'Kazuki Takamatsu is a Japanese artist whose world is coming out of a fairy tale. But this fairy tale is not like the others. Dark and violent stories where floating melancholic childish figures are either in despair either in possession of lethal killing machines. Little melancholic lolitas posing with innocence create an atmospheric mystic world. Kazuki Takamatsu mixes traditional and modern techniques. On the one hand his works are gouache paintings (1) depicting three-dimensional objects and figures, whilst on the other hand he uses “Depth Map” (2) a technique where every pixel on the object he paints is a shade of gray that is proportional to its distance from the viewer. The match of these two techniques give a real sense of surrealism and astonishing depth. -- yatzer
(1) 'The method of mixing watercolor pigment with an opaque white pigment in a watercolor vehicle (made with gum arabic) is traditionally referred to as gouache. Gouache (pronounced "gwash") comes from the Italian aguazzo, for mud. Gouache is ideal for illustration and photoreproduction. Gouache paintings are typically done on hot pressed papers or smooth art boards, since the paint imparts most of the texture and these surfaces help to create a perfectly flat paint film. Tinted papers are also more commonly used, since the tint is easily covered wherever desired, but lends a pleasing background hue in unpainted areas.
(2) 'Shadow/Depth mapping or projective shadowing is a process by which shadows are added to 3D computer graphics. This concept was introduced by Lance Williams in 1978, in a paper entitled "Casting curved shadows on curved surfaces". Since then, it has been used both in pre-rendered scenes, in realtime, even in many console and high-end PC games. Shadow mapping is used by Pixar's RenderMan, and likewise, shadow mapping has been used in such films as Toy Story. Shadows are created by testing whether a pixel is visible from the light source, by comparing it to a z-buffer or depth image of the light source's view, stored in the form of a texture.'
Kazuki Takamatsu was born in 1978 and graduated from the Tohoku University of Art and Design.
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p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Yes, and Compton-Burnett looks forward to even less similar seeming writers. I certainly can't discount the influence her work had on mine when I discovered it. John Waters has one of the best tastes in literature I know. Hm, okay, where are those clips on FaBlog from? Not 'Stavinsky', right? Bad guess. ** Dooflow, Hey. Good to see you. 'Camera' is really something, yeah, and one of his best, I agree, at least among the handful I've read. Dalkey Archive is just a total godsend pretty much across the board. Anyway, thanks a lot. Hope all's very well with you. Is it? ** Sypha, I suppose you'll be diving into 'Imperial Bedrooms' today, lucky you. I'm most curious to see if his choice of the title that particular Elvis Costello album, one of Costello's very best, is meant to imply a change in his work that references or signals the shift in tone and style that happened between that particular album and 'Less than Zero, which was one of Costello's earliest songs. ** Alan, I'm semi-following the World Cup 'cos I don't have the mental space to leave the TV on all the time, i.e. watch all or even most of the matches. Baseball's my game. I follow it as religiously as I can, which isn't easy over here. Tennis a little. Basketball very slightly. I think that's it as far as my sports interest goes. You? ** L@rstonovich, Yeah, I read and quite liked that Coover. I'm a big baseball fan, and non-conventional novels about baseball are pretty rare, so I couldn't not read it, I guess. 'The Exiles' okay, duly noted. I'll look/watch for it. Thanks! I'm behind on my Hummingbird listening. My novel is doing my input few favors. I'll restart with the new one, cool. There's actually a book called 'Clam Plate Orgy'? That's so awful it kind of rocks my world. ** Stan_cz, John Waters is surely the coolest guy in showbiz and maybe even in the whole wide world. Whew, about your ear. Precisely on the draggy aspect of the trips I have to take, but I'm just trying to see them as fresh air, a helpful jarring, a chance to try out the ' ... makes the heart grows fonder' saying on my novel since I have no choice. ** 'Stoopid Slapped Puppies', Sounds nice. I get sort of get like that with the dorky Olympics except it makes me the emotional bottom rather than its Lord. So, swallow some really good pill when France plays its next match, okay? Thanks for your help re: Holland yesterday or whenever it was. I like Kenji Siratori's books. In fact, check this out if you don't believe me and/or want more stuff about him. I'd say get/read one of his novels and see what you think. They're all pretty much the same book over and over, which is not a problem if you dig what he's up to like I do, but, yeah, take a dip and see. I'll give having fun a decent shot today, I promise. ** Postitbreakup, Well, try