{"id":381311,"date":"2025-12-30T22:39:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T22:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/381311\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T22:39:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T22:39:19","slug":"im-obsessed-with-this-japanese-artists-catlike-creatures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/381311\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m obsessed with this Japanese artist’s catlike creatures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yamazuki Mari, AKA Yama Moon, is a graduate of the Department of Graphic Design at Tohoku University of Art and Design in Japan, but she gravitated more towards illustration and digital art.<\/p>\n

As an illustrator, she blends new and traditional influences in artworks for book covers, manga and character design. Her images are often dark and mysterious, with a folk quality to them, and they vividly portray humans and beasts, in particular wolves and cats, or catlike creatures.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here she introduces us to some of her characters and artworks. For more inspiration, see our character design tips<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Whisper of the Wolf<\/p>\n

\n

\"Dark\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Mari Yamazuki)<\/p>\n

Describing this piece, Yama says: \u201cThrough the still mountains, a traveller encounters a mystical wolf spirit that shifts between a human form and a graceful beast.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New Moon Sabbath<\/p>\n

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\"Dark\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Mari Yamazuki)<\/p>\n

\u201cA hidden sabbath sits beneath the new moon, where the silver witch flaunts her towering black wolf with pride,\u201d Yama says of this artwork.<\/p>\n

Circe’s Collection<\/p>\n

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\"Dark\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Mari Yamazuki)<\/p>\n

Circe is a captivating collector… in more ways that one. \u201cHer treasures are mostly animals, but when a man arrives, she smiles. Perhaps her collection will grow once more,\u201d Yama says.<\/p>\n

May and Mii<\/p>\n

\n

\"Digital\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Mari Yamazuki)<\/p>\n

\u201cMay and Mii, the mischievous Nekochi \u2013 a cat-like species \u2013 are inseparable. They are always side by side and are ready to cause playful mischief.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daily design news, reviews, how-tos and more, as picked by the editors.<\/p>\n

You can see more of the artist’s work on her website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For more inspiration, see Tony Valente’s tips for making a manga<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Start you own art journey<\/p>\n

If you’re inspired to start practising digital art yourself, here are the latest holiday deals on drawing tablets that we’ve reviewed on Creative Bloq.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared in ImagineFX. Subscribe to ImagineFX<\/a> to never miss an issue. Print and digital subscriptions are available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yamazuki Mari, AKA Yama Moon, is a graduate of the Department of Graphic Design at Tohoku University of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-381311","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}