Study trip to Florence

Between 27th November - 1st December 2013 I accompanied a study trip to Florence, with 40 odds Illustration students from the course I teach at the University of Gloucestershire. Here are some sketches/colour exercises from the trip.

'Just So Happens' - New graphic Novel coming out in Feb 2014

Finally, I received the first copy of my latest Graphic Novel from Jonathan Cape. It's always very strange to see the actual book after working so long and it looks totally different from what I imagined.It would take a while for me to get used to it. Here are little teasers....

                      And here is the page which includes sketches and research materials...

'Ghostology' New 8-page short

This is a failed first page for my new 8 page short ' Ghostology',,,I'm not using this page, so I can show it here.Hope to show it around during this year's Thought Bubble convention in Leeds.

New illustration plans

For the new direction:
No perspective
Flat but perspective
Decorative
Dynamic

The Flying Bees

The machines I'm developing...

old header design

Cover illustration for 'Etc.,2'

Not quite finished yet.

'Fumio's World ⑤' The episode 5 for Kyoto Journal

The fifth episode based upon my first years in the UK in the early 90's.
For Kyoto Journal. Also available here.http://kyotojournal.org/the-journal/society/fumios-world/

My website renewal! FUMIO OBATA is reborn.

My website is now completely changed with new CMS. Now compatible with smartphones and tablets, I will look after this more regularly from now on and make the most out of it.

www.fumioobata.co.uk

Cheers!

'Fumio's World ④' - The episode 4 for Kyoto Journal

The fourth episode based upon my first few years in the UK in the early 90's.
For Kyoto Journal. Also available here.http://kyotojournal.org/the-journal/society/fumios-world/

'Fumio's World ③' - The episode 3 for Kyoto Journal

The third episode based upon my first years in England in the early 90's.
For Kyoto Journal. Also available here - http://kyotojournal.org/the-journal/society/fumios-world/

'Fumio's World ②' - The episode 2 for Kyoto Journal

The second episode based upon my first years in England in the early 90's.
For Kyoto Journal. Also available here - http://kyotojournal.org/the-journal/society/fumios-world/

Responsibility

I just try what I can do, like birds always fly in the sky, no matter how cruel the things can be, they do what nature designed them to be, which is to fly to live.I am here to tell the stories which inspire me.That's my nature and my job which are given to me by this world.

The flag says 'Now is the time and from here'

Return to the North of Japan

After almost two years passed, I need to see what is happening in the area.

'Fumio's world ①' A cartoon series for Kyoto Journal.

This is a new collaboration between myself and On-line news journal based in Kyoto - 'Kyoto Journal' http://kyotojournal.org/which presents thorougher insight from my country Japan. 

Here is the page link:
http://kyotojournal.org/the-journal/society/fumios-world/

My audience is mainly the English speakers who live in Asia so I chose a theme which talks about my adolescence in early 90's when I first arrived in England, and my experience of cultural encounters between Britain and Japan at that time. This will continue fortnightly, so wait for the next episode!

Angoulême sketches

Between 30th January and 4th February I was attending the International Comic Festival in Angoulême, France. I was doing the first signing for my book but found myself waiting for someone to buy it.So in meantime I did a lot of drawing.