Naruto Effect...

I have been interested in painting since grade school and I was particularly fond of painting manga characters. I grew up watching Japanese animation and these shows made a huge impact therefore influenced my art style.

When the show, Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto came out, primarily I was already a fan of his manga even before the show started. What I love about Naruto.. first the color palette used for the whole animation (even the covers of the manga), second the personalities of all Kishimoto's characters, story pacing (even if most of the people claim it slow).

I tried painting with textile paints on t-shirts, pants when airbrush was nothing but a tool for painting vehicles, big bikes and other stuff. I made a business using this method when I reached college and was beginning to become an expert with the technique.

The shirt above was created way back in high school. I used black shirt so that the colors and the image would clearly be seen from afar. I particularly made this for my younger brother but he just bought the t-shirt without fitting it. It turned out that the shirt was too small for him and pretty large for me so we just decided to have this like an ornament.

Moreover, during the course of getting more familiar with this art method, there was an announcement which got me motivated to join and compete for it. Robinson’s mall has announced that they will be having a ‘Jazz-up your Jeans’ contest and those who will win will obtain gift certificates and of course pretty good cash. I was really excited and that afternoon bought some textile paints for this project.

It was really hard to find a subject for my painting but my brother made a hunch that I would be, again, painting Naruto and he was definitely right about it. I thought that colors used for Naruto are so bright and cheerful that it’ll make an impression through the judges.

After a week of preparation, it had come to the finals and I was happy to learn that I was chosen to be 1 of the 5 finalists. Unfortunately, I had to end the story with slightly sad news. I didn’t actually win the competition but I placed third but I think the winner really deserved it.

It just came to my mind that I should be selling out stuff that I made at home. I thought of having this business and since I’m sure I can pretty much satisfy my customer with my art, I think I’ll pursue.

Well, I was simply saying that if you want your shirts, pants, what-so-ever painted, I am actually having this personal business. Just provide the shirt or any kinds of stuff you wanted to get painted on. Just e-mail me for more details.