Kawaguchi Youhei

Kawaguchi Youhei (川口洋平 aka kawa/yoo) does these cool colorful digital illustrations using Photoshop. It looks like he uses simply a drawing tablet, hundreds of brush strokes and time to create his work. His subjects can tend towards the risque, but the context is usually so strange they end up desexualized. There are several recurring characters and themes all heavy with Japanese influence that's hard to comprehend. I can find little information on Youhei himself and without the ability to read Japanese it's even more difficult. Every search I do just brings up galleries of his artwork. But besides all this his shit is COOL.

Youhei keeps up a sort of collaborative BBS which includes this step-by-step animation of him drawing a portrait using a light Java-based paint app. Four small collections of his work (including samples) are available here, but can only be purchased in Japan. There are links to a a few time lapse painting videos he put on YouTube accessible through his site. He has links to some very cool Japanese artists as well, I recommend you check them out.