About Ken Crane

Ken Crane is a professional freelance graphic illustrator, creating fantasy worlds, caricatures, book and magazine covers, picture books and new character designs.

Ken is also a writer, musician, and owner of the graphics company, STUDIO CRANES of Tokyo, Japan.

Born Sept 27 1967, Japan
Attended an international school from a young age and has been drawing cartoons since then.

Influenced by the Manga master Tezuka Osamu and Tove Jansson of the Moomintroll series.

While most classmates went to the universities of America, Ken lost interest in those groups and dropped out from Japanese society.

When younger Ken experienced living in a ghetto and has had several kinds of jobs. He became a freelance illustrator & writer in the year 1993 and has been married to his wife Yumi since the year 2009.

Illustration Work Undertaken
Book cover design and book illustrations
Creative graphic design
Cartoon illustrations and comic book art
Blog Illustrations & Web Art
Picture books for children
Children's illustration
Character illustration
Creative illustration
Magazine illustration
Fantasy illustrations
Commercial illustration
Hand drawn illustrations
Humorous illustrations
Storybook illustrations

Partial Client List
Paulo Coelho
News Week
FORBES
WIRED
Japan Times
VOGUE
Nihon Television

Admired Artists and books
Tezuka Osamu
Paulo Coelho
Charlie Chaplin
Dostoyevsky
Goethe
John Irving
Donald Walsch
Tove Jansson
Walt Disney
Miyazaki Hayao
Kurosawa Akira
Terry Gilliam

Musical Influences
John Lennon, Billy Joel, Beegees, Led Zeppelin, Tchaikovsky, Carpenters, Cream, John Denver, Deep Purple, U2, ABBA, Donovan, James Brown, and too many others to mention.

Languages
Japanese and English (written & spoken)