Nomad Illustrator Creates Minimalist Drawings of Women

Araki Koman describes herself as a nomad illustrator and creative coach. Currently based in Bali, Indonesia, she has lived, worked, and studied in France, UK, China, Canada, Iceland, Denmark, USA, Japan, and Indonesia, all in the course of about 15 years.

With raw lines, organic shapes, and a limited color palette, Araki uses her minimalist style for commercial commissions as well as for her personal work which is influenced by spirituality, slow living, visual anthropology, and her multicultural experiences.

“Minimalism and simplicity are at the core of how I choose to live my life and therefore transpire into my work,” she shared with Creative Boom. “Moving a lot led me to minimalism. Whenever I had to move across countries with one or two suitcases, I had to decide what was worth bringing along.”

Most of her work focuses on women, explaining that “drawing women is natural for me as this is the subject I know best. I also love drawing men, places, and objects but I am most known for my women, so this is what I get the most commissioned for.”

Check out some of her minimalist illustrations in the gallery below.

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CONFESSIONS (⚠️ long article) . My yearning for Japan came when I was feeling at my worst, not being seen, understood and not feeling loved. My teenage years. The only thing I wanted was to leave, and move far away from my environment. The thought of Japan at the time was bringing a soothing feeling and was a kind of cocoon I loved to immerse myself into. During my 20s, I found many subconscious ways to recreate those unpleasant situations through friendships, love relationships, career choices and unhealthy thoughts and decisions. As I turned 30, I embarked into a year of healing through hypnosis based therapy in London as well as manifestion work with @tobemagnetic. This is the best decision I’ve made as it unfolded many past traumas while allowing me to see clearly how they played a role in my adult life. Through the work I started to realize what was making me feel small and not in alignement with my self worth . Even decisions I though were good for me on a conscious level, were in reality a projection of my low self worth trying to recreate an unpleasant situation . As many of you know I came back to Japan in October 2018, thinking it was the only place I wanted to be. I embarked you with me on this journey to make it happen, since 2016. Along the way, many amazing things happen. I moved back to London for 2 years, met and reconnected with fantastic people and communities I loved being part of. The best work opportunities also happened while I was there. Despite all this positivity my heart and my eyes were all focused on one goal: moving to Japan. Everyone I met knew about it 😂 . Well, what happened when I actually moved in Japan baffled me. I arrived with a big flu (I’m never sick) which put me to bed for days which followed with a month long depression stage. I couldn’t understand why. How come was I feeling this way after finally reaching the goal I set myself to achieve for so long? I knew it wasn’t culture shock as it was my 3rd time here and I’ve lived in 8 countries within 10+ years before. What was it? . The things I thought I missed seemed dull and I had to try hard to understand why I was back… (continue reading on comments below)

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It’s all within #bloombyaki

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Feel #bloombyaki • Illustration for @getinherears

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