Faults' Artists Highlight: Katsuya Terada

Welcome to Faults' Artists Highlight, where I write about artists or works whom I took influence from, the ones which I admire, or artists whose works which I found fascinating. In the series, I will be writing about my experience with the highlighted artists, attempting to identify aspects of their works that resonated with me.

In the early 2000s, there was a local artist in a local comic magazine with a decidedly different art style that had caught my eyes. Granted, it was not a style that I was interested in (not to mention the rather murky and sparse storytelling...), but it was a decidedly different take from other more conventional manga art style that was all the rage back then...

Puppeteer Lee

It wasn't until some time later where in one interview with an entirely different artist where one name was cited as an influence, and it was from the illustration work for a certain anime movie where I had my first encounter with the artist that made me go, ah, I can see the influence of this artist on the work that other artist earlier...

Such was how I was initially introduced to the work of Katsuya Terada.

Blood: The Last Vampire

Terada's work is not something that I initially took a liking to - and to be honest, I might have even found it unappealing: besides the notable work as the character designer for the Blood: The Last Vampire, the other notable work by him that I was initially exposed to was The Monkey King - a retelling of the Journey to the West novel with gratuitous amount of sex and violence...

西遊奇伝 大猿王 (The Monkey King) 

Despite my total lack of interest with the actual subject matters and art style, there was something in his works that was hard for me to ignore.... although I have not figured out back then, I had continue to keep around one booklet showcasing his works, as I had always felt that this might be an artist that I would eventually grow to appreciate over time.

My first printed material of Terada's works - which incidentally was from the same source that compiled ABe's work mentioned in my other post

And my appreciation for his work did grow -  although that only happened after I returned to drawing (having left it completely for a few years), where I had return to Terada's works, and it was only then that I had recognized the philosophy and dedication that goes on behind his works.

"...All I can suggest is that you draw in some form on a daily basis, while constantly asking yourself what it is you want to draw." 

Terada's philosophy to drawing can be summarized in one word: 落書き (rakugaki). 

While my initial understanding of the word rakugaki is 'doodle', or as the common translation of the word ranging from either scrawl, scribble, or graffiti, in the hands of Terada, the philosophy of rakugaki is to draw as often as one can, no matter the medium, location, or time. In his own words, the way he develops his philosophy of rakugaki: 

"I’ll take a pencil and think, “that’s a cool thing,” and especially being able to depict things to exist or don’t exist that are or would be three dimensions in a two dimensional way. That excites me, being able to go around and say “I can depict that, I can depict that.”"

Such a dedication is perhaps best exemplified by a 1000 pages collection of sketches, appropriately titled Rakugaking (which have been explained in one interview as 'ing' as being progressive tense to 'rakugaki', even if most have assumed or accepted of him as being a/the 'king'). 

From the illustration book 'Dragon Girl And Monkey King'

Terada's bodies of work are mostly illustrations and character designs, with very few manga works (at least from what I could gather researching into his catalogs). 

"Seeing and drawing are kind of like two sides of the same coin. I spend hours creating images in my mind, so in a sense I am always drawing."

It is during his live drawing sessions where you can see the actual breadth of his artistic prowess: armed with markers, we began to see Terada tracing out from his imagination - building lines upon lines on the canvas, with no prior rough drafts. And these drawings were packed to the brim with details, you would have to wonder if each lines were deliberate from the start, if he had in his mind eyes the finished product the moment the marker touches the surface of the canvas... or if it was all made up as he goes along...?

"The only way is to leave it to the flow... Trusting the direction the flow will take, then making sure not to lose my concentration, I think it is probably the biggest task in live drawing."

Such a similar display of artistic level is comparable with another prolific artist, Kim Jung Gi - and so it was not surprising - perhaps even inevitable - that these two have collaborated on a few live drawing sessions (which had even resulted in a collaborative illustration book). Watching these two artists bringing forward the rakugaki element outside of the confine of sketchbooks and papers, onto the wall really felt like to call them simply 'doodle' would be a disservice and understatement...

