Meet Yusuke Watanabe

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Yusuke Watanabe a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Yusuke, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
I think there are several factors involved, not just one. What I am most aware of is increasing the number of people/things I can depend on. This includes family, friends, jobs, hobbies, health, etc. I think the more you have, the more resilient you will be. I also think it’s really importtant to take time at least a few hours in a week for yourself and allow you to do what you love. In my case, it would be going for a walk, pyaing video games, watching films etc. As an artist, sketching without judging yourself and take time as you want is also effective to get your resilience I believe.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
My name is Yusuke Watanabe, I’m a Japanese picture book illustrator and animator based in Tokyo. I guraduated Calarts at 2022 May and I was enjoying visdev for animation during my time at Calarts, but luckily I got a contract of picture book when I was taking a gap year. That was my first time to make a whole picture book and I just fell in love with this media immediately. This book is called “A Fish Called Andromeda” and published from Idel Time Press on 25th November 2022. Currently I’m writing for my own picture book and also working for animation industry as a 2D animator. When I’m not working, I enjoy going for a walk, working out, playing sports, reading comics and playing video games.

HONORS AND AWARDS
・The 17th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards, Book Cover Design: Children’s Picture Books Finalist
・The Wishing Shelf Book Awards 2022, Category 2: Books for 6 – 8 year olds Finalist
・Chanticleer International Book Awards 2022 Finalist
Invited Lectures
2023 Guest Instructor, High-Touch Animation program, CalArts Extended Studies, Los Angeles, CA
2020 Guest Instructor, Bingo Soroban School, Dusseldorf, Germany

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I would say English, making your original arts, and exposing your works. Since I’m originally from Japan and English is not my first language, it was really important for me to learn English to open the door, it was almost like a passport for me. If you are not native speaker of English but want to get into the industry in overseas around USA, you definitely need it. It changes everything. It may seem cliché, but I think it’s more important than anything to create your own works and continue presenting them. I feel like there are no other shortcuts. Of course, meeting right people at the right timing is also very important, but that happens through your work, so I think there is no other way but to create your own work and expose it.

How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?
Yes, I am currently writing a story for the picture book of my own. I still have some work to do before sharing it with my agent, but I’ve been really enjoying the process so far. This is my first experience writing a story in English, so it’s very challenging, but I feel like there are some things that go well just because English is my second language which is really interesting. Publishing picture books as an author/illustrator is my main goal right now. I still have some works to do before sharing it with my agent, but I’ve been really enjoying the process so far. Also this is not related with my career as an artist but I got injured my knee when I practiced Judo recently and it needs surgery. Rehabilitation begins after surgery and it will take about five months to return to Judo, so this will be also a challenging thing for me. I will definitely do my best to come back stronger than ever.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Yusuke Watanabe

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