British light artist Shantell Martin is a busy women. Besides being the definition of Tri-Coastal, spending her time between London, Tokyo, and New York, Shantell has been able to travel across the country VJing and sketch projecting, which according to one recent bio explains as “Using the latest drawing tablet technologies, Shantell illustrates the music that she hears, mesmerizing crowds with art that’s drawn in time with the beat. She projects her unique real-time illustrations onto walls, screens and sometimes the dancers themselves. Shantell says that she isn’t simply drawing, but rather, is reacting to the music, the dancers and [...]

After spending the past five years in Japan, artist and VJ Shantell Martin has decided to give NYC a go and is ready to see how her unique form of live storytelling translates in her new home. Despite having only arrived a few days ago, Shantell seemed quite at ease when she swung by the PSFK offices for a chat today. Sporting a recently purchased Peek Pronto and an open attitude, Martin spoke to us about making the transition and her upcoming plans – and even left us a one of kind illustration to keep.
Among other things, Shantell discussed how, [...]

We’ve written about Shantell Martin a number of times over the past year, yet we remain inspired by both her art as well as her unique form of storytelling.  In the below video, Shantell explains how her style evolved from doing street art and tags in London to doing much smaller and more intense drawings in Tokyo and how that ultimately influenced her current work utilizing projectors and wacomb tablets.
Explaining how her recent trip to New York helped develop her style, she describes how drawing in front of live crowds and interacting with the environment puts the audience in control [...]

Tokyo based Shantell Martin points to some behind the scenes photos from a recent shoot by Sebastian Mayer of her illustration work on skin. Provocative, take-a-second-look, intriguing.

Shantell Martin

Shantell Martin is a VJ in Tokyo. Trained as an illustrator in the UK, she moved to Tokyo in 2004 and started drawing at live events. Initially, she was drawing on paper and having those images projected onto the wall – but when a club asked if she could draw at one of their parties, she started experimenting with drawing on a Wacom Tablet.  She has since evolved into using a wireless tablet slung from her shoulder, so she can wonder through the crowd and illustrate the scene – each line drawn to the beat and simultaneously projected onto the [...]