Entering the imaginative world of Aya Kato
28.12.07Filed Under: Art & Design, Inspiration, Japan
Aya Kato is a young female artists from Japan that has a great talents and skills in creating one of the most stunning and original artworks I have seen so far. Born in 1982, she studied painting by self-study and graphic design at the Aichi University of Education. She graduated in 2004 and started work as an Illustrator in 2005. Her works is extremely colorful and rich in details, and her level of imagination to illustrate out her idea is truly outstanding too.
In her wishes of work, it stated that “I want to wake up a lot of souls that the person is sleeping in the innermost recesses of the heart as much as possible by using my maximum imagination.” Besides, she also hope to use her artworks to connect people, and believes that wonderful world is born from love: Mind that loves neighbors. All people who live in the earth are neighbors.
Frog Prince - 2003
In her early works, it’s more to brownish, ukiyo-e styles of works and normally depicting a female character with huge imagination on hair illustration, fusing with the natural curvy lines of plants and flowers. Then her illustration was getting more colorful, vibrant and complex, incorporating more graphical elements into her artwork like flowers, lotus, waves, trees and leafs, as well as traditional Japanese architecture and outer space.
Her works normally long and rich in details, like a lot of things happen in an illustration but yet harmony and not cluttered. Sometimes she will give a title and story behind the artwork she did, and you can see all her breathtaking masterpieces at her gallery. Below show the screenshot of her homepage. I don’t know what exactly “Cheval Noir” means.
Aya Kato’s Cheval Noir
Her works overall have strong Japanese traditional art feel, but also mix with other art styles. Schemamag describes her style as a mixture of “Art nouveau + manga + graphic design + ukiyoe wood block prints + baroque = AYA KATO designs“. The result is one truly unique expression of art. Her beautiful artworks also featured in many commercial works crossing many disciplines including t-shirt, CD cover, Iphone skins, and video animation and more. Check out her works for Hitachi at here.
Aya Kato’s works are truly amazing, it’s all I can say. My admiration for her.
CD cover art of Suilen
Iphone Gelaskins
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February 2nd, 2008 at 1:55 pmaya kato’s hot.. very amazing artist..:)
June 30th, 2008 at 6:22 pmShe is amazing!
I was wondering if you know if she uses the actual watercolors or if she uses a painting program for the water colour effect?
Also, I believe “Cheval Noir” is French for “Black Horse”
July 19th, 2008 at 2:48 pmWell, I don’t really know the way she work, but I believe is combination of hard drawing and digital drawing.
July 20th, 2008 at 1:22 amOh i see, thanks for your quick reply!
I am really enjoying your blog by the way. We have some things in common hey? i’m also 23, doing graphic design work, and I am Chinese-Malaysian but born in Canada. My parents are from Kuching, Sarawak.
I was actually just down in KL and Malaysia this past May-June. It’s a beautiful place, i miss the food so much!
Anyway keep up the great work.
July 20th, 2008 at 4:27 amOh, nice to meet you! and you too, keep up :D!
July 24th, 2008 at 10:15 amAya Kato is quite good but these images are produced via Photoshop, somehow I feel underwhelmed, I don’t feel the direct connection to the soul. I’ve worked with both medium and if you know the program enough, Photoshop is relatively very easy (especially the “copy and paste” feature) compare to the complexity of using real paint. I want to see her use a real canvas and real paint, but I really, really doubt she can produce the same good result
March 25th, 2009 at 10:48 amhey! i really like your works, you’re very talented. i am a fan
tyker keep it up yow!
truly inspiring.
November 19th, 2009 at 7:02 am