JIA銅賞

JIAイラストレーションアワードで銅賞を受賞しました。

今回の制作意図や制作過程（こだわったところ）など、

日本語じゃ少し恥ずかしいで,,,英文のままにしときます。

On the 13th of August I received an e-mail notification, of my winning a bronze medal at the JIA Illustration Awards 2021.

I hadn't expected to actually win an award, so I left my comment space blank when I applied to enter the contest.

Of course now I regret not explaing anything on the application, and therefore I am going to publish it here.

My painting style is mainly inspired by Traditional Japanese Painting, noemally referred to as, "Nihonga". I really prefer this style because it reminds me of my identity as a Japanese person and it also always makes me feel a nostalgic.

I made two pictures: One is drawn by photoshop, while the other is drawn by the method of "Nihonga".

You can see my award-winning works on the website here.

【About a conception of my drawings】

I usually come up with themes for my drawings from my daily emotions and interests like Veganism, SDGs, LGBTQ, etc.

This time, I chose a theme of "Feminism" and drew girls and "pomegranates" as a symbol of blood, life, internal organs and female pain, cruelty, beauty, complexity.

【About a technique of my drawing】

When I painted by the method of "Nihonga", I used Japanese paper called Kumohadamasi（雲肌麻紙）,Crushed mineral pigments called Iwaenogu（岩絵具）, White pigments called Gohun(胡粉), Sumi ink and so on.

Firstly, I stretched the Japanese paper on the wooden panel with water and tape.

Secondly, I coated paper with Dosa(ドーサ液) which is liquid made of water and Nikawa(膠), used as an adhesive to prevent colours from running on the surface.

Thirdly, I made colour materials, mixing Iwaenogu and Nikawa because Iwaenogu initially does not have any adhesive quality.

Fourthly...,and so on.

Those materials are not very easy to use. And it takes a lot of processes, time and money to be honest. But it's definitely worth all of that because of the wonderful and unique end effect.

I especially have a thing about the background of the picture. I started by carefully brushing in the colours of leaves, which I had previously individually hand picked in a local park, as the background of the painting, I frequently added colours and made it looks deeply colourful.

Illustrations and drawing not only reflects my feelings and thoughts, but also helps me to express motherland's tradition.

This lovely award will definitely help to keep me extremely motivated for the future!