Art Block Post #12

Konichiwa! I'm finishing up these lovely Art block posts with an interesting team of mangaka know simply as Clamp.

 

Clamp is an all female magaka group formed in the mid 1980's. Many of their series have anime adaptations. Clamp started our as an eleven member dojinshi (self publish) circle in mid 1980. Began creating original work in 1987. Debuted with RG Vecla in 1989. Clamp's numbers were reduced to 7 around the same time, and in 1993 three more left leaving the four current members: Nanase Orkawa, Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi, Satsuki Ighrashi. 

Nanase Orkawa is the leader and provides much of the storyline and screenplay. The other three rotate the artists. Mokona is the chief character designer, while Inarashi and Nekoi work on the background. They all share a single workspace. On average for each chapter: storyboard takes 12 hours, script takes 8 hours, and artwork depends on the story for example xxxHolic takes two days where as X takes 4 to 5 days. Clamp often reuses characters which gives rise to the "Clamp Universe". All the artist in Clamp have taken art focused classes in high school, have not worked as assistants, and most of their ability is self-taught. They have diverse body of works with a wide genre range. Clamp's characters have highly detailed hair, heavily stylized eyes & human figures, and elaborated clothing.

Works: 

1989-1996  RG Veda

1990-91 Man of Man Faces

1990-93  Tokyo Babyon

1992-93  Clamp School Detectives

1992-93  Duklgon Clamp School Defenders

1992  Shirahime-Syo: Snow Goddess Tales

1992 X (halted)

1992-94  Leged of Chun Hyang
1993-95  Magic Knight Rayearth
1993-95  Miyuki-chan in Wonderland
1995  The One I Love
1995-96  Magic Knight Rayearth 2
1996-2000  Cardcaptor Sakura
1996-98  Whish
1997-99  Clover (halted)
1999-2001  Angelic Layer
1999-2000 Suki: A Like Story
2000  Legal Drug (to be resumed)
2001-02  Chobits
2003-11  xxxHolic
2003-09  Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles
2005-11  Kobato
2010-current  Gatez

Art Block Post #11

Konichiwa fellow artist! This time I'm going more towards the animation side of my love for anime/manga style with one of my favorite animators, Hayao Miyazaki!!

Miyazaki was born on January 5, 1941 in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. He's a Mangaka, Film Director, and Animator. Miyazaki began his animation career in 1961 working for Toei Animation. He is most known for his movies and his animation studio, which he co-founded with Isao Takahata, Studio Ghibli! Miyazaki was led to the animation field when he fell in love with Taiji Yabashita's "The Tale of the White Serpent".  His manga artist influences include: Osamu Tezuka, Tetsuji Fukushima, and Sanpei Shirato.
His films often incorporate recurrent themes like humanity's relationship to nature and technology. Likewise the protagonists of his film are often strong, independent girls or young women. Miyazaki uses very human-like movements in his animation, and much of the art is done using water colors. Unlike American animation, the script and storyboards are created together, and the animation begins before the story is finished. Miyazaki uses traditional animation throughout his films, but has used computer generated animation in some of his films as well. His film "Princess Mononoke" he uses computer generated imagery to give it 'a little boost of elegance'. Digital paint was also used on "Princess Mononoke" in order to meet release deadlines. However before Miyazaki's latest film "Ponyo" Studio Ghibli's computer animation department was dissolved leaving "Ponyo" to be done in traditional hand drawn animation.
Films:
1984- Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
1986- Castle in the Sky
1988- My Neighbor Totoro
1989- Kiki's Delivery Service
1992- Porco Rosso
1997- Princess Mononoke
2001- Spirited Away
2004- Howl's Moving Castle
2010 (2008)- Ponyo

Manga:
1969- Puss in Boots
1982-1994- Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
2006- A Trip to Tynemouth
2009- Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises)
Undated- Sabuku no Tami (People of the Desert), Shuru no Tabi (The Journey of Shuna), The Notebook of Various Images (which was the basis of Porco Rosso)

"Princess Mononoke" was the first animated film to win Picture of the Year at the Japanese Academy Awards in 1997. "Spirited Away" topped the box office sales of "Titanic" in Japan, and won Picture of the Year. It was also the first anime film to win Best Animated Feature at the 75th American Academy Awards.

Art Block Post #10

Konichiwa! I'm changing things up yet again, but don't worry it's still a Mangaka just not one from Japan. Why yes those do actually exist!

Svetlana Chmakova was born on October 7, 1979 in the Soviet Union (Russia). She came to Canada at the age of 16. And graduated from Sheridan College with a three year Classical Animation Diploma. Svetlana is currently a freelance artist, and a fledgling North American equivalent of a Mangaka.
Her Works include:
09-10(current): Night School (currently has 4 volumes)
05-07: Dramacon (currently "finished" with 3 volumes, but she plans to do more after Night School)
2006: Mangaka America
05-07: The Adventures of CGI (Cosmo Girl! magazine)
02-current: Svetlania Weekly
03-current: Nightsilver
03-current: Chasing Rainbows
04-current: Svetlania Wheneverly
Unknown date: Flight
Unknown release date (2010 announcement): Manga adaptation of James Paterson's "Witch & Wizard"
Svetlana's website

Cowboy Bebop fanart

Art Block Post #9

Konichiwa! It's time now for yet another favorite Mangaka of mine, Marashi Kishimoto!

