We recently gathered questions from the Vocaloid community to share with Rella, a well-known and highly popular Hatsune Miku illustrator in the Vocaloid community. Rella moved to Japan recently, which caused a delay, but she finally had the chance to answer our interview request. You asked the questions, here’s what Rella had to say!
MF: MikuFan
Rella: Rella
MF: “Hello, Rella, and thank you for joining us for an interview! There are many followers from overseas that are excited to connect with you and learn more about you and your work. We gathered some questions from fans around the world, we hope you look forward to it!”
MF: “When did you first start drawing, and what inspired you to draw?”
Rella: “I’ve been drawing digitally ever since the 2nd year in junior school when I got my first Graphic Tablet.
I started scribbling with pen and paper before elementary school. There wasn’t a certain reason, just drawing itself made me happy.”
CG的话，是从初中二年级买了数位板开始的。
普通的纸笔的话，小学之前就一直在乱画了吧……说不上有什么具体的原因，就是单纯的涂鸦这种行为会让自己很开心？
MF: “Which of your Hatsune Miku artworks is your favorite, or which one are you most proud of?”
Rella: “This ten year anniversary contribution.
I cannot really say I’m 100% satisfied with this piece, but many people who saw the picture feel there’s a story in it, that’s what I tried to achieve through all those years.
To accomplish such a piece in the 10 years anniversary is a memorable moment for myself as well.”
这次十周年的贺图。
虽然不能说百分之百的满意，但的确很多人都说在这张图里感受到了故事性。这正是我这几年来一直努力追求的。
能在十周年之际完成这样的作品，对我自己来说也是一种纪念。
Rella’s Hatsune Miku 10th Anniversary Illustration
MF: “What’s your favorite Hatsune Miku song? If hard to choose, what song have you enjoyed most recently?”
Rella: “It’s really hard to choose. My favorite song of 2017 is “ストラテリウム”.”
MF: “What does Vocaloid mean to you and how has it influenced your art? Also, do you plan to release another Vocaloid art book?”
Rella: “The thing that influenced me the most is the idea of 曲繪(painting for the song). It makes me start to consider how to include more melody and emotion in the non-animated art form like a painting.
I am working on a new book. Hopefully it can release sometime next year.”
VOCALOID是构成我的一部分了。
最大的影响大概是【曲绘】这个概念吧，让我开始思考怎样在单幅的画面而非动画的形式中融入旋律和情感，与存在与画面之外的东西产生连结。
确实有在构思新本！要是明年能画出来就好了呢。
MF: “What is the most challenging aspect in creating art featuring Hatsune Miku? How do you go about choosing what poses, colors, and backgrounds to draw? Moreover, do you have the finished art in mind right from the start?”
Rella: “For me, I always think its hard enough to make people feel “aha, that’s MIKU”.
It’s not good to say this, but maybe loving someone too much will make you become critical. Sometimes people say, “as much as there’s the green twin-tail, that’s miku”. But it was just a character with green twin-tail on the picture, it’s not her. It might be the expression on the face, might be the temperament, I cannot even tell, that’s what make it so hard. I want the girl on my painting to not be mistaken as anyone else, but only Miku.
The pose, color, and background are for express the emotion. Pose has the most affect. On the sketch, I usually do a few versions with slightly different poses and choose the most satisfied one to complete the piece.
Yes, most of the time, if I didn’t get the “aha, that’s it” feeling image in mind, I won’t even start.”
其实我一直觉得让人觉得她就是miku本身就是一件不容易的事情。
虽然说这种话不太好，因为太喜欢她就变得苛刻了起来……很多时候正如某些人所说：【只要有对绿色双马尾就是miku了。】画面上只是一个绿色双马尾角色而已，并不是她。
影响这种感觉的也许是表情，也许是气场，我也说不太清楚，正因如此才是我觉得困难的事情吧。希望并要求着自己能表达出画面上的这个少女不是别人，是miku。
姿势颜色和背景都是为想要表达的情感服务的呢。姿势影响特别大，草稿阶段经常有好几个细微变化的版本，选择最满意的去完成。
会的，基本上没有那种【啊，就是这个】的那种画面也不会下笔。
MF: “Is there any plan for you to somehow record a video of your process of drawing, beginning to end, for any past or future art pieces? I would love to see your magic!”
Rella: “Years ago I did record a few, there was one recently. If you don’t mind, I’ll put the link here so you can see.
But I always feel nervous when recording, and recording software slows down my computer and affects the drawing, so I don’t really do it very often.”
很多年前有过！啊，其实最近也有一个，虽然并不是很厉害的画面。如果不介意的话连接贴在这里了可以看看
不过录制的时候会不自觉很紧张，录制软件也会导致电脑和绘图软件变卡，并不常这么做。
Link if video above doesn’t play: http://www.bilibili.com/video/av11374559/
MF: “How you view your own artistic talent, specifically, have you ever considered making anime, visual novel, or manga?”
Rella: “I know I’m definitely not the “no talent at all” type, but still, I’m just a regular person who really enjoys drawing, that type of feeling.
Yes, I do want to try all of that, but really don’t have time. I really wish there was 48 hours in a day.”
肯定不是完全没有天赋，但说到底也就只是个喜欢画画的人……这样的感觉吧。
有啊，都非常想尝试，只是真的没什么时间，希望一天能有48小时。
MF: “Do you have a favorite snack food while drawing? If so, what is it?”
Rella: “I don’t. Or I should say, I cannot. Left hand on the keyboard, right hand holding the pen, I really cannot eat.”
不吃……不如说是吃不了，左手按快捷键右手拿着笔，没有办法吃呀。
MF: “Do you have any tips or advice for aspiring illustrators and artists?”
Rella: “If you really love it, keep doing it, it will definitely have a good result.
But you must “really” love it, because the piece(result art) will never lie.”
只要真的足够喜欢的话，一直做下去一定会有好的结果的。
但一定要是【真的】喜欢啊，因为作品是不会骗人的。
MF: “Do you have any special message for your fans overseas?”
Rella: “Thank you so much for your supporting. To be honest, I never thought my work could go so far and reach so many people.
I will keep working and hope you will like my works in the future.”
非常感谢你们的喜欢！说真的确实从未想过自己的作品可以传播到那么远的地方。
我会继续努力的，希望你们也能喜欢我今后的作品。
MF: “Thank you very much for taking the time to answer our questions! (｡>▽<｡)ﾉ”
Follow Rella on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rellakinoko
Follow Rella on Pixiv: https://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?id=163536
About jrharbort
A Hatsune Miku fan since December 2007, jrharbort joined MikuFan as the Head Writer in October 2011. Follow on Twitter at @jrharbort.