Illustrator and animator coalowl stands out for her cute drawings and joyful dance animation. She’s the person responsible for memorable animations like Chainsaw Man‘s fourth ending sequence and the RuriDragon and ZUTOMAYO collaboration music video, as well as the dance choreography in the chorus sections of VTuber unit Nornis’ “Johari” music video. She’s also one of the artists featured in 2024’s Animation Works Collection, a book that examines a number of short-form animated works, and will soon hold her first solo exhibition, which will debut at the gallery room of Harajuku’s The Coffee Brew Club on October 31 JST.

While coalowl is now a notable fixture in the illustration and short-form animation scene, she didn’t immediately embark upon the path of a full-time professional artist, and there was a period of uncertainty before she found her footing, as revealed in a two-part interview with Boundless Art Media (BAM). 

“I got a regular office job, doing typical administrative work. It was so busy that I hardly had any time to draw. Back in high school, I had thought about drawing as a side job, but at that point, I wasn’t able to make that happen. It took some courage, but I eventually decided to quit the company,” coalowl said.

coalowl. who shared that she’d drawn since she was a child (“I spent hours drawing the Powerpuff Girls”) and continued to do so even in college, albeit at a lower rate, explained that she “always wanted to make a living from my art.” However, she had no concrete plans when she quit her job. “It was more like, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen next, but for now, I’m just going to quit!’” coalowl said.

During this period, coalowl worked as a part-time convenience store worker and spent her time at home “building up my illustration portfolio.” She says that she took around two years to get to the point where she could make a living from her creative work, which BAM remarked on as being “incredibly fast.”

coalowl noted that “at first, there was almost no response whatsoever from the world, and it was tough! But I kind of had no choice – I’d already quit my job, so it was all or nothing. Still, the simple act of drawing made me happy. That feeling surely kept me going.”

When asked if there was a turning point, coalowl recounted the time she received a commission for an illustration from Nijisanji VTuber Hakase Fuyuki in 2020, which was to be used for a music video. “At the time, I only had around 500 followers on social media, so I was genuinely thrilled to be discovered like that,” coalowl told BAM. “It also introduced me to VTubers I now love, like Mito Tsukino*, so it was a really memorable moment for me.”

*(In September of this year, coalowl made an appearance on Mito’s birthday stream during the reverse-call segment. This occasion also marked the artist’s first voice reveal.)

Image source: @coalowl

BAM’s interview also covers other topics like coalowl’s influences, her upcoming exhibition, and her school life. One section touches on her hand-drawn animation style, which makes use of rotoscoping in some areas, “The thing is, if you trace rotoscope footage too literally, it doesn’t turn out cute; it ends up stiff or too small in scale. So I exaggerate movements or sometimes don’t trace them at all to keep the expression lively,” coalowl revealed.

The artist also uses herself as reference for her dance animation work. “In the early days, I worked with dancers to help create the choreography, but even then, I often performed it myself,” she explained. “Lately, I choreograph everything on my own and dance it myself, too. I even practice dancing just for the sake of making the music videos.”

Check out the first part of BAM’s coalowl interview here, and the second part here.

Source: Boundless Art Media