Yuko Shimizu: Carving her own niche

Mystical depictions of dreamlike fantasy worlds are becoming a hallmark for New York-based Yuko Shimizu. The Japanese-born illustrator’s dynamic brush-and-ink creations have been splashed all across magazines, books, comics, newspapers and more over the past decade, since she dramatically ditched a life of corporate PR in Tokyo in favour of plying her illustration skills out of NYC’s bustling Manhattan. And it’s fair to say that her decision has proved very worthwhile.

To the onlooker, Shimizu’s style may appear to celebrate her Japanese roots – evoking the intricate beauty of ancient woodblock prints together with the surreal and, at times, rather unsettling nature of contemporary Japanese graphic art. But this apparent homage to her homeland is unintentional, and in fact something she’s trying to shake off.

“I know people immediately see Japan in my work, but this is more a part of me that I can’t get rid of, rather than something I’ve consciously chosen as an influence,” Shimizu explains. “I grew up in Japan in the 1960s and 70s with comic books and television cartoons, and I naturally started drawing by imitating them. I stopped reading comics and watching anime by the early 80s, but by then I wasn’t able to get rid of my early influences – and actually started hating them,” she admits.

As a student at New York’s School of Visual Arts, her initial goal was to shed these deep-set influences and paint, as she puts it, “like an American”.

“It didn’t take long to realise that wasn’t working,” Shimizu recalls. “I just don’t think, paint or use colour like Americans.” She smiles: “My instructors helped me realise it’s okay to be a Japanese person whose work has early influences of my own popular culture.”

Home for Shimizu is very much New York, with her Manhattan studio and her dog, Bruiser. But while she has only returned to her native country once since 1999, an enduring connection with Japan is clear – not least in her recent project illustrating children’s book Barbed Wire Baseball by Marissa Moss. The book, due out this year, tells the true story of a boy who grows up to be a successful baseball player, but on the advent of World War II is sent with his family to a Japanese internment camp. “Not your typical kids’ book material!” laughs Shimizu. “But a very important subject. I knew the illustrator should be a Japanese or Japanese American, and I felt a sense of duty to put this book out into the world.”

With her surreal illustrations more typically viewed by newspaper and magazine readers, this is the first time Shimizu has intentionally illustrated for a young audience: “To be honest, doing so was never on my dream list,” she confesses. “I have friends who are children’s book illustrators and I knew how much work and discipline is necessary to illustrate a whole book. I’m used to working for editorial or book-cover clients where you start and finish one project relatively quickly,” she adds.

Shimizu discovered her friends weren’t exaggerating about the workload involved with book illustration. During the project she became so stressed that she went to hospital with a severe ringing in her ears. “You can’t imagine how happy I was when I finished all the illustrations and received the first bound sample copy,” she smiles. “I guess you never know if I’ll do another one. It’s like women who give birth and say, ‘Never again!’ But then once their new born is smiling up at them decide ‘Hey, maybe I do want another.’”

When Barbed Wire Baseball does hit the shops this year, it will add to the already vast portfolio Shimizu has built up over the past decade. Her illustrations have appeared on a diverse list of products, from Gap T-shirts, Pepsi cans, VISA billboards and Microsoft adverts to Penguin book and DC Comics covers, and the pages of The New York Times, Time, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker and many more.

Her first, self-titled monograph was released worldwide by the German publisher Gestalten in 2011, and Shimizu also somehow finds time to give lectures and workshops around the world, and teach at New York’s School of Visual Arts. (She’s also sometimes mistakenly credited with creating the kawaii-style character and global phenomenon Hello Kitty – but that credit goes to another Yuko Shimizu.)

Her resume is made all the more remarkable by the fact that illustration wasn’t on Shimizu’s initial career path. While she always loved to draw and paint, a practical instinct led her to study advertising and marketing, before working in corporate PR in Tokyo for over 10 years. “I was miserable in the corporate environment,” she explains. “When I got past the age of 30, I needed to seriously think of my long-term future,” she continues. “I really hate to regret things – art was something that I always wanted to do, so I just decided to give it a try.”

Shimizu’s pieces are created half digitally and half by hand, blending self-taught Photoshop skills with traditional brush-and-ink work. “I love the physical process of dipping a Japanese calligraphy brush into an ink bottle and drawing on paper,” she reflects. “I spend a lot of time researching a subject, and producing tons of thumbnails and sketches. I then blow up a sketch to the size I want to draw.”

She continues: “After I’ve transferred the drawing onto watercolour paper, I ink the drawing, scan it in using my large format Epson Expression 10000XL scanner, colour in Photoshop 5.5 on my MacBook Pro – which I’ve connected to a large monitor – and I’m done.”

Alongside natural artistic flair, Shimizu’s business experience has proved highly valuable: she’s a much sought-after voice when it comes to self-promotion (she used to teach a seven-week course at the School of Visual Arts) and how to run your freelance career like a business. Many pearls of wisdom can be found on her website. “Everything I’ve learned in my life before art feeds into my career,” she reasons. “Life experience: you just can’t underestimate it.”
 

Discover 25 brilliant design portfolios to inspire you, over at Creative Bloq.