“Bicycle Boy” is a series of 10 watercolor paintings by artist Mateusz Urbanowicz. Many of the backgrounds are based on photos Mateusz took last year on a visit to Sakuragaoka which is near Tokyo. It is also where the film Whisper of the Heart by Studio Ghibli took place.
The 1995 Japanese animated film was directed by Yoshifumi Kondō and written by Hayao Miyazaki and was based on the 1989 manga of the same name by Aoi Hiiragi. On his website, Urbanowicz explains:
I did a rough sketch, then did the lines with a smooth 6B pencil, scanned and roughly coloured the lines in Photoshop to test my idea, and then finally painted with Holbein watercolours.
While the original paintings have all been sold, prints are now available through Society6. To see more animation and illustration works by Mateusz, check him out at the links below.
