American Illustration 29- Jason Raish

I had 2 illustrations selected for the American Illustration 29 book. Here they are. You know what stings? the 95$ publication fee for each illustration selected! I guess that is the real price of recognition :(

This is for Yahoo! its part of this Yahoo! PurpleScape project with other artists. this will be shown in exhibitions in southeast asian countries. They also used mine on limited edition PS3's, postcards, t-shirts, and other products. They said I could do anything i wanted so i thought now is my chance to do all the Japanese themed stuff i have been wanting to do. Japanese design is crazy and detailed so this of course meant major work for me. this beast took me a whole 7 days working on it at least 8 hrs a day. Here is my rational:
This piece is Japanese inspired. The concept makes a spin on the processions that Daimyo warlords had to make every year to the capital of Edo. I tried to make this a little more fun and less serious that the shows of power and wealth that they really were. Instead of flying the Clan flag they are flying Koi fish windsocks, which are used for Children's day in Japan. Instead of Ninjas blowing poison darts for assasinations they are blowing bubbles. Fun bubbles! Instead of a Daimyo Warlord being carried they are carrying a Tanuki, which is a mischevious mythical Racoon-like creature. I thought it would be fun to reverse the scale of things like the mini sumo wrestlers and the giant rabbits and giant trees.


too bad you can't see this in person. he has a gold chain with a "T", T for Tanuki

samurais take super long to draw. if you tried to be true to all the detail it would take you a month to draw one.


This is for Tiger Beer for their Tiger Translate artist project. I was paired with a photographer and had to "remix" the photo and illustrate ontop of it. The photographer was Sin Kok Wai from Singapore. clothes are hanging from poles outside the apartment complexes. straight and uniform buildings didnt give me a lot to work. Here is my rationale:
The scale of the laundry and everything in the photo is so small so I created this huge gentle giant to contrast the tiny clothes hanging out to dry. The photo is of a modern apartment complex made of concrete and steel so I tried to show something living and organic. I wanted it to look like he meant well and was helping out with the laundry, but the whole story of this beast is up the viewer. This piece is also pretty big, probably 2.5'x1.5'. I like this guy. he kind of just showed up on my napkin when i put my pen down on it when i was at dinner one night.

-Jason