Judo illustrations

Our judo illustration library is slowly growing. Feel free to use, change, copy and share. Licensed under Creative commons - attribution - share-alike. We will be making a compendium for gradings.

Find the full set at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hultstrom/sets/72157632298341948/

Best regards,

Michael

nice. a couple of them aren't exactly the way I'd picture the technique being illustrated if it were being used for grading purposes, but they're still pretty cool. thanks for sharing.

And the prize for most backhanded praise goes to...

Thanks,

anyway.

Michael

that was not an attempt at backhanded praise, some of the techniques just stuck out as being a bit oddly set up if their goal was to show the canonical version (the version one would expect people to be tested on). however I am a fairly opinionated individual, so that should be taken with a grain of salt. it was neither praise nor criticism, just an observation. the illustrations themselves are nicely done.

No, you're right. They're not very canonical. They're made to have as dynamic a look as possible, but, with newaza in particular, that is difficult to combine with canonical. It's either not exactly the way you'd picture the techniques being illustrated if they were being used for grading purposes, or boring. (Remember that it is important to imagine my writing in the voice of Dylan Moran).

/M

Michael-H wrote:

Our judo illustration library is slowly growing. Feel free to use, change, copy and share. Licensed under Creative commons - attribution - share-alike. We will be making a compendium for gradings.

Find the full set at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hultstrom/sets/72157632298341948/

Best regards,

Michael

I just wanted to congratulate you with your work. I have zero talent at drawing and I am absolutely in awe of people who can do things like you did ! Please, keep up the good work.

Very cool - did your models have the crease in their foreheads before taking up judo?

I know more about drawing than CK but that's not much. It is possible to show the dynamism of the throws, which I think you do beautifully, is there a way to do that while portraying uke's head up and more erect during the kake? His head is almost always down, shoulders shrugged forward.... is there a way to maintain the sense of motion yet keep a better posture? I don't know, but most people want to do this in the flesh, and it would be cool if someone could portray the sense of 'motion' while keeping the correct posture.

Again, very nice. Your technique looks like it would lend itself to a nice set of watercolors for a dojo wall. Light pastel violence.

NBK

PS - loose the rash guards while you're at it...

Very well done Michael. Not my preferred grip for harai but I really like how you've captured the sense of movement and a sense of power too.

(NBK - why do you want rash guards to be loosened?)

Thanks, all of you!

NBK: They are actually very rough early sketches for what I would either do in watercolour, or make line-art of before publication (With faces, and hair and stuff). The creases or lines are just there to show the symmetry of the face for when I would later draw the face. However, there is little chance of me finishing all of them to that degree of perfection, so I just wanted to get them out as quickly as possible.

It might be possible to nudge the head a little when refining the pictures, but they are all drawn from photographs with the poses as you find them. It is quite difficult to get the throwing action just right otherwise, and if you change the angle of the head it will often look strange with the rest of the body. It is probably better to start from another photograph with better pose. These are, however, the best examples I have of these techniques.

Chilli: I'm thinking it's because he somehow knows that the models with rash guards are girls.

Michael

good work.

tai-otoshi and morote seoi in particular look a little off to me though.

Michael-H wrote:

You are very talented. I wish I could do that. Unfortunately, my drawing talent sucks.

Excellent! Great sketches that really capture the feeling of movement with power.

Thank you all for your kind words. But what I really want to hear is that you have used them, websites, posters, flyers, anything goes. You don't even have to tell me (although it would make me happy).

contrarian: That's fine, if you (or anyone else) have a good photo or film that I can use as template put it up. When I find the time I will expand the selection, my next goal is to fill out the Gokyo, and do some more Katame-waza, but there is no inherent reason that there can not be more than one variant of each technique.

CK: While it is nice to draw, the whole point of the endeavour is that you don't have to. You can just steal them and use them. Or, as I said above, upload better templates for me and I will come to them in time.

Concerning templates. Don't scan recent books, and don't pick photos off the interwebs, they're almost always under copyright. Mostly films are ok since drawing the likeness of one frame is sufficiently original and sufficiently different from the template in terms of presentation and usage that it probably doesn't infringe copyright.

