Originally I didn’t plan to make a post out of it, just some analysis for me to learn, but here we go again, digging into an artist style and technique. First I don’t own any piece of art by Kishida Mel, I know him through scans. Some may have seen the video where he draws on his Cintiq; I’m providing a slowed down version so that you can appreciate more his hand movements and his techniques. Artist are skilled, some more than other. Kishida Mel has impressive skills.

Roughly ( since I can’t translate Japanese ), Kishida Mel started by randomly drawing, then went to college design, dropped out, and put his work online and got spotted. So he does illustration for magazine, light novel, anime character design, and certainly most known recently for his work on the Atelier serie.

Kishida Mel, judging by his drawing video, did a lot of work on paper before moving to a digital environment. He started digital art on image board, so no pressure control, and with a mouse. He switched to a tablet, the Intuos 2 and with Painter 7, he could  finally enjoy the pressure control of his pen. He upgraded to the Intuos 3, Intuos 4, and finally the new Cintiq21 UX pen-screen which is simply the best at the moment. Also, he switched from Painter to SAI, and using Photoshop for some final editing.

His computer is overkill, with a Core I7@2.66ghz, 12GB of RAM, and a secondary 23″ screen. I’m not sure of what he can do with 12GB since he use SAI. As it’s only a 32bit software, it can only use up to 2GB of RAM.
Now the technique. As I said, here is a slowed down video. Initially, at 3 times the real speed, I had to put the speed at around 40% of this speedy video. It’s a little bit faster than reality, but the movement will look more fluid than if I tried to put it at the real speed.

His style is quite soft, with little hard shadow. The color he uses are desaturated, he doesn’t use vivid one. Well, let’s see how he does.

Sketch and inking

Kishida Mel use SAI’s pen tool, with the second hardness tip. His movement is mostly hand/wrist because he dezoomed quite a lot the canvas. In fact, you won’t see him zoom nor rotate/mirror much at all which shows the precision of his movement. Sketch is a bit see-through for anatomy, but that’s all.
Inking is done with 2 different type of movement. For most line, he will use a single fast stroke, and if it’s not good, CTRL+Z. Then, for adjusting the thickness of his line, he makes several stroke where he wants them to be thicker. Some hard shadow are done during the lineart instead of the coloring.
Finally, while the lineart is black, he adds a layer to color it in brown.

Coloring

For coloring the character, he only use 1 layer. He doesn’t really bother with layer management which makes me think that he has colored previously on paper. White color is provided by the canvas.

His SAI has no color set in the color swatch, they are all picked from the color wheel. He use a brush to color, and mix the color directly on the canvas, then pick them up directly on the canvas. While coloring, the color and the size of his brush changes quite often. I would say that it’s a technique similar to the one used in painting, but I don’t have much knowledge in traditional media.
He only use the brush tool to color; I can’t see the settings, but it seems to be set rather low as he can put a light blue color on black without it turning quickly grey. Also, I wonder what is his pressure control setting. It doesn’t seems like it controls size, which would explain the regular change of brush size. At the end, he cast some light by using the softest tip.

End

For reference, I used:

• The video
• Atelier Rorona & Totori artbook scans
• Interview

It’s not always that I can get enough material to see an artist technique, but I hope I will get more for someone else.

Next month I will finally have a home, till then, I just got my goodies from the Japan Expo. This year again, Shiitake was present and she signed my doujinshi! She is really a beautiful artist, and she was wearing a yukata.

Sadly no, I don’t have another photo of her booth. Anyway, she had 2 doujinshi which she had released in April, Hanaotome and Eternal Wings, 32 pages each. Hanaotome is themed around traditional clothing, meaning yukata. Eternal Wings features, well, wings. This time I took photo of the book, but not with my usual point and shot; I borrowed a Nikon D300S.

Book opens on one of her old illustration, which was featured in previous doujinshi, as well as a little message in Japanese. THe version in English, French, Korean and Chinese aren’t translation, it’s the usual description she puts for her circle when she travels.

The book is quite impressive as it’s printed in A4 format, rather than the usual B5 format and is bound by stapples. Printing is good. For this illustration thought, it seems like the copy on the right was upscaled, but that would be the only complain I will have on quality.