using the emotion and stuffing it into an entirely different literary scenario, or a heavily veiled one at least. That's what I do, not that I know how I do it. A bunch of things I first posted on my blog ended up in zines, sites, and in 'Ugly Man', and it didn't seem to be an issue that they'd squatted here first. Oh, cool, you did post your story. Mm, it doesn't look familiar, so I don't know. I don't have time to read it now, naturally, but I will do so if at all possible by nightfall. Everyone, Postitbreakup, a very fine and sadly quite non-prolific writer plus d.l., has posted a rare 'failed' short story on his blog entitled 'Waste Management', and this is something of an event, so take full advantage, yes? ** Wolf, Oh, you're coming on the 13th, excellent. I should either be relaxed by then if the piece is well received or already becalmed into a state hopelessness should it turn out to be a flop. Daytime hanging out that day sounds totally fantastic! Awesome! Yeah, it's forbidden to shoot pix or video of the show, strict orders from Gisele. So you'd have be extremely sneaky and discrete. Really sorry you've been feeling down, pal. Anything this place or I can do to cheer you up? Need a talkfest or a special blog post to order? Say the word. ** Steevee, I like 'Ghosts Hunters International'. The hosts/investigators are less schticky than the US guys. You know, I can't remember them ever doing a Paris based investigation, which is weird. There's something called 'The Paris Ghost Tour', a walking investigation of the city's more supposedly haunted spots, that Oscar and Kiddiepunk and I have been meaning to take for ages. Maybe that burning wood smell in your building was a ghost. ** Justin, Hey. I'll check my Facebook box today. Some new internet signal hogging jerk or two has moved into the Recollets, and the connection here is now feeble, and opening media-packed Facebook is about as easy as throwing a dump truck at the moon, but I'll manage. Thank you kindly, btw. You feeling better, I hope? ** _Black_Acrylic, Go Holland! ** Frank Jaffe, Ah, you've hit the road. I like Waffle Houses. Or I like their biscuits. Biscuits are one of the food world's most underrated fruits, if you ask me. So, what did you do on your starry New Orleans night? Uh, watch jazz, hunt vampires, ... ? Ha ha, the Gio Black Peter response-ette: I'm virtually sure he's responding to a comment I made in the p.s. of that linked post where I declared my liking of his work while declaring him personally not my physical type. Little does he seem to know that I was just playing hard to get. So, you can tell him that he is not in fact disqualified, and that the combination of his physical form and the word sacrifice has occasioned a fantasy that is causing my eyes to dance at this very moment! ** Olivier, Great news about the 'Trash Humpers' DVD. Warp's doing it, interesting. Oh, you should totally do a 'Trash Humpers' post. I'd be a heavy devourer. Or do it for here so I can launch and devour it, hint hint. Either way, no pressure, but that post, wherever it may land, would be a very good deed. ** Joseph, I figure the negative connotations of the saying 'going south' must come from somewhere, and, so, going north, as you will be doing, would naturally have an opposite, positive connotation no matter what happens. Yeah, the privacy that writing creates is weird. I like it, a lot even. It's weird because this is the first time I've written a novel while having to be social, i.e. doing this blog. Odd combo. ** Chris, Oh, cool, yeah, just let me know the scoop when there is one. So wish I could be there for the Dixon Place gig. I'll alert the folks here as we get closer. I haven't heard the new Melvins, but, from what I've read, it's a bit of a downturn into their eccentric side after the last couple of quite strong, focused albums. Should I skip it? ** Ken Baumann, I wouldn't stress about the word count. Very short has been good enough for all sorts of gods that preceded us from Beckett to Blanchot, and that's just the B's, and where would literature be without the skinny tomes of living masters like, oh, Derek McCormack, for instance? Nowhere, that's where we'd be. Being in the middle of a thick (for me) motherfucker-in-progress, I can see no benefit to largesse or to the decision to size-up that I so foolishly made. Feel better yet? I can not wait to read 'Solip', man. It is the bit at which I chomp, and, yeah, I await few things more than sitting down with you and reveling in your vocalization of its elaborate concept. You will be speaking my language, my friend. