Mac To The Drawingboard

Sakurai Portrait

{ 2:18 PM, 8/16/2006 } { 0 comments } { Link }

In response to Matthew Forsythes comments to the Autographed Celebrity Portraits on the Drawingboard forum: "Do you have a website where you've collected all of these?" I'm posting some non-celebrity portraits here on the blog.

This is the Sakurai family from Tokyo Japan. The first time I went to Japan I stayed with this family. Back when I was planning to go to either China or Japan (the deciding factor would be whichever I could learn the most about first), I met the oldest daughter Hatsumi through a pen-pal service. She sent me a video; showing different places around Tokyo and on it were scenes of the Sanja Matsuri (Sanja Festival). It looked like a fun time to be in Japan so, by this time I had already decided that Japan is where I would go, it looked like a fun time to be in Japan. I told her I would plan my trip around the time of the festival. Her mother, Mieko, said I would HAVE to stay at their house otherwise the festival would be meaningless.

As travel time approached I started drawing a portrait of the family using various photos that had been sent to me over the course of our penpalship. The day I left, I hadn't finished it (needed to draw the youngest daughter Ami and Shigeji the grandfather (two on the left). I was actually working on it during my layover in Detroit. When I arrived (Thursday night) and met the family and showed them the unfinished portrait, Mieko, sounded as if the sky itself would mourn if I didn't complete the portrait by the morning. Because the festival started Friday and they would have many, many visitors stop by and she wanted to show them their "Family Treasure". I finished it and she hung it in the main room, where everyone came to rest and eat and socialize during the festival. And everyone that entered their home she showed them the portrait. I really wasn't expecting all of that when I started it, I just figured they'd smile and accept it then set it in the corner or in the closet somewhere.
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