Research Artist #12: Tite Kubo

Tite Kubo writes and illustrates the international smash-hit manga, Bleach. His drawing style has changed a lot since the start of the series, and it is definitely for the better. His anatomy is great; a lot of the characters are muscular men, and the muscles are drawn well without looking over-the-top. I really admire how Kubo creates so many characters but can make them each look unique. He uses many body types: from tall, broad to short and slender males, and from buxom ladies with wide hips to slender women without substantial busts or hips. The facial feature are diverse, too. Kubo also prefers not to draw backgrounds, which I sympathize with (I hate drawing them). Somehow, his art manages to look great with very little in the way of backgrounds. I still like Bleach and Kubo's art, but I feel that the plot is practically gone and that the story has come down to endless brawls without time to relax in between. It's hard to find actual work from Kubo in a Google search, since he's so popular. There's a lot of fanart and pictures from the TV adaptation, but here are a few from his comic, and as before, comic pages read right to left: