My name is Jeremy Hannigan. I'm from Vancouver, Canada, and I've been living in Tokyo for about three years. In my free time, I do a lot of illustration and design. I had already had somewhat of a fascination with Japan, mainly because of manga by Ito Junji, films by Kurosawa Akira, books by Murakami Haruki, and other stuff like that. I figured Tokyo would be a cool place to come to, mainly because of its pop culture, as well as its fascinating history, and the fact that it's so huge, yet peaceful and safe. Japan has an extensive, cohesive, and well-preserved history, and it's really something. I mean, there are buildings in this country that were initially constructed some hundreds or even a thousand years ago, and that's something that I feel is quite powerful. Something one just can't see in North America, and it's really inspiring to know that some things people create are actually somehow able to last so long. I've been drawing probably since I was two or three basically old enough to be able to hold, you know, a pen or crayon, you know, on paper, and move it in a coordinated fashion. Most of my illustrative work has been entirely self-taught. As time went on, I began to get drawn to very specific themes, sometimes themes that would worry my parents. When I was, I guess, nine or ten years old, my friends introduced me to Japanese anime, and of course, like every other kid, I started drawing that. So I was just copying pictures, but by the end of high school, I started to kind of leave behind a lot of imagery that already existed, and I started, you know, drawing a little bit more from, I guess, my head and what I was feeling. So I definitely got a little more creative. I was really interested in the kind of 1800s French painter and engraver Gustave Dore, and he did a lot of biblical illustrations which were highly detailed that I thought were just astounding. I immediately had this love for that detail, and I also found a Russian artist named Vanya Giraffelev, and he basically took the kind of detail that was found in these old printmakers' work, and then he combined that with a lot of contemporary themes, including imagery about Japan, which was very captivating. Living in Japan has definitely influenced not only the way that I live and the way that I think, but of course, even how I put the pen on the paper. You know, what I choose to draw sometimes, I've definitely photographed and drawn a lot of traditional architecture and cultural objects here, something like a mask from a no-play or old Shoah era advertisements and stuff like that. This kind of marked the beginning of my content change from a kind of dark Judeo-Christian imagery into more Eastern themes. This is the Hindu goddess Kali. I mean, I'm not a Hindu, I'm certainly not going out of my way to do any cultural appropriation. She just looks really awesome, and I thought at the time it was a really interesting subject, you know, what with the necklace of skulls, the various arms and so on. Now, instead of drawing like shadowy hooded figures and creepy monsters and stuff that would fit pretty much any heavy metal band, I've branched out into like a lot more just scenery, drawing everyday people. I sketch pretty much anything and everything, including the dark stuff. I tend to use black and white, especially when sketching. Sometimes gray tones, though I usually do a lot of hatching and stippling to get the tones and textures that I want. So the tip is extremely fine. There is actually one size smaller that I usually use just for cleaning up, but this one I often use for the small stippling and the fine shading. I start with very, very light pencils just to block everything in, just to do the overall composition, and then to kind of finalize things, start with a general outline. Though the outline is not always completely solid because I try to keep the drawing somewhat open to leave myself room for variation. Since coming to Japan, I've participated in I think just two events. One was actually a live portrait drawing at sort of a dance and music event in Shimo Kitah, and the other was actually a group show at a cafe in Kichijoji, but otherwise, you know, I'm hoping to have some more exhibits if not in Japan, you know, somewhere in the near future. I'm working on a series of tattoos because I definitely hope to get more tattoos in the near future. As you can see, I definitely like the Simpsons. If I could honestly have an entire sleeve of Simpsons tattoos, I would. I am also working on a few large pieces that have been inspired very specifically by contemporary youth culture here in Japan. Since coming here, I've never stopped being kind of enthralled by the amount of people, especially young fashionable girls wearing masks, those white medical or surgical masks, you know. I thought at first that it was some kind of medical issue, but apparently it's sometimes more psychological or social. I'm not going to say whether the whole mask trend is a good thing or a bad thing. I simply want to document it, and I'm basically showing how I view the masks and what they mean to me, what they symbolize, and maybe what they're hiding. Of course, I'm putting myself and my feelings into these drawings, but I think art or illustration, whatever you want to call it, is always open to interpretation, no matter what the artist initially intended. So I'm hoping that, you know, when people finally see this stuff, they can take something else from it maybe. The best possible thing any aspiring artist or illustrator or probably any kind of creative can do is practice, practice, practice. Try not to get lazy and just do it as often as possible and as much as possible. Do not get discouraged. If you don't like what you're creating or what you're looking at, don't throw it away in some fit of passionate rage. Set it off to the side because sometimes taking breaks from a drawing will give you an opportunity to approach it again with a fresh eye and that really helps a lot. I've probably thrown away a good chunk of the earth's forests into the bin after making just like one wrong stroke or something. Now I try my best to keep everything, you know, the good, the bad, the mistakes, the happy accidents, and it's all worth something. You'd be surprised what some people gravitate towards as an audience. Living in a place as big as Tokyo definitely has an impact on a person and I think it can make them feel both insignificant and profoundly inspired. Sometimes both at the same time, ironically. Being surrounded by so many people and so many of them who are basically creative geniuses has made me want to push myself harder and to really improve what I do and find a way to make myself stand out.