Contemplating from afar

Here it’s, the 1kg, 2cm thick artbook from Pixiv, and I guess anticipated by artbook collector. I was expecting the same format as the Pixiv Girls Collection, but it’s not, and in fact, I’m a little bit dissapointed.

Pixiv Girls Collection was an artbook which emphasized more on illustration. There were a page spread section at the beginning, with wonderful art from chosen artist, and the rest was mostly half pages illustration, but still enjoyable.  The printing quality was also high, making it the thickest artbook I have ever owned until now.

Huke got a 4 pages treatment

Pixiv Official Book 2009, maintain this quality, but the focus is in my opinion, more on artist.
There is in fact, 1 to 4 pages per artist ( mostly 1 ) in alphabetical order. Unlike compilation book where every artist get a page spread illustration, there can be several illustration per pages, up to 7. Also notable, is the lack of tearfish. It’s now a cover with avatars from the artist featured.

I wish Koto had more pages

Same for RYO

The result is that illustration are sometime too small. The book presents 122 artists, with a little banner on top, to get their PIxiv ID, and their website. It feels more like some sort of index to browse Pixiv even more since I don’t browse Pixiv on a regular basis. There are lots of them, but here they choose some good one, and the book is a good way to discover them.

But let’s move to the content. Scan are not good, but most of the illustration are in fact already available on Pixiv. It’s also why I only link to Pixiv. Nevertheless, I will try to improve for other release, starting to prevent book from moving <.<

Tatetsu Keto

I usually don’t like Vocaloid. I don’t search for it in particular, but sometimes, when it’s different from the usual Vocaloid art, I appreaciate. It’s too bad the art was too large for scanning, so there is the binding discoloration. Hopefully, it’s on Pixiv, and in quite good resolution.  The resolution of the picture on Pixiv is in fact high enough for a 300dpi printing as large as the one in this book. Also, that cow hat is fun.

K,Kanehira

Other than character, there are also some landscape  featured, or even some photo or male images which won’t appeal to moe fan. But they are really rare.

Nardack

Nardack fill the hole left by tearfish as a Korean artist. I like that chubby  style and the color. It’s like Hyung Tae Kim making moe art. This is even more visible on this image ( it’s on the other page )which seems to be from Magna Carta.

Aruya

Aruya presents us with two different style. I already knew the soft style, used on the right; with little to no outline, mostly with contrast of saturation. On the left, I just discovered a more contrasted style, with defined outline, which is a change.

But if there is not enough soft style, there is still Shimeko and Onineko who are more well known I guess. They are quite similar in style, so I like them both.

Mirunai

On another note, Mirunai is an artist I have overlooked. I quite like the blue haired girl there.

In the end, it’s a nice book, but still my main gripe is the size of some illustration. I would have prefered less images per pages, maximum 2 like it was mostly in the Pixiv Girl Collection. But there some full pages one and some aren’t too small. But as I said, for me it’s a browsing guide for Pixiv. Some art are in higher resolution on the website or were printed elsewhere. If you are a regular Pixiv lurker, I think this artbook would  be less less interesting unless you like paper since chance are you have already seen the artwork.