🎨 Personal Artwork, Workshop and Gallery Visit, Inspiration

Dear Subscriber First Name, when you’re reading this letter, I’ll be on another adventure. I’ll tell you more about it when the time comes, but now let’s catch up.

Life and Art Lately

I can hardly believe it, but I ended up painting a scene with a car, something I never imagined including in my work, yet it somehow felt right.

As I’ve mentioned a while ago, I’ve been painting scenes to expand the world of my personal project and to explore themes like overgrown buildings and scattered man-made objects. I spent some time considering how much decay to show in this piece, but ultimately decided to keep it subtle: just a touch of rust and a few vines felt perfect for the mood I wanted to capture. I tried to keep the composition simple, while including enough detail. I hope you enjoy the painting! I used Schmincke Horadam gouache for it.

A few weeks ago, I took a short trip back to the charming town of Potsdam to visit the Riekeles Gallery, a small space that showcases one of my favourite kinds of artwork: hand-painted backgrounds from Japanese animation.

I’d previously seen an exhibition there by Kosuke Hayashi, which left me deeply inspired, so I was eager to return for the current show featuring Shuichi Kusamori.

Born in 1961, Kusamori is a Japanese art director and background artist celebrated for his work on Grave of the Fireflies, Metropolis, Ghost in the Shell, and Psycho-Pass. He’s an absolute legend in the world of animation, and I was thrilled to see his imaginative, atmospheric cityscapes up close. The details in his paintings are simply breathtaking.

In addition to the background paintings, an entire wall of intricate pencil drawings invites you to lose yourself—the textures and patterns are mesmerising. The exhibition runs until March 2026, so if you have the chance, please go see it! More info here.

Seeing the artwork in person was already an incredible experience, but getting to participate in a workshop led by the master himself made it unforgettable. Kusamori-san had flown all the way from Japan for the gallery opening and to teach the workshop at Filmuniversität Babelsberg. After a demonstration and Q&A, each of us received a printout of his original watercolor sketch, allowing us to try his techniques ourselves. It was a wonderful experience, and I’m so grateful for it.

Recent Inspiration

THE ART OF KEITA MORIMOTO
@morimotostudio
Keita Morimoto (born 1990, Osaka) is a Japanese painter known for nocturnal cityscapes and portraits. Trained at OCAD University, he lives and works in Tokyo.

His large oil paintings are truly breathtaking, seamlessly blending classical and contemporary elements. The interplay of light, colour, and mood creates a powerful, almost otherworldly atmosphere. Keita Morimoto has long been a major inspiration for me, ever since I began working professionally, ten years ago. I find it hard to believe we’re the same age; his talent is extraordinary, and he continues to evolve, producing work that only grows more impressive with time.

Last year, during my visit to Tokyo, Morimoto publicly shared his painting process. His workspace was set up on the ground floor of a building, visible through a large glass window, so passersby could watch him work. I tried to catch one of his sessions but wasn’t lucky. I missed seeing him, but viewing his unfinished canvas made the visit worthwhile.

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REFERENCE PACKS

The 10 Most Common Perspective Mistakes in Environments is a 40-page PDF eBook that helps beginner artists identify and fix the most frequent perspective errors in environment drawings, sharing lessons from my five years of teaching and personal journey mastering these challenges.

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Upcoming Events

See you next year for convention season!

LEIPZIG BOOK FAIR (LBM/MCC)
When? 19-22 March 2026
Where? Messe-Allee 1, 04356 Leipzig

Thank you so much for reading!
Djamila

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