A Mix of Video Games and Centuries Old Japanese Printing Tradition
Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art born in the 17th century. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings. The tradition almost faded away in the 19th century. However, these days it is revived and the characters for the prints come from video games.
By the way, Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa, is one of the samples of Ukiyo-e.
The project Ukiyo-e Heroes is years in making. In 2012 woodblock printmaker David Bull had made 12 designs inspired by video games and following the centuries-old art tradition. He launched a very successful Kickstarter campaign. Widened the assortment of designs and made a dedicated internet shop.
In 2017 another Kickstarter campaign introduced a new step in the project. The name Ukiyo-e Heroes: Boss Fights is pretty self-explanatory.
All these years David Bull posted multiple videos dedicated to the project on his YouTube channel. There are more than thirty of them now!
Here is an introductory video from the second Kickstarter campaign:
And that’s a first video in series showing the creation of the Rickshaw Cart print with characters inspired by the videogame Mario Bros.:
Just watch the following videos on YouTube, and you’ll see the whole process.
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