Blog - Archive - Yuko Shimizu

April 6, 2009

Tale Of Four Canal Cities Part 1: Sleepy Chioggia And Venice Underwater

Venice in rain… still picturesque

Ten days after I came back from Mexico, I was on the road again. I got asked to judge a children’s book competition for aspiring illustrators in Italy. It took place last week in Chioggia, a not-so-popular little sister of Venice about 1 hour bus ride away. Despite canals and historic buildings you never see a tourist. And most of the hotels are closed during off season. A sleepy cute little town.

Tale Of Four Canal Cities: Why War Is Never A Good Idea

Best part of these judging trips (well, other than going on a trip, that is) is always about meeting cool new people. This time I became friends with some fantastic people including: illustrator and professor at SCAD Mohamed Danawi, Miriam Martinez of Fondo De Cultura Economica a publisher from Mexico, and a Venice-based illustrator Stefano Vitale who’s recent children’s book is a phenomenal Why War Is Never A Good Idea.

Tale Of Four Canal Cities: Miriam and Mohamed

Miriam, Mohamed and me during judging.

Tale Of Four Canal Cities: Why War Is Never A Good Idea - Spread 1

Tale Of Four Canal Cities: Why War Is Never A Good Idea - Spread 2

From Stefano’s book: Why War Is Never A Good Idea.

It was pouring rain. Despite a free day in Venice after judging, everyone was in bad mood, REALLY bad mood. Venice is a town where cars are off limit and you have to walk everywhere. We were soaking wet from head to toe. Just when my mood was switching from bad to terrible, something magical happens: Aqua Alta! Venice’s famous high water. Stefano tells me I have to come see San Marco Square becoming a big lake.

Wellies, wellies, wellies! Stefano knows how to dress for Aqua Alta!

It was a surreal scene. I only knew San Marco as a big square filled with thousands of tourists with cameras and pigeons flying above. All that were gone. In the darkness of the night, the whole square was quietly sinking under water. A few cafes were open, with live violin playing and people were still enjoying drinks in terraces half under water. Just to see that changed my mood and memory of this trip 180 degrees.

I got my mood back, then flew up north to Amsterdam and Utrecht, other two canal cities. I will write about my workshop at Utrecht School of the Arts next time.

Rain or shine, never forget to check out a local book store! Italians sure know how to design.

March 27, 2009

Thank You Amarillo, Thank You Mexico!

5 hour flight to Mexico City, 5 hour wait, 1 more hour of flight, then 2 more hours of drive on the highway. Xalapawas far. Really far. With flight delays and all that, it was just about 16 hours door to door.On top of that, every time I land in Mexico City I get severe migraine and nausea. It is probably due to the high altitude and pollution. This time was no exception. During the transit, stupid Yuko decided to take a taxi to meet up with a friend, got stuck in traffic, became severely ill upon arrival, went straight to her bathroom, and stuck there for a while, then make a u-turn right back to the airport again.

So, when I arrived to the final airport, and was told there will be two more hours of drive, I seriously thought I was going to die.

Like Diego Rivera’s paintings, these flowers are everywhere!Despite all that, this was one of the best trips I had ever taken. Xalapa is the capital of Veracruz. It is a big city with small town feel. An town filled with beautiful architectures and good old Mexican tradition and culture. Also it is a college town filled with young energy. People are ridiculously nice, food is amazing (never going back to those American-Mexican again!), and vibe is just fantastic.

Xalapa is always covered in fog. Very moody at night…

Lecture was held at Agora, a new and large conference hall. Thank you for the full house audience!I was invited by Amarillo Centro de Diseño, a rather small but respected design organization run by three cool designers (and some interns) to have a lecture and a show. The best way to describe their space is: it is like Giant Robot of Mexico. They have gallery space, as well as store that sells Hecho-en-Mexico designer books and toys.

I like traveling and I enjoy doing lectures, but this was so different. I had never been so welcomed. A lot of the audience came from all over Mexico, including a group of students and a professor who took 9 hour bus ride all the way from Oaxaca!

Thank you Amarillo, thank you Mexico, for a wonderful memories. I hope to come back again (despite of 16 hours, oh yeah!).

Owner of Amarillo, Aida and I cutting the ribbon for the opening of the show.

It doesn’t happen in the US or Europe, but it seems like a norm in Mexico that you autograph for everyone.

Being interviewed on camera….

Amarillo’s store. they have some amazing hecho-en-Mexico toys and design products.

Amarillo, Mexico, (March 2009): Diario Xalapa

When do I get to be on the front page of a newspaper??? NEVER!

Everybody at Amarillo. Thank you for a wonderful time!!!

March 11, 2009

Mexico Bound…

Day light savings time has started, but it feels like there is no end to New York winter. I am flying out to Mexico tomorrow. To Xalapa, a town I have never heard of, but looked really nice on limited information I got from internet search.Amarillo Centro de Diseño, a design organization located in this town had invited me to have a talk and a show for Mexican illustrators and designers. If anyone who is reading this happened to be near by, please come by. Here is the info.

