Repetition and Primary Colors Are in the Heart of Yuko Shimizu’s Illustrations

By
Jovana A
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Yuko Shimizu is an award-winning artist whose illustrations are “a bit off, weird, and dreamy,” as she tells This is Colossal. It’s easy to notice that she often uses primary colors and repetitive elements. This acclaimed Japanese illustrator currently lives in NYC and her work covers many things, from cultural identity problems to light and whimsical topics.

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Q2) Number one best thing to do to create a unique style? . . . Be interested, really interested, in things OUTSIDE OF visual arts. You thought I was going to say work on your skills? Well, skills are important (we will talk about that some other time), but one thing to pick? Hands down, be open minded and curious about things outside of illustration. In order for you to get that e-mail for an exciting job, your work needs to stick in the mind of potential clients. It’s not the technical skill that sticks, it’s something interesting that does. To accomplish that, first, you have to be interesting. A few years ago at exit interview, I told one of the students “I am not worried about you at all”. He was not convinced. He worked hard, but his work was not quite there yet. “Why do all my instructors tell me that?” I told him because we all know he was one of the most interesting students in the graduating class. One of the things he was into were antique bone china (among other peculiar things). He came to every class looking like he was ready to be on the front row of a fashion show. While his work did not stick YET, we knew it eventually will. And, we will always remember him. He was sticky. There was another student in the same class. Top student. She did grade A work, but also lacked something. One day I asked her what she was really into. She said “I don’t know.” Art is a reflection of who you are. Interesting people make interesting art. Just focusing on art itself won’t make you a great artist. Be interesting. Be interested. Be open. The rest will eventually catch up. 🙂 . . . Today’s question came from @cantseewill who is starting @svanyc from September. Hope to see you at school? Image was originally crated for @sbuzelli #YukoAMA_Aug2019

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“Illustration is actually Yuko’s second career. Although art has always been her passion, she had initially chosen a more practical path of studying advertising and marketing at Waseda University and took a job in corporate PR in Tokyo,” we learn on her website. It led her to having a mid-life crisis in her early 20s and she left the job to become a full-time artist.

Keep up with Shimizu’s wonderful work on her Instagram page.

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How to Move to New York PART 3: “I am still in art school, but I worry about my work visa after graduation. What should I do? Should I make a freelance portfolio?” This is what I wrote back: It’s been more than 15 years since I applied to my O-1 visa, I am not too familiar with what’s the current situation, and what has changed what has  not. So, I can’t give you any advise on the visa process itself, but what I can tell you is that you should use every minutes of the time you have in school to focus on your studies, learn, experiment, get better, make mistakes, learn more and get even better. (repeat.) You have plenty of time before you even graduate. Making portfolio (for what? you can’t even work till you get out of school) is just a waste of precious time taking your focus away from becoming a better artist. Your work will change and evolve and get better over time if you are doing the study correctly. So, please, do try and get the best of the education you can get, absolve everything from your professors, aim to have high ambition of perfecting your work for the pro-level upon graduation, and do just that. Then, worry about the visa after. I am sure at that point, you would be glad you focused on your studies. — Planning ahead is good. Planning too much ahead will just take your focus away. Relax, enjoy your holiday. Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

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Q10) “Help! I can't find my style!” . . . I think there are two things that are off in this short sentence. First, please stop fixated on the term ’STYLE’. Don’t get me wrong, I do use it too. But I also hate it. Whenever I can I replace it with “personal voice” which is more fitting. Words with seemingly the same meaning are very different when you look closer. "Personal voice” is much more open ended. It implies that each artist is different and unique. We grow as a person, and art should naturally grow with us. Superficial ’style = look’ can change with time and practice, but the core of who we are will always be there. ( I was lucky to have studied at @svanyc @svamfaillustration “personal voice’ was their mantra.) With this, the word “FIND” starts to sound a bit off, doesn’t it? You don’t stumble and find yourself somewhere you didn’t expect, right? You are always where you are. So, secondly, please stop looking outside in hope of stumbling upon your style magically. Instead, please start looking inward. WHO AM I? AND WHAT WOULD I CREATE BECAUSE I AM WHO I AM? I am sorry I am not giving you clear tips or tricks toward the goal. But life is a journey and so is your art. IG and other social media are constantly giving us visual information overload, and it’s making us feel as if the answers are buried out there where you won’t find. Cheesy as it sounds, you are the one and only. There is nobody else who is like you. Start figuring out who you are, what you love, what you hate, what you care, what you are passionate about… Take a deep breath, and start looking inward to yourself for the answers. You will eventually meet your personal voice . . . I may go into more specifics tomorrow. The image was originally created for: @gratefuldead client: @rhino_records #YukoAMA_Aug2019

