A new long-form article explaining How to make Fantastic art feel Tangible, on my blog! I'm talking about my methods of creating tangible settings for animations, comics, or illustrations!
2022-03-09 09:45:10 +0000 UTC View Post
I recently was interviewed by Anthony Nelzin-Santos from the iGeneration portal about my usage of Apple products in art-making. They were gracious to allow me to post an English version too, so here it is for you to enjoy.
2021-04-26 03:02:45 +0000 UTC View Post
Just uploaded a new article to my blog with the summary of my 2020 adventure in reading, a list of what I managed to read, and a few recommendations for you! Of course, could not miss the opportunity to paint some of the covers!
2020-12-20 07:17:08 +0000 UTC View Post
I wanted a place to post only my longer text pieces that would allow you to follow (mail, rss) and comment, so finally, I set up a new BLOG! It’s HERE:
https://artvsentropy.wordpress.com
Read it if you want more of my longer texts on art, making things, efficiency, mental-health, my tools, thoughts about art-living and other topics.
You can follow there, but just following me on Twitter will a...
2020-04-13 04:35:50 +0000 UTC View Post
I just uploaded a new article, read it on my website here:
https://mateuszurbanowicz.com/myarticles/thinking/
or on my blog:
https://mattjabbar.tumblr.com/post/190394929291/thinking-hurts-im-still-going-to-do-it-first
This article started with another idea that came from me discussing art related things with Kana. We always seem to look for new metaphors that would help us understand what exactly are we doing with our art careers. Also, we get excited each time we manage to find a parallel that is a particularly good fit for explaining difficult art concepts to people not immersed in the topic so much.
Let's start from the beginning: if you are an artist online, you probably know the concept of...
2019-12-17 14:06:31 +0000 UTC View Post
As you might know, we recently moved our apartment/studio back to Tokyo. We had a few reasons for relocating outside the city in the first place - cheaper rent, beautiful seaside of Enoshima, and more “breathing space” were the main ones.
Recently though, as I finished the “Tokyo at Night” book, we decided that it’s time to try a more compact style of living and enjoy the city a bit more. Especially now, when we are both working freelance and are no longer res...
2019-11-30 02:45:58 +0000 UTC View Post
A new watercolor set, replacing my three old ones.
It seemed that I had about three watercolor sets except for my main one and all of them were my “secondary”. I used the chance that occurred when one of them came back from being displayed at an exhibition all bent and damaged to do a small watercolor sets remodeling.
Continuing with the minimalist theme I'm interested in recently, I wanted to keep the number of watercolor sets I have to a minim...
2019-11-17 08:07:17 +0000 UTC View Post
I will be making a YouTube video featuring Kana, showing, talking and explaining about her new book project "Drawing EDO"! I would appreciate any questions you would like us to talk about! You can add your questions here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8BjDleMFNvnikjAI6GdBPg/community?lb=Ugx-Tun_EYm3NIXRynh4AaABCQ
I'm sorry that I was somewhat less responsive lately, especially with the e-mails and comments! I was quite busy (I know - I always am!) trying to get as much ahead with the Inktober drawings as I could. In the end, I have made SIX images to have a small buffer ;)
Anyway, It's finally time to begin #Inktober This time (at last) I’m going to participate fully by doing a series of ink drawings...
2019-10-01 13:54:28 +0000 UTC View Post
If you are in Tokyo during the next few days there will be few “Tokyo at Night” launch events! I made a small list you can see here: https://bit.ly/2lQVfgR
Just got my first, fresh copies of the “Tokyo at Night” book! Only a few days before they hit Japanese bookstores and online retailers! I updated my website with the newest info about the book:
https://mateuszurbanowicz.com/works/tokyo_at_night_book/
I will be doing a giveaway here on Patreon especially for you! I'm planning on doing this during the next Q&am...
2019-09-12 11:51:52 +0000 UTC View PostOK, so if you have been wondering what I was doing the last weekend - the answer is - relaxing at last.
Recently (because of some YouTube videos, as always) I started to get interested in retro games. And especially Nintendo / GameBoy stuff that I totally missed. I wanted especially to try some of the GameBoy Advance and early DS 2D, pixel art games.
Time for some DIY then! I didn't want just to go and buy a retro console to play those games but still w...
2019-08-25 15:12:32 +0000 UTC View Post
The final version, including all the text and small stuff of the “Tokyo at Night” cover is done!! I did a small mock-up and can’t wait for the real thing!
We are still fighting to get the book's text into shape but we can see the end (a bit). It's starting to look more and more finished!
PS. If you could read Japanese you would notice from the cover that there is a quote about the book from the animation director Makoto Shinkai on it. That's becau...
2019-08-14 04:27:27 +0000 UTC View Post
If you are in Hong Kong you can see some of my works, sketches, and tools displayed at the LOG-ON Carnival event!
The pencil sketchbooks, Mampei hotel watercolor and sketches are on display there, along with my "Miyazaki" watercolors set!
You can also buy my "Tokyo Storefronts" book and awesome MD Paper products.
More info here:
2019-07-27 14:40:56 +0000 UTC View PostOne of the problems of coloring a piece traditionally, and especially so with watercolors is making mistakes. If we make a big mistake when coloring a line art, not only we lose the time we spent putting the colors in but also the original line art done with ink or pencils.
To be less stressed while coloring and to allow myself bolder use of colors I often scan the line art and test the colors digitally to be sure that the coloring scheme I have in mind will really work. Also, having a high-re...
