This mysterious Japanese artist, who goes by the pseudonym of Ariduka55, or Monokubo, on social media channels, creates otherwordly illustrations that breathe life into a completely new fantasy world where giant animals live and evolve alongside humans.
Monokubo is a 24-year-old artist from Japan got an idea of giant animals from Studio Ghibli. "It came from "Princess Mononoke" and "Totoro". I liked drawing pictures in such style since a young age," MonoKubo shared with Bored Panda. The artist finds her inspiration in "Natural landscapes and various illustrations, for example, I like Piotr Jabłoński's work."
It seems the artist likes to indulge herself with illustrations that depict soft and cuddly animals - pandas, rabbits, dogs and the like - although, it's pretty evident that the cats are the apples of the artist's eye. The atmosphere in the pictures is almost always etherial and peaceful, complete with story-telling elements in their compositions. Many of the illustrations are marked with soft sunshine filtering through various objects, including leaves and windows.
Fun fact, the Japanese even have a word for sunlight streaming through the leaves of the trees - komorebi (木漏れ日). It's a term for a light curtain and the shadow it creates on the ground, a term that eloquently describes this everyday beauty.
the Japanese even have a word for sunlight streaming through the leaves of the trees - komorebi (木漏れ日)
Ooo, I like that term. Looking only at the characters I recognize: 木 — in Chinese this character means “wood” (by extension, also “plant” or “tree” depending on context) 漏 — leaking, leak (noun), leakage れ — Japanese character, not sure what it means 日 — the sun Even without actually knowing that third word, the compound term makes sense: sun (ray) that leaks through the wood/plant/tree.
