Today I’m gonna talk about my recent project for Sotokoto! It’s quite long!
今日は「ソトコト」に制作したイラストのプロセスについて。長いです！英語です！
Firstly, I’ve got an email from the editor saying they’d like me to do a double-page spread, which features books on Japan. He said there would be 5 categories such as ‘roots of Japan’, ‘nature of Japan’ etc. and I needed to make the background, plus small spots for each category. A few days later, their designer sent me this beautiful rough…
Then the editor and I had some chat on what colours and how many spots they would like etc. The editor is very keen on design side and I love it. He asked me to do some lettering too but the rest was up to me. Here is a part of ‘under construction’ rough…
‘Climate’ category was tricky as it goes across the gutter and has little space for illustration. I put small items like hills, thatched hut, scarecrow etc. and connected them with a river and made it a group. I also added extra books next to the title, which include letters ‘に ほ ん’ (meaning Japan). Small tricks whenever possible ;)
My roughs are normally B/W, but this time I showed the background colours as it influences the whole spread. I sent two roughs in different colours. They chose one and were happy with it. The only thing I had to amend was to make the lettering a bit more outstanding…
And here is the final!
