Yuko Shimazu Yuko Shimazu Yuko Shimizu

Award winning Japanese illustrator based in New York City and instructor at School of Visual Arts.

one day illustration workshop in NY now available

UPDATE (June 8): The workshop is now sold out. Thank you and see you next week.
I teach every week at SVA Illustration Department, I tend to forget that I have actually never taught a workshop in my hometown before.
So, here it is. The very first one day workshop in Manhattan coming this June.
It is a part of Smashing Conference where I will be speaking (June 13-14). (You don’t need to be a part of the conference to enroll in the workshop.)

Consider this an experimental illustration boot camp. One day of fun working together on multiple projects that help flex your illustration thinking brain. Because, good illustration is not just about making pretty pictures, but actually about making pictures with good ideas.

We will work together in intimate small-ish group, all day long. We will work hard, but we will also have a lot of fun!
Please read more and purchase your ticket here.  Tickets are $499USD.

one day illustration workshop in Dusseldorf, Germany

UPDATE (March 23): The workshop is now sold out. Thank you and see you in May.
I will be coming to Dusseldorf, Germany to speak at Beyond Tellerrand conferene. As a part of the event, I will be teaching one day illustration workshop the day before the event starts.
It will be one full day of fun “drawing boot camp”. We will draw a lot, and we will probably laugh a lot too.
Tickets are available here, first come, first served.
The workshop is EUR 349, however we have super-special discounts for students EUR 99.

images available to use for Women’s March

UPDATE (January 23):
Thank you for all of the women, men, straight, gay, young, old and some even babies and pets who walked the march.
Total of 600+ downloads were made.
If you took pictures, please send them my way by tagging @yukoart in Twitter and Instagram (for Instagram please tag the photo itself and not the text. If you only tag text, I never see your photo due to the large number of followers on my account) or post on my Facebook public page. Thank you!

UPDATE (January 19): new image added:
This is so very last minutes, but I am using my old illustration for a good use.
This illustration was made a while ago for now-gone JANE Magazine. It is actually a portrait of one of young editors, but I am sure she would approve, as JANE was a magazine for kick ass women.
For those who are interested in using this image for your march. Please download a large TIFF file from here (66.8MB)
You know the drill: no commercial use. For personal use for the march, please use the way you like. And send me photos if you can.
Some brands such as Avery makes iron on printer paper which you can quickly make T-shirts. So, be creative.

<below is the original post about NY Times image>
I have received more than a few message asking me if they can use this illustration I originally made for the NY Times for Women’s March on January 21.
So, I have uploaded a medium size JPG and large size PSD files for you to download.
You can make T-shirts, banners or anything you like with it, as long as you keep it as your personal use.
I would love it if you could send me some photos, or tag your photo on Instagram or Twitter to my handle @yukoart  (in Instagram, please tag the actual photo. If you only tag text, I will most probably won’t see it.)

Please know that commercial use (making any profit off this) is strictly prohibited. The New York Times and I own the right to the image.

Download NY TIMES large PSD file here (13.6MB)

Download NY TIMES medium size JPG file here (3.4MB)

List of affiliated women’s march all over USA and abroad here. Find one near you.  
I will be walking the New York City march with friends. New Yorkers, see you there.

New York subway riders, meet the new SVA poster series

SVA (School of Visual Arts) has always been known for their innovative subway ad campaigns created by faculty members who are working artists and designers.
I moved from Tokyo to New York in fall of 1999 to attend SVA’s Illustration Department, and since I finished my studies (MFA as Visual Essay Program, 2003), I am continuously a member of SVA as an instructor.  It is my huge honor to be asked to be their poster designer for 2016-2017 winter campaign.

I commute on subway everyday between home and my studio. Sometimes wait can be long, and we all look for ways to kill time. I wanted to make posters that are accessible to anyone, fun to look at, and provide a way to kill time if necessary. (for example, every single speech bubble monster is different.)

Posters were supervised by Anthony Rhodes, art directed by Gail Anderson, designed by Ryan Durinick

Straphangers, find the posters around subway stops near you!

Read an interview and video here.