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Q9) I can’t settle on one style. Is it a problem? . . . It's not a problem, as long as you have enough great images to make a portfolio PER style. If you have 3 separate styles, you need 3 portfolios each consists of minimum 15-20 images. In short, you need to act as 3 separate artists. There are artists who actually do this. Look at @melindabeckart ’s website for example. Some artists even have multiple websites under different names. That’s too much? OK, then, time for you to narrow it down. You need to ask yourself a question: I am committed to all I am willing to put multiple artists’ amount of work?, or, am I still in process of finding my own inner voice? Let’s be honest, most of you belong to the latter. It’s OK. Admitting it is the first step to overcoming. Don’t use the level of your studies to pressure yourself. Everyone grows in different speed. You don’t graduate from art school with a license to illustrate. In art, everyone matures with our own speed. (Please remember I didn’t even start illustrating till my late 30s.) Stop saying “I am graduating/graduated/etc so I should have a style/styles by now!”. It’s OK you don’t. Art is something you can practice your whole life. Clock is NOT ticking. Rather than worrying, create as many finished images as possible. Don’t even think of style at first. Just create, finish up, create more. Most of young artists who come to me struggling with their styles, what’s common among them is that they have not created enough yet. I’m worried if you have only created 25 pictures, and you are so sure you have a style. Style develops with more work and time you put in. No shortcut. It may be a tough pill to swallow, but I tell them honestly, and I tell you this too: How many pictures have you made? I make more or less 100 finished illustrations every year. I’ve been doing this for 15+ years. There is no way I (or you) won’t come to some kind of style (and grow as an artist on top) after making so many. Keep making more. You will get there . . . Style question has been the most asked during this month’s AMA. I will talk more. Also please read what @Marcoschinart wrote on Aug 17. #YukoAMA_Aug2019

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"I disagree with your style advice” . . . OK, so, some of you told me my art style advice from yesterday was incorrect. And I feel the need of explain. You want to get into concept art, where you do character designs and digital scene paintings, for games, animations, etc. Your portfolio has to reflect the versatile and diverse styles you can create, because limiting to one style would pigeonhole yourself too much. You are totally correct. I do actually agree with your disagreement. Please keep this in mind: I give advise based on what I know the best. And I know A LOT about what I do. Many of my social media followers are students and aspiring illustrators who are interested in doing something like what I do: freelance illustration where we are sort out and hired for our distinctive styles and conceptual thinkings, and our names are attached to what we create. (“conceptual illustration” is completely different from “concept art”, and means where we come up with good concept to resolve the illustration problems. ) This is the world I know ins and outs of. So trust me when I give you advice. Soon, school year starts, and I will go back to teaching @svanyc illustration students helping out their graduation portfolios. The fist day of school, my co-instructors @chrisbuzelli and @marcoschinart always tell them, “If you know this is not what you want to do, please switch out to the classes that can help you better.” Students have diverse interests. Not just concept art (if you have a choice, I suggest you study in West Coast and not in East Coast), but also tattoo design, gallery work, graphic novels, storyboards, kids books… And there are always other instructors who are better fit for them. You already clearly know what field in illustration you want to work in? Fantastic! Please follow as many heroes working in the field, seek out especially those who are offering advice, so you get the information you need. And you can totally take or leave my advices. Make sense? . . . image originally for @nytbooks AD: @blechman #YukoAMA_Aug2019

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#香港加油 !!!!

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