Japan Art and Stationery Haul — Artober Thoughts
Someone pinch me, it’s November! Only another month and a half, and we’re in 2024! Before we overthink the future, let’s rewind and talk about what has happened within the last two months!
As many of you may or may not know, October is known for Inktober or Artober within the art community. On Instagram, I decided to partake in an artober challenge, hosted by Kriksisart called #Calmtober. In total, there were 15 drawing prompts and they were divided on every second day of the month. Here are the top 3 drawings I enjoyed drawing the most!
This challenge was challenging indeed. For the latter half of October, I went away on a trip which meant that I had to finish the drawings in advance. Ideas for some prompts came to me easier than some, and when time was tight I just had to draw something.
Overall, it was a perfect learning experience which I can summarise as follows:
Just draw — getting too caught up in the “what to draw” phase can drain your precious hours away! Don’t think too much, allow the pencil, brush, or pen to make a move. You’d be surprised (or not, you can draw what you usually draw) at what the outcome may be.
Be imaginative and weird — go outside the norm and let your creativity flow. You might discover a new way of drawing a flower and with a bit of tweaking, you can end up with a personal style of how you draw! After this challenge, I felt closer to the style I wanted to achieve in digital art. Super happy about it.
Imperfections make visual interest and add flavour to your style — much like the previous point, don’t let imperfections catch you out. Colour bleeding outside of the line? Perhaps that added visual texture to the piece. A mismatch in the colour palette? Opposing colours can make a piece more “graphic” or strong to the eyes, and attention-grabbing. I also realized that people don’t notice things on a micro level compared to the artists themselves. It’s easier for our own eyes to find imperfections than our audience.
Now, to the next part of this post… Art / Stationery haul from Japan! I had such an awesome time there just relaxing, sightseeing and eating nonstop! There’s so much to do and see, and now that I’m back, I am a tinge regretful I didn’t get as many things as I thought or should’ve… If you grew up frugal you know what I mean when you need a few days to think about what you would like to buy.
Japan is a mecca for excellent and innovative stationery goods and products, so it was very hard to decide what things to get! A few of the main places/stores I visited are as follows:
Itoya (Ginza, Tokyo) — a multilevel stationery and office goods store that even hosts workshops
Sekaido (Shinjuku, Tokyo) — a popular art supply store located in Shinjuku. It is massive and dense with art materials, books and stationery. Every artist should go there if they get the chance, you won’t be disappointed!
Hands (formerly known as Tokyu Hands) — usually found in department stores all over Japan. They stock stationery, art goods as well as cute products, everyday home goods, accessories etc.
Loft — similar to Hands, you can find stationery as well as a variety of products that are not only cute but also unique and useful. You can find beauty products, home goods, kitchenware etc.
Bookstores — Unfortunately, we went into so many bookstores I do not have the names of them all :( If you take your time though, there are most likely sections for art and tutorial books. I bought a few for referencing and learning!
One particular store I remember was “Book 1st “ located inside “Lumine 1” at Shinjuku.
Let’s take a look at the goods I brought back, shall we?!
Fantasy Color Scheme Idea Encyclopedia Art Book by Teruko Sakurai (author) and Kenki Hashi (Illustrator). It’s difficult to be dynamic with colour schemes at times or to find a palette that brings out a certain mood. I bought this book to help me find colours easily without the headache of wondering about matching colours.
Girls Design Scrapbook by MdN Editorial Department is a super visually interesting reference book all about design and product packaging design infused with a unique Japanese style. The book features different design styles categorized as pop, romantic, natural etc.
Momoro’s Coloring Book by Momoro is a colouring book that features finished original works too. I immediately fell in love with the illustrator’s style, the cute animals and the storytelling behind the composition and setting! The line art feels organic, straightforward, uncomplex, and slightly rough even, but they feel soft at the same time. The colours are deeply saturated and bright, which makes the overall piece charged with liveliness.
100 Writing & Crafting Papers of Animals by Ai Akikusa is filled with super cute and interesting drawings of animals. The pages double as writing papers you can use for letter writing or journaling. I don’t have the guts to cut out pages from a book, but it makes for an excellent reference book for learning about simplicity in shapes and texture.
Book on Illustration by Noriko Kudou. Unfortunately, I could not find the exact title of this book. It details the illustrator Noriko Kudou’s drawing process and illustrative style which is fascinating and awe-inspiring!! Not to mention the super cute and hilarious characters she produces are an absolute delight to look at!
I don’t paint traditionally as much now but when I do, I tend to trace over the original drawing with pencil. It’s a little annoying for me when I see really obvious pencil marks and then I’d have to go into a lot of work when editing, so I bought some red nibs for mechanical pencils and a 0.7 nib mechanical pencil. Hopefully, they blend in better with the paints (watercolour/ ink/ gouache) than the usual pencil.
My heart swooned the moment I laid my eyes upon the Pilot Kakuno Family Series Fountain Pen! Of course, I went for Baby. The beautiful green caught my eye and I couldn’t not buy it! Hahaha, anyways the pen is an absolute delight! Haven’t drawn with it yet but writing with it is so fun and suddenly my penmanship is 10 times better. The lines come out thin, fine and consistent. Very easy to write with ergonomically. I have a Kaweco fountain pen with a thicker nib so now I have the option of a thinner or thicker line pen.
This chonky mechanical pencil I found in Sekkaido might not look so chonky in the photos but I promise it is thick and has a nice grip/hold to it! I bought two extra tubes of 2.0 nibs in B. Of course, I had already tested it out and it was nice. Nothing more to say other than that! It also has the usual mechanical cap that is removable to top up nibs, and a traditional ol’ eraser at the top.
Cosmic Twin Markers — these double-sided markers come in two different colour palettes. One was more saturated and bright, and the other was pastel. Since I don’t own any I got the pastel ones! With a little research, turns out these markers are made by Holbein. Although they are alcohol-based, they don’t smell as pungent compared to Copic markers.
Spotted this mini Art Creation Sketchbook by Talens and of course had to buy it. If you read my post on my favourite art supplies, you will know why this brand of sketchbook is a favourite. You can read it here!
The truth is…I own a lot of journals. But the more the merrier right? (*smiles in denial) I got this lined journal from Itoya and the paper is quite good!
Every art piece/product with a drawing on it was so incredibly cute, fun, delightful, creative and smart that I was having a difficult time to “move on”. I had to get something but there was so much to choose from! In the end, I shockingly only bought a few postcards and a sticker pack of cute food drawings at Itoya. I feel the regret now of not having bought more… I shall shed some tears after I publish this post, in a dark corner somewhere in this apartment.
Alas, it was time to leave. I was given another chance which I wasn’t going to take until my sister urged me to go take a look at the Travel factory stall at Narita Airport. I was like “nah, I won’t buy anymore. I can’t fit anything else into my hand carry on”. Then I was there, at the stall. They did a package deal that contained a leather passport-size journal with an accompanying Traveler’s passport-sized notebook, a linen pouch, extra thread, a brass tag, and a traveller sticker. The next thing I knew I purchased the package as well as an extra kraft paper passport-sized notebook and happily hopped to the stamping station. I was very satisfied then!
And that’s all for this post! If I decide to do a review I will update this post. For now, I shall draw and reminisce about my time in beautiful Japan! I hope this post contains some interesting bits for anyone wanting to buy a new stationery piece or art reference book.
For now, have a lovely day or night wherever you are on this blue planet!
