Folks, you are in for a treat, because we’re back with this week’s picks! Any illustrator with an ounce of talent can make art look kawaii or cute, but this trio has a little something extra that elevates it to higher artistic planes (without sacrificing cuteness of course). As a result, this makes their art and merch immensely appealing! Personally we find them very collectible and display worthy at home.
1. ZZoya (Korea)
ZZoya is a Korean based artist who we know very very little about. Here’s what we do know: She started her full-time career as an illustrator in 2002 and did this until she moved to France in 2015, where she focused on fine art as well as illustrations. It was in France that she was inspired to start a series of illustrations titled ‘Crow Girl’.
After 3 years in France, she returned to Korea in 2018 and has been steadily growing her Instagram account since then. Her Insta portfolio today mainly combines her two loves – drawing cats and girls in nature.
What appeals to me about her paintings are not just that they look adorable, but her art style is unique, and the colors add a very sophisticated aura to them. Needless to say, the subject and style is of course very feminine and ZZoya’s merchandise is marketed at women. But as a family man and cat lover, I would enjoy having her prints adorning the walls at home, no doubt about it.
Find her on Instagram and buy her merchandise here.
2. Takako Ide (Japan)
Takako is a prolific watercolor illustrator based in Tokyo, Japan. She accepts art commissions worldwide and has published two cat theme ‘draw along’ books on Amazon (they’re in Japanese). Her Insta popularity is steadily rising with close to 45k followers at the time of writing. Her art has even been commissioned from as far away as Saudi Arabia!
Although she primarily draws cats, other animals will show up from time to time. There’s really no need for me to describe the appeal of her soft tones depicting felines in real-life poses (I know, I did it anyway). After all, that’s what we all love cats for – just being themselves.
I must confess that seeing her art has made me miss my old cat Duckie, quite a bit.
All photos shown here are from her Instagram, and you can also contact her at her website www.takakoide.com.
3. Cindy Chien (Taiwan)
Cindy and her cat Dong Dong live in Taiwan and she has a more minimalist style coupled with really lovely colors. She sells her merch on Shopee Taiwan here (You can switch the language tabs to English in the top right of your screen). One unique selling point is that her range of merch has more Japanese vibes, where by she offers tote bags, washi tape, keychains and small stationery.
All her art featured here are from her official Instagram account.
We here at CatsandCollectibles pride ourselves on curating cat art that has just about something for everyone, and we hope that you were delighted with this week’s picks.
See you laters!
