Tono

tono, an illustrator from Japan, invites viewers into a ‘quiet, dreamlike world where whimsical animals meet Victorian charm’. Born and raised in Japan, she has always been ‘strongly drawn to British and European culture’, having grown up surrounded by her mother’s clothing and accessories from London. She ‘loves nature, antiques, and fantastical worlds’, and her ‘favourite things are quiet places, cats, art and books, and cocoa’.

Since childhood, tono has ‘loved animals and imaginary worlds’, and her ‘greatest joy was drawing, reading picture books and fairy tales, and letting my imagination roam free’. She ‘transitioned to digital art’, gradually began receiving commissions after posting her work online, and has ‘published two illustration books and illustrated a picture book’. She has also ‘collaborated with a Lolita fashion brand and created artwork for card games’.

Her artistic style has ‘gradually evolved over time’. About ten years ago, she was drawn to a ‘dark, fantastical world, heavily influenced by Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth’, often painting ‘eerie scenes featuring girls alongside black goats or witches’. She was particularly ‘conscious of the contrast between light and shadow’, envisioning a world where ‘beautiful light pierced through the darkness, much like the works of Rembrandt and Vermeer’. She later sought to ‘expand my use of colour’, creating works featuring ‘a crocodile and a girl’, as well as themes centred around ‘flowers and a family of black cats’, placing greater emphasis on colour expression. She was ‘especially influenced by the brushstrokes of Monet and Van Gogh’, and more recently has been ‘captivated by the unique, dreamlike colours and atmosphere found in Tim Walker’s photography’. At her core, her ‘desire to depict fantastical worlds reminiscent of the books and picture books I read as a child has never changed’, and she believes the ‘essence of my work has always been rooted in storytelling’.

Her designs include ‘Picnic Bunnies’, themed around a ‘warm spring picnic in the forest’ portraying a ‘mother rabbit and her children playing freely’, expressing ‘a moment of peace and happiness’ with a ‘soft yet lively atmosphere’. ‘Bedtime Stories’ captures a ‘dreamy moment before falling asleep at night’, with two cats sitting quietly under the ‘warm glow of a lamp’, engrossed in reading a book, creating a scene that feels both ‘mysterious and comforting’. She creates her artwork digitally, ‘mainly using Procreate on an iPad’, with ‘final touches in Photoshop on a PC’, ‘switching between different brushes depending on the effect I want to achieve’ and layering textures over large areas to increase visual depth.

‘Beatrix Potter is one of the authors who has influenced me the most’, and she visited the Lake District to see Potter’s home. She loves ‘John Tenniel’s surreal illustrations’ for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and admires Michael Ende’s Momo and The Neverending Story for their ‘thought-provoking themes’. She ‘especially loves Comet in Moominland’ for the way ‘beauty and fear coexist in its atmosphere’, and cherishes the original book’s ‘soft and simple illustrations by E. H. Shepard’ for Winnie-the-Pooh. She ‘experiments at her own pace’, draws a lot while enjoying the process, ‘keeps making small improvements’, and hopes to ‘grow without pressure, enjoying the process along the way’.