Here are some new ones, tsuri-komi-goshi, ko-soto-gari, and ko-soto-gake.

I will ask my Sensei if we can add them to the handout curriculum at Solano Community College. Sadly, due to budget cuts in CA, this will probably be Tanaka Sensei's last semester teaching. I will re-post here if I am successful in getting them in.  

Michael-H wrote:
CK: While it is nice to draw, the whole point of the endeavour is that you don't have to. You can just steal them and use them. Or, as I said above, upload better templates for me and I will come to them in time.

Well, I don't want to derail this thread. You are thinking in very practical terms. Maybe because you just 'can' draw, you 'can' also do it without any effort if you want in minimal time. For me, even with extensive efforts, concentration, time and help, I can't. The fact that I can't isn't simply a practical matter, since these days there are very few things where being able to draw is essential. I have lived my entire life with a "drawing disability" and I do not suffer of it is "practical" terms. I don't miss out on friends, jobs, or perks simply cause I can't draw. It's of an entirely different dimension. By the way, I also can't paint, absolutely nada. For an art lover it can actually be very painful not being able to practice that art if that form of art is a part of his life. Luckily it isn't that far with drawing, but it is a huge issue for me with regard to music. To some extent it use to be like that for me with judo just like many of our friends feel that here with regard to judo. When I started judo I struggled just mastering ukemi. That is now long gone, so I have successfully overcome that. However, I still have very high judo standards and they are not easy to meet. It is the same with music. I know what I want, I know how things need to be performed, and this isn't a simply matter of competition or reaching a certain mathematical score, but a matter of being able to communicate and express what I want. The level for that is unfortunately beyond my ability and beyond the ability of most people, even most professional concert musicians, and that is a life-long struggle for me. The lack of ability to draw isn't for me yet at that point of importance but it is close enough to painfully remind me of the forms of art I do feel a strong urge and necessity to perform in order to be able to communicate.

Michael-H wrote:Thank you all for your kind words. But what I really want to hear is that you have used them, websites, posters, flyers, anything goes. You don't even have to tell me (although it would make me happy).

contrarian: That's fine, if you (or anyone else) have a good photo or film that I can use as template put it up. When I find the time I will expand the selection, my next goal is to fill out the Gokyo, and do some more Katame-waza, but there is no inherent reason that there can not be more than one variant of each technique.

CK: While it is nice to draw, the whole point of the endeavour is that you don't have to. You can just steal them and use them. Or, as I said above, upload better templates for me and I will come to them in time.

Concerning templates. Don't scan recent books, and don't pick photos off the interwebs, they're almost always under copyright. Mostly films are ok since drawing the likeness of one frame is sufficiently original and sufficiently different from the template in terms of presentation and usage that it probably doesn't infringe copyright.

Here are some new ones, tsuri-komi-goshi, ko-soto-gari, and ko-soto-gake.

i personally love and embrace waza variations.

but i personally think that with tai-otoshi, if the tsurite grip crosses over the opponent's centre line, it is dangerous to the health of the elbow joint.
my favourite tai-otoshi is @ 1:28 of the original 101 Ippons by Fighting Films. not sure if the quality of the still is good enough for you to salvage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMG8f4mghs4&feature=player_detailpage&t=88

and same for morote seoi. i think the elbow placement is bad for the elbow joint. the aim should not be for the elbow to make contact with the opponent's armpit. tsurite side shoulder placement is funky too, because it looks like the shoulder is reaching back. i think this is a better example at 0:17 mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMG8f4mghs4&feature=player_detailpage&t=88

Contrarian: Yes that is a much nicer tai-otoshi, and it was just about good enough, so there you are.



To some degree I agree about the seoi as well. That is I tend to throw it with a turning action across my shoulders, like the eri-seoinage illustration. I wouldn't call it funky though, just call it Inoue-style.

The problem with sketches like these in judo is that people tend to copy them by posing.  They don't grasp that what they are looking at is not even a freeze frame, it's an artists impression of a split second in time, usually what they feel is the most dynamic moment.  Observers of good art grasp this and attempt to go directly to that moment and they usually focus on a particular aspect ... like the elbow position.  They fail, because good art is usually at some level an emotional representation of how tori feels.

