Sunday, June 08, 2008

Illustration Friday - Forgotten



True story:
My family took a trip to Taiwan when I was 10 years old (in 1981). I saw some awesome toy stores there, with some amazing toys straight from Japan. One time, when we were walking down the street in some small town, I stopped to look at some toys, then I looked up, and my family had moved on. I can't even begin to explain the panic feeling of being lost in a foreign country where no one speaks English (and I only know a few small phrases in Taiwanese- none of which would help in this situation). I think it was like 10-20 minutes before they found me again.
illustration done in ball point pen and photoshop

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

horror! what a scary imagination, i guess i would have freaked out.
but it's still a cool illustration, though ;)

gekago said...

Cool story and illustration! I like both!

Fourborne said...

Wonderful illustration. What photoshop do you use?

Robert Squier said...

Great story! I can think of worse places to be abandoned than a toy store in Japan!

MayY . C 五月媽媽 said...

great story, you even can writes the word toy in Mandarin! Superb!

James Elston said...

fourbourne:
I used photoshop CS and a wacom tablet

Robert:
Yeah and back then, Taiwan had tons of video arcades too (it was during the arcade craze of the early 80s) The games were better over there also, as they were also came straight from Japan.

steve said...

I'll bet that was scary! And i thought getting lost in Ames was bad. Love the drawing - especially the ultraman head!

Juan said...

well done! Wonderful illo and story

Nina Seven N7 said...

great illo and the story is one you will never forget, I'm sure!

Roberta said...

awww...I'll bet those few minutes seemed like forever at the time!!
love the illustration.

NANCY LEFKO said...

it must have been the longest 10-20 minutes of your life, but I can promise you it was torture for your parents....I can't imagine the panic I'd have as a parent in that situation.

great illustration!!

Jeff said...

Say, James! Terrific drawing and I love the color. Been over the whole blog & website, too. Spectacular works!

Crystal said...

Great expression! awesome illo!

nicole falk said...

10 -20 min! thats a long time - how scarY! Well, since it resulted in this fun illo, im glad it happened..haha

thefridayfrog said...

excellent illio! love the ultraman poster! he'd save him! (i think.)

same thing happened to me...in hk. although i was in my 20's, although i think my parents did it on purpose.

Anonymous said...

Great story and great illustration! Is that a Rocketeer helmet in there? I wonder if toys made in Japan are cheaper there?