its second largest, for a World War II battle"). Rutter and Jennings gave the correct response of Chicago, but Watson's response was "What is Toronto?????
Boston's Weekly Dig cover. they used my Japanese new year's card image for that week's cover.
Network world spot about next generation firewalls that can monitor employees computer actions.
Network world lead image about flattening your servers in the new year and starting from scratch.
Posted byJason Raish at 10:42 AM 0 comments
Artist Inspiration - 原田泰治 はらだ たいじ Taiji Harada
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
I discovered this Japanese artist the other day at the post office here in Tokyo, Japan. I saw a sheet of his stamps on the counter and instantly fell in love with his paintings. Then a few days later i saw one of his paintings on the wall in the Ryokan I stayed at in Nagano! So i have to share this with the rest of the world! His name is 原田泰治 (はらだ たいじ) or Taiji Harada in English.
this is the sheet of stamps i saw and bought and scanned.
these are the scanned stamps. would love to have a print for my wall.
The painting I saw on the wall of the Ryokan in Nagano
detail of that painting
Posted byJason Raish at 5:42 AM 2 comments
Leading off 2011
....were a bunch of other illustrations but here is what i have for now.
full page illustration for strategic finance about knowing your IT stuff and spotting your weak points.
spot for Emory Magazine about the evolution of man and how humans aren't the only ones that have caring and empathy just because we have morality and religion.
Posted byJason Raish at 4:28 AM 0 comments
New Year's mix
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
this is from december. a spread for the Chicago Tribune about holiday workouts.
the following are reworked illos for my children's portfolio. any comments welcome. my problem is i always make things too extreme or grotesque or detailed or etc... for children's work so i need to know what i'm doing wrong. You can see the whole shebang here: http://www.jasonraish.com/childrensbook.html
i had the cover and a feature in the December issue of W.E.B. magazine in Korea
I have an interview in this months Advanced Photoshop magazine from the UK. well at least it's on sale now in the US. http://www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/
I have a feature in this months Computer Arts from the UK. don't know when its on sale in the US though. http://www.computerarts.co.uk/
Posted byJason Raish at 12:12 PM 0 comments
NY Winter 2011 - NY Bye Bye
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Final assault on NY.
HDR photo of 2nd ave F train station with no gay effects
I visited my old mentor John Nickle's studio in park slope brooklyn. His wife Jana was my boss when i worked at FIT too. He is mainly a children's book illustrator. He does a bunch of children's books every year and has everyone's dream job basically.
http://www.johnnickle.net/
painting from his children's book "Never take a shark to the movies". this one is never take a giraffe to the movies.
a painting in progress for a new children's book
In 2006 the book that he wrote and illustrated "The Ant Bully" was made into a movie. It featured the voice talents of Julia Roberts, Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, and Paul Giamatti. It was made by Tom Hanks company so they rode in tom hanks private jet back to NY from the premiere in LA. this is an illustrator's dream.
their dog Felix is a greyhound something mix. He is inbtwn a small dog and a big dog. He's been in some pet clothing runway shows. I gotta admit he's pretty cute. Last time I saw him he had bandages on all his paws because he was jumping up and down on a mandolin slicer that got onto the floor somehow and cut up all his feet.
He's wearing his "festa" collar. nice touch i think.
from "Never take a shark to the dentist"
editorial illustration from back when he used to do editorial.
from "Things that are the most in the world". this is hottest
Someone around the corner from melissa's house is not very Bob friendly and it wasn't me this time.
I spent like 6 hrs hand filling out 250 postcard to mail to clients since i was in the US finally and could mail these economically. It's pretty brutal but its ok cuz i already got a job from this that pays for this 4 times over.
going away again dinner. At Pio Pio, a Peruvian place in hell's kitchen. they are famous for their chicken and boy was it deeeelish. over 20 people ended up coming out to say bye. thanks ya'll!
I always love the F'd up rag tag motley crew that i rustle up. Yumi, Diana, Phil, Brown, Brian Morales, d. joseph
Jan Jan, Karol, and Micaela. Micaela is comin to tokyo next month.
Jennie Ambong. last time i saw her i smashed her dorky black frame glasses, too bad she didn't have any this time or else i would have gotten those too. and is that a life aquatic hat? if it is/was then i would burn it.
oh come on mel, you know what im sayin', come on mel. she says that's her smile. We go way back, I know Melissa from 1999 my freshman year at Albany. I stayed at her house all week, thanks mel.
Jan Jan and Karol bought me some dirty mags, which i could go to jail for having here
Karol is from Chile, Jan Jan is from Jersey or something lame like that
these guys. monu and sonu. the punjabi bandit brothers. their rapid fire speech attacks will leave you open and defenseless to any kind of counter. I know sonu from 1999 Albany, the very first day. He was carrying a single slice of paper in a grocery bag. hahahah. These are two awesome guys.
back and melissa's house there is this guy. he's melissa's friend's. his name is pudge. way to give him a complex and make him totally give up on life. Anyway that's it for NY. who knows when i'll be back. Thanks everyone for coming out to see me. Hopefully next time I don't have to work so much so we can really kick it.
Posted byJason Raish at 4:45 AM 0 comments
