Award-winning illustrator Yuko Shimizu talks about hitting rock bottom and why it's fine for babies to poop in her art

"I remember staying back in class once to do my homework and realising that there were some apples that had been placed there for still life painting. I was so poor that I thought, 'Oh, free apples!' and took them home. Half of them turned out to be rotten because they had been sitting in class for so long."

That's Yuko Shimizu recalling her time as a 30-something student in a class of 18-year-olds at Manhattan's School of Visual Arts. She had traded her cushy job in corporate PR in Tokyo, forgoing the disposable income that allowed her to "go on vacation, eat at restaurants and buy stuff" in order to "pursue a childhood dream" -- even if it meant being "really, really stingy" to keep living costs low, sharing an apartment with girls half her age and waking up in the middle of the night feeling miserable.

"When I hit rock bottom, I would think that I am at least doing what I wanted to do," says the Japanese illustrator, now 48. "It was difficult… I couldn't make up my mind about pursuing art until a terrible boss came along and precipitated the decision. But if I hadn't gone to New York, I would've regretted it the rest of my life."

Yes to ambition, no to airs

Drawing and painting, which she started doing as a two-year-old toddler, is gratifying. "It's really important to have something in the hardest of times that makes life better. That sums up illustration for me," Shimizu, who was in Jaipur last week for the Zee Kyoorius Designyatra, says. "Creating pictures gives me satisfaction so that even if someone looks at it for a second and it makes them happy or makes them stop and think, there is meaning in that."

Her illustrations have graced the covers and pages of Time, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Businessweek and Fortune and the publicity material for brands such as Microsoft, Nike, Pepsi, T-Mobile as well as books, including Tales on Tweet. And it doesn't bother her if her work is printed on diapers, ensuring that babies "poop in her art". "Illustrators create something that is disposable," she told a packed hall at the Zee Kyoorius Designyatra. "At some point, our creation is very important and at some point, it's discarded. That's alright... you move on. It keeps illustrators down to earth."

While her namesake was the creator of Hello Kitty, Shimizu has been selected as one of '100 Japanese People The World Respects' (by Newsweek Japan in 2009). She remains unabashedly modest in her 18-year-career as an illustrator which has seen her win several awards, including a D&AD Yellow Pencil. She talks about being complacent, being driven to frustration and having worries with the same ease with which she discusses clients and getting inspiration for her Japanese aesthetic-meets-comic-strip style of illustration — all laced with zest and humour.

"It's easy to fall into the trap of work-for-free-because-you-get-exposure when you are starting out," she said in Jaipur. "Don't do that! I say this because there are a lot of mistakes — and there are many you should make and learn from — that others have made for you... as I have. So learn from them." But she lays emphasis on being extremely ambitious and putting in hard work. "If you keep your goals low, chances are you will get there quickly and become lazy. So keep your ambition really, really high, and perhaps you may not reach the top, but that's okay, it'll keep you going."

Paying it forward

While not religious, Shimizu whole heartedly endorses karma. Recalling how her peers would recommend her for work when she embarked on a career as an illustrator, she stresses on the need to pay it forward. "If I have to turn down a job, I always recommend other illustrators, and especially newcomers," says Shimizu, who spends her Sunday afternoons taking Bruiser, her Chihuahua, for a walk. "It makes the industry a lot happier and healthier. And that's good karma points."

Yuko's mantra for illustrators

New York-based Japanese illustrator Yuko Shimizu says illustrators don't just make pretty pictures. "They are problem solvers," she says. "For instance, if I have to design a cover for a book, I have to read the book and understand it and turn it into a single visual for the cover. Or if I'm illustrating for an article about politics, I have to read about it and then come up with a meaningful idea. And coming up with ideas is problem solving."

1) Add 5-10% 'new' in your work — something you've never tried before. You'll have a sense of accomplishment and keep learning.
2) For illustrators to be relevant, they have to do something that is better than, or offers more than, photographs.
3) Keep your ambition really, really high and work hard towards it. Remind yourself about this when you feel lazy.
4) Don't take work that you believe is unethical and will give you sleepless nights.
5) It's okay to turn down a job. There'll always be someone else to do it (But if you do turn it down, recommend others who can take it on and pay it forward).
6) If you've agreed to do a job, put 100 per cent into it. And give options.
7) Don't fall for work-for-free-to-get-exposure when you are starting out.
8) If you do work free, you should get total freedom. Free work = total creative freedom.
9) Experiment with your style.
10) If you are frustrated, you can b**** to your friends. But if the f****d up thing doesn't go away, then do something about it.