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

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 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.

Anyway, the loot is quite good, and some of these are already flying around on the Internet. There are other freebies from previous Comiket as well, for Kantoku, Rei, some Tinkle goods which was released for some event, and finally, K-books 15th anniversary artbook.