Contact David

David Lovegrove is a writer and illustrator with a passion for Japanese culture both traditional and contemporary and he has created manga art for Emirates Airlines and Nissan (Dubai launch of a new direct route to Tokyo), for Cochlear Ltd’s launch of their new N6 Bionic Ear accessories and has drawn manga characters for Daiso Ltd to launch their new store in Garden City, Brisbane.

He recently created two Ads for Qantas airlines showcasing his unique double handed art style and was commissioned by Cengage to create manga illustrations for the new Obento Deluxe Edition 5 Japanese language textbook for schools, which will be published on 13 September 2018.

David is very well known for his manga workshops around Australia in schools and libraries as well as at many Japanese festivals including for the Consulate General of Japan in Brisbane during Japan Week (his manga workshops were voted most popular workshop for two years running).

His current major project is a three part novel entitled ‘Daruma’, a fantasy sci-fi story set in the near future about a group of female ninjas, devotees of Daruma San the legendary first Patriarch of Zen in Japan. ‘Daruma’ is inspired by all of David’s interests (history, science, martial arts) but particularly by the Japanese phenomenon of ‘cosplay’ and the great traditions of Japanese traditional arts and entertainment.

Part of his research for this novel was to visit the Kyoto temple ‘Daruma Dera’ (Shorinji), the main Daruma temple in Japan which holds an incredible collection of Daruma-inspired art. David, besides being a keen manga and anime fan, is also very inspired by jidaigeki (period samurai films) especially those of the 60’s and 70’s.

In December 2016, he initiated and helped organise the Sydney visit of famous Japanese actor Mr Koichi Ose, who played the beloved hero Shintaro of the 60’s ninja children’s TV series ‘The Samurai’, who appeared during the Japan Festival at Darling Harbour.

David is an expert in Chinese kung fu, an amateur sumo referee, a student of nihongo (Japanese language) and a keen but beginning student of the Japanese flute called yokobue. He lives in Northern NSW with his wife and three children.

Works