Meet Yogisya, the artist who became a hedgehog

The Japanese creative's portfolio covers art, fashion illustration and even webtoons. Her webcomic Fantasy Illustrations from an Enchanted Bookshop helped expand her already-impressive audience and was even collected into an art book last year.

"I made many artworks featuring fairytales, and showed them to the audience when I participated in COMITIA (a fan convention dedicated to the sale of doujinshi, which are self-published works), but I thought a webcomic series would also be a great opportunity to showcase my artworks to a wider audience," Yogisya tells Creative Boom.

The web series was published on the PIE platform after one of its editors approached the artist with an idea for a comic.

"I thought it was a wonderful concept, and it immediately brought many images to my mind," she says. "I wanted to create nostalgic and classic artworks for the audience. In the collected book, I turn myself into a hedgehog and introduce fairytales to them by travelling around the world across time and borders."

"I wanted to introduce readers to various fairytales. Not only the famous ones but also the ones that are really charming but not known to everyone. Also, I like drawing clothes, so it was fun creating various patterns of costume designs."

Of the fairytale series, as created using iPad and Procreate, Yogisya's personal favourites are those of The Snow Queen and Hamlet. She's also proud of being able to "delve deeper" into these age-old tales through her art.

"I rediscovered the delight of creating an artwork featuring them. Also, I am thrilled with the beautiful, classic style of the book's binding."

"There are so many fairytales and stories from folklore in this world that I could not introduce in this book. I sincerely feel like I want to continue my career as a creator inspired by those wonderful stories."

Follow Yogisya on her Instagram.