Blog - Archive - Yuko Shimizu

January 7, 2010

R. Gregory Christie Interview

Illustration Magazine: The Champ - The Story Of Muhammad Ali

My collaboration with Japanese Illustration Magazine is becoming something of a regular gig now. This time we featured children’s book illustrator R. Gregory Christie.It was the longest interview I had so far and probably one of the most inspiring.

Greg talks about his passion and mission to right the wrongs of American history by finding the buried Brown People heroes, giving encouragements and advise to aspiring illustrators especially those who are minorities, and shares a funny story how he ‘fell into’ children’s book world which was not his initial plan.

Because of the limited space I had to cut it down to essence of the whole story in the magazine, but for English-reading audience, the whole interview is now available on Illustration Friday, thanks to Penelope Dullaghan the woman behind Illustration Friday. So thank you to Greg and Penelope.

Illustration Magazine: R. Gregory Christie Interview (January 2010) - Spread 1

Illustration Magazine: R. Gregory Christie Interview (January 2010) - Spread 2

Illustration Magazine: R. Gregory Christie Interview (January 2010) - Spread 3

January 3, 2010

Happy New Year!

“Thank god 2009 is over!” Did you say that when the ball dropped? I did, and so did my friends who were with me on the new year’s.If you didn’t have to say this, good for you. But 2009 was definitely not a fun year for most of us. Many of my friends have lost their jobs and a lot of them are still looking for new work. In the world of illustration, recession was not on our side either.

2010 is the year of the tiger (No, not the golf kind). In old Chinese saying it goes: “不入虎穴、不得虎子。(You have to go into the tiger lair to catch the tiger cub.)” In another word; take risk, and you will be rewarded.
What a nice saying to start a year.

Wishing all the Drawger writers and readers a happy and prosperous 2010!

December 23, 2009

Happy Holidays

…to everyone who’s writing and reading at Drawger.I met a lot of nice people this year through blogging here.  I wanted to make a holiday image just for Drawger, but between last minutes deadlines (just sent off the last job before Christmas) and personal matters, I ended up having to pick the one that’s most appropriate.

It is for The Word, a British music magazine I have been working with every month on their supplement compilation CD cover for about two and half years. So, thank you and Merry Christmas to Jonathan, Mark, Mike, Jerry and all the nice people at The Word.

New York City will be quiet for the next few days. A nice time of the year.

Have a wonderful holiday season.

December 18, 2009

Life Imitating Illustration, Or…

left: the latest New York Magazine, photo by Mitchell Funk. right: Hemispheres cover illustrated by Shout… or just a total coincidence? Two funny encounters this week.

1. CENTRAL PARK IN THE SNOW
I pick up The latest issue of New York Magazine on Monday and “Wow, it is another beautiful illustration by Shout”. I look closer… Oh wait, these buildings in the background look too realistic to be an illustration….?  Then I realized it was NOT an illustration at all, but a photo. Photographer is Mitchell Funk, he is a veteran working since the 70s (left).

I e-mailed the cover to Shout, telling him the story. He wrote right back and said he got a kick out of it, it is something he would totally do. In fact, he attached an illustration he has done in past that has a lot of similarities (right).

Was the photo inspired by the illustration or is it the total coincidence? We couldn’t tell, but it didn’t matter anyway.

The fun of all this is that two completely different mediums (especially that Shout’s work is not realistic at all) can create atmosphere so similar, graphic and beautiful.

I love then both and I want to frame and hang them on my wall. It is not a bad idea to just see the beautiful side of winter and forget about all the cold and muddy slush that await us in the next few months.

left: illustration by Heads of State right: mugs designed by J.C. Karich2. AN ULTIMATE MUG
I fell in love with these funny yet beautiful mug designed by J.C. Karich (right). I bought a whole stack to give to friends for Christmas (and keep one for myself).

I showed it off to fellow Drawgers, then Matt reminded me that Heads of State (left) that was done an illustration with the same idea a while ago. This, probably also is just a pure coincidence playing with the idea of anger in the office environment.

Now I am putting these two images next to eachother, I love the different takes on the same idea. In the actual mug the knuckles were placed opposite from the illustration and that affects the nice curvy form of the cup.

By the way, the mug, I heard is completely sold out for the holiday season, but if you want to be wait-listed, contact the nice people at UMA.

Oh, and last but not least….

Happy holidays everyone!