Most of the art seems recent, though some illustrations are from her older style.

I experimented a bit on the photo end as well, as I shot at least 5 times before being satisfied by the photos. This one is particularly bluffing as it can fool people into thinking that it’s a scan.

The end of the book got comments on each illustration as well as the rough sketch and a quick showing of her CG step by step of the cover under SAI and Photoshop.

You can buy the doujinshi easily since it’s available for worldwide shipping:
Asianbeat

And to be frank, I have a preference for Eternal Wing, but it’s mostly about my taste since I quite like angels and so on; and butterfly wings are beautiful as well.

Here is an experimental article; as I might do more artist focus in the future. I don’t expect their content to be always the same. Il will certainly depends of the material I have at hand and my knowledge. I have acquired Let’s Make Character CG 2 month ago, but as you could expect from the title, this is no artbook. So how will I review this book which certainly doesn’t fall in the artbook category? In term of illustration, there is only 3 new one in this book, certainly for the explanation. So instead of reviewing the book itself, I will dig inside Shimeko‘s artstyle as I flip through the pages of this book as she has a truly unique artstyle which I appreciate very much. I have limited skills when it comes to drawing and coloring, but I hope this will also help people who are learning, as I’m filling this article under the “Learning to draw” tag. The new illustrations are processed and saved in PNG, the rest is raw resized JPG. [PNG: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4]

Shimeko start first with a sketch, drawn on paper, then she ( because it’s always better when the artist is female even though I don’t know! ), ink in Photoshop. I won’t comment much this part, but the sketch doesn’t have a lot of details, so most of them are drawn during inking.

The coloring is really what makes Shimeko’s style unique. She first start by giving a general look of the skin color. Also it seems like she already gives some substance to the eyes by using a gradient. As a noob in coloring, I know also that a lot of people make this mistake: they start to color in detail one part of the body, leaving the rest blank. This is also true for sketch and lineart; but having seen some step by step explanation from some artist. I think they all give a general feeling of the illustration color scheme. This is certainly an important step as it determines the contrast type, the color coherency and of course, the general feeling of the image.

The book also have some technique, apart from the step by step explanation. Here we have Shimeko’s coloring stroke. The first one is an hard brush with varying size, like ink; the second is like an airbrush, and the last one is more like watercolor, with varying opacity. While I have an idea how to do ink and watercolor with the pen pressure setting, I’m not sure for the airbrush as it looks more diffusing than the default soft brush in Photoshop with dynamic size.

Of course, the lineart doesn’t remain plain black with most artists, as the surrounding color has an effect on the visual perception and in fact, the black will no longer look black. Shimeko used brown here for eyes lashes, and all other the stroke.

Then, Shimeko do a basic shading of her illustration. At this stage it looks already quite like a digital drawing, without much details left to add; but she doesn’t have this digital style and in fact, her coloring as people know s rather soft and painting like. The first step in this magic is certainly her light casting. Objects reflect light and give certain shade to other element. It’s the case here for leaves and strawberries.

>

To finish her artwork, Shimeko makes a copy of her artwork, then apply a gausian blur and modify the fusion mode and opacity. The difference isn’t so visible in the book as the images are a bit small. Then she adds the frills to the dress. As it’s simple frills, she draw them by hand and lastly, she modify the curves. Once again, I can’t tell the visual difference, but here is the finish artwork.

The book has 2 more illustrations with their step by step coloring. The process is bit different for these 2 but I won’t get in details. At the end of the book, there is also 2 other illustrations, but they are already on the Internet, either in digital form or as a scan. Ultimately, this book is really nice if you want to learn Shimeko’s style, and if you do understand Japanese as it’s not easy to get anything from the images. I also hope that I will be able to do more of these focus in the future.

I will just skip the Etsu magazine and Tsukiyo no Fromage vol 2, the former is just to get some art magazine, the latter for scanlation, but you can still read more about them in icie’s review here and there.