The aspect of Terada's work that I found most interesting is the amount of details placed in the drawings - they're very lines oriented. While his painterly style of colouring - achieved mostly through digital methods - and subject themes point to European art influence, it does feel that his heavy emphasis on lineart is indicative of the long tradition of emphasis on line found in Japanese artist - which does make a lot of sense, considering Katsuhiro Otomo has been cited as one of his main influence:

Katsuhiro Otomo

...and going back to the earlier story on my discovery of Terada from the work of Puppeteer, it is from Terada that I discovered another key figure artist which influenced his art - the late French artist Moebius, who can easily be considered one of the masters in European comic art. 

I have always found it interesting to look at an artist's influence, to try and go as far as I can to trace the creativity lineage - as I really believe that creativity involves the development and remixing of works from the past (that the 'new things' are really variation of old themes with different take)... but I digress. 


(Incidentally, both Otomo and Terada had done a collaboration book before, and while there has not been as far to my knowledge a collaboration with Moebius before his death, the joint illustration drawn by both Terada and Kim was intended as a tribute to Moebius - with the artist visible in the frame down in the center) 

Moebius

Tribute to Moebius by Terada

There is some sense of perversion that I could sense in Terada's works... a mix of sexuality, surrealism, attention to details (in particular, machine imageries). One of the example that I could think of right off the tip of my mind is his 'Hot Pot Girls', featuring illustration of females characters wearing... hot pot on their head for some inexplicable reasons...

Hot Pot Girls

He also does bring in significant amount of sexual themes in his illustrations as well, with a couple of printed works specifically focused on the themes... Which, I suppose - alongside his general rough colouring style - was initially a turn-off when I was initially exposed to his works... 

From the illustration book 'Zenbu'

From the illustration book 'Erotic Engineering'

"Always try to think about the things that you come into contact with. (...)It is important to interact and make a deep connection with the things that are around you."

While I admit that not every work tackled by him are up my alley - where I would use the variations of the word 'grotesque' in describing them - his imagination and dedication to the craft are admirable - maybe even, dare I say it, scary. It's mesmerizing to see him working on large pieces for his live drawing session, where the lines and details seem to materialize with ease from the tip of his fingers...

An attempt at emulating Terada's art style

For contemporary artist that embodies the spirit of drawing freely, I would definitely place Katsuya Terada as one of the 'masters'. More than just his artwork, his unceasing spirit of curiousity, to never stop drawing - even if it is only in the mind - the philosophy that calls for us to be more connected with our surroundings: to see, is to draw.   

Even if his status may as well reach that of a legend, I am  interested to see where he would continue with the development of his art, as he himself aims to continue drawing and improving well into his twilight years, citing the old master Hokusai as a sort of inspiration:

"If only Heaven will give me just another ten years ... Just another five more years, then I could become a real painter." - Hokusai

"Being able to maintain myself is very important;  I will spend more time focusing on that, my objective being to draw until I reach 100 years old." - Katsuya Terada

"I would like to continue to illustrate for just a little while longer.
Just a little more, just a little more is how I would like to illustrate until I meet my deathbed.
And hopefully, I can become just a little bit better at illustrating. That is my dream." 



Happy 56th birthday, Terada sensei! 

References/materials for further watching/reading:

Youtube playlist of Terada

Sketchtravel Quizz

Interview Now - 寺田克也 (Katsuya Terada)

KATSUYA TERADA INTERVIEW (SDCC 2013)


Book Review: 寺田克也全部―寺田克也全仕事集 (Katsuya Terada Zenbu)

Rakuga King – Katsuya Terada Sketches Art Book Review

Book Review: 寺田克也ラクガキング (Terada Katsuya Rakuga King)

Katsuya Terada -10 Year Retrospective [English transcription of book's captions]

Erotic Engineering – Katsuya Terada Book Review

Dragon Girl And Monkey King – Katsuya Terada Art Book Review

Katsuya Terada + Kim JungGi Illustrations Art Book Review

Real Size – Katsuya Terada Art Book Review