I don’t have so much time on my hands right now (I’m still busy doing things for my upcoming “Tokyo at Night” book, and pictures for a commission) but I try to diversify the things I make to keep my head fresh.
For example, I recently painted these two sketches, that portrait one of the retro shops of the Edo Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum (江戸東京たてもの園) in Koganei. This is one of my all-time favorite places in Tokyo, and this shop is one of my favorite buildings in it. Especially with all the interesting retro home items presented in it as if they were still there for sale. The light reflected from the gold-colored and blue pots and kettles, all the strange utensils and wooden wares are just awesome!
I wanted to paint this shop and especially it’s insides for some time but the thing that finally pushed me to do it was my recent idea of “thoughtful striving” to become a better artist (a part of my “thoughtfulness” year theme).
I have many aspects of my art that I would like to improve but with these pictures, I focused on:
increasing my ability to paint/draw things that I do not have a direct photo reference for.
being able to paint things faster while conveying the emotion and story behind the scene.
putting more thought into what I’m doing - not only painting things because they are fun and nice-looking but making things that have more purpose and thought put into them.
For me, a good example of such paintings are the concept sketches done by Hayao Miyazaki for his movies. Even though these are often quickly and roughly painted pieces, they convey exactly the atmosphere of the scene that he has in mind and the story behind it, while also sometimes looking like nice, finished watercolors!
I decided to paint this shop in a style similar to these Ghibli concept arts while using the photos I had only as reference material.
I tried to think why I liked the store and to translate it into a simple in style but substantial in content and atmosphere watercolor sketch (that turned into a longer painting).
Holbein Waterford White HOT pressed watercolor paper (for a smooth texture)
Mijello Mission Gold watercolors (for more saturated colors)
HB Pencil (for the sketch)
SAILOR shikiori brown pen / Faber-Castell ECCO pigment 0.3 multiliner (for nice line finish)
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