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| My friend submitted her work after two or three years since the start of the DCA and that is when I started checking the DCA web page. But because the style of artwork submitted to the DCA was different from mine, I only gazed at it every year. Back then, many of the artworks were rather heavy and dignified, but since the style has been changing with time, I decided to submit my work. |
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| I don’t think I am alone in this but I try to advance on the second piece over the first, the third over the second, and so on. For this DCA, I drew with the second piece in front of me, reflecting on the lessons I have learned, wanting to make the third piece exciting with more variance.
I was awarded the Special Recognition Award for two years in a row so I thought that I am not meant to win the Grand Prize. Actually, I was ready to cut my ties with DCA if I didn’t get a response this year （laughing）. I wondered until the last minute if I should apply or not, but I am happy that I did. |
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| It was like “No kidding!?” I checked and rechecked to see if “the Grand Prize” written in the email wasn’t a mistake. |
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| I don’t have a clear image or idea from the start. But including this piece, I was very into drawing characters then. While I drew, I tried one background after another to find the matching background for the characters and so on, a trial and error process, and in the end I was able to complete the piece. |
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| It was an inspiration. I didn’t have the image of the piece itself but it felt just right for me: ”Sai. Oh, I like this.” |
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| In order to express the identities of each character, I paid particular attention to the facial expression, dress, props, and etc. I also paid attention to the movement of the characters and the overall atmosphere. |
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Start first with a straight on view. Then I add movements little by little, altering it to make the face little bit thinner or make the expression more slily.
I create the face, based on the photograph that I took of the “living mask” （person I know is the model）made of plaster, first without eyes or nose. I create the naked body then dress it up with clothe. Eyes have their own layer as well as the nose, which in effect total up to about 100 layers.
I start adding delicate details on to the layers. I need to have all of the parts in different layers since it is difficult to make adjustments if not. If I make it too sharp, it will look awkward like it is pasted on, so I feather the edges to blend them into the background. I draw eyelashes one by one and feather them. It is very detailed. It took about a month working eight hours a day to complete. |
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| I had been doing block printing but when I was in my thirties, I wondered “Am I doing the right thing with my life?” One day, I decided to go to New York, manage to work out some money by selling my personal belongings. I wanted to feel something myself. I thought that in any event, I should go to school. So in New York, I went to a block printing school for adults which was managed by an university called Pratt for two years studying lithograph （stone block printing）. That was when I seriously started block printing. Back then, I was the only Japanese at the school. Because the communication needs to be in English, I studied English on my own by copying word for word my classmate’s notebook that I borrowed, looking up in the dictionary and so on. I was able to experience both good and bad which I would have never experience living in Japan, and I acquired certain type of toughness during the two years I was there. After graduating and returning back to Japan, I joined the Japan Hanga Association and started releasing my work to the public. |
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| Block printing requires physical strength. Unfortunately, after being ill when I was fifty-seven, I grew weak and lost strength in my prints. But I always felt that I wanted to continue drawing. I thought that if I was going to start CG some day, now is the time. So when I was sixty, I bought a used Mac not knowing the first thing about computers. Since there weren’t many people using CG to draw back then, I felt reluctance and struggle as from a block printing artist prospective. But I really didn’t mind that much because I felt that both block printing and CG are a medium for expression technique of the artist’s image. |
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| I never went and learned to master CG. Back when I started CG, I was teaching at graphics related Career College. The students there taught me how to use the computer, which I took down everything on my notebook and practiced in my room surrounded by manuals. With that, I submitted a work to a competition and was able to win the prize. My only claim to fame is that I never gave up and continued everyday. I discovered my own style as I went along. I am glad that I have been doing CG now that I won the DCA Grand Prize. |
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| In the future, I want to develop on the characters in the winning piece. I am also considering making some goods out of the characters. In any case, instinctively I like working with my hands to create things and I am happy as long as I can continue to do so. I feel like calling out “hey there” to the character in the making. Attractiveness of CG art is its ability to express in an interesting way the things hard to express in analog using a graphic software. There has to be many, many more ways of expression in CG. When I am stuck in a rut I can’t get a good drawing so I want to keep improving my techniques. |
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| When I see them, I feel that they have an unfathomed attractiveness. I especially like the band leader, Yoshiki. I have watched the video clips on YouTube left and right three hours every morning for a week. I got a severe dry eye by doing this, causing a smarting pain every time I blinked which continued for three days. It was hell (laugh). |
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| I am very affected both directly and indirectly by the movies and plays. After seeing painterly art piece or breathtaking art piece, I take the elements into my own work. I need to be exposed to artwork or I am afraid I would feel grayish. Recently I started watching Chinese movies being attracted to the Chinese colors. Since some time ago, I got hang up with its bewitchingness. I tried creating the distinct red of the Chinese but it is difficult. Also, to feel first-hand the atmosphere of the so-called young modern artist firsthand, I recently went to the “Art Fair Tokyo”. |
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| Just work on it everyday. CG is a tool; you need to know “what” you want to express using the tool. |
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| Atsumi Kurotaki |
1936 Born in Tokyo
1971 Completed Pratt Institute Graphic Center, New York
1986 Awarded National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto Award and Prefectural Art Museum Award at the Modern Japanese Arts exhibition
1970 Belonged to Japan Print Association for 30 years
1970 Taught at Tokyo Designer Gakuin College for 30 years
2005, 2006 Won Toray DCA Special Recognition Award
2007 Won Toray DCA Grand Prize |
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![the 12th DCA2007 Grand Prize [parties]](images/p_sakuhin.jpg)
