Weekly Artists – Jun Kumaori

I wish it was still Fall. Blehh, Winter.

It’s been a while (months, actually) since the last weekly artist post, and here’s an attempt at bringing this feature back to life. I have spent many weeks pondering over which artist to pick for the occasion. Well actually, not really. It really depends on if I can find an artist whose name is easy to romanize, but Jun Kumaori’s artwork is a favorite of mine, probably because each piece looks so different in terms of colors used and unusual scenery. I also like how each drawing is still recognizable despite being unique in its own way; the artist’s style is easy to see (especially when it comes to character designs). And the people (mostly girls) really pale in comparison to the surrealistic backgrounds used.

A lot of this artist’s work doesn’t feature the person prominently; however, the scenery is truly exquisite. There’s something almost ethereal about the way everything is drawn, and there’s a trend of dark-haired girls in school uniforms that occur frequently in their works, often with an animal of some sort. Birds, dogs, and a recurring black cat crop up occasionally.

The clocks, gears and hourglass look so surreal, and the girl practically blends in with the colors in the background. It’s the type of piece that makes you stop and stare to make out what exactly is going on. That confusion and ambiguity is probably what makes Alice in Wonderland fascinate so many people, but there’s a more poetic quality to Jun’s drawings.

This artist’s portfolio is made up of a lot of darker works, and a good deal of them give off the impression that it’s just been raining. Somber or lonely and dreary may come to mind, but that only makes splashes of color stand out. This picture, with the fireworks, really shines amongst the rest of Kumaori’s art; the subject is looking directly at you instead of being an indistinct part of the scene, and it was the first drawing to catch my eye while browsing on pixiv.

Like the clockwork picture above, this one also has an interesting choice of objects with a textured background and girl-in-school-uniform. But like the moon in that picture, something else also brings it to reality. Is that supposed to be water that the girl is falling though?

And there’s also a number of down-to-earth depictions of everyday life in their collection, like this image of someone browsing through a dimly lit store. While not as startling as the abstract scenes of Jun’s other work, it’s still atmospheric as ever. The dim lighting is almost eerie.

This is one of my favorites. Even if it’s almost entirely scenic, I just love how dreamy it looks.

I still find it hard to believe that she/he’s only 22 years old. (Hmm, Jun kinda sounds like a unisex name. I’m leaning towards female, if only because they have a penchant for dressing up their insanely adorable dog in pink outfits and frilly bows. Or maybe that only proves that the dog is a girl.). Either way, I’ll try to continue this segment until I become overwhelmed and envious of all these artists’ talent!

/ 16 Commentsleave a comment /

• kluxorious says:

  December 28, 2010

  oh wow, how could I missed all these post of yours about artists O_o

  Reply
  • Mint says:

    December 28, 2010

    Heh, don't worry, this is actually the first one I've done. The last weekly artist post was waay back in March, so you haven't missed anything. ;D

    Thanks for commenting!

    Reply
• Ruby says:

  January 1, 2011

  I'm definitely not familiar with any artists at all, especially on pixiv, theres too many people on there xD The pictures are so amazing! backgrounds are usually the hardest to do, so this is pretty impressive. My fav are the clock and water ones~ I can't wait to see more artist stuff :D

  Reply
  • Mint says:

    January 2, 2011

    Neither am I. xD It takes me a while to track down names and such sometimes. And I'm way too lazy to draw backgrounds most of the time, so I love artists who put so much care and detail in them.

    Reply
• Vivi says:

  January 2, 2011

  Beautiful work! I wish I knew more artists, but when it comes to art browsing I just limit myself to fanart… "orz The scenery and backgrounds really blow me away, just amazing ♥

  Reply
  • Mint says:

    January 3, 2011

    I have trouble finding good fanart a lot of the time. >_< Then again, quality original art is hard to find, too. Glad you like :3

    Reply
• foomafoo says:

  January 4, 2011

  I accidentally came across this artist when I was looking for an art that has fireworks and got to see that third picture you posted. I ended up not choosing the artwork tho because it doesn't really fit the "anime-ish" style I was looking for. But I really find the texture of that art amazing. Same goes for his other artworks.

  Reply
  • Mint says:

    January 4, 2011

    That's interesting, since I chose this artist because it wasn't exactly drawn in an anime-like style– since there's already so much out there, hehe. And those textures are so unique/lovely. I wonder how he/she does it *_*

    Reply
• Bass says:

  January 4, 2011

  Man this artstyle is simply the best. Painterly, grungy, textury, whatever you wanna call it, this is my fav of them all.

  My recent post Rediscovering the Manga Love through Apps

  Reply
  • Mint says:

    January 5, 2011

    It does look painter-ly. It's too bad I don't see this sort of style more often, though!

    Reply
• ichigopocky says:

  January 5, 2011

  wow I love the pictures good pick :D

  Reply
  • Mint says:

    January 5, 2011

    Thanks, glad you like. ^^

    Reply
• starburst-chan says:

  January 8, 2011

  :O looking all these pretty pictures makes me want to set all of them as my desktop background.

  Reply
  • Mint says:

    January 8, 2011

    It's too bad you can't have all of them as your wallpaper at once! >_<

    Reply
• Holic says:

  February 22, 2011

  wow!!! love this post !

  I was introduced to Kumaori's art mostly because of Furukawa-P. The illustration he made for Envy is absolutely marvelous and breathtaking !

  Reply
  • Mint says:

    February 23, 2011

    Oh, I'm not familiar with that, but I'll definitely go look it up. Glad you liked it ^^

    Reply