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Behind the scenes of the "#I have never quit drawing 'till now!" COMPxpixiv Artist Sponsorship Campaign - For those for whom illustrations have become more than just "fun"

Interview and Organization by Ichibo Harada @HEW

This may seem sudden, but why exactly is it that you draw?
Drawing isn't all fun and games. Sometimes you feel like you're not improving at all no matter how much you try, and if you look on social networking sites, there are many amateur artists with really impressive talent... Many people probably find themselves struggling with thoughts like "Why do I feel this down, when I'm doing what I love?"

COMP Inc., a company that develops and sells perfectly nutritionally balanced foods, is collaborating with the company that runs the illustration communication service pixiv, on a campaign to support illustrators.

As part of this campaign, we've asked the artists to create illustrations based on several different themes. One of these themes, called "#I have never stopped drawing 'till now!", challenges the artists to create a collaboration between their old work and current work. Through this campaign, what reasons have they realized for why is it they "have never stopped drawing 'till now"...?

A system for sponsoring illustrators and their work

──Today I'll be interviewing Suzuki, the founder of COMP, and Furukawa from pixiv. First, could you please tell me about the goal of this campaign?

Furukawa: To summarize, the goal was to create a "system for sponsoring illustrators and their work." We commissioned the artists to create paid illustrations, uploaded them on social networking with the sponsor's logo added in, and published an illustration book.
Until this point, pixiv has focused exclusively on providing a platform for artists to share their work, so there haven't been many instances where we've been able to actually reach out to them and commission illustrations. Through this campaign, we'd also like to encourage artists whose illustration style is outside of the mainstream to join pixiv, which is why we felt that in addition to improving the commendation feature, it was also necessary to create other chances for the artists.

── So there are opportunities for a wide variety of artists?

Furukawa: This campaign isn't the type that will take one artist and make them famous overnight. Rather, it's geared toward giving a "chance" to many artists. When we posed this idea to COMP, they agreed that they'd been thinking the very same thing.

Furukawa from pixiv

── Suzuki, have you always been interested in illustrated artwork?

Suzuki: I've always loved manga, anime, and games. Just recently I read "Ren-chan Papa"!

── That sounds like the choice of a true manga fan!

Furukawa: When I showed him the list of potential artists we were thinking of inviting to join the campaign, he looked it over and happily said "This is great!" He knew who most of them were just by their names!

Suzuki: I was especially surprised to see Satchel, who did the character design for DDLC, (abbreviation for the visual novel "Doki Doki Literature Club") on the list. I really loved DDLC... (laughs)

COMP is a line of food products that support people's dreams

── What kinds of products are a part of COMP's "total balance nutritious food" line? It's a little unexpected for a company that produces food products to be sponsoring illustrators...

Suzuki: We believe that COMP's products are also perfectly suited for illustrators. To explain why I'd like to take a moment to discuss the benefits of different foods. To put it simply, we believe the benefits of food are divided into two major categories. 

── Two categories?

Suzuki: That's right, there are "pleasurable" benefits and "nutritional" benefits. Of course, both are very important. Enjoying a pleasant meal with someone you care about soothes the mind, and eating delicious food makes you happy. On the other hand, when you're in the middle of working on something, whether for your job or your hobbies, you might not care what you eat as long as it's fast and filling. So, which benefit you prioritize depends on the situation you find yourself in at the time. 


Furukawa: Suzuki, didn't you say you once got so focused on an experiment you were working on that you passed out?

Suzuki: Yes! (laughs) I guess you could say that I'm also one of those people who loses themselves completely in their work and hobbies. Before founding this company, I was an organic chemistry researcher, and I was completely obsessed with my work. I find science absolutely fascinating. Isn't it insane to think that we have the power to manipulate particles too small to see with the naked eye and rearrange them however we want?! (Goes off on a rant...) 

── Suzuki's passion has kicked into max force...!

Suzuki: Back then, I would spend all my time locked up in the laboratory, working through the night if someone didn't order me to go home. I didn't want to waste even a second of time with things other than my work, so I kept mountains of nutrition bars on hand and basically lived off of those. That might've had something to do with why I ended up having episodes every few months or so where I'd pass out and have to be rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. While still in my 20's I suffered illnesses that don't usually appear in people younger than their 30's or 40's... The doctors ordered me to eat better. 

Suzuki, founder of COMP Inc.

── COMP must be a pretty impressive company, if it was founded by a person with that much drive...!

Suzuki: If you prioritize the things you want to do to the point of neglecting to eat properly, you run the risk of seriously damaging your health. COMP was developed as a solution to this dilemma. COMP is a line of food products that "support people's dreams." Which is why going back to the original question, I think that COMP is the ideal food for busy illustrators chasing their dreams.

── In the past, COMP has done a lot to support people's dreams, including serving as a sponsor for the 2019 "Freestyle Football Okinawa Open" and the "Wheelchair Tennis Global Challenge." Did you have any memorable experiences with these sponsorships?

