About Me

皆さんいらっしゃい！　Welcome everyone!

The Heavy © Valve

Teaching over the internet has a certain ‘casual’ appeal to it that you could never get in a classroom or with a private tutor in your home or their home. eduFire gives us the opportunity to feel relaxed while were are learning in the comfort of our own homes, which is why I feel this is a fantastic platform and the reason I’ve decided to tutor using it.

I currently teach a few subjects;

-Beginner’s Japanese

-Illustration Theory and Critique

-Animation 

I will be putting up free lessons from time to time, so feel free to join up.

日本語 Beginner’s Japanese

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Beginner’s Japanese is pretty much for those who want to start learning the language but haven’t yet. This is a great opportunity to experience one of the most interesting languages on this planet. No prerequisites are required for this class, although some knowledge of Hiragana [ひらがな] and Katakana [カタカナ] would be helpful. Here is a good site for that! But don’t worry! I’ll write things out in both Japanese ‘kana’ script and in ‘romaji’ (Japanese term for the alphabet used in the English language)

日本語を磨きましょう!

Illustration Theory and Critique

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Illustration Theory and Critique is my art based class. One to One classes can make use of screen shares with tablets and photoshop etc, or even with webcams, but I understand that not everyone has these (or really wants to fiddle about trying to danlge their webcam above the paper! ^_ ) This class can cover a range of things, although the free classes will probably be on cartooning.



The class is set out as a theory and critique lesson to keep things universal for those with or without webcams and tablets, etc. The lesson will be similar to a university lecture; I will go over a certain topic using photoshop, powerpoint or something similar and get the class to interact with questions and requests. The critique is the homework part of the lesson. I will set an optional task to draw/create something which you can then send to me, and I will review it, critique it, and then send it back to you, chock full of hints and tips (or if you’re good, adoration and praise :P)

Animation

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Animation will be an introduction to animation. I’ll explain:
- the different types of animation
- how to animate simple objects
- how to use your PC to turn your work into a movie file
- the principles of animation.


This class could also be critiqued depending on how far we get.

As with all my classes, I’ll happily take requests. If I know it, I’ll probably teach it. Send me a message if you wan’t to discuss something, have a question or just want to say ‘hi!’ ^_

So… A bit about me

My name is Dave, I was born in Kent, England on a sunny June morning. I have wanted to be a lot of things throughout my life; chef, businessman, musician, programmer, animator, translator, games designer, an extra in ‘Frasier’, a rugby player, a comedian – all these things have come and some have gone. But I’ve always, always wanted to be a comic book artist.

I like most styles of comic art and collect a lot of graphic novels. Anime and manga made its way into my life as a teenager, I still love it no matter how much some people degrade it and how much it tries to get away with some things. I love Steve Ditko’s work on Spiderman, the newer batman comics (Get lost Adam West! POW!). Hellboy is an awesome comic, try it if you like the films.

My first comic was a 20 page short about a girl named snow. It was awful (haha). Its surprising how much work goes into each page, and everytime I read a comic and find myself skimming over the pages because I’m a naturally fast reader, I kick myself for missing out on some awesome art work.

I run a website and Illustration Studio called ‘Watermelon Studios’ which can be found at http://www.watermelonstudios.co.uk. You can find my profile on there and more of my work. (currently under construction as I change things around). Any commission requests, send me a message!

I also run a blog on Japan called ‘The Ramen Blues’. Check this out for interesting articles on Japanese culture, food, photography and language.

I started learning Japanese in secondary school, and during my GCSEs (10th-11th grade American?) I petitioned to start up a Japanese class and hazah! we got a class. After two years of formal study we went out to Japan for a trip, and then I volunteered with GAP for my gap year, working at はんしん自立の家 (Hanshin Home for the mentally and physically disabled) as a care staff assistant. After that I went travelling for a while, stayed overnight on Mt Fuji and didn’t even see the dammned thing! (Too much fog…)

After my adventures in Japan I went back to higher education and did my degree in Animation BA (Hons) at Lincoln University, Hull.