As you can see Kishimoto is the artist and writer behind the ever so popular Manga/Anime series, Naruto!

Marashi Kishimoto was born on November 8, 1974 in Okayama. He also has a twin brother, Seishi, who is also a Mangaka of 666 Satan/O-Parts Hunter and Blazer Drive. Marashi and his brother have been accused of plagiarism, yet both have stated that there are some similarities only due to the fact that they were influenced by many of the same things. Marashi's influences include: the anime "Doraemon", Mobile Suit Gundam, mangaka Akira Toriyama's Dr. Slump & Dragon Ball, Katsuhiro Ootomoi's Akira, the manga Sasuke by Sanpei Shirato, and the movie "The Matrix". He also cites Yoshihiro Togashi as one of his favorite manga artists.

Kishimoto's first work was a manga called Karakuri, which was submitted to Shueisha in 1995. It earned him a spot in the Weekly Shonen Jump and won him the "Hop Step Award" in 1996. However it did not last long before it was canceled due to lack of popularity. Karakuri was followed by the pilot for Naruto in 1997, but Naruto wouldn't be published for another two years.

Finally in 1999 Kishimoto got his biggest break with Naruto. The series is ongoing with 561 chapters, and 52+ volumes worldwide. Naruto has sold over 100 million copies in Japan, over 95 million copies in the US, and over 93 million worldwide (excluding Japan and the US). It has been adapted into two successful anime series, with 8 movies and a few OVAs (original video animations). Naruto has also been adapted into novel form as well, and has spawned several video game series, toys, a clothing line, and a trading card game. It was the first manga to win a Quill Award for "Best Graphic Novel" in 2006 (volume 11 won).

In 2010 Kishimoto produced a one-shot baseball manga, Bench, as a part of Jump's Top of the Super Legend. He also designed an extra costume for video game character, Lars Alexandersson, of Tekken 6.

 

 When drawing, Kisimoto follows a five step process: Concept & Rough Sketch, Drafting, Inking, Shading, and Coloring. He uses these five steps when drawing characters, actual manga panels, and color illustrations (which are usually used as title pages or covers for Jump magazine).

Art Block Post #8

Konichiwa! It's time now for another one of my favorite Mangaka, Tite Kubo!

Noriaki Kubo, know more commonly by his pen name Tite Kubo, was born on June 26, 1977. Kubo-sensei is the son of a town council member in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima, Japan. He's always wanted to be a manga artist, and really got into it when he was interested in architecture and design. At the age of 18 Kubo-sensei submitted his first concept of his first manga series, ZombiePowder. It was rejected multiple times, yet many commented on his talent. Finally, at age 22 ZombiePowder got accepted by Shonen Jump, however it was canceled due to lack of popularity in 2000 with only 4 volumes.

Then in 2001 Kubo-sensei's second series began running in Shonen Jump. This series would soon become one of the most popular series running, and it's ranked number 2 in popularity. Yes that's right it's Bleach! As of October of this year (2011) Bleach has reached over 460 chapters, has an anime adaptation, with four movies, that has been running since 2004 in Japan, several video games, and even a musical in Japan! In 2005 Bleach was named a winner of the Shogukunkan Manga Award for its category. Bleach was first conceived from Kubo-sensei's desire to draw Shinigami (known as Soul Reapers in America), Japanese grim reapers, in Kimono. Kubo-sensei wishes to make Bleach an experience that can only me found by reading, and dismisses all ideas of creating any live action film adaptations of it. He also doesn't want to turn the series into a love story since he thinks there are more exciting aspects concerning the character's personalities. Also his characters use different languages to describe their terms, or abilities, he uses German for his shinigami rival, known as Quincy, and Spanish for the enemy monsters, known as Hollows and Arrancars, he finds Spanish to be bewitching and mellow.
Kubo-Sensei's Short Stories:
Ultra Unholy Hearted Machine (1996)- appears in volume 2 of ZombiePowder
Rune Master Urara (1996)- appears in volume 3 of ZombiePowder
Bad Shield United (1997)- appears in volume 4 of ZombiePowder and makes a cameo in Bleach as a movies "Bad Shield United 2"
In 2008 Kubo-sensei came to the US for the first time as a guest at San Diego Comic Con. His main influences are Saint Seiya by Masami Kuramada because of the characters all wear armor & have interesting weapons and Ge Ge Ge no Kituro by Shigeru Mizuki for the yokai, or monsters. In making battle scenes Kubo-sensei has rock music going while he imagines the fight with an empty background and then tried to find the best angle for it. He also tied to make toe injuries look very realistic in order to make the reader feel the character's pain. If he gets bored drawing a battle scene he throws in a joke or two to make it fun for him. When creating characters, Kubo-sensei first attempts to create the design and later decides on their personality. He considers every character to be unique and wants each to develop along with the plot of the story. To him characters come first over plot. For his characters' clothing he designs clothing that he wold like to have but can't find in stores.

Tite Kubo's 10th anniversary gift to Naruto

Read Bleach
Read ZombiePowder