leivos:

 This beautiful day we want to present to you our exclusive interview with the altruistic and strong person, who inspires us a lot. Natsuki Otani is not just talented illustrator from Tokyo, she is also a blogger, the creator of famous Illustration Rally and a big supporter for young illustrators. Natsuki is a passionate patriot of her motherland and puts many efforts into helping Japan. 

It was an honor for Leivos to talk with Natsuki!

L: All your works are colorful and juicy. We love it! What do you want to express with the help of color? What do different colors mean for you?

NO: I don’t entirely know why my work became so colourful, it may seem like it is out of control but I do follow some simple colour rules, such as similar colour use and opposing colour use. If I’m drawing people the colours I pick are an attempt to describe their personalities. Red for passion and blues for cool, it’s not as simple as that but the idea is similar.

L: How do you arrange your workspace?

NO: I don’t work from a studio, I work from home which makes the whole flat messy as I work.  I have my desk in front of my window and my materials all around.

L: What is you opinion about anime/manga’s influence on today’s culture and youth?

NO: Personally I took a lot of influence from manga as I grew up with it, and even now, Japanese manga has got so many genres and can be much more serious than American comics. Not many people know it but manga in Japan is as varied as novels. There are no comics for girls in the west but there are as many manga comics for girls as for boys in Japan. I learnt a lot from manga about telling a story with images. It’s kind of interesting that anime and manga are isolated from general comics, cartoons and games. As for it’s influence on culture and youth I think whilst it is often misunderstood and looked down on for this, it’s good that it is getting more known and distinctive, so that people can get a different type of entertainment.

 

 

L: Can you describe modern world in 5 words?

 NO: What the hell just happened!

L: What illustrators inspire you the most? What makes you to admire his/her works?

 NO: It’s difficult to say there are absolutely so many people I love, a few that come to mind are Peter Doig, McBess, James Jean, Brian Crownin, Shinta Chou, Ryouji Arai. Their work makes my heart skip a beat. With artists I love and admire I try not to be too influenced by their work as it makes me sad that I’m not as good as them, though I can let myself go on that point, as long as I can feel my work is different to theirs! :)

L: How the idea about Illustration Rally was born?  What can your readers expect in the future? Any surprises?:)

NO: The idea came from the period after university between me and my friends as a way to always have a brief to work on, then as I carried it on I had more people want to take part so I opened it up to everyone. As it grew I realised it was a great way to help promote young artists as it is so hard to break into the industry I wanted to have a place where people could be seen and have fun with new briefs. In the near future we are organising our first live event and also making a zine for the Tsunami relief effort. It’s our first event that is not online and it’s great to be out and make the first steps to being more active! though we’ll have to see how our event goes first.

L: And our special question:) Imagine that you are sweets, what kind it would be and why?

NO: It’s not exactly a sweet but more of a snack, I would say I’m like Japanese snack, “surume ika” which is squid jerky! You need to chew lots to taste it, but once you get the flavour you can’t stop eating it ha ha. My friend described me as a Surume ika type beauty as a compliment once, which didn’t really work as a compliment but I think I’m a bit like that personality wise, maybe I don’t open up so much till you know me.

Thank you Natsuki!

http://www.natsukiotani.co.uk/

http://cargocollective.com/natsukiotani/

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