2018-12-05 14:51:24 +0000 UTC View Post
Reposting it here: Would love to hear your take on this! (and also Patreon has better quality inline images ;) )
We often wonder what makes good pieces of art (may they be illustrations, comics, animations or anything else really) different from only competent work. What makes them stand out. With Kana we discuss it a lot, trying to figure out what is the compelling aspect that makes us save some art to be studied, enjoyed and learned from later.
Currently, after a l...
2018-11-20 14:00:49 +0000 UTC View PostI have been using fountain pens for drawing since I can remember. We have been using them in Poland for writing in primary school (your letters were supposed to look better when written this way) so, naturally, I used them for drawing too.
Sometimes I switch to other pens, multiliners or rapidograph pens for the lines of my illustrations but I often find myself going back to fountain pens and recently I did it again.
This is what I currently use to do lines in all my bigger p...
2018-10-25 07:52:13 +0000 UTC View PostRecently I have been struggling a bit with my art. Not exactly with actually making something (I completed a difficult commission just yesterday) but with my overall attitude to making stuff. You may call it an artist's block but I decided to call it vector stress. Let me explain:
Not so long ago I finished all my big projects: my “Tokyo Storefronts" book, “Yuragi” comic, a short animated movie and the “Tokyo at Night" illustration series. Yay! I had a blank, long-term schedule, with n...
2018-09-30 11:55:29 +0000 UTC View PostThe whole thing came out of a small accident - while in Poland I dropped the small camera that I used to carry with me and it broke. It broke enough that after coming back to Japan we sent it over to the travel insurance company so they can fix it or reimburse for it.
I had no small camera. I could just use my iPhone (as I often do) but at that time I was also interested in film and instant cameras so I started looking in my "various junk" box. I found an old camera I got after com...
2018-08-29 04:12:20 +0000 UTC View Post
We are still on vacation with Kana, but there is a new interview with me conducted by Iva from @artsideoflife about how I became an artist, how I got to work in Japan’s animation and many other things!
Watch it here:
or see the website:
https://artsideoflife.com/mateusz-urbanowicz/ 2018-07-10 07:39:46 +0000 UTC View Post
I will tell you more about this in the next Q&A, but I can finally show you the trailer and talk a little about the watercolor animation project I mentioned recently!!
I hope you will enjoy the trailer and the full animation to come with my hand painted watercolor backgrounds!
Karolina Styczyńska: https://www.facebook.com/karolina.sty...
I'm able to d...
2018-04-03 14:31:56 +0000 UTC View PostWent today for an emergency "Tokyo Storefronts" book meeting in Akihabara with the publisher and the designer of the book. Unfortunately there will be a delay in the book's release to
== April 17th == I'm really sorry!!!
(This is a final date - we cannot change it even if we wanted because of Amazon rules)
I know that you are really waiting for the book (so am I) but we are trying to get the printing colors as close to the watercolor pai...
2018-01-17 13:56:18 +0000 UTC View Post
I’m doing a lot at the moment - illustrations for the upcoming "Tokyo Storefronts" book, my "Yuragi" comic and also some commissions I will be sharing with you as soon as they get published.
Thanks to your support I have been able to keep the commissions I do to minimum and concentrate on my works and also on creating content for you - like videos.
To make the videos and tutorials I do better I have changed my video rig from an iPhone 7 to a new camera - Panasonic G7. I will be t...
2017-09-24 08:59:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Because of your wonderful support I don't have to make so much commissions and can focus on my own work and doing things for you also.
But I also tend to take small, interesting commissions to make my name known better in Japan (most of my followers live abroad and having more works done in Japan would be good when I will be looking to publish things here).
I can share with you two commissions I did recently:
A cover for a magazine called "Metro Guide":
We just reached 100 patrons!!! Thank you very much for your support, because of it I'm able to concentrate on my own projects and uploads them for you! I’m really, really grateful for this! I will announce the date of the next QandA session soon!
Also I finally started work on my “Tokyo Storefronts” book! The publisher managed to get the “ok” from few first store-owners so next week we are going for the first location hunting, material gathering session! After that, the painting...
Got an awesome set of Koh-I-Noor rapidograph pens from a fan and fellow artist Steve Atkinson (https://steveatkinsonstudio.com/ ) who sent them in for me to use in my works and for comparing with the Rotring isograph I have! Thank you very much Steve! There’s no better present for me than art supplies :)
I already tested them out and used the 0.6mm one in a painting instead of the usual Coptic multiliner. I will ha...
I think all watercolor artists on YouTube already tested the 35 new, 2017 Schmincke colors, but I was not able to get the dot card in Japan. The Schmincke company was good enough to send me the card straight from the Schmincke-country. So I was finally able to see and play with the new colors.
I like most of the new colors, especially the quinacridone additions! (Magenta and purple are great!) I also like the granulating colors (there are 10 of them!) for example Mahogany brown and Potter...
You asked me in the last Q&A session about how I manage my time working freelance together with Kana. It got us thinking about it again and finally we made the schedule board we where planning to make for some time.
Forgive the Japanese on the board but it has the days of the week all written on the top, and then spaces for white magnets with stuff like “watercolours” or “comic” or “making video” or “meeting” written on them. Details or one-off events can be written wi...
Thank you for your support!! So many of you supporting me here! I feel humbled and really happy!
As we are really close to the first goal I started researching the methods of doing a Q&A session.
Of course to show you stuff we need video so I will be posting here some options so you can choose a video streaming service you like the most!!
Also because of the time difference we have to decide a nice time so the most people can enjoy it!!
Cheers!!
2017-07-28 00:47:17 +0000 UTC View Post