Creator Interview：Yu Ikeda

Yu Ikeda

〜The robe of the stars wrap me softly〜

I drew a lot of animals like rabbits and squirrels, or the original characters formed as animals when I was little.

From late elementary grade, I started to be interested in human figures. So I imitated drawings from manga.

It was not good enough to show to someone else. I wasn’t sure how to draw the hair or the eyes. I could only draw the same outline.

I saw Kādokyaputā Sakura and I was fascinated by the fantastic world and the magical story.

I joined the art club when I became a high school student. Unlike before, there were many friends around me who were good at drawings.

We had a competition in the art club and everyone worked really hard for it. It was such a great inspiration to be around other people who are good.

Some friends were really good at drawing the human figure.

So I started think that I might need to express my identity through a different way.

But I guess that my true feeling back then was that I wanted to draw human figures.

The drawing above is my work which I drew for a contest.

I didn’t have a confidence to show my drawing which focused on human figure to others. But I was able to win the prize.

I felt like I got a permission to draw something like this.

But on the other hand, there was the objective feeling within me. Even though I like drawing human figures, there are a lot of people who draw very nice. Is it really okay to continue to draw human figures like this?

I want to draw but if the reaction of the people who saw my drawings weren’t good, it wouldn’t be fun. I was suffering.

So I talked to my friend about this.

The picture that I wanted to draw was a human figure. But what I see through my drawings was more like an air-ish, ephemeral drawing.

“ Which do you want to draw more? Draw mainly human figures? Or draw with this airy taste? You might want to think hard about this.”

Being asked this question, I realized what I really wanted to draw was those air-ish pictures.

Now, I feel comfortable with my drawings with human figure as a part of it.

I said I am comfortable but that doesn’t mean I am relieved. I am always thinking about how I should draw.

While worrying about this, I wanted to keep drawing. At that point, I finally felt that I figured it out.

Now that I attend to sokubaikai (art exhibition and sales event) and other events, I can communicate with people who like drawings. There, many people tell me they saw my drawings on the internet.

I am very happy to feel that my drawings are inspiring someone’s heart.

Now I am conscious of what type of drawings fits me. I want it to make it into my style.

And I want to draw a picture that will fascinate a lot of people.

From our Editor

Interviewed month: May, 2014

Ikeda-san started to draw seriously after she was a junior high school student. Then, she was conscious about how important it is to “complete” one drawing, thinking about the design, colors, layers, shapes etc.
And so she became even more interested in drawings.

Which drawing of Ikeda-san was your favourite?

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