Cygames Calendar, April 2023: School Entrance Ceremony
Liven up your PC or smartphone with the Cygames Calendar! We have one of our illustrators create a uniquely themed image each month and ask them to tell us about their creative process. April’s theme is School Entrance Ceremony.
Click here for this month’s calendar image.
- Illustration Team Miseki
- Miseki majored in art at university and is currently creating illustrations for titles developed by Cygames. Particularly adept at drawing female characters, she lives by the words, “draw a face that’s as cute and refined as possible.”
What could be more thrilling than starting
a new chapter in life? Excitement awaits!
Why did you choose School Entrance Ceremony as this month’s theme?
- Miseki
- I figured it would connect with a lot of people, since April is known for its entrance ceremonies.
Would you mind telling us more about this artwork?
- Miseki
- The illustration is of a young girl going to her middle school entrance ceremony with her mother. Though surrounded by cherry blossoms, the girl notices a single leaf sprouting among them, and is overcome with both uneasiness and excitement towards this new chapter of her life.
Her shining eyes and flowing hair are very cute, and I can’t help but feel excited when I look at your illustration. What kind of character is she?
- Miseki
- She’s a curious girl with a rich imagination—the kind to take notice of a single green leaf in a sea of pink blossoms. At the same time, she’s also an honest person in a situation the viewer can connect with easily.
How did you settle on your idea for this piece?
- Miseki
- I happened to be practicing drawing flowers when I received the offer to make it, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to draw cherry blossoms. And that got me thinking about how great an illustration looks when it features sunlight being filtered through cherry trees, leading me to the final idea.
Did you utilize any techniques honed from your day-to-day work?
- Miseki
- I only used the color green for this single leaf, and I also added a lot of detail to it in order to emphasize its importance in the composition and draw the viewer in. This is a common illustration technique.
What did you struggle with when creating the image?
- Miseki
- With the background and passersby being drawn from a high angle like this, it was difficult to make the perspective look convincing. Characters look great when drawn from this angle, so I often draw them like this in my free time without a background. So, it was a great experience for me to include a background and pour my heart into the perspective this time around. (laughs)
Did you enjoy drawing from a young age?
- Miseki
- Yes. Apparently, starting from preschool, I would always talk a big game about wanting to become an artist, but would cry and cry while struggling to draw simple circles. (laughs)
Did you study art in your pre-university days?
- Miseki
- I started studying it seriously in my second year of high school and went on to an art university after I graduated.
What made you want to pursue becoming an illustrator?
- Miseki
- I wanted to become a professional in the fine arts field rather than focus specifically on illustration when I was in university, but I stopped pursuing that path after I graduated. I joined the workforce and was staying in Canada on a working holiday visa when I found an art book by a Japanese illustrator. I was deeply moved when I looked through it, and I thought to myself, “Yeah, illustration is art, too.” This experience served as the catalyst that made me start thinking about illustration differently.
Is there anything about your job that creeps into your day-to-day life?
- Miseki
- I always find myself analyzing the way light hits people and objects, as well as observing the colors and shadows that form as a result.
Is there anything else you want to share with our readers?
- Miseki
- When you see my art, I hope you’ll all feel the same sort of thrill that comes from starting a new term at school, or beginning a new chapter in life.
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