Kokeshi is a personal project of a graphic designer from El Salvador, Virgilio Cortez. He modeled the pieces first and made some composition sketches afterwards. Let us take a look at his project and enjoy!

Well, some of my artworks are made for myself, I mean I love to make things for fun and for me it makes me feel free from the common pressure of doing stuff for other people I put my own deadlines and my rules, a lot of love and passion on this projects. The project took about 1 month and half like 2 hours per day maybe, I create a family set and the Original Kokeshi.

- Virgilio Cortez

I saw a video of an old man making wooden kokeshi, so I thought it would be cool to make my own one, then I started to see some references images, and then try to put some of my tribal style on it, that’s why is call kokeshi-sosaku (where an artisan have freedom about shape colors, and design), so I mixed some tribal and minimalistic style for the face paint.

- Virgilio Cortez

I use Cinema 4D for modeling and render, Then make final adjustments with Adobe Photoshop, like color corrections and framing. During some information research I found out that some suspect that means “Lost children”, in memory of those children who got lost on the mountains. Is a memento of someone, its kind sad, but at the same time very magical.

- Virgilio Cortez

I usually like to find something that inspire me, then I get really obsessed with that, thinking and thinking, looking for references and how to apply my style on it.

- Virgilio Cortez

About Virgilio Cortez

Virgilio Cortez is a graphic designer from El Salvador. He loves photography, animation, illustration. He is currently working as a multimedia designer but he spend most of his free time doing lot of stuff especially in photography. Also, he is a fan about Asian culture and his is very influence by myths and tribal elements for he loves masks, horns and ancient stuff. You can find more of his artworks on his Behance profile or website.