Girls Girls Girls 4
As this artbook has a number, I feel compelled into getting it, especially since I already own the 3 previous one, and I have been happy with them. This 4 issue like the other collect the artwork from the Etsu magazine, and only the cover is a new artwork by Tinkle, which is the first highlight for me. Now there are always some artist I only find in the Etsu/Girls Girls Girls, like A=g, as it’s not so easy to get her doujinshi. Now there is one thing which bother me in this book; it’s the rather long undressing theme in the middle, and it’s not really SFW. It’s a bit too ecchi for my taste, and while I’m not bothered by the ecchiness itself, when it comes to artbook I prefer it to be consistent in either safe image, or ecchi, but not a mix with ecchi in plain middle. Otherwise, It’s really great as I rarely get magazine especially the Etsu which is quite thick. For a more in-depth review, you can read natalie’s.

Ashiato
2009 is the year I started to collect Kantoku’s publication; so I get the previous doujinshi in the Check x Check collection, and the C76 and C77 sets. Now a commercial artbook is another beast as it implies some enjoyable thickness compared to most doujinshi, and Ashiato deserve in this aspect. Quite a lot of full page illustration as I like, and even when there is 2 it’s really nice to see. There is so artist which are just better to see on paper, and I think that Kantoku is one of them. The paper of the cover is the usual smooth one, but it fits the soft color tone used for it. Then, as Kantoku use a quite contrasted and vibrant artstyle, the paper by it’s semi matte finish puts that little bit of sparkle which makes it a wonder to see. Then again, for the review, check natalie’s ^^

100 Masters of Bishojo painting
To finish, the delayed artbook, which is a collection of 100 artists as you could guess, with 2 pages each, usually one illustration full page, and the other page has smaller ones. The choice of artist is very good; I don’t know/remember a good part of them, so it’s also the chance for discovery. It’s too bad that there is no Tinkle though inside, not for the art as chance it would have been already published, but just to know their gender. Artist gender seems like so funny topic for enthusiast as it’s never easy to know their gender. Depending of the artworks, it seems like we are more inclined to think that the artist is either male or female. I will note though that some didn’t put their gender in it like Shimeko. There is also some wallpaper to download; I wonder if it’s not also a way to check for oversea traffic…

The added value is certainly the English translation. Yes this is a publication for a more international audience, and they know who they are since they kept the term “doujinshi” most the time. As I goes through the pages, I noticed that my attention is focused on the CV and message of the artist. It’s the first time that such information are easily available for us foreigners, and this is certainly a nice point. Until now, all these artists always felt distant to me and we would still be watchers from afar with our telescope as if they were unreachable stars, but this artbook make them feel closer, as a bridge between us and them, and they don’t lose their sparkles. If you feel like they are distant, this is certainly the artbook to get, and also it gives me so hope that one day we will be more than simple watchers.

For more review, there is icie’s and of course natalie’s

Frill*frill – Morinaga Korune
Nostalgic Barbie – Okazaki Anko

I think I have never seen Morinaga Korune draw something else than loli, and it seems to continue with Baby Doll Biscuit, a collaboration doujinshi with Okazaki Anko, who I have never heard of before. Both have a distinguished and recognizable artstyle, and they are rather fitting in this 20 B5 pages doujinshi. Going by past experience, it’s not going to be cheap. There is also a little set which will have a telephone cleaner, and a bonus book.

And just to verify my theory, here is one more DS case.

CHRONOLOG – Izumi Sakurazawa
Fururi – Hinayuki Usa

They must really like each other as they have yet another stand together. Now as there is quite a lot of stuff, you better check the webpage directly. So Sweet is a monochrome yuri hentai doujinshi, featuring yet again Youmu and Yuyuko.

Sakura-Rou- is a collaboration between Izumi Sakurazawa and Kijima Renga of RengaWorks, with 36 pages of black and white manga for Touhou.

Kairo is Hinayuki’s doujinshi, a huge doujinshi of 120 B5 pages, 32 in colors, the rest in monochrome. This is rather interesting as it features more color page than a thin doujinshi!

Yumemi shoujo no yume sen is her second doujinshi, with 20 pages of color illustrations for Touhou.

Then, the collaboration doujin is just a Touhou calendar to hang on your wall, with 7 sheets.

To finish, the real set will have a cute bag as shown here, and a dakimakura, one face drawn by each artist. I think that in all these goodies, I would only pick Fururi’s.

