Night of Foxes
My first book. Night of Foxes was researched and created during a 5 month period that I spent as an exchange student in Tokyo. I used all of the visual inspiration I got from the city to create the backgrounds in my scenes and wrote the story loosely based around the mythology of the kitsune, fox spirits. It's a story about being shy but brave, about longing to fit in and find a friend but doing so on your own terms. I was mentored at Tokyo Zokei University.
A page from Night of Foxes. The book is written in verse as a narrative poem. This scene is when the main character Mai has found the way to enter a feast for magical foxes in a hidden shrine.
This scene was inspired by the Toyokawa Inari Tokyo Betsuin temple in Tokyo (temple of a thousand foxes)
All backgrounds of the book are based on photos I took during walks around Tokyo. I'm very fond of narrow alleyways.
The process of painting a page started with a photograph (this one was taken in Roppongi) and I would then make a sketch and transfer that onto watercolour paper. The final image was painted with gouache paint and lined with ink.
Character design for Mai, the main character of the book.
Character design for Mai, the main character of the book.
Character design for Ein.
Complete book and cover.
The books are hand bound with a traditional Japanese stab binding technique. It was printed on separate sheets in Japan and then bound by me back home in Sweden.
Fox concept