The one (s) that changed my mind

This doesn’t happen often, but sometimes, I see an image, and it completely changes my perspectives of an event or an artist. Eventually, there was enough of these little occurrences, and, coupled with me feeling too burned out to draw, resulted in this post.

Note: this post gets more NSFW as it progresses…

no.5 1948

This doesn’t look it, but it’s supposedly the most expensive painting that has ever been sold. It taught me the valuable lesson that value itself cannot be defined by just one person. $140 million… I can’t believe it…

For me, Zinno has always been an artist that’s just THERE. I see his work around, but they always seem simple, fanservicy, and generally not that impressionable. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Tama-nee image above though (now that I think about it, I can’t remember her actual name anymore, I know know Tama-nee).

This impression didn’t change as I saw the art for tenshi no tamago.

However, somewhere around 2008, Zinno’s art changed quite a bit. So much so, that I had no idea it was the same person when I saw the art for Signal Heart plus. And as boring as the story for that seems to be, the art definitely speaks to me. Obligatory sad girl in snow picture~

There was this glow, this sparkle to the characters that hadn’t been there before, not to mention that they look older and lankier (he also got better at drawing guys, although I can’t find a good and safe example). I’m pretty sure the bottom one’s a trap BTW (I say “pretty” because the hcg is kind of…well…) *cough, anyway… Lesson learned: even if an artist seems to be settled into a certain style, they can always change~SO cute

An monochrome drawing by Itaru Hinoue

An Image by Itaru Hinoue which was colored and completed by the CG team at Key

Itaru Hinoue doing something not affilated with Key

Lesson learned: the people you work with makes a LOT of difference.

A similar saying can be applied to Izumi Tsubasu.

At one point, I thought that Naru Nanao was one of those perfect artists who can do no wrong. Well, I was younger then, and I thought that a lot of artists did the most incredible things, ever. I still hold that opinion for some artists that I liked from that time, such as Carnelian or Misato Mitsumi, but as for Naru Nanao…

This picture pretty much forced me to realize a few things about her that I’ve simple never considered before.Things such the fact that she’s not that good at things outside of static poses, the fact that she almost never draws backgrounds, the fact that her coloring is always quite simplistic. And, well, it was basically a shock to realize that she just wasn’t as good as I remembered her to be.

Of course, she still occasionally turn out quality work. But for a while now, I’ve been getting the impression that she’s lost her interest in drawing and is just pulling things out to pay the bill. For some reason, I’ve also thought that she’s just not fit for fanart, as they usually turn out looking generic, or simply odd, as if something doesn’t belong.

This streak only seems to affect guest work, doujins, and story illustrations though. As far as I can tell, promotional work for games and magazine art is still of a pretty consistent quality.

Lesson learned: As the Chinese proverb goes: “look at someone in a new light every three days”. I need to stop expecting people to have the same effect they had on me years ago.

Yukiusagi is a similar case, although the before and after deterioration is much, MUCH worse, although I’ve yet to see a case like that of Minato Hiromu (I hope that stalker got arrested and that no one else ever end up in her situation).

At first, I really, and I mean REALLY disliked Tony Taka. I thought that he was a generic artist and the only reason people liked him was because all the women he draws are naked more often than not.The above picture doesn’t really demonstrate what I’m talking about, but I wanted this to be a safe post.

Then this picture made me realize that he draws more than half naked women.

And this picture made me realize that he draws the hottest guys I’ve ever seen coming from a male-oriented eroge based artist. Stupid shallow reason? Sure, but there is only value in an image if you appreciate it. Lesson learned: just because someone does fan service is no reason to think they can’t do anything else.

Chikotamu is another artist which I have seen for a while now, but only recently noticed. But unlike Zinno, the reason for this is the frequent change in coloring style. The above image is one of the first I saw, of the character Arietta from Lyrical lyric. I’m not quite sure exactly which of the 3 artists affected the others more, but this feels like the coloring has been influenced quite a bit by Mikeou, with strong, solid colors in clear, solid chunks.

Because that was how I remembered the artist, it wasn’t much later until I noticed that the above image, along with much of the art of 11eyes, Eden*, and various other eroges. And the reason for me checking the artist tag, in this case, was because I was curious about a certain trap in Kiss to maou to Darjeeling. Unfortunately, I can’t find a decent picture of Shinobu…

Lesson learned: check the artist tags for pleasant surprises.

I’ve always had a soft spot for Itou Noizi, and the above image is one of my favorites. It shows that characteristic softness, the vibrant colors, the way that there isn’t much detail but there’s a lot of detail at the same time… (yes, I meant that in a good way)

The problem is with stuff like this…

Lesson learned: everyone draws something awful once in a while, ignore it and move on.

Ueda Ryou is an artist whom I’ve stalked been paying attention to for quite a while now, especially since I absolutely fell in love with Asuseka. The thing to note, however, is the fact that he does mostly character. This isn’t a problem for most artists of this nature, but…

The guy does background porn.

Lesson learned: Sometimes, a guy who does is great at scenery chooses to focus on character art. One just has to sigh and pray that he does more background porn.

One of the main reasons that I really love Kantoku is his cheerful use of light. I say cheerful, because I can’t find any other way to describe it, and it always gives a calm and warm feeling.

But, this image, drawn quite recently, doesn’t really pan attention to lighting.  (what? I warned you that it was going to get NSFW). It’s simple, but it looks REALLY good. Another thing that I’ve noticed is this character. She’s one that he has drawn quite often, and always with orange hair.

2 lessons learned: 1) Simple is good. 2) No one cares about inconsistency as long as it looks good~

This is my usual impression of Katawa Hisashi: light, bright, fluffy, and sweet.

This image really reminded me that there’s more than one side to his drawings.

Lesson learned: What one artist draws for 1 franchise doesn’t present their full capabilities.

Gayarou is quite a popular artist, pretty much creating the look of Cuffs, which is quite a successful eroge company.

…There is no lesson, I just really wanted to post this image…

P.S.: Going on a trip starting from tomorrow, with no internet connection. Sob…
P.P.S. :Yes, I KNOW this is a weird way to end a post.