CASCADE – Hasekura Chiaki

Hasekura Chiaki has a nice set, with 2 doujinshi, Macarons Color 5, a full colour doujinshi, and Alice Mode 2, a monochrome doujinshi, featuring a manga. Then, there is some shitajiki or something like that with an hologram surface and a bag. Not on the image is Alice Mode which will be resold.

Cut a Dash! – Misato Mitsumi

Misato Mitsumi will have her traditional calendar, with 16 pages which I guess will cover a bit of 2011. It’s mostly original art, with some fanart. The rest is Roughplus, which as it’s name indicate, a doujinshi with rough art, and then, Esquise Monochrome, with monochrome illustration.

Strawberry Pink – cuteg

Ok, just continuing from where I left of, since cuteg has now posted some previews for her doujinshi. Sweet Impact, is a full color doujinshi… and full of pantsu. Now the other doujinshi will have several fanart of different sources, and they all wear glasses! I will admit, I do find the Miku cute.

Tinkle

Even if I had no information, I think I would have grabbed it nevertheless, especially since Tinkle is always late for updating! First of all, the doujinshi, Bianco El Dorado, which is full color and the cover seems to use a special silver paper.

Then the set is comprised of a clear box, featuring the cover otf the doujinshi, and inside, shitajiki, one of Pinot Noir which I already had from the last JIF. Then there are clear cards. I just noticed it but on the photo, it’s not the final goodies, as they are not cut. I wonder if it’s not a preview pages; nevertheless, it seems like Tinkle put a lot of effort in the printing process. Finally, a pencil case with Black Alice.

Finally, there is some special PSP and DSi case. Last Comiket, I saw plenty of Keyboard/Mouse, for this one, I found quite a lot of case for portable console. It does look pretty nice, and sure would like something like that for my DS!

AMR – Ikegami Akane

Speaking of artist rather late to the update party, is Ikegami Akane. For this Comiket, it’s a mix of To aru Kagaku no Railgun and Vocaloid. The doujinshi is only filled with Railgun, and it seems like there is only one part in full colour, the other one being black and white.

Then the Vocaloid set.. more cute Miku with glasses. I guess I’m weak when she wears glasses ^^;. Anyway, it’s limited to Miku, Rin, and Luka, Len being a bonus plushie. So there is a paper bag, a blanket, stickers for the DSi and towel to clean screens.

Third goods is a cool Railgun pouch in microfiber. It’s sized for portable console to iPod, or phone. Now I’m not sure I will let my electronic gadgets near Railgun ^^;. But Mikoto will also be available as an oppai mousse pad… I think I will just ignore it of my image of the anime will just die.

QP:Flapper – Sakura Koharu & Ohara Tometa

No QP:Chick Colors 03 in sight. But there is QPchick16, hentai doujinshi in monochrome on Love Plus. Then there is Dramatic 2009, which collect the roughs sketches for several magazine.

Instead of a telephone card, they will sell a Web Money Card, worth 500¥. I wonder if telephone card are still used in Japan, when it’s also the country where almost everyone has cellphone. Moving to web money card seems to be a fair evolution.

Then for the end, a priceless T-Shirt. Spacecats, parodying Space Invaders. The geek inside me feels compelled; my wallet not so much.

Island of Horizon – H2S04

A very cool doujinshi, with 34 B5 pages, which will collect artwork from its ( hey, it’s sulfuric acid ) his/her previous doujinshi, Last Summer Vacation, First Snow, Tropical Nights and 白い花びら. If I find it, I will try to get it!

Muzin Syoujo – Korie Riko

Korie Riko put her information one month ago… which consisted in this image which might be the cover. Her website is down and there is no information on her blog; so it will be my guess based on her previous doujinshi, full colour, with several fanart.

ICHIGOSIZE – Natsume Eri
Suijou Kurena

Huge image, and so little I can understand. Natsume Eri is sharing a stand with Suijou Kurena, which I have never heard of. First set has one card, 2 doujinshis which I’m not sure if they are in color or not, then a keychain, a think black and white doujinshi with certainly sketches, and something featuring Marisa ^^;. I need to train a little bit for reading these Comiket information.

Then, there is a Touhou calendar, and mug with a chibi Cirno drawn on it.

