Polish-born and Japan-based artist Mateusz Urbanowicz is the talented illustrator and painter behind Bicycle Boy, a series we’ve previously featured on Neocha. Known for his vivid usage of watercolors and eye for detail, Urbanowicz has worked as the background artist for many anime TV shows and movies over the years, including the critically acclaimed Your Name. This year, Urbanowicz expressed hopes of shifting more of his attention towards personal projects. This reprioritization has led to a continuation of the ten-part Tokyo Storefront series that he released last year. The extension to the series comes in the form of a bilingual book that includes the original ten illustrations along with 40 new drawings.
艺术家Mateusz Urbanowicz生于波兰，目前居住在日本。他也是我们先前报道的另一个水彩画系列《自行车男孩》（Bicycle Boy）的作者。才华横溢的他以细腻精致且清新生动的画风而闻名，更曾为许多动漫和电影创作背景插画，包括广受好评的电影《你的名字》（Your Name）。今年，Mateusz表达了他专注创作自己的艺术作品的希望。他将去年已有10张作品的《东京店面》（Tokyo Storefront）系列进行了增补，并将以双语书的形式面向大众，其中将包括最初的10幅插图以及40幅新创作的作品。
“When I moved to Tokyo more than three years ago, I was really surprised that on my walks I encountered so many shops still in business inside really old buildings. Differently to Kobe, where the earthquake wiped out a lot of these old downtown houses and shops, in Tokyo they still survive,” Urbanowicz recalls, and inspired by their beauty, Tokyo Storefront is his attempt to document these charming buildings.
“我搬到东京的前3年，连散步时都会很惊讶，因为一直会偶遇在那些已经很老旧的建筑中仍在营业的商店。在日本神户，地震摧毁了许多老城区的房子和商店，但在东京它们还屹立不倒。”Mateusz的《东京店面》系列正是想要记录下这些风景。
The majority of the storefronts featured in the book comes from Urbanowicz’s exploration of Tokyo. However, his approach is more than a mere recreation of his observations. In the illustration above, Urbanowicz shares that the signage was already torn down when he showed up in his location hunt. Disappointed, he took a few photos of the shop in its current state and went home to scour the internet for old images of the store. In his final illustration, the original signage has been restored in its retro glory, and as a master of details, a small chair he observed in one of the old photos was also included.
这系列的大多数店铺，Mateusz都是在东京闲逛时偶然发现的，但画中不仅仅只是纪实。正如这张画上方的圆形标志，在Mateusz前去这家店之前，商标就已经不幸被拆了，当Mateusz到达那里的时候只能拍一些照片，再不得不用互联网上找到的旧照片，在画中把商标加上去。而其中一张照片里，商店门前放着一把小椅子，细节如它，当然不能被忽视，Mateusz把它也画了上去。
Commenting on the series, Urbanowicz shares, “I didn’t want to copy all the retro guides that already exist for Tokyo. Because of that we, of course, had to go again to those places, take more photos, and look more closely at the details of the shops. But that also gave us a chance to talk with the owners to learn more about the interesting history behind each of the shops.”
Mateusz表示，“我不想照着市面上已有的怀旧导游册拷贝，因此在创作过程中我们不得不再次走访这些地方，拍下更多照片，关注更多细节。这也给了我们和店主交流的机会，深入了解到店铺背后有趣的历史。”
In the upcoming book, Urbanowicz not only explores Tokyo shop facades but will also include historical details presented in both English and Japanese as well as sketches of shop interiors.
Tokyo Storefronts – The Artworks of Mateusz Urbanowicz is now available for pre-order on Amazon.
在以纸质版面世时，《东京店面》将并不仅仅包含东京的店铺店面，也会有一些店铺的内部插画和文字介绍。
目前，《东京店面——Mateusz Urbanowicz绘作》（Tokyo Storefronts – The Artworks of Mateusz Urbanowicz）系列已经可以在Amazon上预售。
Website: mateuszurbanowicz.com
Facebook: ~/urbanowiczmateusz
Instagram: @mateusz_urbanowicz
Contributor: Chen Yuan
网站: mateuszurbanowicz.com
脸书: ~/urbanowiczmateusz
Instagram: @mateusz_urbanowicz
供稿人: Chen Yuan
