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A series of uniquely illustrated characters with extremely large eyes and long limbs have been attracting worldwide attention. A Japanese up-and-coming illustrator, Kae Tanaka, is the originator. Her work has been shown mainly on social media since the early 2010s.
Because of her mother who had attended an art school, Tanaka took drawing lessons at a local art class. However, she was more into soccer during her junior high school years and then into playing music in a band during high school. Drawing was therefore not her biggest interest for a long time, though she had always received compliments on her artwork. -
A figurine made by MEDICOM TOY. “One of my ambitions is to make an extremely huge PVC figurine of my character.” - “So, I started to take it seriously quite late in my life. It was when I was in the second or third year of high school. My then-favorite band Sotaiseiriron and girls'pop group Dempagumi.inc often used illustration for their album artwork around that time and it inspired me a lot because I was a bit tired of all the usual anime and manga look. It was also around the same time when I began using Twitter and Instagram, and joined Design Festa and Comitia as an audience. Those things made me want to express something through drawing as well.”
- She picked “girls” as a theme for her artwork because “[she] enjoyed drawing their shapes.” After the encounter with two manga artists who inspired her to develop her own drawing style, Tanaka began to post her work to social media and broadened the range of her artistic activities, including exhibiting her work at galleries and collaborating with various brands and companies.
- “During my college years, I read old manga books that I haven't had time to do so before then. Osamu Tezuka and Hideo Azuma are the masters who gave me the strongest influence. The girls in their manga made me focus more on ‘my favorite lines and overall balance'when I design my character's body frame or the proportions of her face, rather than on technical quality or accuracy.”
- Girls in her drawings stand out not just with their slightly somber-looking faces, but also with their cute outfits, as fashionability is one of the biggest appeals of her drawings as well.
- “I love to add extra volume to their tops and the areas below the knees. It's like matching a bulky sweatshirt with a mini skirt and baggy socks, making a kind of an hourglass shape ( laughs ). I personally like bulky outfits, too, and always wear clothes in larger sizes like XL.”
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A figurine made by MEDICOM TOY. “One of my ambitions is to make an extremely huge PVC figurine of my character.”
- NEEDLES H.D. TRACK PANT is one of her favorites. She has expressed her crush on the baggy silhouette ever since her first visit to NEPENTHES TOKYO. For this issue, Tanaka has contributed an exclusive illustration featuring her beloved track pants.
- “I've always liked men's clothing, but rarely wore pants or trousers, because I couldn't find a shape that suited my taste … So, NEEDLES H.D. TRACK PANT is the first pants that I like the shape of. It also goes perfectly well with any tops and shoes. It used to take so much time for me to decide what to wear in the morning, but the pants solved the problem. I get a new pair whenever they release them in colors I like.”
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Kae Tanaka：Born in 1995 in Kanagawa Prefecture. Illustrator. Tanaka started drawing when she was a small girl. After graduating from Tama Art University, she began her professional career. A series of her collaborative work with various people and firms including Nogizaka46, Momokogumicompany BiSH, Onitsuka Tiger and BEAMS has drawn broad attention in recent years.
Twitter：@helloverysunday Instagram：＠kaechanha24
