I took Japanese in high school and was part of the Japanese Club for a while. This club did very little except sit around and watch anime, play Gamecube games, and play Yu-Gi-Oh. Occasionally, though, we would do “official” activities. There was a contest for drawings or paintings of Japanese anime or video game characters, and I decided to enter with a drawing of my old favorites Sonic and Tails. I tried to capture the look and feel of the old Genesis games. This drawing won second place in the club contest and hung on the wall of the Japanese classroom for a while.
Sometime after I reclaimed the drawing, I attended a cartooning workshop by Portland cartoonist Steve Lieber. We were told in advance to bring portfolios of our work and I threw this entry into mine. Mr. Lieber was generous enough to go through each of our portfolios individually and give us feedback. I remember that with this particular drawing, he commented on how the structures in the background looked very flat and it would be improved if I learned to draw buildings and such in perspective. And he was right, although I could argue that the flatness adds to the “Genesis” feel.