Kansai Creative: Happiness ☆ Hijioka • 関西クリエイテブ：ハピネス☆ヒジオカ

Now, this guy really makes me laugh.

Going by the name of Happiness *star!* Hijioka, he's Osaka Yanen! • 大阪やねん！, and he knows it (and plays off it well). Browsing his works at Gallery Hokk in Horie, I couldn't help but laugh. Hijioka San keeps a blog (here) with Illustrations in it, and he had a number of pictures on display at his exhibition. One was a picture of a love hotel with kids playing in the fountain out the front, and a very embarrassed couple leaving the hotel trying to ignore them.

His works are all done in a very rough wobbly-line style, but the uniqueness of his drawings make his stuff cool. At his exhibition he had lots of sketches of the Kita ku neighborhood, which were without the attached humor usually included in his works with characters. I thought these everyday neighborhood pictures were magnificent, especially with his style applied. He has done lots of tourism work for Osaka, and a few of his drawings, like the poster in the photo above, are all the sights and characters just crammed into one work. It's totally Osaka, and GREAT, because Osaka is a great place. No arguments accepted.

Hijioka San keeps cats, who he talks to quite a bit in his blog. He mentioned to me that he's been a freelance Illustrator for 10 years now, and he's making enough to eat. I think he was chuffed about having a foreigner visit his exhibition, and got me to sign his youseigaki. He's had foreigners visit some of the exhibitions he's been in, but said they couldn't speak Japanese. He also admits his English isn't good (see the illustration below).

Keep an eye on his blog (here) if you wanna learn some real Kansai Dialect. Go the Happiness *star!* Hijioka!