BOOK

MY BOOKSHELF

FICTION:

BLACKSAD - Juan Díaz Canales & Juanjo Guarnido

I had a period of time that I obsessed with European comics (before that I always read Asian comics), I was astonished the time when I read Blacksad. The storyboard, story line, layout, the ways of telling the story and every single detail in it are extraordinary. I used to copy it a lot; I think this is a good reference for human-animal hybrid study. I think in many other comic they all tended to make animals mimicking human, but I feel Blacksad is more focus on how each personality represent each animal.

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PICTURE BOOK:

THE ART OF BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL - Hiroaki Samura

This is a picture book about Hiroaki Samara's manga 'Blade of the Immortal' it included many illustrations from the manga.  The manga series is set in Japan during the mid- Tokugawa Shogunate period and follows the cursed samurai Manji, who has to kill 1000 evil men to regain his mortality. The story is very dark and depressing, but I love the drawings and storyboard. I am a fan of Hiroaki Samura drawing style; I read some of his work when I was in middle school. After watching the live action movie version of this story, I felt a bit nostalgia and then I bought this book to memorize that time when I was younger and rebellious (Samura drew a lot of violence scenes which I loved ).

NON-FICTION:

BRIDGMAN'S COMPLATE GUIDE TO DRAWING FROM LIFE

- George Bridgman

I am sure most of the art student in China have this book, the first day I went in to art studio my teacher tell me to copy as much as his life drawing in order to learn and understand the body structure and I drew every single drawing in this book. Bridgman used box forms to represent the major masses of the figure (head, thorax, and pelvis) which he would tie together with gestural lines and produce to create "wedges" or simplified interconnecting forms of the body. At the beginning I don't understand his drawing at all but when I constantly look at it and draw it I starting to get it, I think that is why it become so  popular in China.

SELF PUBLISHED：

THE PHANTOM PAIN - HUROHAWA SHINO& U

This is an Overwatch fan book by Chinese artist Hurohawa Shino (alias). This book is aimed at the fans of Mecree and Reaper this two hero from Overwatch. I have been followed Shino for few years, and I like her style, the colour she uses and the line quality in her work. As her follower and Overwatch player, I also brought this book and I love it.  I think is rare to see a fan book in this level of quality.

APPLIED

Kaiju

Kaiju is the first Thai-Japanese fusion restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The name Kaiju is derived from Japanese film genre that features giant monsters, hence we designed a Godzilla as the brand logo and Thai Dragon as the greatest nemesis. I like this cute kaiju logo, it is cute and fun. I think anyone walk by will be appeals by it and go to this restaurant. The colour choice is also very good, make me feel comfortable and that is what restaurant needs to do, make people feel relax an comfortable.

Inside

The cover of the puzzle- platformer adventure video game Inside. Just like the cover the game is very dark.  Inside is a puzzle platformer in which the player character is an unnamed young red-shirted boy who explores a surreal environment presented as a primarily monochromatic 2.5D platform game, using colour only to highlight parts of the environment.

Ripndip

The infamous LA-based brand Rip n Dip are known for their trademark mascots Nermal the Cat and Lord Alien across an awesome range of hilarious tees and off-the-wall accessories. The success of ripndip I think is because of those edgy and funny designs. In fashion industry now is about to be bold and express yourself, that is why this mean cat become so popular.

ILLUSTRATOR - KATSUYA TERADA

Katsuya Terada is a Japanese illustrator and cartoonist that I have admired for many years. I love his Saiyukiden Daienou (Monkey King) , Devil Man and Boold: The Last Vampire. I am impressed by his line quality . He has also done work related to American comics, such as Iron Man and Hellboy (one of his illustrations was used for an official statuette of Hellboy). He also made additional contributions to early issues of Nintendo Power, including a special edition Strategy Guide for Dragon Warrior and artwork for The Legend of Zelda.

My favorite is his Monkey King, Terada created and started this dark version of ' journey to the west', not only the drawing style but also the character and content itself. Even now we are still affected by it in China. I think his monkey king is more suitable for the original story background, he should be fury and rebel.

'Everyone grew up with the tale of journey to the west ; even Osamu Tezuka did his version. When Son Goku is put in a cave…someone who’s been crammed up for years in a mountain is naturally going to tend you towards violence—a natural reaction to that situation. I don’t think that’s really been depicted before.'

Terada has defined himself as a 'rakugaki' artist, more of a philosophy than a style of drawing, in which one draws a little everywhere, all the time, without thinking too much, on notebooks etc. He is a very prolific artist.

I’ll take a pencil and think, ‘that’s a cool thing,’ and especially being able to depict things to exist or don’t exist that are or would be three dimensions in a two dimensional way. That excites me, being able to go around and say ‘I can depict that, I can depict that.’

His use of CG tools is integrated very well in his illustrations, giving his work a vivid and rich appearance. I think he influence me to capture that sense of three dimensionality in my work.

"Realism doesn't mean making it look exactly like a picture would, but conveying the air, the feeling, the scene, the taste of the image, and conveying the feeling of the existence of whatever you're drawing."