Amarillo asked me to create a poster to announce the talk. I wanted to make “Japan meets Mexico” theme, but wanted to avoid the common stereotypes. So, no sombrero, no cactus, no pyramid, no tacos and, sorry Marcos, No Chihuahuas. At the end I decided to go with, one of my Mexican obsessions: Lucha Libre. Amarillo means yellow in Spanish, so it totally looks like that’s my figher name, or something. Let’s leave it as that.

Posters are currently being printed one by one by hands of silk-screeners of Xalapa. I am very excited.

I will be back on Monday. I will let you know how it went.

I downloaded bunch of Lucha Libre images for references and inspirations. Yes, including Nacho Libre poster!

Here is the pencil rough poster idea I created before proceeding to the next step.

If you stare at this image for about 10 seconds, you are supposed to see the three color separation process I made for the silk screeners.

Amarillo space getting ready for the show. I get to see this space tomorrow. Beautiful tile work!

March 9, 2009

Yes, Spectrum!!!

Donato Giancola announcing the award. You can watch the video on Spectrum site.I just found out I have received a silver medal from SPECTRUM 16. Yes, that SPECTRUM, where sci-fi and fantasy artists are awarded. Yeah! Is it for real????????

When you see my work, you probably don’t think about this genre, I know. But, I have to comfess, I was a huge sci-fi fantasy geek in middle school drooling over Frazetta, Boris and Jeffrey Jones, reading Moorcock and C.L. Moore. This is something I wish I can go back in time and tell the 14 year old me! Thank you thank you thank you judges.

This job was done about a year ago for Microsoft’s website UltimatePC (site is now gone). Microsoft hired multiple artists; photographers, illustrators and animators to create work using PC (instead of MAC which we are more used to) to promote the high graphic performance of PC.

This is the site UltimatePC, which unfortunately is not around anymore. This site had some fun works by Photographers and animators as well.

I was given the top of the line machine Falcon custom colored to my taste (red of course) with all the software pre-installed. Their request was to create a series of five images or more. I asked them what they were looking for. They said “your personal work”. They didn’t even bother to look at my sketches. Well, I sent some to them anyway, and all they said was “they look great”.

Under current economic crisis, this sounds unreal, like a voice from heaven. Yes, I did it myself, but it still doesn’t sound real to me. Probably one of the best jobs I have ever given. I guess, we do our best work when we are trusted and given total freedom.

These are the sketches I sent to my client. Now I look at them, one of them I didn’t even create at the end, and the award winning piece doesn’t even have sketches…

This is the drawing before I colored it. Matt Rota helped me a lot with this process. He colored the base for the finished images as I was still working on other images.

These are other images in this series.Thank you Microsoft for this awesome project, Pamela Esposito for getting me this gig, Matt Rota for helping me with complicated coloring process.

March 6, 2009

How Is Armory Show Doing In This Economy?

My studio-mate Marcos Chin and I ran to the Armory Show on the opening day. Dow is in the 6000’s, GM on the verge of bankruptcy, there is no light in the long tunnel of economic crisis. How would Armory be doing this year? We wanted the answer.

I have only missed one Armory Show in past ten years, which was last year. Economy was booming like insane, and I was busy to the extremes, working with an advertising client who had lots of money and somehow decided that justifies them to mentally torture me over the course of a few months. I was just over stressed and didn’t have energy or time to go step out of my studio to enjoy art.

What a difference this year? Paintings, paintings, drawings, drawing and more drawings, and photos…, basically things are mostly immovable objects on walls. Large-scale installations, video and other new media works, which were like signature of Armory Show for years, were hard to find. Where did the ‘death of paintings’ go?

Marcos and my honest opinion to the works were: that it was the best Armory Show we have seen in years. May be we are biased? But it is true we had seen stronger paintings and drawings than ever. And, lots of representational works, I mean, the good ones.

However, of course, there is a catch: Where are the red stickers? Where are the people? The show was deserted, red stickers hard to find. If those strong paintings and drawings are not selling, then where is the hope for painters and drawers?

Sales figures will not be official for the next few days. I am sure we would be able to read about it in NY Times or New York Magazine in a week or so. Till then, just enjoy the best Armory Shows in decade! Show is open till Sunday.

Akino Kondoh’s painting was one of our favorite in the show. We met the sweet Akino too! She lives in New York with Japanese goverment grant for a year. We will have brunch soon. Yay.

Some of Akino’s paintings details. So beautiful and rich in colors. Confident brush strokes. She said she has just started painting. She is known for drawings, comics and animations, which are also fantastic, but not at the show.

I’m a long time fan of Fred Tomaselli….

