SUMMER GIRLS 2025 ✦ marker, colored pencil, pen, highlighter, pencil, acrylic paint, collage, special paper (washi, origami, holographic, iridescent, glitter)
Just two stylish ladies hanging out! Life has just been too busy, but I finally found some free time in December 2025 to make some art, not for a
client, but for me. I made this piece in a similar fashion to the "Animal Friends" series that I made yearly from 2014-2017, using a big 45x45cm shikishi board bought in Japan, as well as a wide variety of art supplies. The image shimmers, sparkles, and even changes color depending on how you look at it, and it was very difficult to photograph (I essentially had to composite together several images to get the balanced image you see here.) Really an image you need to see in-person to get the whole effect.
I'd been meaning to work with holographic/iridescent paper for a long while now, and I finally did, on the girl on the right's hair, and the little boxes on her shirt. The backing pattern of her shirt is made out of origami paper with metallic gold accents, and her jewelry is made from gold washi paper that sparkles in the light. I used an iridescent clear pink wrapping paper overlaid on the red hair of the girl on the left. When looked at under direct bright light, it's red, but turns neon green under certain indirect lighting situations! Her shirt is made of lots of different origami papers that I chopped up and collaged together. Both the girls' eyes are made with sparkly sticker paper that shines under the light. The background is acrylic paint.
I really had a lot of fun making this, and I hope to have more free time again someday to make more art just for fun.
PS: I'd always wanted to work a "hime
cut" hairstyle into one of my art pieces, and I'm glad the lady on
the right side finally gave me the opportunity :-)
1,2,3: details ✦ 4,5:
pencil in progress ✦ 6: ink in progress
7: colored pencil in progress ✦ 8: origami paper collage in progress ✦ 9: color change effect
10: A video showing the various color change /
glitter / metallic / iridescent effects
