——Please tell us about any thought or passion on this illustration.

I tried to use as many tools as possible. I colored thick but tried to leave a clean linework as much as possible, because users would care about the clean linework.

——You designed new characters for us at this time, didn't you?

Yes. It was fun spreading elements in order to be recognized as twins. FireAlpaca's “Symmetry” tool meshed perfectly when drawing the iron fence in the background. It looks simple but is quite difficult to draw. I am truly impressed how beautifully it turned out.

——Glad to hear that! How did you like about those brushes you used for this project?

This pen is supposed to be used for coloring, but I used the “Fade Round Brush” for linework. I like the way it gives a slightly blurred touch, so I customized it for my purpose. I frequently draw and erase to create finalize a figure so that I apply transparent color on brush rather than the eraser. FireAlpaca's transparent brush let me erase cleanly in the same manner as brush. It was easy to draw lines where I wanted because the brush stroke correction was applied firmly.
As for coloring, I felt the “Thin Ink Pool Pen” was a perfect match to the “Fade Rround Brush,” so I used it with less opacity for the most coloring as well as touch-up.

——How long did it take you to complete this illustration?

塗I usually spend a lot of time on coloring. It took me about 10 hours for actual drawing, but in total including concept designing and draft sketch, it's about 15 hours. It took about 4 days.

What thinking would help improving or giving a hit to your illustration?

——Please tell us about the illustrator profession. What is your usual working environment?

I use the gaming laptop mainly and also the wacom “Cintic22HD” liquid tab. I look at reference materials on my phone or on the left 1/4 space of the tablet screen. Even though I used the entire screen for drawing, I would have ended up using just the tablet screen for drawing because using the entire large screen makes my hand and eyes too busy moving on the large screen. Thus I normally use the tablet for drawing and keep laptop screen off, so that I use the black screen as a mirror and see my hand posing for practicing.

——Do you just run the laptop to start the software?

Yes, I've been doing this style quite a while. When I changed to a new laptop, the screen was non-glare, so that I got a glare sheet to make it reflective (lol). I am often told that I should buy a desktop PC, but the good thing about a laptop is that it doesn't need the peripherals and is easier to recover from troubles.

——-Please tell us about your illustration history.

I started digital illustration when I was an elementary school student. My parents bought me a PC. At that time I was too embarrassed to upload my work... There was a time I got tired of CG and was interested in analog drawing. So I used to draw cartoons on printer papers with a sharpie pencil.
I think I developed my drawing style while drawing on actual papers. Digital drawing required me to learn the program operation, so my drawing habit would never be 100% reflected in my work. But analog drawing let me draw however I wanted. I have started getting a job offer since I became more conscious about improving the level of illustration completion.

——Can you tell us your favorite drawing style? It doesn't need to be the style you are pursuing.

I like artwork that is developed slowly but surely little by little, rather than artwork that is completed in one go. For example, I learned from my follower but Hinata Takeda's works have a similar drawing style with mine. And I started thinking to become like her by brushing up my drawing skills.
She was very good at drawing cute characters. She applied deformation to characters but also incorporated the realism in high resolution.

——Aside from illustrations, do you have any favorite comics, animes, novels, movies, games, so on?

As for games, BGM, direction, and character design make me feel romance. As for RPG, I like to experience the different cultures and lifestyles through traveling around the countries in game world, such as "Genshin Impact”. As a creator, I like Vocaloid, which makes me become anything. It's amazing that it can reflect various cultures and lifestyles, yet I can tell that it is Miku. It inspires me as a creator.

——What do you keep in mind when trying to come up with ideas before getting on an illustration?

I try to create an image that people want want to display it. Also, I often get an offer for copyrighted work, and sometimes there is a request for a specific character pose as the official image. In that case, I prioritize to establish an iconic pose specifically for this character. For example, this character has a reserved personality and will not do such an eccentric posing. Lastly I try not to make a same posing with the official image.

——What do you keep in mind to improve your drawing skill?

I keep studying, always. Since I taught myself without going to art school, there is a technical disadvantage between those artists and me. Such as, those things I finally figured out are already defined in art terminologies. I had no clue how to draw a perspective, so I drew lines with a three-color ruler on approx. 5000 photos and learned it my own way.

——5,000 photos is a lot! You analyzed how to draw a perspective by your own.

It is important to keep searching how you can improve your skill faster or you can get a hint at least. For example, you may be able to draw wrinkles well by looking at any reference photos, but it's a copy and not your own style. It is essential to interpret those references into your own style, rather than just to copy as is.

——What do you keep in mind when working on your illustration for work?

I will say to create an image that is just about good. I always do my best to come up with an illustration to fit client's needs, but it doesn't mean it needs to be the perfect illustration.
I want to create an image with fragmented details that radiates a charm, rather than a perfect image. It is difficult for a viewer to notice every intent scattered in an illustration, so I prefer to focus on a few key points in each image and produce more quantities. In this way, a viewer will look forward to the next illustration.
On the other hand, I am always conscious about improving my skill to visualize what I want to convey, in order to avoid a viewer to think that I cut corners due to my drawing style while I intentionally drawing in that way.

If you focus on creating a high-quality illustration, people will see it in your work.

——Please tell us any challenging experiences or problems you encountered while working on your illustrations.

My illustrations have inconsistency. It is not impossbile but difficult to maintain the same level of quality among illustrations. Also, when I get the feeling of “something makes me uncomfortable” at the rough sketch stage, even if it's for my hobby work, it is difficult to find the cause of discomfort. It is important to keep studying and improving the drawing skill on a regular basis.

——In such situation, there are two ways; “I will never proceed until I am satisfied” or “Let's just leave it as is for now”. Which one are you?

If I proceed with an unsatisfied work, I will regret and redo it anyway, so I will keep the work private until I calm down to make a proper decision. If I am able to find the reason and improve the work, it may become one of my favorite works.
I am not able to create an illustration in one shot, but rather I always struggle every time. But after experiencing it over and over, I realized that I am now able to do the things that I could not do in the past. Someday I hope to become a skillful illustrator who can draw in one shot.

——Please tell us if you have any goals or challenges as an illustrator.

I love to produce a figure of my original characters. I'm greedy so I'd love to produce at least 15 figures (lol). I am also interested in designing a male character since I haven't done much of that yet. Lastly this is noted in my ambition notebook... I want to work on Pokémon! lol

——You have so many future goals and ambitions! Please comment if you have any advise to those who want to become an illustrator.

It may be difficult to realize by yourself or to ask someone whether eccentric or unique expressions have the quality to go on public as a product. In such cases whether during the process or after the completion, you may want to compare 8 images of your work and keep improving until you get confidence. Once you are able to create an illustration with a quality that feels right to you, you can become an illustrator!
Regardless of whether your work has own uniquness or not, it is important to nurture the ability to judge whether or not your work has an equivalent quality to others' work. If you don't have that skill, you will never understand why you keep getting a retake over and over and eventually stop drawing. As long as you keep trying to produce a good work without being influenced by others, viwers will understand the quality of your work.
Also it is important not to quit drawing after just one illustration and to keep moving on to the next project. If you keep producing more and more, viewers will remember your works. It is also important to put yourself in a position of who review your work, then you will get an idea much clearer.

——That's all for the questions. It was very informative to hear many specific answers. Thank you very much for your time today!