December 9, 2009

My ‘Killed Job Of The Year’

You realize you are a ‘pro’ when a killed job does not hurt your feelings anymore.Of course, nobody likes rejection and it does need a bit of get used to in the beginning. But in this world jobs get killed all the time; editorial change happens regularly, articles do get canned, ad campaigns that never happened is also quite a common practice…

It’s not you, so hey, let’s not get upset. The only time you should be upset (with yourself) is when a job is get killed because you did a bad job. Let’s hope that won’t happen..

But then again, there are jobs that get killed that you were pretty happy with, and looking forward for them to be seen by others. Oh crap, it happens.

Since it is the end of a year, I decided to go through all my killed illustrations and find ‘the one’. And here it is: Christian Louboutin fall-winter shoe collection! What a fun subject to illustrate? I had a great time indeed. (Call me a fashion victim, but all my close friends know about my more than 30 pairs of designer boots collection. )

So, I decided to make sure my killed-Louboutins see the light of the day at Drawger. Thank you for looking, friends.

Christian Louboutin - Fall/Winter 2009 Shoe Collection: Sketches

Those were two sketches I submitted. I liked the left one a lot, but it was a bit too ‘out there’ for the client, which I totally understood. Maybe I should finish this one for myself?

Christian Louboutin - Fall/Winter 2009 Shoe Collection: Different Shoes

All the shoes were based on actual Louboutin Fall-Winter collection. I had fun illustrating the different materials, and yes, the signature red leather sole!

Christian Louboutin - Fall/Winter 2009 Shoe Collection: Inspirations On A Mood Board

Inspirations, or my ‘mood board’. These images are not exactly my references, but important part of a creative process to focus on the ideas and mood of a piece.

December 4, 2009

Spectrum Silver Medal!

Spectrum Magazine (December 2009): Yuko's Silver Medal

With SPECTRUM silver trophy!I have to be just honest; 2009 was definitely not the best year I had, and work was definitely slower than usual.But when the most of the world is in recession for over a year and more than 10% unemployment rate, you gotta look at the brighter side of it.

Price of milk is not going up every time I visit my local supermarket. And oh yeah, both my studio and home rent got frozen for now. I was able to squeeze in more travels and meet peers and aspiring illustrators everywhere. Invited to a museum show in Berlin, Germany, then a show and lecture in Xalapa, Mexico, guest instructor for three days in Utrecht, Holland, taught a workshop in Venice, Italy, and just got back from judging a Chinese illustration competition in Hong Kong, China, among multiple schools in the US who were kind enough to invite me over. Thank you thank you thank you to all the kind people in my life.

This week when I schlepped my heavy suitcase back from Hong Kong with my head spinning from jetlag, there was a big package waiting for me at my door.
SPECTRUM silver medal!!! And look how sci-fi fantasy it looks!

Below are the images that got accepted to SPECTRUM this year starting from the silver medal winning piece in advertising category created for Microsoft as client.

Ok, so this year was not so bad. There were lots of great things to celebrate. What goes down must come up. Economy will soon come floating back up, my dear friends who have lost their jobs will eventually find jobs that are probably even better than the ones they lost.

For now, I wish everyone a wonderful holiday season. And let’s make 2010 even better year than this one!

PS: this won’t be my last post of the year.

Spectrum Magazine (December 2009): Issue 16 Spread

SPECTRUM 16 annual just came out. My silver award piece on the right. Gold was also by a Japanese artist, Mr. Ryohei Hase

One of five images created for online ad for Microsoft won this year’s silver.

Microsoft Online Advertising Series: December 2009

Another piece from Microsoft advertising series.

Sandman Cover For DC Vertigo: December 2009, Issue 4

Sandman issue No.4 cover for DC Vertigo was accepted into comic category.

PLANADVISOR piece for CD: SooJin Buzelli, in editorial category.

November 30, 2009

Fun In Tokyo

With fellow Drawgers: Gary Taxali and Thomas Fuchs, along with our friend Thilo Rothacker, four of us recently finished ultra-limited edition messenger bag project for German brand tausche.

Total of 29 bags will be released and sold at tausche’s Daikanyama store in Tokyo, Japan starting December 4 (Fri) up to the end of the year. Each of the bags were hand drawn/painted/printed and one of a kind.

If you know anyone in Tokyo area, please spread the word!