Taiotoshi is possibly one of the most common examples of this problem.  It doesn't matter if it's your excellent work ... or Bill Nauta's ... people will walk up to the poster, go back and get a hold of uke, turn around in an awkward pose and then try to make uke fly ... uke's feet flat ... tori's shoulder tweaked back into a dangerous position.

The same can be said of why people hurt their elbows in moroteseoinage ... though the technique does indeed take a toll on the elbow over time that's not why people struggle and take on too much weight ... it's because they focus on a tiny aspect miss the bigger "picture."

In a world ... where people learn judo from pictures ... or YouTube ... poor judo results.

These are excellent study guides for judo vocabulary, poor teaching tools for beginners ... may I say they are excellent decoration without insulting anyone ... no substitute for instruction and experience.  So take it easy on the artist.

I think these drawings are amazing! I love them! So talented.

BillC wrote:The problem with sketches like these in judo is that people tend to copy them by posing.  They don't grasp that what they are looking at is not even a freeze frame, it's an artists impression of a split second in time, usually what they feel is the most dynamic moment.  Observers of good art grasp this and attempt to go directly to that moment and they usually focus on a particular aspect ... like the elbow position.  They fail, because good art is usually at some level an emotional representation of how tori feels.

Taiotoshi is possibly one of the most common examples of this problem.  It doesn't matter if it's your excellent work ... or Bill Nauta's ... people will walk up to the poster, go back and get a hold of uke, turn around in an awkward pose and then try to make uke fly ... uke's feet flat ... tori's shoulder tweaked back into a dangerous position.

The same can be said of why people hurt their elbows in moroteseoinage ... though the technique does indeed take a toll on the elbow over time that's not why people struggle and take on too much weight ... it's because they focus on a tiny aspect miss the bigger "picture."

In a world ... where people learn judo from pictures ... or YouTube ... poor judo results.

These are excellent study guides for judo vocabulary, poor teaching tools for beginners ... may I say they are excellent decoration without insulting anyone ... no substitute for instruction and experience.  So take it easy on the artist.

Absolutely agree, Bill. The whole issue with the elbow placement for Morote Seoi is a classic example. 30 years of doing it the "wrong way" and no damage to my shoulder...that had to wait until I worked in the planer portion of a sawmill (rotator cuff tear), then getting dropped on my shoulder in a shiai at age 48 and a half (grade 3 separation.)

I really don't like photos as references, especially for inexperienced judoka who don't know any better.

Ben Reinhardt wrote:I really don't like photos as references, especially for inexperienced judoka who don't know any better.

Mmmm ... nah ... I really like good work. "Fighting Judo" is about as good as they get in that regard.

Wish I had 30 good photos or drawings from Michael-H for a junokata poster I am working on for the dojo ... just a couple per move as a quick reminder ... two reasons for making it ...

1. So yours truly can peek when my partner and I draw a blank during an early Saturday practice;

2. To get kids interested in taking their judo beyond the kids' game.

Seriously, it's amazing to see people who've supposedly been in judo asking "why is he pointing his hand like you like that?" And "but there are no punches in judo ..."

Next up ... kimenokata ... enough to make Contrarian puke I wager.

Only three more to go for the Gokyo (1920 version).

There, the Gokyo-no-waza is finished.

All the individual drawings can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hultstrom/sets/72157632298341948/

And, since repetition is the mother of all knowledge, I just want to point out that they are free to use under the Creative Commons - Attribution, share-alike - license.

Michael-H wrote:There, the Gokyo-no-waza is finished.

All the individual drawings can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hultstrom/sets/72157632298341948/

And, since repetition is the mother of all knowledge, I just want to point out that they are free to use under the Creative Commons - Attribution, share-alike - license.

Splendid.

May I ask you something ? I am fascinated by people who have the ability to do and create things I can't. I would appreciate if you could explain a little bit how you actually achieve this. What kind of techniques do you use. I am, of course, most interested in understanding how someone can transfer what goes on in their mind into practice, but that is likely a very complicated process, partly because it may be evident for you, while I am unable to accomplish this.