I first discovered Yuko Shimizu about 5 years ago, leafing through a huge illustration book when I used to work in an ad agency. Incidentally, she also used to work in an ad agency in Japan, and in her 30s decided to study illustration in New York. Her story sort of inspired me to attempt the same thing. As for her actual artwork, it really appealed to me, it’s reminiscent of manga and ukiyo-e which I like. I was very happy to learn she finally got a book published with her work. The book is 129 pages long, and actually a bit small in size (about letter size). Most of it is her editorial work (in color) although she also shows some personal work.
Her work also tends to be a bit “trippy”, with waves made of hair, people riding snails and so on. It’s very inventive which I think makes up for some of the drawing mistakes that I see, like the slightly weird foreshortening in figures. I’m not claiming that I can do better, but like an art critic, I’ve been seeing a lot of drawings and I’ve become more judgmental. I believe all the illustrations in the book can be seen on her website, but I like having the book instead of a bunch of loose leaf printouts of her work. See the video below for a preview of the book
This video is one of her lectures which I enjoyed watching