Suzuki: One thing that was especially memorable was the e-sports players. Most people would assume being a professional gamer is a lot of fun. But it actually involves competing against yourself, in a highly elite niche industry where the pressure to improve can easily eclipse the simple enjoyment of gaming. Meeting with the players that COMP sponsored reaffirmed for me the importance of our mission to "support people's dreams."

Is the catch-phrase "Drawing is fun!" really true?

── Where did the theme of creating a collaboration between past and present artwork for the "#I've never stopped drawing 'till now!" campaign come from? I found it interesting how this theme points the spotlight not just on the fun aspects of drawing, but also the difficulties illustrators struggle with behind the scenes.

Furukawa: The art of illustration is certainly not all fun and games. Depending on the person, they might be strongly affected by the ebb and flow of their online fame, or they might be working really hard to achieve the level of skill required to make it as a professional illustrator. Illustration can sometimes be so challenging that it's necessary to create a catch-phrase like #Drawing is fun! to remind people why they do it in the first place. 

── I can see how it must be difficult to work in a field where you're constantly surrounded by people who are more talented than you.

Suzuki: Although there are many people who want to become professional illustrators or professional gamers, very few are able to achieve the level of skill necessary to earn money doing it as a career. But there are still many people who, despite not being able to bask in the spotlight, continue to put their blood, sweat, and tears into what they do. It's because we want to shine a light on as many of these hardworking individuals as possible that COMP, a company with the mission of "supporting people's dreams," chose to sponsor illustrators through this campaign. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought artists from around the world together

── What was your impression after viewing all of the submitted pieces of artwork?

Suzuki: I can't draw at all, but it was enough to make even me think "If all of them were able to improve this much, maybe I should start drawing too!" Of course, their improvement was the result of hard work and dedication, but seeing the proof that "It's possible to improve this greatly" must be a huge encouragement to aspiring illustrators. The "then" and "now" illustrations in INH_'s submission look like they were drawn by two completely different people! 

Furukawa: INH_ is from South Korea, but it's their first time doing an illustration job for a company in Japan. Vinne from Brazil also said that this was his first commissioned work from a Japanese company. The majority of work in the illustration industry is for companies in Japan and other east-Asian countries, so for artists outside of this area, this campaign was a valuable chance to break into the industry.  Of course, we also included many Japanese artists, who were happy to participate. We were fortunate to be able to collaborate with a wide variety of very talented and passionate artists.

vinne's Submission

── The artists must've been enthusiastic about this opportunity to show how much effort they've put in to improving their skill, right?

Furukawa: Indeed. Not only that, but usually when artists receive a commission there are a lot of restrictions such as "The logo's going to go here, so leave that space open" and "Use this color scheme and design for this character." But for this campaign, the only instructions were "Create the best piece of artwork you can base around this theme, the rest is up to you!" so the artists had an uncommon amount of freedom to work creatively. We also wanted to include submissions from around the world, so we made a point of choosing artists specializing in anime-style illustrations from a total of 16 different countries. And the artists range from popular professional illustrators to up-and-coming aspiring illustrators, so I think this campaign is a first in terms of the wide range of participants. 

── There certainly is a wide variety of art styles represented among the participating artists!

Furukawa: Yes, we intentionally selected artists with many different individual styles to participate, in order to avoid bias towards any particular style.

ちょん＊'s Submission

Silver銀's Submission

絵を描くPETER's Submission

▲ The theme of #I have never stopped drawing 'till now! provides us the opportunity to see the growth and improvement of artists from many genres.

── Did COMP have any restrictions about what artists you wanted to include?

Suzuki: We originally received a proposal from pixiv saying "We'd like to select artists who represent different categories, genres and scenes" and COMP was in agreement with this plan from the get-go. But I did request that we include artists from around the world, not only artists from Japan. I had faith in the folks at pixiv to select the participants, so I left the rest up to them and just waited in anticipation with the rest of the fans to see what they'd come up with...

Furukawa: COMP's request to include artists from various countries was most fortunate. We at pixiv agree that the illustration industry doesn't live only in Japan, but all around the world. 

Suzuki: Especially given the current situation, I think it was really fortunate that we were able to work together with artists from around the world. Covid-19 infection numbers continue to rise, and each nation is struggling with various social and political issues that fuel additional conflict, so I think it's really wonderful that amongst such chaos and discord we were able to provide the chance for people from all over the globe to work together to create something beautiful. 

An illustration that is the culmination of years of grueling effort

── Were there any other unexpected results of this campaign that you were happy about?

Furukawa: When we contacted the artists to ask them to participate in this campaign, several of them replied "I'm a huge fan of COMP's products and use them all the time!" There were also several artists who we didn't originally reach out to who heard about the campaign and contacted us asking to join because they are devoted COMP users. We were very happy about this! Now that I think about it, there was also one manager who said to me about the artist he manages, "She used to never eat anything but instant noodles all the time, but thanks to this campaign she's started drinking COMP's nutritional shakes and seems to be almost glowing with good health!" (laughs)

Suzuki: She sounds a lot like me when I was younger! 

Next Page : What did PALOW., one of the participating illustrators, think of this campaign?
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