Heikala Creates Blended Ink and Watercolor Illustrations Inspired by Japan

Discovering a new amazing artist on Instagram is always exciting and the fact that someone with nearly 1 million followers didn’t catch our attention earlier only proves that there are so many talented people out there.

Heikala is a graphic design graduate living in Finland who creates “cute” work inspired by Japan. Her illustrations tell stories and she shares the videos of them coming to life along with the photos of finished pieces.

“A huge source of inspiration for my work comes from Japanese animation and other popular culture,” she says. “I’ve also now been to Japan three times and will visit again this autumn. I like to take pictures and get inspired and then implement my adventures in my work. I think my style is a combination of Japanese anime-style and Finnish children’s book illustrations…think Rudolf Koivu and Tove Jansson.”

Scroll down to see her work.