National Book Festival 2016, come to the free full day event

The 16th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on Saturday, Sept. 24, from 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
All day long big event for those who love books! 120 authors and illustrators take stages.
I am participating in this year’s festival as the poster artist. I will be at the event doing a panel with A Wild Swan author and Pulitzer Award winning Michael Cunningham.

The poster is given away for free to visitors during the event (not for sale), and I will also be singing the poster, as well as the book A Wild Swan with Michael.

signing: 4:00-5:00PM 
talk: 6:00-6:45PM 
events will be held at Poetry and Prose pavilion

Please see National Book Festival website for more details and all the author schedules. 

Even if you can’t come or live too far away, you can download the PDF format of the poster here. 

hello India! I am coming.

Hello hello India! I will be in your country for the first time ever. This is also the longest flight I have ever taken, and probably a most adventurous trip ever as I have never been to that part of the world. A lot of first evers, and I am very excited. There will be three events in three different cities while I am there.

1. Kyoorius Designyatra
First is the big design conference everyone in creative industry in India know about. I am very honored to be invited to participate in this year’s event. It will be held between September 29- October 1. The new venue this year will be in Jaipur. You can learn more about the conference and book your tickets here

2. Tales on Tweet book release events
Local editor/writer Manoj Pandey and I collaborated on his book, Tales on Tweet, a coffee table book of the world’s shortest short stories in 140 characters. The book was just released from Harper Collins India, and include many high-profile authors including Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood.
We will be doing two book events in two different cities during my stay. Hope to see you there!

A. Tales on Tweet book event in Darjeeling
The Lounge, Elgin Silver Oaks, Kalimpong, Darjeeling,  October 3,  2:00PM, free and open to the public.

B. Tales on Tweet book event in Delhi
The Toddy Shop, Hauz Khas Village, Delhi, October 6, 7:00PM, free and open to the public.

Looking forward to seeing you, and your beautiful country soon! See you at one of the events.

me happy with recently acquired business visa to India.

illustration workshop in Seville, Spain in November

UPDATE (Sept.16): Thank you. This workshop is now sold out. Looking forward to seeing all of you who are attending. 

Want to come to majestic Seville, Spain with me for four day illustration workshop? I hope you do, because I can’t wait to come to this historic city famous for flamenco, and also work together with you for four days!

This workshop will be held on November 24-27 (which is the Thanksgiving weekend, if anyone from US side wants to join. ) at La Galeria Roja.
Unlike previous workshops that were targeted toward experienced artists, this workshop is open to all levels. Limited to around max of 18 participants.  For Spanish speakers, there will be Spanish-English translator available for the duration of the workshop. Price point is set very reasonable at EUR 450. Spots are for first come first served basis.
I hope to see you in Seville in November!

To get more info, and to reserve your spot, please contact [email protected] or call (+34) 955-22-12-00

Just in case…, this is where Seville is. South of Spain, absolutely stunning!

TODAY!: live drawing with NY Times

UPDATE: the live drawing is over, but you can watch the whole 50 minutes of interacting with Facebook audience and me drawing here.

I will be teaming up with The New York Times and its Facebook page to do a live drawing today.
Please join me and AD Antonio de Luca for interactive drawing fun on NY Times FacebookLive series.
please log onto facebook.com/NYTimes today at 12:00 noon EST (which is NY time zone. Please check your local time zone.)

Hope to see you then!

Women in Sci-fi & Fantasy art show opens this week in NY

There will be a nice summer exhibit opening at the Society of Illustrators in New York. The show is titled: Point of Vision –Celebrating Women Artists in Fantasy and Science Fiction– . The show is curated by two acclaimed female art directors in the field, Irene Gallo of Tor.com and Lauren Panepinto of Orbit Books.
I am not exactly who you think as a fantasy (or sci-fi) artist, but I do work in the field here and there, and my work is known to be surreal. So, the curators were kind enough to include some of my works in the exhibit. They let the artists pick our own, thus, I decided to show two original black and white drawings, as well as one color print.

The show will be up from now till August 20, 2016 at the Society of Illustrators (128 E, 63rd St @Lexington Ave, New York), and there will be opening reception on Friday, June 10 from 6:30PM. Hope you can come see the show. And if you are coming to the opening, I will see you then.
Read more about the exhibit here

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