Yuko at home, in her studio.
Concrete Hermit made its way down to sunny Brighton on the longest day of the year, and caught up with Japanese illustrator Yuko Michishito. Her top floor flat, located in the centre of town, is surprisingly quiet, and has lots of natural light flowing in to her studio space. Perfect for creating her hyper detailed pencil drawings. When you first see Michishito’s work in the flesh it’s difficult to believe that it hasn’t been produced using a computer graphics program. Such is the precision and attention to detail, you are left dumbfounded as to how it was created using little more than the humble pencil. She talks through some of her experiences as an illustrator, and what qualities have helped her along the way.
CH: What’s your background and what made you want to come and live in the UK?
I graduated from high-school in Japan, about 10 years ago. I wasn’t doing anything really I didn’t want to go to university there because I was pretty sick with school. None of that student bullshit, I’m just going to work and get some money, and then think about what to do when I get the money. I was working, and working, and working for about 3 or 4 years and I got abit of money saved up and stuff and I thought, you know living in a foreign country sounds quite fun, and I thought yeah why not I’ll just come to England and then study. But I didn’t want to study the language because that was really boring, so I applied for the BTEC National fine art course in Manchester, and that’s how I came to be here. I wasn’t really thinking of doing anything much, but at the same time I didn’t want to go to a language school so that’s how I started off.
Yuko's recently commissioned piece for Liberty
CH: What are the influences within your work?
Umm… Definitely paintings, like historical paintings, Dutch paintings and stuff. Old masters, you know like Hieronymus Bosch and Vermeer and all that kind of like renaissance paintings. Probably films as well, because I don’t really like try to remember all the stills from a film. But I get an idea of like a layout, or a you know things should go here and it looks really nice kind of thing from watching films. I started working on this piece (referring to unfinished work on her desk), a new one because I watched this film called ‘The Holy Mountain’.
It’s really good, and I really do recommend it. It’s got lots of abstract patterns in it, the compositions are really, really amazing! I don’t try to mimic it but I try to remember it so that I can put things together from my memory. Yeah so films, and old paintings.
One of Yuko's amazingly detailed pencil drawings
CH: Is your work purely decorative or do you always try and have a message behind it?
Half and half I think, I don’t really have a clear message. But I think what I like and what I’m thinking when I’m drawing it comes out in my drawings, that’s what I feel. So yes and no, half and half.
CH: I guess it kind of feeds into what you are doing...
Yes that’s it yeah. I kind of find that having a clear message in your artwork sounds abit cheesy, I don’t really do that. When I see some fine art piece and then there’s this message behind it like the context blah, blah, blah. I feel like why don’t they just write an essay. Isn’t there a better way. It’s something that comes out naturally with out some strong message.
CH: Can you explain a little bit about your working process?
I draw really, really, really horrible little sketches in my diary, and then think about the composition. From that sometimes if I’m working on a really, really big piece I might put reference pictures on one piece in photoshop, and then put some more elements in it, and take some elements out. Then make a reference picture, sometimes that’s in photoshop or sometimes in my diary. I get a pencil and start drawing on sheets of paper, and that’s how it goes.
CH: How did you develop your skill for drawing?
I really liked drawing when I was little, so I drew. But I never really practiced drawing, when I was at uni, especially in the first year, the tutors told me not to draw because they said “you are always drawing, do something different.” “Do some collage you know, do some mixed media.” I was really pissed off, I was doing that for like the year, I was not very good at it. I made lots of pieces of crap, which I chucked when I moved out of my old flat.
I just started drawing, and then if I want to draw things I just try to draw it well.
CH: So it’s something that you’ve always done?
I’ve always enjoyed it yeah. It’s pretty much the same for all illustrators who draw isn’t it. We just drew, so we never really ‘learned’.
CH: With little experience how did you go about approaching clients?
Um, well not clients but Concrete Hermit I just sent my stuff in and then called them up and said would you like to see my portfolio, and they said yes. So just sending stuff in, emailing, and calling them them up. I did three of them (emails) in one go so they noticed me.
CH: How did you get your first commission?
It was, the first commission I did was for Liberty of London, and that came through my friend Ali who did graphic design at Brighton Uni and graduated the same time as me, and her brother Nathan works for the graphic design team at Liberty. He came to see the degree show last year and he saw my work, and he liked it so he took it to his boss and then like wanted to commission me. That was the first one I got.
CH: How did you keep motivated after receiving that initial rejection when you first started out as an illustrator?
Um…. By always writing down what needs to be done on that day,and just follow. So be quite systematic. I’ve developed this system, a kind of factory way of working. For example this needs to be done today, and this needs to be done tomorrow kind of thing. So plan that and just follow it, and then see how it goes and then sometimes I get something out of doing that, and then that motivates me. If I get a commission by following the rules I’ve established. Then ok this thing came in, so keep going, keep going, like that.
CH: Aside from your talent for drawing, what other qualities do you think you have that have helped you get on in the illustration world?
It’s got to be the talent to enjoy solitude. If you are a peoples person, and you have to be around people all the time then you can’t draw can you. I enjoy having people around at night but in the day time I don’t mind staying in my studio and drawing, drawing, drawing so I think that helps, a lot.
CH: Have you had any barriers to overcome in becoming an illustrator?
Urm… financial worries (laughs), that’s kind of preventing me from doing illustration full time, but no body’s told me off. My mum’s always been like yeah you draw, yeah fine. As long as you can support yourself you can do what ever you like.
CH: What advice can you give to an illustrator who’s just starting out?
Never give up. That’s kind of what I’m telling myself. Don’t give up, never stop drawing. There you go.
CH: Finally what are your future plans?
My Visa’s going to expire in October next year so I’m going to stay in England until then. See if I can do well as an illustrator, try, and try, and try. And then if that doesn’t go as well as planned then I go back home. Then probably live in Tokyo for a year and see how it goes, and try to be an illustrator there. I don’t really have any clients in Japan at the moment. I think to get a substantial amount of jobs from Japan I have to be based in Tokyo. So see how it goes for a year and then after that I might like being in Tokyo and stay. I’m bit scared of moving back as I haven’t lived in Japan for such a long time, it’s completely different. I’ve never lived in Tokyo, because when I lived in Japan I lived where I’m from, which is quite far away from Tokyo. I might not like that hectic lifestyle – I don’t even like London’s, let alone Tokyo. Let’s see for a year and if I don’t like it, maybe move to Australia, because my husband is Australian and we can move to Australia anytime. Live in Melbourne for a couple of years after Tokyo and see how it goes.
Yuko is involved in many group exhibitions this year. You can find out more and keep up to date with her by visiting her website. Incidentally one of the shows she was involved in was the ‘Pick Me Up’ Graphic Art Fair back in May. There she collaborated with us on some gorgeous limited edition prints, which stole the show and you can see Yuko Michishita ‘s Prints here
