Tokyo At Night – The Artworks of Mateusz Urbanowicz II Book Review

Posted By yonghow on October 9th, 2019

Tokyo At Night is the 2nd art book by Tokyo based Polish illustrator Mateusz Urbanowicz. A seasoned artist who has worked on anime films like Space Dandy as well as Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name, Mateusz has been working as a freelance artist to focus on his own original works since 2017.

His first art book Tokyo Storefronts (2018) showcased the many quaint and charming storefronts found throughout Tokyo, rendered in his beautiful watercolor paintings. In this new art book, he explores the moody night sights of the sprawling, skyscraper topped metropolis saturated with neon lights, mysterious back alleys, wet cityscapes lit by reflections and more. It’s a stunning art book from start to end, and I love it.

Tokyo At Night - The Artworks of Mateusz Urbanowicz II Book Review

Accompanying every piece of art work are insightful annotated notes by the artist ( in both Japanese and English ) documenting the methods and approaches he used to tackle each illustration, all of them posing unique challenges due to the differing structural designs, lighting conditions, etc.

Tokyo At Night - The Artworks of Mateusz Urbanowicz II Book Review

The book is pure eye candy from cover to cover. Mateusz’s accompanying notes also allow the reader to better understand his methodology when painting and is great study material and reference for working artists. The interview with Your Name director Makoto Shinkai is an added bonus. My highest recommendations for this book – its available on both Amazon.com and Amazon Japan.

I also highly recommend the artist’s earlier art book Tokyo Storefronts.

“Tokyo At Night – The Artworks of Mateusz Urbanowicz II 東京夜行マテウシュ・ウルバノヴィチ作品集II” art book details :

Dimensions – 24 x 19 x 1.1 cm
Soft cover, 160 pages
Full color, In Japanese & English