Kotobukiya’s fourth installment in its published love of Japanese culture is coming to the US in the next few weeks (February 2011) and this time it will focus on illustrators.

Titled Otacool 4: Worldwide Illustrators, the full color book will feature 160 pages of illustrations, illustrator biographies and interviews with featured illustrators (for example, Okya Hiroya and Kazuki Yone). Unlike the previous three Otacool books, this one was produced in cooperation with Pixiy, a Japan-based illustration community.

This week Important Importables continues the whole fan-creation theme. Last week we looked at video game doujinshi, which are fan-made comics inspired by video games. This week, we’re moving onto video game fan-art, the other way fans can express their devotion to a particular game. In particular, we’re going to be going over how to find fan-art drawn by Japanese artists.

Since it can be difficult to find art by Japanese artists, this week’s column is devoted to searching for it using two tools. First, we’ll see how to effectively use Google.co.jp to find images or artist websites. Then, we’ll learn how to make an account at and search the Japanese image site Pixiv.

So, let’s learn how to find some fan-art…