Monday, January 18, 2010

Yuko's Progression

All images © Yuko Shimizu
These are draft, intermediate and completed illustrations
(posted with permission)


Geisha (sketch, drawing and final) - Yuko Shimizu

'Geisha' appeared in XFUNS magazine (Taiwan)



Genesis (sketch, drawing and final) - Yuko Shimizu

Book cover illustration for the Italian edition of 'Genesis'
by Bernard Beckett; Rizzoli/Mucca Design



(sketch, drawing and final) - Yuko Shimizu

Appeared in DC Comics (cover of the 1st in the 'Sandman' series);
Art Director/Editor: Karen Berger and Pornsak Pichetshote



Tsunami (drawing, sketch and final) - Yuko Shimizu

'Tsunami' appeared in Playboy, Art Director: Rob Wilson



Iwojima (drawing, sketch and final) - Yuko Shimizu

Appeared in Entertainment Weekly in relation to the
Clint Eastwood film, 'Letter From Iwo-Jima'; Art Director: Brian Ansty

Update: Yuko tells me that for this block and the illustration set
immediately above, the first two illustrations are in the wrong order:
the colour sketches were submitted for approval and then she did
the b&w drawing which was scanned and finished off on computer



Baku (drawing and final) - Yuko Shimizu

'Baku' (a mythical Japanese dream-eating beast)
is the book cover for 'Beasts 2', published by Fantagraphics



Bear - sketch, drawing, final (Yuko Shimizu)

Appeared in PLANSPONSOR magazine; Art Director: SooJin Buzelli




Behind (sketch, drawing and final) - Yuko Shimizu

Appeared in PLANSPONSOR magazine; Art Director: SooJin Buzelli



Diving Helmet (sketch, drawing and final) - Yuko Shimizu

Appeared in PLANSPONSOR magazine; Art Director: SooJin Buzelli



Everlasting Sorrow (drawing and final) - Yuko Shimizu

Appeared in New York Times Book Review with:
'The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai' by Wang Anyi



Life and Death Wear (drawing and final) - Yuko Shimizu

Appeared in New York Times Book Review with:
'Life and Death are Wearing me Out' by Mo Yan



Now Hear This (drawing, sketch and final) - Yuko Shimizu

CD cover (series called: 'Now Hear This') for The Word Magazine;
Art Director: Jonathan Sellers



Sandman (sketch, drawing and final) - Yuko Shimizu

Appeared in DC Comics (cover of 2nd in the 'Sandman' series);
Art Director/Editor: Karen Berger and Pornsak Pichetshote



Tulips (two drawings and final) - Yuko Shimizu

Appeared in PLANSPONSOR magazine; Art Director: SooJin Buell


{The illustration titles printed above or in the alt tags are sometimes less 'official' and for identification purposes - click through for enlarged versions}


I've had these composite images floating around on my computer for nearly a year and thought it was about time to share them.

I don't remember how I first discovered the Japanese illustrator Yuko Shimizu but I was impressed by the energy, culture-melding and all-round creativity of her portfolio and sent the link to John who posted it on Drawn! Later, Yuko found the BibliOdyssey book, discovered this blog and sent me an email. We've been friends ever since.

Naturally, I exploited the situation by pestering Yuko for draft drawings which she scans and completes in Photoshop. Her work has appeared in just about every major (and minor) magazine and publication under the sun, whether in advertising, as a featured illustrator or as an accompaniment to an article. She also teaches at the School of Visual Arts in her home town of New York and regularly travels the globe holding workshops and exhibitions. I don't think she sleeps.

21 comments :

V.V.F. said...

Those Sandman pieces look like illustrations for The Dream Hunters. Were they promotional images for the book? Great stuff.

peacay said...

Yuko said "covers" so maybe they were done for a particular market (she told me she did four and two are shown). I *think* you're right about The Dream Hunters - DC Comics have cropped versions of one of the above images as desktop patterns - among many others - here.

hstryk said...

I've loved her work for awhile!! Thanks so much for posting!!

Chris Buzelli said...

Awesome! So great to see one of my favorite illustrators on one of my favorite sites.

12FV, RFV said...

wow this collection of progress work is awesome, thank you for this

Matt said...

I first discovered her in The New Yorker. I had four years of issues so as I went through them I began to note every illustrator - from which I made a pretty long list that I still consult.

Daniel said...

Hi Yuko,
what a wonderful illustrations. What a fantasy, the yours! Congratulations a lot!

3501 said...

marvelous drawings

Aine Scannell said...

Hello Peakay

I have not visited Bibliodyssey for ages and its so good to be on what I consider the best blog on the net. Truly inspirational thanks for doing this wonderful work !!!!

Aine

Simona Ardelean said...

I am impressed.

Tumpal Gemelli said...

Amazing! Thanks for sharing it.

Carol said...

I think I'll dream about the Japanese Dream Eating Beasts! Great images, as usual.

Rem said...

very beautiful and interesting
thanks

David Apatoff said...

Thanks for sharing these, Peakay (and Yuko). I find Yuko's work especially intriguing for two reasons:

First, her cross-pollenation of cultures and styles (western and asian, traditional and contemporary, classy and raunchy, child-like and adult...) is a wonderful interactive game with her viewers. We look at one of her pictures and our first instinct is to say, "Oh yeah, I'm familiar with this type of picture," but on second look, and third, it becomes clear that we really don't understand it after all and can't take anything for granted.

Second, her pictures imply a larger, complex world. Carl Sandburg said, poetry is "the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what is seen during that moment." Yuko's images give me that feeling-- they leave me thinking about what happened to the left or right of the border, before the door opened or after it closed. That's rare today.

I think they're a lot of fun, and it is interesting to see how they are put together.

Anonymous said...

thanks!

jonathan said...

what a beautiful blog!

Fikri said...

very nice

The villager: said...

Startling images.

sarah toa said...

Peacay, this is such a wonderful blog and it is great to see it up on Blogs of Note again. I think it should be up once a month! Thanks for your excellent curation. Sarah

alfifadlan said...

nice blog..
beautiful ilusstration

Slamdunk said...

Excellent images--keep up the good work.

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