Thursday, September 15, 2011

Week 1 ~Battle Cry

Battle Cry is a collection of concept art for an anime series called Samurai Champloo created and directed by Shinichiro Watanabe. The show takes place in a Edo-era Japan where a girl tries to find a man that smells of sunflower seeds with a help of two swordsman. This anime had a nice mix of adding a current popular hip hop art style in a old historical setting, which I thought was pretty cool and unique. Ever since I saw this aired on television I was drawn to the art style of the anime and fell in love with it. I happened to find this book at a anime convention I went to last year with the illustration above as the cover. What I liked most about the art style was that it was graphic, bold, colorful and simple which fit nicely with the hip hop theme. In this illustration in particular, I love how the characters were posed because not only were they in interesting poses, you get a strong sense of motion from them. I also liked how the background is plain black with light delicate designs spread around it. It keeps the cover looking interesting without having the background overshadowing the main objects which are the three main characters.

2 comments:

  1. The composition of this piece is really cool. It reminds me of Renaissance triangular composition in a completely opposite kind of way. In Renaissance art, the triangle gives it the feel of stability. But this reversed triangle makes it feel full of movement and energy. It's funny how the same basic shape can produce two totally different feelings when rotated.

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  2. Jin's pose really brings home a lot about the anime. It's not 100% anatomically correct but stylized to be fluid and show movement. It also showcases those old-style Japanese sandals while he's doing a breakdancing move.

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