Hello all!

I come to you all to talk about one of my new favorite art books, Tokyo Storefronts by Mateusz Urbanowicz. My friend introduced me to this artist, who walks around and takes pictures of different storefronts in the city of Tokyo. He has a youtube channel where he shows you his processes, and also talks about other projects he is working on. Very recently he came out with the Tokyo Storefronts book, a collection of watercolor paintings of different places he has taken an interest in. Some still exist, others do not.

To begin with, he shows you a cute map he has of Tokyo, and small little placements of the buildings he has included in the book. I think it’s a cool addition to the book, and it kind of gives you an idea of where he has walked previously. The inside cover has a cool little sketch also of one of the buildings, something I enjoy opening up to and looking at.

In the book are very bright and colorful images of different little stores. He includes some writing in Japanese, and then a translation in English, which helps me understand more about the stores, and what they sell or what the buildings’ story is in general.

The watercolors are beautiful, and very bright. As I have seen him on youtube painting, I know he uses his paints in a way where he plans out what specific colors he will be putting down beforehand. It keeps his colors from mixing on the paper, and therefore they are brighter. In the back he also includes a picture of his workspace, a fun little addition.

Art by Mateusz Urbanowicz

Overall, I think this book is definitely work picking up, and you can probably find copies of it on ebay. Thanks to my boyfriend who got it for me, I think this is one to cherish for a long time! I’m definitely going to learn a lot from it!