The bottom of the image features the doujinshi of Risa Miyasu, with a Prunus Girl one, and a Saki doujinshi

Rio Grande – Mana Mitui

Mana Mitui finally put her information, which consist in one doujinshi on Saki, with illustration, and one hentai story. Then there is another doujinshi of 60 pages, collectin sketches.
For the set, there is a bag, a handkerchief, another PSP case, a memo mouse pad, and a phone strap which can be used to clean the cellphone. The doujinshi doesn’t seem that interesting to me, but the set has some nice goodies.

Hisuitei – Izumi Tsubasu

No Colorful Pop for this Comiket, but we get a big taspestry, a shitajiki, a calendar, a stick poster all in the paper bag. The doujinshi in fact consist in MOEPOP15, which has traditionally featured black and white illustration, and Low of smile, an hentai doujinshi.

Indico Lite – Mitha

Mitha will continue her collection, with Flower Tiara 2, a full color doujinshi, but rather ecchi. Going from the past publication, there is no hentai, but only nudity. It seems like there is another doujinshi, Art Mix, but I’m not sure about it’s content, some card/poster/shitajiki, and ecchi stick posters. Finally, a “now printing”, which seem in fact to be a CG collection.

Hato no Tamago – Hato rami

Rami will sell her 19th visual book, which is another fully coloured manga. I think there might be some illustration in it, but I’m not all interested in this.

What I’m more interested in is the Galette des Rois Calendar, which will feature illustration of the web animated manga. It’s CD sized though, but I think it’s worth getting, as you can already see the illustration on the website of the manga.

For some time Rami had a Black Rock Shooter illustration for her website, and here it’s, a 8p B5 doujinshi with color illustration of Black Rock Shooter. Sadly, BRS is like Vocaloid for me :/

Finally, she will sell postcard, a gum from Galette des Rois, and her previous fully colored doujinshi from C76, Water Proof.

Cuffs / Sphere / Cubes – Several artist

Cuffs is the eroge company behind Amesarasa, Sakura Musubi, Garden, and more. They always have some stuff for the Comiket, especially the wallpaper collection and calendar which feature several artist, and it seems they are also collaborating with other companies. Notably for the calendar, there is Karory, Izumi Sakurazawa, Kantoku, Gayarou, Cuteg, Natsume Eri, and for the wallpaper, H2SO4, Kurot, Darupu and moreee. I never got any of their previous collection, but I always found them really good from the rip I have seen.

Aside of this, there are some rough sketch sold, NSFW dakimakura.

Palette – Izumi Tsubasu

Contrary to Cuff, Palette only has one artist, Izumi Tsubasu, who did the illustration for their last eroge, Mashiro Iro Symphony – Love is pure white. The set is of course based on their last game, and of course, I can’t read what is written *sigh*, but it seems really nice, especially the mugs lol. I can see a paper bag, a shitajiki , and I will guess that number 3 are stickers.

Palette will also sell a dakimakura of the heroine, Sena Airi, the OST of the game, and some pillows.

Suzuya – Ryohka

I’m disappointed… no sign of icon. 03. Instead we have a set with a NSFW oppai mouse pad, a Ranka calendar, which see to feature only one illustration, and a keychain. The set is in a funny file, the front with school mizugi and stockings illustration, and the opening side has been cut and designed to look like… the bottom part of the school mizugi! Oppai mouse pad were already quite stunning when I first discovered them, but a mizugi file… I’m simply flabbergasted.

Not included in the set is Suzu:can Vol. 17, which is a collection of hentai doujinshi by Ryohka.

Pixel Phantom – Kamiya Yuu

Pixel Phantasmagoria is an interesting doujinshi for 500¥; it has 14 pages of color illustration, and 30 pages of monochrome. It seems to be original art, as I like them. Maybe I will give a try to this artist.

The rest is Touhou related, with a 20 pages hentai doujinshi, and towels.

Mizukichan – Goto-P

Goto-P is simple like his/her awesome art; there is only one doujin. P6+ is just 20 B5 pages collecting recent artworks. I don’t need anything else, except maybe money now.

