Japu

1. First up, I’ve been a huge fan of your work since you joined The Bub, I love your clean style, definite shapes and stunning images, can you tell us a little bit about the process of your illustrations?

Well, all begins from an idea that hit my mind, then I take my pencil and try to draw the idea on paper; if I like the result I scan the drawing and I open Adobe Flash to create a clean image using the vector lines (I know that Flash is not the best program for vectors, but I’ve used it from a couple of years and I can be very fast with it). If I want flat colors, I use the Flash tools to color the image, if a want something more sophisticated I use Photoshop.

2. You have all your folio broken up into series, Cicici is one that is so full of life, can you tell us a little bit about her? Who she is, where she came from, is she based on anyone, etc?

CiCiCi is one of The Capricorn Trident, a threesome that I created based on my college social life. The Capricorn Trident is composed by CiCiCi, Dnì and me (Japu) and their adventures came from a distorted vision of our college life (I drew one short story and some strips in manga style).

The name of the threesome refers to the fact that we were all born under the capricorn zodiac sign in the first days of january; that means we have a very similar character (not so social, a bit rude…). Dnì and me instantly love CiCiCi when she said “that arm, I remove it from you!”. It all started from that, Dnì and me begun to imagine so many things about her, like she’s a witch and has the power of the anathema and with her two sisters (Eagle Eye and Bloody Paulette) preserve the balance of the world.

CiCiCi is that type of person that I like, sweet and rude, gentle and violent (she’s a tipical capricorn, not a borderline! XD), she hasn’t blond hair, but she loves Meg Ryan (and her hair) so I made her a little bit like her heroine. She’s so indipendent and responsible, big heart, but if you hurt her, she never forget and she’ll make you pay (probably with pain!); she likes to work at dog kennel as voluntary and sometimes takes a dog (or cat) with her and it becomes another character of the story and so on (you can see some her animals in the t-shirt “Grab the Cat” and “Totsome”)…
I did many works about the CT, when I learned how to use Flash, I created a little cartoon (with CiCiCi’s cat Miciolo and Eagle Eye), two videogames (internet casual games) and over 70 MSN animated emoticons. When I discover Red Bubble I though that some emoticons could be perfect on t-shirt and so… ta-daaan!

I didn’t know if CiCiCi apprecciate all this things about her (she’s also shy), but it’s my way to say that I like her and she knows that.

3. There is a lot of Japanfluece in your work, in particular I Kill You is a stunning samurai, complete with traditional long hair! Do you like to stick to more anime, manga, j~pop, video game style, or do prefer to take more traditional/old school influences, and put your own spin on them?

I love japan products! I love manga, I love anime, I love videogames (especially the Final Fantasy saga), I love gadgets! My style has been forged with manga, when I was younger I tried to copy all manga that I read so my style is a fusion of all mangaka styles that I know. When I see some technique or style that I like in a manga or anime or videogame I try to record it and it bacomes part of my personal style. So I don’t follow a particular way, I follow what I like in that particular moment.

4. More recently you uploaded the Card Series, with limited colours, but more detail; these are so beautiful, what’s the story behind these?

It all begun with a contest about Ookami, a japan videogame (of course!:)) in which you use a brush and the paintings like a weapon. The contenst required some art ispired by the videogame, so I wanted to create something like a painting (I mean with brush strokes), but I didn’t want to use real brush and tempera and scannerized the result. So I went down in the beautiful world of Photoshop Brushes (XD) and I discover how was easy to create some brush strokes effect.

I had already in mind to create some cards and this new discover was perfect for them, but I wanted to pass from tempera to watercolor, that is a style that I prefer. I wanted a subject simple, but also particular; I was watching an episode of Samurai Champloo (an anime about samurai but a bit anachronistic) and that inspired me the ronin card (strange hair, long face, long arms). After that I though that I could create other type of japan warrior, like the samurai and the ninja (oh yeah, I like series XD).

5. The Spirit Guide series is so unique! I can almost see a bit of Kamon (Japanese Family Crest) inspiration in there, will you be doing more animals? (and will one be a lion for TBO?) ;)

Wellll, I created other two creatures that I’ll release… ;P Between them there’s no lion, I though about animals of mythology, but is a Griffin good enough? ;)

My very big big problem with my art is my inspiration; I mean if I’m not inspired, I’m not able to create something decent to me, and my inspiration is very crazy, a day its here, the day after its gone! XD

So I can’t follow a big artistic project, because there could be the very near possibility that I won’t finish it (anyway, I’ve got a lot of projects freezed! XD). I’m not saying that it will never happen, but a project of 12 t-shirts is too big for my actual inspiration, but I can start thinking about a lion ;)

6. What sorts of things will be explored in the land of Japu next?

I’d like to go on with cards right now and the watercolor technique (anyway there’s also some t-shirt models to release). I’d like to show one of my very favourite subject: angels.. don’t expect something traditional, but the name :)

Tnx Dendoo, that’s so kind of you! XD I don’t laugh if you like my buttons, I’m glad! :))