Saturday 23 February 2008

The layers of Keiichi Tanaami

I'd not heard of Keiichi Tanaami until I found some books on his works when I last visited Japan. The first book I saw (and subsequently bought) was 'Layers of Keiichi Tanaami' (2006). Upon opening this book and seeing Tanaami's work for the first time was like my head had been levered open by a giant bottle-opener - ksssht! I stood in the store slack-jawed and awe-struck as I leafed through the pages.
The book is amazing, 8 separately bound sections bound together as one. Each section's "covers" are two-colour designed details of his work, and the reproduction is beautiful. The cover is a two-colour job, with a custom-matte varnish overlaid. Content-wise the book includes examples of Tanaami's work, scans of the manuscripts involved to choose colours and composition (see below) and photos of sculptures and costumes made from his work.

Here are some scans from the book, click on each for larger:

Goldfish Lurking in Twilight

Scene with a Crying Woman

Seaside Theater

An example of the manuscript used to develop Seaside Theater

Sample of the cover section, between each bound sub-section

There's an interview with Tanaami here , and you can buy 'Layers of Keiichi Tanaami' here.

Here's a YouTube video of an interview with Tanaami:

Thursday 21 February 2008

Delays


Sorry for the delays in posting, been a little snowed under with work commitments of late. Normal service will resume shortly...

Thursday 14 February 2008

Wednesday 13 February 2008

The apology


Well done Kevin, you did good.

Tuesday 12 February 2008

Japanese Cryptozoology book

Here are some scans from a book I picked up in Japan, the contents of which are recreated mythological animals and Cryptozoological specimens. The author/creator is Hajime Emoto (gallery in Japanese here) who builds them out of very convincing-looking materials.

The Tsuchinoko, a mythical Japanese snake:


The mischievous Kappa:


The Basilisk, which will kill you as soon as look at you:


And finally, what looks like the Pirhana Plants from Super Mario Brothers (I can't find evidence on them being based on mythology):


Here's a watercolour of the Pirhana Plant in a natural surrounding:

Wednesday 6 February 2008

Flickrrrr


I finally got my act together with my Flickr account. You can now look at my photographs until your cheeks are stained with large, salty tears of boredom.

Here they are.

I'm a little concerned about Microsoft's potential bid to take over Yahoo - who have owned Flickr for a while now - (info here) and hope that Microsoft keeps it's hands off what is a great photographic community resource.

Tuesday 5 February 2008

..."What's that Sonny"? et al






Moleskine sketches, twenny-oh-seven.

Saturday 2 February 2008

Typographic "No"


From the "Baxter format" (named after the paper stock used) 'Legion of Super Heroes' number 1, August 1984. Keith Giffen plotting and pencils, Larry Mahlstedt inks and Carl Gafford's colours.

I like this stage and format in comics as the colours really pop. This is due to using Process colours almost as spots, so no mixing is required. By eye, I'd say that the background is about 80% magenta, and the blue is around 80% cyan with no other colours in the mix. The green fringe I'd say is about 20% cyan and 20% yellow. The paper is a thinker stock than previous comics and takes the colour and level of ink really well.