Carnelian

So much stuff… that I had to photoshop a bit every sample. First of all, the 25th volume of BENIGYOKUZUI, full color 14 doujinshi with Bayonetta, Macross Frontier, Nyan Koi, Persona 4, Azumanga, Evangelion, Umineko, Bakemonogatari. This could be interesting to get. Then there is a doujinshi with the art of Kao no Nai Tsuki, both color and monochrome which I’m not really interested in.

In fact, I prefer the winter set, featuring idols in a booklet, a bag, a snow ball, with several illustration and a snow ball, in which you can change the background with several illustration, and they are double faced with a calendar at the back. Finally, the set includes 2 random badges. Not in the set is some kind of towel or blanket.

Nick Ninth – Onineko

Onineko will illustrate another doujinshi for Nick Ninth. A B5, 18 pages doujinshi in full color, featuring a story. There is also a CD bundled with it. I have already pre-ordered it on Toranoana and this will be my first doujin from Onineko, yay.

Onineko will also be in a collaboration doujinshi with Asida Cako, Happa, Hara Yuuu and Noasan(?). I don’t know any of these artists, but a quick look at their site is rather reassuring, they are not bad.

Shimeko

This doujinshi is also a bit disappointing, for the simple fact that it’s a collaboration one. It’s 52 B5 pages with artist I have never heard of. You can see the full preview of the doujinshi by clicking on the image; it’s simply too large for my blog xD. The theme is Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo, and Summer Wars. I don’t think I will get it.

REI’s ROOM – REI
Private Garden – Tsurusaki Takahiro

REI will have a collaboration with Tsurusaki Takahiro. First of all, there is 2 clear files. REI will illustrate Nene Anegasaki from Love Plus and Tsurusaki illustrate the cute Midori and Milk. No news from GREENWOOD on that end. Then there is a bag, with the same illustration for REI while Tsurusaki drew Bakemonogatari this time.

Then REI will publish a doujin, with 75 pages collecting his sketches for the eroge Magic A Rider

More Love+, with pillow cases, bed sheet, T-shirt.

And to finish, some Touhou, a 20 B5 pages monochrome doujinshi, with a manga inside, and more pillows! Too many pillows for my own good here…

Snow Ring – Dmyo

Dmyo is rather easy. Another Dmyotic, 16 pages. We can expect it to be full color, and it seems to feature Vocaloid, Black Rock Shooter, K-on, Touhou. Otherwise, Dmyotic 3.0 seems to make a reapearance and finally, there will be a DS case. I might get Dmyotic 6.0, at the end to round up my order.

Sugar-Ringo – Juna

A Korean artist I discovered while looking for the C77 artwork on Pixiv. Her style remind me a lot of Dmyo, but otherwise, not much information on the doujinshi for C77, except that the title, Irogami and Donuts Hole, the latter being an illustration book.

Strawberry Pink – Cuteg
White World – Piah

And to finish, some Cuteg. First doujinshi is a collaboration between Cuteg and Piah. It’s based on the manga Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai which I really like. But The problem is the lack of information on her doujin, either on her website or her Pixiv. Sweet Impact has the subtitle girl’s collection, so I may pray it’s full color. It might be one of this random doujinshi I might try to get not knowing what the content is… Then Cuteg will have some of her old publication

Circles – Artists

Gothical Blade – Ruroo

Ruroo must be best known for his/her work on the light novel Mushi-Uta While I have no doujin from him/her, I always keep an eye on this artist as I quite like the art. Invalid Target though seems to be a doujin filled with rough art and some story, no full color.

Pink Chuchu – Mikeou

Mikeou always have a lot of goodies for the Comiket. The C77 set contains 2 adults doujinshi, with 28 B5 pages each. Then there is the Game Collection Box, which has 108 B5 pages… except that only 8 is in full color. Lastly the 9 telephone cards. Specific to the set is the paper bag and the calendar. While the set has an interesting price of 2000¥, I certainly won’t get it as there is a lack of full colour doujinshi.

Sold separately are one dakimakura which I find very cute, but alas, very expensive as well, and a previous doujinshi.

Rocket Guy – Bekkankou

I’m surprised I had this artist in my bookmark since I don’t particularly follow him. Maybe I had him since I collected the CG of Yoake Mae Yori Ruri Iro Na and Fortune Arterial. Otherwise, this C77 doujinshi seems to be your standard black and white.

