19.2.08

Artsy Fartsy? I Hope Not.

So NY and London Fashion Weeks have been and gone, and now Milan's started (I rather liked Burberry. Whatever else one might say about the poshification of the brand, Christopher Bailey does have a knack for making his clothes look like you'd be very well wrapped up and safe from the cold in them). But I'm a bit of a slow processor of information, so any observations on what's going on with the AW08 runways will probably be postponed for a while yet.
In the meantime, I've been geeking out a bit on the work of Ayami Kojima and Yoshitaka Amano- especially the latter, Sandman/Vampire Hunter D/Final Fantasy fans are probably already familiar with his name, but dimwit that I am, it didn't occur to me that they could all have been the work of the same person (at least the first two, since I have no experience with Final Fantasy) till sometime last year. And I won't go into why I love it (The Dream Hunters and the sheer lushness of it is reason enough, and the pictures say it much clearer than me), so I'll settle for just sharing. But the video games do have beautiful artwork...

Cover of Fairies, by Yoshitaka Amano.

The Behemoth Dai Makai: The World of Spirits

Cover of Vampire Hunter D
Image sources: yoshitakaamano.tribe.net , hillcity-comics.net, elevanland.com, and amanosworld.com.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

These are really nice pics. Watercolours?

Have you played this little flash game called Samorost 2? It has beautiful artwork. You might like it.

http://amanita-design.net/samorost-2/

Elizabeth said...

I've never seen any of this. It's very compelling.

Anonymous said...

amazing works! Thanks for sharing!

Fashion Tidbits said...

nice illustrations!
p.s could you add me to your links?

riz said...

These are gorgeous and so intricate! I am TA-ing a course on Japan, Modern Girl Culture, Anime and Representations of Girlhood, so I will be sure to show these to the Professor!

Blue Floppy Hat said...

Millenniumhand: watercolours and ink, probably...I'm not good at telling these things.
ENC: It's stunning stuff...though I know Yoshitaka Amano's work primarily through the Sandman spinoff graphic novel called The Dream Hunters- you should pick it up sometime, even if graphic novels aren't your thing it's a beautifully told/illustrated story.
Stephie: truth be told, I owe my initial interest in this one to some classmates at college..glad you like them.
Fashion Tidbits: Done!
Riz: Are you serious? That's one course I'd really, really love to take!

mudkipz said...

The Dream Hunters is a very good book. I loved Neil Gaiman's story - it really does weave a very grand "dream" and Yoshitaka Amano brings it to life.

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