If the ‘Tokyo Nights’ series were deemed to be the definitive artistic output based on the essay, then they could surely not exist were it not for the location of their creation, Shinjuku. The series is based on memories of a trip undertaken by a 16-year-old to Tokyo, memories triggered so many years later by images found via the web, images shared by other travellers new and old to that impossibly different and difficult-to-comprehended city. ‘Gaijin’ cat calls, street fashion and nights spent away from the monotony of the dojo and boredom of the dormitory. Shinjuku was and is an explosion of hustle and noise, all bathed in a never dimming, always-changing neon glow, but it is also a place of tiny alleyways and even smaller bars, places where the simple pleasures of wholesome food and cheap beer can be shared by friends over conversation and stories retold.
The final colour choice for the Shinjuku artwork
The final artwork echos the 'Tokyo Nights' colourways and has text, both in English and Japanese script, the script reads 'Gaijin', a common slang for foreigners in Japan, a rough translation would be 'savage'.
The original colour image of Shinjuku by Brent Meheux, coloured in Adobe Photoshop on the iMac
The original black linework that was completed in Procreate on the iPad
Technical Details
The creation of Shinjuku by Brent Meheux started life on the iPad using an Apple Pen, via Procreate and finished in Adobe Photoshop on the iMac. The work is A2 in size and has been created to accompany the Tokyo Nights series, possibly as an embellishment for the essay, or as a title piece.
Unused, for now…
Often the process of creation will leave many illustrations unused, hours of work in their creation, then further fruitless hours spent testing and moving them around the digital drawing board, a visual jigsaw in motion endlessly without outcome. Yes, so far with neither home nor purpose and yet always kept just in case…
Here you see the work on the ‘Tokyo Nights’ series that didn’t quite make the cut, ideas that ran out of steam or failed to deliver an intended feel. The detritus of experiments that found themselves part of unfortunate creative cul-de-sacs, full of good intentions, but found to be lacking in overall impact, so now sad drawings unlikely to see the light of day.
