Beautiful Story behind Maruco Art

It was early 2019 when we first met a talented Taiwanese artist Maruco Art.  We met her and her adorable illustrations at Design Festa in Tokyo where you meet over 6,000 talented artists and their beautiful art and products all at one place.  We fell in love with her illustrations and surprised to know that she came all the way from Taiwan to Tokyo for the event.  We had fun chat and promised to meet again.  In the summer of 2019 when we visited Taiwan, we met her again and had lovely time together.  Here, we want to share our happy interview to her!

Ayako:
Hello, Maruco!  Thank you so much for taking your time for us today.  We are so happy to meet you again, this time in Taiwan!!  Please tell us a bit about yourself for the interview.

Maruco Art:
Hello!  I'm Maruco, a full-time illustrator.  I established "Maruco Art" about 4 years ago.  I hand-draw illustrations for stationery products, portraits and wedding illustration, and sometimes I teach illustration classes.

Ayako:
How did you become an illustrator?

Maruco Art:
I started drawing when I was around 4 years old.  My father taught me drawing, and I fell in love with it.  I studied multimedia design and worked as a graphic designer designing the interface for video games and phone applications.  For 10 years, I was drawing for work - the drawing that they ask me to draw, but I always wanted to draw what I wanted to draw.  That's why I started to share my illustrations on SNS.  Then I started to receive positive comments on my illustrations, so I made my illustrations into products.

Ayako:
So then you became a full-time illustrator?

Maruco Art:
Oh no no.  For the first few years, I kept my job for living, but it was very hard because of the long working hours.  I worked during the day, and I drew at night.  With kind support of my fans, in early 2019 I finally decided to leave my job to work as a full-time illustrator.

Ayako:
Congratulations!  I am so happy for you!!!  Now that you are a full-time illustrator, please tell us how your life has changed?

Maruco Art:
I draw everyday for about 8 hours.  I LOVE to draw!  In the morning, I start the day making breakfast and then take care of my lovely shiba dog called Cha Cha.  Then I start to draw.  After lunch, I draw again.  I enjoy drawing all the time, even when I am watching TV, because I get inspired from the program and start drawing.  Sometimes I draw all day long until I go to bed.  I never get tired of drawing.  I just enjoy doing it so much!

Ayako:
Wow, you really love drawing!  Do you always have something that you want to draw?

Maruco Art:
Yes, I always find inspirations and find things to draw.  The ones I really love to draw are animals.  I also get inspirations on the street.  I remember interesting things I saw and draw them later.  I never take photos of them, but just keep the images in my mind.  I write some keywords of the inspirations in my journal and later go back to them for drawing.


Ayako:
When you produce new products, do you draw new illustrations for them?  Or do you produce new products when you collected enough illustrations to produce new products?

Maruco Art:
I would say both.  I always have a theme when producing new products.  Sometimes I decide the theme and then draw, but sometimes I produce products with the illustrations I have drawn.  I don't decide the theme based on what theme is popular in the market, though.  I just draw what I want to draw.

Ayako:
You draw many animal characters.  Do they have a background story?

Maruco Art:
The shiba dog is inspired from my dog Cha Cha, and the rabbit is inspired from my rabbit Co Co.  They usually appear in my art.  For example, I draw them in my "Around the World" series because I always wish I could travel with them.  By drawing them in the places I have visited, I feel like I was traveling with them through my illustrations.


Ayako:
You have many illustrations about Japan.  Where do you get your inspirations about Japan?

Maruco Art:
I love Japan, so I love to draw about it.  I have been to Japan many times and get inspirations from Japanese food, clothes, buildings, sightseeing spots.  I also love reading Japanese manga and listening Japanese music.

Ayako:
Next time you come to Tokyo, we will show you around!  Now please tell us what materials you use for drawing?

Maruco Art:
My favorite material is transparent watercolor and colored pencils.  For watercolors, you can enjoy mixing different colors, blending the colors on paper, changing the amount of water etc.  These are the interesting and attracting part of watercolors for me.  For colored pencils, I like the texture and the gentleness that create.  I brought my watercolors today, so I will draw something for your shop.

(She drew this adorable illustration right in front of us!)

Ayako:
Awwww, thank you so much!!!  This is so adorable!!  I will put it in my shop!!  What is the best thing of working as an illustrator?

Maruco Art:
The best part is that I can send positive vibes to people through my illustrations.  Many people told me that my illustrations made their day and they received positive vibes.  I am very thankful and grateful to hear such feed backs from my fans.

Ayako:
What is the most difficult thing of working as an illustrator?

Maruco Art:
The most difficult part is to balance the work I love and my life, and also to find how to improve myself as an illustrator.

Ayako:
What advice would you give to people who want to become an illustrator?

Maruco Art:
If the circumstance allows you and you love illustration, just go for it and do your best.  Don't make any decisions that you will regret in the future.  However, it is important that you have an financial backup like I kept my job for few years after I started working as an illustrator.  It is very hard to have two jobs - regular job and work as an illustrator, but you always need money to do things even to buy materials to draw.  If you really love to work as an illustrator, you will survive this difficult time and will never lose love for drawing.  Also, you can be an illustrator as long as you love drawing, but if you want to "work" as an illustrator, I think it is important to listen to the feed backs from people.  I draw what I want to draw, but this "what I want to draw" is not only for me.  I want to draw what my fans will love, and that is what I want to draw because I am happy when I can make someone smile with my illustrations.

Ayako:
What is your goal?

Maruco Art:
My current goal is to finish a whole series of illustrations to publish a picture book.  And eventually opening an atelier is my dream!

Ayako:
Ohh we are so looking forward to your picture book and atelier!  When you open your atelier, we will come back to Taiwan and visit you for sure!!!  As the last question, can you send a message to your fans?

Maruco Art:
I am very happy that you like my works.  I hope my illustrations will warm your heart and put a smile on your face!

We had an amazing time with her in a beautiful cafe in Taipei.  It was raining that afternoon, but our table was filled with happiness and joy.  That day we were talking about how it would be fun to do some collaboration together, and...ta-da!  Here is our first collaboration rubber stamps with Maruco Art!  We were drinking latte at the cafe when we were talking about the collaboration, so these adorable latte art stamps are to remember our fun time with you. :)  You can find them in our shop!!  

We also have her original washi tapes, stickers, and stamps in our shop now, so please check them out!



The adorable rabbit illustration she kindly drew for our customers is displayed in our physical shop, but for those who cannot come to our shop, we created a sticker of the illustration and will be enclosing it in an order with at least one item of Maruco Art products. :)

Thank you very much for reading this.  We hope you enjoyed reading our fun meet up with Maruco Art.  We are very thankful to this beautiful friendship that started with the love for stationery.  We hope stationery will fill your day with happiness and joy!

You can find adorable Maruco Art products HERE.

Love, Ayako and Junko