Japanese youtube videomaker Archipel follows famed manga artist/illustrator Katsuya Terada on a live-drawing trip to the Nagasaki islands of Iki to document his creative process as the artist embarks on a Polyptych piece with nothing but a sharpie; checking it out below –
The 17 minute video offers a rare and illuminating insight into the thought/working process of the artist, and as he creates the art piece line by line the recorded narration supplements us with an intimate introspective view of Terada’s creative vision and philosophy.
I’ve followed Terada’s work for two decades now, since the late 1990s after reading his art book Zenbu and the manga Monkey King. I’ve since reviewed many of his art books and I highly recommend checking out all of them.
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September 3rd, 2018 at 5:15 am
I love overall scenery in the film! Like how silent & organic they’re shot in contrast to the pop-cultural work of his that’s blurring to fine arts. It’s really interesting.
I couldn’t actually get this meditative quality from Buddhism off from my mind for some time – especially if Buddhism & its spiritual fundamentals themselves has a history of spreading to Japanese culture through Korea. Contemporary life on the other hand, although coolly appropriated in subcultures like cyberpunk, unfortunately imo has tendency to envelop that remaining civilization’s facet into oblivion.
…I was hoping to remix both conflicting qualities as long as I got time to work on those – but I do agree such themes can come out properly out of the artist only after certain amounts of maturing time has passed.
September 3rd, 2018 at 8:15 am
Astonishing!
September 4th, 2018 at 4:19 pm
I enjoyed that.
Nice to get inside the head of one the best illustrators working today.
The book i’d love to see the most is a follow up to the awesome Rakugaking but Mr Terada seems to be taking his time.
He did say he intends to keep drawing for another 50 years so i’m hopeful there’ll be a few Rakugaking books along the way.
September 9th, 2018 at 3:11 am
Mfon – Always looking forward to more of his art books / sketchbooks. May he live to 100 !
September 15th, 2018 at 2:37 am
Very interesting video. The skill to be able to do such wonderful large format works is amazing. I struggle getting everything composed nicely on an 11″x 14″ piece of paper using a pencil.
September 17th, 2018 at 12:51 pm
Chris – Yes indeed. Anyone who has some experience with drawing will know how hard it is to draw something on a much bigger format, because your ability to judge proportions is tested. That certainly is something really impressive that Terada can pull off. :]
September 18th, 2018 at 3:16 am
Yonghow-been wanting to ask for a while.
There’s a conversation between Katsuya Terada and Katsuhiro Otomo in Terada’s Painterbon book.
Please do you by any chance have a link to an english translation of the conversation?
I’ve been searching for years with no luck.
September 20th, 2018 at 3:18 pm
Mfon – Unfortunately I’ve not come across any english translations of the conversation myself. I’ll be sure to let you know if I see it. :]
September 20th, 2018 at 6:12 pm
Yonghow- Thanks man