Afterschool of the 5th years – Kantoku

This year has been wonderful for Kantoku’s fan. C76′s doujinshi had around 60 full color pages at a very decent price. Then there is the upcoming release of Kantoku’s first commercial artbookAshiato and of course the C77 set, with one doujinshi, one paper bag and a clear file which I will certainly get as it’s not all expensive, and Kantoku is one of my favorite artist. Also I caught up with the Check Pattern doujinshi collection.

Coconut Bless – Coco Natsuki

I don’t know much about Coco Natsuki. The first time I must have encountered her is in fact while browsing all the auction for a Comic 1. She is not on my must get list, but I always have a few doujinshi to round up my order at the end, and her set seems quite nice. Of course as it’s an image I can’t tell you exactly what is written, but it seems like there is a paper bag, 2 doujinshi, one safe, the other isn’t, and a calendar. Aside of the set, there is also a PSP case.

Kotobukitei – Tohru Adumi

As a follow up of Vanillesose Marchen, here is another full color doujinshi, with 40 pages! I must say that I’m quite interested in it, and the cover is really nice. The cover also look quite unique with a very big cat on it. It seems this doujinshi will be a collection of her artwork she did for trading card game, except in higher resolution.

ZIP – Fumitake Moekibara & Hirorin

Nothing new coming from ZIP. There will be a doujinshi filled with Quiz Magic Academy illustrations, then the bunny mascot will have her own shitajiki and a dakimakura. Then an illustration of Nue from Tayutama and finally a bag with their mascot.

NEKO WORKs – Sayori
NEKO WORKi – ideolo

Let’s get a little abroad with foreign artist Sayori. She is Chinese, she is quite popular, and I already had trouble to find her doujinshi. Anyway for C77, she will release first a B4 calendar, NEKO BIBLE, featuring her catgirl mascot Vanella and Chocola and in all sort of outfit. The previews are available on her website and her Pixiv. The calendar will be sold with a bag for 1500¥. Better say that I will grab it.

In another register, a collaboration with ideolo for Eastern Side, a Touhou themed doujinshi which will be sold with a clear file. Now… this is too bad but I’m fed up with Touhou art as much as Vocaloid since I moderate already an image board which has a daily flood of them ( around 50 per day), so while the art is good I really don’t feel like getting it. There are few exception but I’m seeing too much of them.
Aside of this, there will be also a free distribution of card for the upcoming tiger year and they will resell NEKO PARADISE.

Eternal Phantasia – Capura Lin

To finish this post, Taiwanese artist Capura Lin. This time the news was first available on Pixiv. It will be a 24 B5 pages doujinshi collecting artwork from 2006 to 2009. From the sample I have seen, it will have the illustration from RE:Volte‘s CD cover, and this is already awesome as I really like these covers. She is at the top of my to get list along with some usual artist.

Next post will have information for Yukiwo, RAMI, Shiro, H2S04 as it’s not complete, shops’ good, and plentiful of other artist who didn’t update yet or who I will just add after as this post is getting quite long.

The book open with a nice folded poster of the cover. Now I wonder if anyone try to remove the poster from their artbook. I never did it with my artbooks, only with magazines.

The book is full of page spread illustration, with comments at the bottom, and a margin for your thumb. There is no small illustration. Artstyle wise, Misakura Nankotsu is not that particular, it’s quite generic moe, not that I dislike it much. One good point would be the color, which are really vibrant.

These illustration from what I gathered are from the Famitsu PS, the famous weekly video game magazine in Japan. Judging from the information in the artbook, Misakura Nankotsu put one illustration every 2 weeks. Chance are no one has ever seen them except Japanese who get the magazine. I don’t think anyone get a video game magazine to scan one artwork; there are video game news in it.

<

I think it must have already striking for people that it’s rather ecchi. Pantsu here and there, girls cleaning your car… One thing I like in the artbook are the theme of the images. They are all from every day life, with all sort of girl’s in different uniform doing different jobs. There is no particular image to disturb this flow. I like fantastic one, but having a focus on every day life is equally as good in my opinion.

