Magic Knight Rayearth

Another last minute print for AX this year! I’ll be at Artist’s Alley table A12 btw if you’d like to stop by :)

This one has been the most fun by far :) Magic Knight Rayearth will forever hold a special place in my heart. It was the first anime I actually had to buy and made me realize that anime was a genre, and not just Sailor Moon, Dragonball or Pokemon (what was on TV at the time). Man it was so hard to get back then, especially living in a small town. The only place I could go was Suncoast, which is closed now! It’s amazing how mainstream anime has become since the days where no one even knew what it was…and how easy it is to get ;_; 

Akame ga Kiru Study

I felt like this study was worth posting, since I haven't spent this much time on a study in a while and it was really fun :) I've been reading this manga, Akame ga Kiru (and now I'm caught up GAAHHH) and I've been saving pages of it to study because it has some killer action sequences, and the art is just SOOO gorgeous!

This panel in particular I chose to analyze because I've been focusing on understanding shapes, contours, forms and anatomy lately, and I thought that the contrast between hard and soft in this was really awesome. The way that the girl is juxtaposed against the hard suit of armor is really powerful and fun :D And man that guy looks SOOO badass!!! I've never actually drawn any type of robot or suit of armor seriously before, so understanding the different planes and how each part works together and how each line and wrinkles accentuates form was really exciting to me :) The contrast of values I found beautiful also, with light against dark in a bunch of different parts of the image like her hair against the cloak, the shadows of her dress against his leg... things like that.

I'm going to be doing a lot more Akame ga Kiru studies... I'm so in love with this manga, which is saying something. The last time I did any type of study on manga or anime was back in my Sailor Moon days. It's a great read and I highly recommended :) The perfect balance between action, comedy, drama, and romance, with really loveable characters and badass imaginative weapons. Super inspiring!!! You can check it out here! http://www.mangahere.com/manga/akame_ga_kiru/

Full Moon wo Sagashite

Full Moon wo Sagashite is my favorite shoujo manga of all time, and I kinda just remembered that after  rereading it a couple weeks ago. I LOVEEE THIS MANGA. And Arina Tanemura's art is soooo gorgeous. I remember falling in love with it back when I was like 12 with I.O.N, Time Stranger Kyoko and Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, and I think she's been one of my touchstones ever since. Full Moon is the ultimate though :) What a beautiful story and such AWESOME characters. Bah. She was a HUGE inspiration for me as a kid though, enough to make me start my own stupid webcomic back in 2005, and reading this thing again made me start developing a whole new webcomic! Oh Arina I love you...

Seriously, if you haven't read Full Moon wo Sagashite yet and you like shoujo manga, then CLICK HERE NOW.  It's only 30 chapters!