About Hitomi

Hitomi Ishihara is one of the foremost caricature artists and instructors in the world.  Her live art has brought joy to tens of thousands of happy customers, her studio work has been seen on TV, in print and art exhibitions all over the world and her social media reaches over 50K followers every day. 

A lifelong artist, Hitomi pursued her dream and became a graduate from Tokyo Design Academy's Illustration department. In 2015, she made her professional artistic debut, working for the world's largest retail caricature chain store, Caricature Japan (カリカチュアジャパ), where her skill and teaching ability quickly rose her to the rank of Instructor in just over a year. 

Her next major milestone came in 2016, being hand selected by Caricature Japan to fly to the US and represent the company at ISCAcon, the world's largest caricature conference and competition, hosted by the International Society of Caricature Artists (ISCA). In her first outing she beat out hundreds of artists to be ranked as the 8th best caricature artist in the world, causing the company to send her back to compete for multiple following years, whenever her busy drawing and teaching schedule allowed. In the span of five conferences, Hitomi accrued 11 awards from ISCA in five different categories. In 2021 Hitomi received the prestigious Golden Nosey, awarded for 1st place in the Caricature Artist of the Year category, considered to be the world's highest honor in caricature art. 
Since then, Hitomi's career has continued to flourish. Already a highly sought after speaker, teaching workshops and seminars at multiple conferences and online on behalf of Caricature Japan, however in 2023 she was invited to be the Guest of Honor/Keynote Speaker at Japan's Caricature Grand Prix, which is held every two years (Hitomi opted to not compete in this event, as she felt the Guest of Honor role was flattering enough, and this allowed for her to cheer on her many students and co-workers also competing in the event).  2023 would also see her elected to the Board of Directors of the NNAA, the Nihon Nigaoe Artists Association (Japanese Portrait Artists Association). 

2024 had Hitomi invited to KOSCA (the Korean Society of Caricature Artists) as the Guest of Honor where she was flown in to speak, demonstrate her process and compete, where she won numerous first place awards including Korea's 2024 Caricature Artist of the Year.

Outside of caricature, Hitomi has also been successful in the fields of fashion and character design, co-creating and designing Kawaii Hawaii along with Disney Fine Artist Beau Hufford, which was featured in many shows including LA's famous DesignerCon. In 2024 a 44-page Kawaii Hawaii manga was co-written and fully illustrated by Hitomi and released to the public. 

Now, in 2025, Hitomi has shifted her focus to pursue global opportunities as a cartoonist, illustrator and instructor. She can still be seen periodically helping her friends at Caricature Japan, however she is mostly focusing on upcoming projects, such as art and instructional books and her artistic growth seminars.

For a full list of Hitomi's awards, events and numerous other achievements, please see the list below.