Research Artist #7: Yuichi Kumakura

I read a fair amount of manga. One of my favorite parts is seeing how an artist's style changes throughout the story. King of Bandits: Jing, written and illustrated by Yuichi Kumakura, has the most dramatic change of styles in all the series that I've read. In the first volume of the first Jing series, the style is very goofy and cartoonish. It makes you very much aware that you are reading about a young boy and his wacky adventures. However, by the time the second series, Twilight Tales, rolls around, the style is incredibly realistic, detailed, and filled with dramatic contrasts. Each series is 7 volumes long, for a total of 14 manga books. It's a lot of fun just leafing through them and seeing how much Kumakura changed his art style.Sometimes it's hard to believe it was all done by one person! By the way, the comic pages read right to left.

BEFORE:

AFTER:



Research Artist #6: Norman Rockwell

Yeah, I like him. Who doesn't? I went to an exhibition of his work in D.C. when I was little. I was drawn in by his attention to detail, his sense of humor, his colors, his compostion, basically everything in his pictures. Before heading home, my mom bought a little book with hundreds of his images. I would spend hours leafing through it, and I still do, sometimes. I think it was when I was at that exhibition that I truly knew that I wanted to be an artist when I grew up. Here are a couple of my favorites:

Research Artist #5: doubleleaf

This is another artist I follow on deviantart.com. doubleleaf is very private and I know next to nothing about her (I'm pretty certain doubleleaf is a woman). She has superb understanding of anatomy and perspective, and her sense of humor is pretty fun, too. She seems to really like action movies and videogames, and she does a lot of fanart relating to them, as well as fanart for Marvel and DC comic characters. doubleleaf draws a fair amount of sensual pictures, though some of them can be a bit risque (but hardly ever goes past PG-13). You can check her out here: http://doubleleaf.deviantart.com/. Oh, and here's something I just noticed. On her profile page is an FAQ, and she says she never went to art school and is mostly self-taught. My mind just exploded.

Research Artist #4: Team Drowtales

I read many webcomics, and the one with the best artwork is Drowtales: Moonless Age. The website hosts several comics, but Moonless Age is the main story. The story is written by Yan "Kern" Gagne, who also does the lineart and leads the team. I really admire his blending of anime and realistic styles. Mary "Kite" Garren is the main colorist, and the coloring for Moonless Age is amazing, too. Everyone on the team is a huge contribution to giving fans a fantastic reading experience. The information on the team is here: http://wiki.drowtales.com/index.php/Staff_of_Studio_Drowtales. The main site is here: http://drowtales.com/. There aren't a lot of single images I can download, so here is the cover for the current chapter.

Research Artist #3: Tetsuya Nomura

Okay, so I like video games. My favorites are Japanese Role Playing Games (JRPGs) in which you can explore a vast world, meet well written and developed characters, and usually wind up saving the world. What can I say, I'm a sucker for a grand ol' adventure. Tetsuya Nomura is a video game director and character designer for one of the biggest video game companies out there, Square Enix. He is most well known for his work in the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series. He is often mocked (lovingly and not-so-lovingly) for drawing characters with any of the following traits:

• Ridiculously spiky hair
• Adrogenous features on males
• An absurd amount of zippers, belts, and/or other forms of accessories in outfits
• Oversized weaponry, or weird kinds of weapons that wouldn't even function in the real world

Still, the characters he created have helped bring some of my favorite games to life, and there is something in his style that appeals to me. I briefly considered a career like his, designing characters for video games, but I don't think that's likely to happen. Anyway, here are some examples of his work (feel free to laugh at some of the absurdity and play "Guess Which One of These is a Guy). I don't have a link to a personal website or an online gallery this time, though.

Artist Bio

This is still the first version, which I wrote earlier this semester, except I left out the contact info since I don't want crazy stalkers showing up on my doorstep. I really don't know how to write a bio when I have so few experiences...

Maggie Campbell

(Insert Contact Info Here)

Selected Solo Exhibitions: No Solo Exhibitions

Selected Group Exhibitions: St Edward’s University, “Senior Exhibition 2012”, Austin, 2012.

Selected Publications and Reviews: No Publications/Reviews

Grants and Awards: No Grants/Awards

Education: Bachelor of Arts, St. Edward’s University, 2012.

Born: December 18, 1990

 Represented by: No Representatives

Research Artist #2: Paul Kidby

I'm a fan of Terry Pratchett and his Discworld series. Paul Kidby is an artist who does a lot of artwork for it. I love the rich colors he uses, and while the style is somewhat realistic, it is also very cartoonish. When I first saw his work in The Art of Discworld, I was amazed because he portrayed a lot of the characters close to how I imagined they would look. I also found Kidby more humorous once I started Art History courses and saw some famous paintings he was parodying. His website is here: http://www.paulkidby.net/Index.html. And for some of his work...