Tausche Daikanyama Store: Sarugaku A-2F 26-2 Sarugaku-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0033
hours: 11AM ~ 7PM (Fri~Sun, holidays)
phone: +81 3-6802-7668 fax: +81 3-6802-7681
e-mail: [email protected] website: www.tausche.jp

Gary Taxali

Thomas Fuchs

Thilo Rothacker

Yuko Shimizu

Tausche Daikanyama Store: Map/Directions

Map to tausche Daikanyama Store. Easy walking distance from Daikanyama Station in Tokyo, and located in Sarugaku Fashion Area. Showing starts on December 4th.

November 18, 2009

Gold Medal! Yay!

I am so psyched to learn about all the fellow Drawgers winning the medals. And, here is the news from me.

I have been a hermit trying to finish up everything before I take off to Hong Kong tomorrow morning, totally stressed out…. Then Anelle Miller, Director of the Society of Illustrators called me with a big cheer up present: A book cover I recently finished has won Gold Medal!

It is an upcoming book from WW Norton. Designer is one of my favorite book designers, Rodrigo Corral. AD was the sweet Albert Tang. It is a collection of short stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, one of Japan’s most respected modern writers.

Thank you Rodrigo, thank you Albert. Thank you all the judges, and fellow Drawgers who are all always always so supportive.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone. I will off to judge Greater China’s first big illustration competition. 再見!

The Beautiful And The Grotesque: Wrap Around Cover

Wrap around cover design. We discussed about making it traditional and contemporary at the same time.

The Beautiful And The Grotesque: Front Cover

I love the fact that Rodrigo didn’t choose the obvious deign choice of going very Japanese. His design is always so cool.

November 7, 2009

Josh Cochran Interview

First time I saw Josh Cochran’s work was when Marcosand I judged Society of Illustrators student competition, probably 4~5 years ago. He had a bunch of beautiful and funny silkscreen prints and “wow”ed us. (We have no idea why he didn’t get into the competition, but his prints ended up accepted into all the major ‘pro’ shows that year, so it was all good.)Later on we ended up becoming friends, and I have always been amazed by how talented, hard working, prolific, yet extremely humble and down to earth he is.

It was exciting to be able to interview him for my regular contributing article for Japanese ILLUSTRATION Magazine. I had so many questions I wanted to ask, like his transition from concept art to his current work, his multi-cultural background, and most of all, how he feels about all these copycats out there. And yes, he answered them all.

As usual, Penelope Dullaghan from Illustration Friday was kind enough to post the English version so all my friends, peers, and aspiring illustrators can read.

ILLUSTRATION Magazine issue No. 181 comes out in Japan at the end of the month.

Josh Cochran: Illustration Magazine (November 2009)

October 21, 2009

Fall Of Superwoman!

I still dream about my corporate days and wake up completely stressed, although I left there more than 10 years ago. I never leave home without a few Zantac pills in my bag just in case that ulcer I first got during my 9-9 workdays come back and haunt me. (often enough.)When German magazine Der Spiegel called me, I couldn’t turn down the job although the deadline was extremely short. It was about an over-achieving young career woman’s experience of severe nervous breakdown from work and work environment stress. Listening to AD Antje Klein explains the story with her fluent English over the phone, I felt the woman’s pain. I never got to the point of nervous breakdown, but if I stayed? If I never quit and went back to art school? I am not sure.

Other than that I felt personally attached to the story, the idea of Antje “let’s make her into this superhero character” sounded really fun. I mean, who doesn’t like superheroes? Look at the pile of reference and inspiration books I have in my bookshelf!

Der Spiegel Magazine (October 2009): Yuko's Superhero Book Collection

Obvious reference materials. I have too many superhero books on my bookshelf… ha ha.

Der Spiegel Magazine (October 2009): Sketches

Three ideas. Bottom two ended up as spot illustrations for the same story.During coloring stage on Photoshop, I often go back and forth, trials and errors (and at the end, hopefull, always some level of success). In the middle of coloring this main illustration, something was telling me that it was not going the right direction.

Then, I had an “ah~ha!” moment when I made the drawing into negative. Dark story calls for dark color scheme like this.

Der Spiegel Magazine (October 2009): Adobe Photoshop

Something was telling me that the coloring was not going to the right direction…. then… aha moment follows…

Der Spiegel Magazine (October 2009): Final Illustration

Final illustration finished!

Der Spiegel Magazine (October 2009): Spread

And here is the final layout. Nice and clean..

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