I often won prices with my paintings in primary school, during exhibitions from art class. However, I never thought about drawing as an actual job. Many years went by after primary school that I hadn’t been drawing at all, not a picture. After graduating from the Kuwasawa Design School in Tokyo I got a job as a designer, but it was only at the age of 27 that I decided to become an illustrator. You could say that I had a bit of a slow start.

If I had to express my art-style I would say that it belongs to pop art. I love this art direction, so about a year ago I consciously decided to adjust my handwriting, to draw more like that. Although, in my work I’m trying to express more emotional or internal pop art style rather than the traditional ones.

It has changed and developed a lot. At the very beginning I didn’t know my style, so I tried out various things in order to find something that suited me. It wasn’t unusual for me to change from one style into a complete other direction in just a few months. As a result of this, of all the trial and error, I believe that my drawing has definitely improved. However, even now, my style is still not ‘finished’. I would probably get bored with my work if it would all fit within one style. I think it’s important to be careful to not ‘freeze’ the way in which I draw, I would like to keep on challenging myself —to express my style in a fresh and creative way over and over again.

Nothing specific, but for me, illustration is a means to connect with the world. It is also a love expression. 

Colours are a very important element. Before I start drawing, I decide what kind of colour scheme I am going to use. Recently, I often refer to the colour of Gucci’s collection. As for the details, I look at a picture and use my instinct sense of balance to draw, without looking at images beforehand. It’s therefore difficult to explain a technique that I use, because I work naturally or unconsciously. I do always try to draw with a single stroke, so that the paintbrush touch will remain, especially when I draw human hairs or plants.

Instagram offers very good visual inspiration, but music is what activates me most to create. It’s important for me to be in a certain mood, therefore I like to play and be surrounded by house, techno and electronic sounds. Another thing that inspires me is reading a science fiction novel, preferably in the bright park during a beautiful sunny day —day trips like that provide me with new energy and creativity.

I don’t draw my everyday life specifically, but my work is also not completely fantasy. I would like to draw a parallel world that includes the reality, which is slightly out of place. 

I have two main forms of working: one is drawing and another is painting. There is the series of my drawing; my favourite of this series is Chain, which was inspired by a photo of Ren Hang. And in the painting series, I paint scattered people in the streets. They are not living there, but existing and passing by. I am constantly expressing these scattered people as floating beings.

If you skip the sketching time, during which I decide the motif to draw, it will be around six hours for a painting and two hours for a drawing, depending on the size. I do my best to not take too much time to finish a drawing.

The title of my exhibition was unknown things, and then I used the same title for ZINE. Its subtitle was They do not know anything. They are not able to do anything. But, they are enjoying that fact. That is the theme, too. The content of this expression is the parallel world of people who continue to travel for a long time, seeking for the encounter of the unknown. 

As a brand, there is H.P.France in Japan, a select shop for mainly fashion clothing with interiors and arts. I have been thinking about working with them for a long time already. Also, I’m interested in the opportunity to make my artwork a bit more commercial, to get out of this picture frame. Other than that, I’m interested in working together with various other professionals. I believe such collaborations will allow new possibilities and will open up my own way of expressing.

I have done a lot of detours before I became an illustrator, so I don’t really have anything else special besides what I do now. If your question means going into a complete different profession field, then I would probably be working in relation to oriental medicine, like Ayurveda or Chinese medicine.