Armory Show: Samuel Boutruche and Benjamin Moreau Frame

Samuel Boutruche and Benjamin Moreau. Concept is everything.

Hope Gangloff had a whole wall full of her obsessive ball-point pen drawings. Even better in person!

I made a new friend at the show!

February 23, 2009

What Do We Sacrifice For Security?

“What do we sacrifice for homeland security?”That was the topic thrown at me from a team of curators for an exhibition called Embedded Art – Art in the Name of Security –. Show is now going on across the pond in Berlin, Germany up to late March. Main part of this show consists of site specific installations, but also as a side project, multiple graphic designers were invited to create posters in the same theme.

Embedded Art – Art in the Name of Security: Poster 2

I came up with an idea in two color schemes, after a long period of communicating back and forth with the curators, and some help and advise from artist friends.

I actually personally liked the black version better, but at the end, the curators went with the red one for the practical reason of adding type to the finished poster

Embedded Art – Art in the Name of Security: Street Photos

Most of us, illustrators, are used to seeing our work in magazines, newspapers, on book covers, etc… a lot smaller scale. It was a refreshing experience to see these photos of my work in a larger scale. A friend just sent them to me from Berlin. Curators decided to put the posters together, so they make illusion of never ending line of everyone watching everyone.

And here are some sketches. Some worked, some didn’t. Also interestingly, some would have worked in editorial context or domestic use, but once the context was taken out of publications and/or the border of the US, all of a sudden some started having different meanings which made them not work. It was definitely an interesting topic to work with. I am fully aware that some of the sketches here are not good at all. But hey, I have no secret. I wanted to show them anyway, just to share especially with aspiring illustrators. Yes we do sometimes come up with really bad ideas first to reach good ideas at the end. Fair?

Embedded Art – Art in the Name of Security: Sketches 1

And, here are the last narrowed down ideas. One became the poster, and the other one, which curators told me “too poetic for the poster” (I totally agree) but I still liked a lot, ended up getting published in The Atlantic later. Happy endings for both of my favorites!

Embedded Art – Art in the Name of Security: Sketches 2

Embedded Art – Art in the Name of Security: Raining Bonsai 72

Last but not least, thank you Moritz and everyone who was ivolved in the show, my good friend Harri for introducing my work to them, and Jason of The Atlantic for accepting the raining bonsai to his magazine.

February 9, 2009

Abe Drawn 8 Different Ways

Yesterday’s NY TImes Book Review (AD: Nicholas Blechman) cover featuring 6 different portraits of Lincoln drawn by 6 different illustrators, and 2 more in interior spread, all with the same two color scheme. Participating illustrators were: on cover clockwise from top left: Ward Schumaker, myself, Brian Rea, Seth, Seymour Chwast, Christoph Niemann. On the interior spread, Mchael Cho and another Ward Schumaker.

And here are my original drawing (left) and final image. As you can see, I gave Abe a bit of “plastic surgery” making him smile a bit and changed the eyes to look more like himself. I usually don’t do much of plastic surgery on Photoshop, but it sometimes happens when I am working on portrait and trying to nail it.

You can also see all the illustrations on New York Times site as a slideshow.

February 8, 2009

Chew On This: Support Next Generation Of Creative Minds

I heard on the news recently that people feel most happy and fulfilled not by monetary insentives, but by rewarding feelings we get from doing something for others, regardless of our income level, type of jobs, race, age, etc. I love the fact we artists can contrubute our artwork, and go way beyond what we could have contributed in money.Sticky, a creative agency in Chicago and Retail Advertising & Marketing Association came up with a very creative idea to raise scholarship fund for students at Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio.

Four artists, including myself was invited to design gum packages based on the stories Sticky has created. 12 packs of gum in a carton is sold for $25, which will fund Randy Curtis Memorial Award.

My image is based on a trippy story about a third nipple escaping a girl’s body, travels across the continent and go surfing. (Yes, you read it right.) Because the story was so out there, and the package features a surfer on the wave of thousand nipples, the gum got rejected from production at the last minutes.

But of course, it is the bunch of creative minds who are working on this project, they ended up managing to produce this gum, as a “banned and limited edition”. If you are interested, you can also buy this gum, chew on this, all for a good cause.

Here are two sketches I initially submitted. We ended up going with more subtle one, which, we think we made the right decision.

February 7, 2009

Hello. 3 Years Too Late???

I don’t know how many times friends and people I know had told me I should start a blog. It has been like… 3 years. It is my nature to overthink, and be extremely cautious. That is why it took so long. I wanted to find the right way to blog.

So, here I am! Spoke many times with Zimm and other wonderful people already blogging at Drawger, I have finally decided that this is home for my blog entries.

Hi everyone at Drawger, thank you for accepting me into the grouop. And those who are not at Drawger but maybe interested in reading my post, thank you in advance.

Hi!!!!

Award winning Japanese illustrator based in New York City and instructor at School of Visual Arts.