The book conclude with an interview of the artist. All in all, it’s a nice artbook, if you kind of like generic moe. The artstyle, while not being overly original, is clean… and ecchi. It also reminds me a little bit of the Uniform Moe Encyclopedia is similar in visual theme, except the artstyle is consistent, which is really a plus compared to the randomness of the encyclopedia.

Now concerning the article; it was my plan to use the scanner instead of the camera. But for big book, it’s very hard to flatten the book, and I usually lose 1/3 of the page. I also had some people telling me that my icon. 02 has color problem, which is true when I compare the images. However, in the current situation it seems hard for me to address this. My scanner is only on 8bits per channel, meaning that in term of color accuracy, it’s not very good. I might invest in a new scanner in the future, so if people has any recommendation for scanner, I’m opened ^^. I just scanned the cover, and tried some new processing. I would like to point out that there is no GreyCstoration Photoshop plugin for Mac, so I guess I will have to compile it one day.

Meanwhile, I had to use my camera. Using camera is a bit tricky, as the paper is the reflective kind, meaning I have to avoid projecting any hard light. I was surprised to see that my room lamp did make some reflection even though it’s quite a diffused light, so I switched it off. I had to use my lamp desk instead. Pointing it directly at the book proved to be inefficient even with a diffuser. My solution in the end was to point upward, and have some reflection diffuse the light. I think I can improve it a little bit again; I just though about being in front of a wall, since the light is coming from the bottom, and the top the page is less lighted than the rest. The photos reflect this different change of lighting. I will try to improve it over time.

PS: Twitter Tool seems to spam again my database…

The road start from the white paper, and I will go until it get digitalized. Second article will be about colors on screen, then colors in printing, and finally paper and screening. I’m also introducing the Shadowbox on the blog since the Lightbox didn’t work. To get the full size of an image, you will have first to click on it, then save the image on your computer.

Computer has changed how most manga and anime are drawn today. They used to be on celluloid, on Deleter’s paper, with different tools to draw. Now, a good part of the process is on computer. One things can still be done on paper, the sketches. As far as I have seen, some artist still does it, others just sketch directly in their favorite drawing software.

Sketches are fascinating; it’s the idea of an artist as rough as it can be. I also like looking at the tool they use. Judging by the strokes, Aoi Nishimata seems to use a ballpen, Tanihara Natsuki use a pen, maybe the famous G one, or a marker but I guess the majority use a pencil, not necessarily a black one though; blue pencil are not scannable for instance.

The next step is inking, and can be done either on computer or still on paper, with pens, marker, or brushes. But be it at the end of the inking, or of the sketches, one important step is the scanning if the artist started on paper.
Scanning takes the drawing from the analog space to the digital space. From here, is set in stone the resolution of the drawing.

Let’s try to explain it briefly; one characteristic of a scanner is the resolution, expressed in DPI, Dots Per Inch. In short, a line of one inch is sampled to a certain number of dot. The more dot, the more precise and detailed it’s.
From what I have seen, artists usually either prepare their illustration for Internet or for printing. I think it’s the most visible in the Pixiv Artist Book 2009 which is full of small illustration. If the image were prepared for Internet, the resolution need to be high, but on paper, at a 300 DPI printing resolution, it will look small. I think some artist just didn’t have high resolution image. Here is a list of example of image resolution needed for a full page print at certain DPI:

• B5 page, 300 DPI, 2079×2953
• A4 page, 300 DPI, 2480×3508
• B5 page, 600 DPI, 4157×5906
• A4 page, 600 DPI, 4961×7016

And to illustrate, here are some original digital file, from Izumi Sakurazawa‘s doujin CD, Chronological, and Goto-P‘s Peeping-P doujin CD. It’s rare to get such file, but here are files which could be used for nice printing.
These, insane resolution requires, aside of the usual Intuos 3/4 tablet and the scanner, a very good computer who can handle these images. Kantoku for instance has a Intel Core2 Quad Q9550, with 8GB of RAM, 5 GB are used as a Ram Disk, a GeForce 9600GT/512MB, and 1TB of hardrive. This is a professional computer which is really scaled for high resolution images, as the most important part is the RAM.

So, what should be remembered is the resolution of an image for a decent printing; it’s freaking huge.