Aug - Nov 2015: Cold In Yokohama

A series of eight original watercolor illustrations painted between August and November 2015 accompanied by making-of and tutorial videos.

This series was somewhat inspired by the Studio Ghibli movie “From Up on Poppy Hill” - I went few times to Yokohama and looked for the remnants of the old port city I saw in the movie. There are some places, shops and streets that still have this unique atmosphere but a lot of the old Yokohama is gone. There is no trace left of the iconic street-car, wooden dock buildings, or river channels busy with barges.

I wanted to do an illustration series showing Yokohama as I see it in my head - a modern, lively city but with this nostalgic feel to it. Also there is nothing better than a story ending with a hot-pot party on a chilly snow day!

In the videos accompanying the series, I explain about: location hunting, materials used, sketching and planning, drawing the lines, testing the colors digitally, and finally painting with watercolors.

Watch the making-of videos »

For this illustration series I made a new character to represent myself walking about the fantastic Yokohama I wanted to depict. After painting the first piece I realized the character requires a little bit more work so I painted some rough sketches to get a better hold of it.

Technical details:

• Lines - mitsu-bishi pencils, grades HB to 8B
• Colors - Shmincke, Winsor and Newton brand watercolors
• Paper - 300g/㎡ Holbein SAUNDERS natural white, cold press F4 size

Buy prints of this series »