Illustrator Nagu shares her tips for remaking old artwork - Redrawing something with improved skills!
pixiv is currently hosting the “Draw It Again! Illustration Contest,” where participants are invited to redraw their past works in their current, unique style.
Illustrator Nagu created the key visual for this contest by redrawing one of her own past works, just like any other contestant! You can find a behind-the-scenes video of Nagu creating the key visual, talking about her thought process and giving tips for remaking your art on the official pixiv YouTube channel.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the process behind the contest’s key visual, along with excerpts from the interview and some behind-the-scenes stories that didn’t make it into the video.
If you’d like to hear more from Nagu’s interview, be sure to check out the video below!
- Nagu
Illustrator.
She works on a wide range of projects, including light novel illustrations, character designs, and game-related illustrations. She has provided illustrations for numerous light novel titles, such as GA Bunko’s Komori Hina wa Tomaranai!, Gagaga Bunko’s Goddess of Victory: NIKKE - Youth Burst! Nikke Academy and Dengeki Bunko’s Tenshi wa Tansan Shika Nomanai.
She is also active in a variety of fields, including anime production and various exhibitions, such as The Landscape of Emotion — In Tanka Poems and Illustration, held as part of Japan Cultural Expo 2.0, a national project aimed at promoting Japanese art and culture to the world.
Behind Nagu’s redraw process!
── Can you start by introducing yourself and your work?
Hello! I'm Nagu, an illustrator. I usually work on light novel illustrations, character design, and illustrations for different mobile games.
To help build excitement for the Draw It Again! Illustration Contest, currently being held on pixiv, I'm looking back on the process of creating the key visual I made for this contest and talking about my own approach to drawing redraw illustrations.
Illustration from 2013
Illustration for the 2026 illustration contest
── Out of all your works, why did you choose this piece?
The title of the piece is Planetes, which is actually the name of the song I was listening to. It's a song called Planetes by EGOIST.
When I was choosing a piece to redraw, I went to relisten to the song and I actually looked at the lyrics of the song at the same time. I thought it really fit the theme of "redraw" and waiting a long time to come back to where you originated from very well, so I was like, "Hey, this has to be the piece that I redraw."
── How did you go about redrawing it?
I wanted to incorporate the new skills and knowledge I’ve acquired over the past few years so that the stories and themes behind the illustrations would come across more clearly than before, while also keeping the core elements intact.
── Among the elements you added this time, which one do you think had the biggest impact on the overall impression of the piece?
I think it'll definitely have to be the adjustments on the headphone wires.
The original piece only prompts viewers to look at the character once, but because the headphone wires now guide the viewer across the entire piece and all the different corners, I think the illustration looks a lot fuller and it's a lot easier to see in general.
── Do you come in to every illustration with an idea of a story, or do you find it as you go along?
I think it really depends. It's like a case by case thing.
But for this piece, from what I can recall, I was actually listening to a certain song and the image just kind of popped in my head. And I think this happens quite often with me because I do warm up exercises where I shuffle my playlist and the first song that I listen to for that day, I think of an illustration that fits that song. So it's something that I've been doing naturally for years.
And with this, I had an image in mind with the song and the theme, so that was what I was going for.
── When deciding on color and lighting, is there anything you use as a reference?
I think with this illustration, I didn't have anything specific in mind other than the original illustration, but usually I study not just illustration but photography and cinematography.
Cinematography for movies uses the footage to create and evoke different emotions and tell a story using different colors and balancing of the colors and framing.
That's something I study a little bit because I really love movies as well. That sense of concentrating or creating contrast with saturation and color, I think is something that is internalized from studying different forms of art.
── What kind of movies do you often like to watch or study?
There are quite a few space movies I've really enjoyed, like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Interstellar… Recently, I really enjoyed Project Hail Mary. The visuals are really great. So there's movies like that.
Ghibli movies as well. I learned a lot from the way they use different ratios of color to highlight things or create a mood.
── Do you think you'll do more redraw projects from here on out?
Yeah. There's actually one up on my pixiv account—actually not visible though— but one of the earlier illustrations I've done, I think was back in 2011 or so. There's one illustration that I've always wanted to recreate.
However, for the final decision, it came down to this illustration or that illustration, but I thought theme-wise, this would be a little better.
So I hope I can recreate the other illustration one day, because I definitely have a lot more skills and experience than I did back in 2011.
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