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Mm, if I had to choose between 'The Bathroom' and 'Camera', I might choose the former, but that's likely because it was the first novel of his that I read, and thus his thing was all new to me at the time. My novel is still called 'The Marbled Swarm', and since that title has lasted this far, I'll be very surprised if it isn't the final title, assuming HP don't nix it for some reason. I do think about the title occasionally as I'm writing. In fact, I've tried a few times to figure out a way that my first and still beloved title idea 'French Hole' could work, but it won't. How's your work/ novel going? ** Inthemostpeculiarway, Hey. Well, hopefully your guy's sweetness will only manifest itself when you're too drunk or stoned to care? That would be thoughtful of him. I like that Gillian Flynn quote. It's good. You hardly ever see really good quotes that extol the particular ups and downs of morning time. 'Dreamlands' was a no cameras allowed thing, but I think I might try to assemble a post about it if I can find enough related pix and stuff online. It would be worth it. Oh, a short while after Yury and I first came to France, we lived in the Recollets for the allotted two years, and then, by the rules, we had to leave, so we lived in an apartment in the Marais for a year, but it was way too expensive both for me and for what it was, so we came back here again to do our current two year (and hopefully longer somehow) stint. The blocked number person did call again, twice more last night. I figure whoever it is can leave me a voicemail if they really need me, and whoever called hasn't. Yeah, I think your unclean shirt was the least of a Walmart employee's worries. See a doc about the ear. That's annoying, but, yeah, do it. Do it for the Gipper. You starting 'Imperial Bedrooms' today? My day: Not much. Worked on the novel. Blog stuff. Rained hard for a couple of hours. Really hard, fun rain. Needed to go out and buy a new eight pack of bottled water, so I did. Bottled water should grow on trees. It really should. When I came back, I went into the Recollets office to pick up a package, and my friend and fellow resident Paul P was in there having what looked to be an intense conversation with the Recollets higher ups, and as soon as they saw me, everyone shut up and acted kind of nervous until I left, and I guess I've been wondering what that was about. I got swept up in yet another family related drama that exploded from my psycho brother's psychosis, and after fielding calls and urgent emails and all that crap about the ugly situation for a few hours, I was wiped out. After that, I ate and watched TV, and that's about it. Day completed. A new one has arrived. You have first dibs on it. ** Nb, Hey. Oh, I found that 'always writing the same book' thing very interesting. I mean, people often accuse me of doing that, and I have concentrated my work on a specific area, so I'm always interested to read/think about writers who have and face the same dilemma. It's kind of weird that, say, visual artists are admired for working and reworking a single motif and/or idea, but writers who do that are marginalized. Mm, writing thoroughly or honestly or whatever wasn't something I had to force myself to do. It came naturally. I guess I've always concentrated on and trusted in the privacy of writing, and I never really think about whether I'm going too far or something until whatever I'm working on is finished, if then. It's more like I don't think about the exposure aspect until some outside person points it out to me. My advice: you're all alone, entirely alone. No one is watching or judging you or even knows that what you're writing exists. There is no spying God who gives a shit. You're as free to write what you want as you are free to fantasize about whatever would give you the best orgasm. Erase everything and everyone else. That may not seem easy to do, but it actually is. One month until LA! Hotcha! Hiking? ** Misanthrope, No, man, it's not weird that you care so much about the George Miles book I want to write. It's moving and means a lot, man. I guess when I'm dead, and if someone wants to write my bio, whoever handles my literary estate or whatever would try to make sure it's someone smart and sympathetic, but, yeah, I don't think anyone can control that stuff. Dude, bite the bullet and see a doctor about those pains. Seriously. ** Oscar B, Yeah, sure, I'm totally up for meeting your friend. 4:30 sounds just fine. Call me with the scoop, and let's do it. Very cool. ** You-x, Hey, man. Glad you liked the post, Yeah, he's good, worth your time. I guess I've always been good at multi-tasking to a point. I mean, the closest example I can think of to the situation I'm in now is back in the early 80s when I was simultaneously writing poetry and fiction, doing Little Caesar singlehandedly, writing some journalism, and also curating and hosting the weekly events series at Beyond Baroque. That was even more stuff going at once than I'm up against now. Are you a multi-tasker? I mean, you have a lot of different talents, so I'm guessing yes if maybe not a smoothly as you'd like? ** Monday is a done deal. As far as the post, I thought Takamatsu's combo of cgi-like tricks with traditional painting techniques was odd, interesting, and not a technique I've seen anyone else use, so I pass along my curiosity. See you tomorrow.
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