Kumi Matsukawa

“Hi, I’m Kumi. I was a little child who would draw on anything and everything if there was space to draw. Now I am an illustrator. I mainly draw storyboards for TV commercials. At the same time I teach watercolor and pastel in my neighborhood. Both works entail sketching.

However, for a long time I considered sketches to be merely a training or of secondary importance. It was since 2008 when I participated in one of the World Wide SketchCrawl events that I found the joy of sketching and sharing. In other words, I discovered how much potential sketches themselves have. Since then, I am hooked on sketching.

I enjoy sketching on location very much. Landscape, buildings, people, animals, plants. It’s like a dialogue with the subject. For example, when I draw an old tree, I feel as if I am listening to its story. An old tree — like a old man — has a long, complicated story and what I do is transcribe it in the form of a sketch. The story has ups and downs like its branches do, and it has intricate details exactly the way its leaves look. So I try to capture as much details as possible, but I sometimes have to sum up some of them due to the circumstances. Or I may amplify something interesting. But that’s not an exaggeration, just a result of the struggle to earnestly focus my attention to it.

I live in Kanagawa prefecture, where famous tourist spots are, such as Yokohama, Enoshima, Kamakura, Hakone and so on. I also go sketching to Tokyo. The view of Tokyo is not as photogenic as other prominent cities are. But has a lot of interesting, new and old places to draw. For instance, there is a new tower called Tokyo Sky Tree. When it is completed in 2012 it will be one of the tallest in the world. So I’m planing to sketch it on a regular basis.

I also enjoy very much seeing other sketchers works depicting things with unique style. Their various approaches always impress me, inspire me!

I am so happy to be aboard USk!”

• Kumi’s art on flickr.

• Kumi’s website.