Ko Yokoyama

Ko Yokoyama (横山 宏, born. June 15, 1956-, in Fukuoka, Japan) is an illustrator and modeler. He graduated from Musashino Art University, Department of Japanese Painting. His representative works include "Maschinen Krieger (S.F.3.D original)," illustrations for science fiction novels, mechanical designs for movies, games, and toys, and numerous commercial designs and three-dimensional objects. In his early years, his style was mainly pen drawings and watercolors, but in recent years, he has been using the Mac software "Painter" to create works with a heavy touch. A member of the Science Fiction Writers Club of Japan, Yokoyama created the trophy for the "Japan Science Fiction Grand Prize," a cyberpunk-style female figure given by the SF Writers Club of Japan. Yokoyama also created the Astro Boy motif for the Osamu Tezuka Cultural Award, which was established by the Asahi Shimbun in 1997.

Yokoyama's high level of painting and craftsmanship, in which he creates imaginary robots and other objects as if they exist, is backed up by his long history of modeling. He also uses the same mixing and building technique as used in the production of filming props for "Thunderbirds" and "Star Wars" as a means of expressing his models. He uses parts from existing plastic models of cars, Gundam, and other models on the market, as well as various styrofoam cases that can be glued together, to create his own original works. Depending on the production period, he often uses exteriors created using vacuum foam. Many of his works are egg-shaped (or similar to egg-shaped) because he believes that "egg-shaped objects are the most comfortable for humans when they see them.