Yui Nakamura
Manga Artist · Yokohama, Japan
Yui Nakamura works out of Yokohama. This issue is about how the work actually gets made.
10 pieces
Chosen by the artist for this issue
10 pieces selected by the artist. Click any image to open the gallery. All artwork © the artist, shown with permission.
“I draw the panel before I draw the face”
On storyboarding a page like a scene, why she inks with a brush pen she has been sharpening for nine years, and the year she drew nothing but hands.
Interview by Scott Harris
On storyboarding a page like a scene, why she inks with a brush pen she has been sharpening for nine years, and the year she drew nothing but hands.
How did you find your way into this?
Sideways, like everyone. I drew constantly as a teenager, stopped for four years because somebody sensible told me to, and came back to it at twenty-six with a much clearer idea of why I wanted it.
What are you working on at the moment?
A cast of eleven for a series that has not been announced, so I will say nothing else about it except that two of them are very difficult and I think about them in the shower.
The rest of this interview is still to be written.
The toolkit
- SoftwarePhotoshop for design, Procreate for thumbnails, Blender for rough blocking
- HardwareWacom Cintiq 16 and an iPad Pro that never leaves the bag
- BrushesThree. All variations of the same chalk brush
- SketchbookA5 hardback, roughly one a month, numbered on the spine
- ReferenceA tagged drive of costume photography, plus the museum on Tuesdays
Three things Yui would tell a beginner
- Thumbnail smaller than feels sensible — it stops you decorating.
- Fix silhouettes, not details. Details never rescue a flat shape.
- Keep the bad pages. They are the only honest record of your progress.
- Draw the thing you avoid — your work has a hole exactly that shape.
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