Stuff Wot I Bought - On Art and Books
Oct. 30th, 2007 07:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tiggymalvern
One of the deals I made with myself going to yaoi con this year was that I wasn't going to buy any artwork. I already have lots of artwork looking for walls to hang on, and I really don't need any more. Books, OTOH, those are always good, and two of my favourite fan artists solved my art issues for me by bringing out artbooks, right on cue :-) One of them also provided illustrations for a slash short story in book form. Reviews with sample scans are now served....
Kiriko Moth's new art book 'In Organica' has 45 pages of her beautiful and highly distinctive artwork. And just to declare myself up front, yes, the artist is a RL friend of mine, but strangers with far better art credentials than mine consider her to be something special too - her work has been selected for and won awards at the Seattle Erotic Art Festival for the last two years.
This is a book in two parts - the first half of the book is filled with sketches at various stages of completeness, as the artist develops her concepts and compositions.
Some of these sketches are mere outlines and hints of figures, while others are very close to the finished piece, showing how the lines have been built up and the details tweaked before the transition to sleek-lined black-and-white digital.
From page 20 onwards, the book is a series of full page plates of Kiriko's finished works. Many of them are the same pieces shown earlier in sketch form, with some extras - more are always appreciated :-).
The book concentrates on the fantasy pieces the artist is most well known for, both 'pure' fantasy and her mechanically-influenced designs, as typified by the cover, but there are also a couple of examples of her contemporary pieces and settings. The print quality of the book is good, with thick, matt pages so there are no annoying reflections to distract from the art. If I have one quibble to make with this book, I'd say it's that the sketch designs make it too interesting, and the curiosity it arouses isn't satisfied. If this was just a book of pretty pictures, I wouldn't want or expect any text, but since the design sketches are there showing how the pieces developed, it would have been great to have had a few sentences of commentary with them - the thought that went into the concepts, how the compostitions changed from sketch to finished piece, what the artist picked out that she felt wasn't working as she wanted. As it stands, the sketches are an admittedly lovely teasing hint into her working and thought processes.
I have to recommend this book, both for fans of Kiriko's beautiful and unique art style who can never have enough walls, and for any artists who are curious to see how her work comes so dramatically to life. Go, go and buy!
Kiriko's work is also found illustrating 'The Call of the Sea', the second short story in mini-book form by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
katherine_tag
Tag's a good writer who develops her characters and their backgrounds fast and unobtrusively. It has pirates! It has old friends who have chosen opposite sides of the law. It has deceit and connection. It has explicit m/m sex. It has illustrations by Kiriko on close to every other page. I just wish it had been longer - there's enough plot there to draw the story out easily twice the length or more, which would really have let Tag's talented prose revel in the detail. An appetiser like this makes me want the main course :-)
I knew that the artist Heise's work was going to be a challenge to my self-imposed art ban - I bought four of her prints last year. So I was delighted to arrive at the con and find her selling an artbook, though 'book' is a misnomer, since it isn't bound. What you get is a beautiful A4-sized folder containing 40 examples of her work (20 double-sided sheets) and a poster.
(The announcement of her artbook on DeviantArt says it will have 55 prints, but those being sold at yaoi-con didn't, so there was obviously a change of plan. No attempt to rip people off, I'm quick to add - there was a sample folder there open on the table so you could see exactly what you were getting.)
Many of the prints chosen are her stunningly detailed fantasy pieces of beautiful men that she's so well known for.
I believe from what I've heard that some of these guys are fantasy game characters, while others are original - I wouldn't have a clue, since I don't play those kinds of games. But who they are doesn't matter - Heise can bring character across with great immediacy in her choice of pose and background.
There are some examples in here too of her more contemporary-styled art, and her guys aren't always posed alone. Nothing explicit, though - most of these prints are fully dressed with guys who are sultry and pretty.
She can occasionally get more hardcore in her themes - this print is the only one of its kind of the set, though the poster continues the scene.
I suppose the advantage of loose leaves over a book is that it gives people the opportunity to frame and display their favourite pieces if they want to, though the double-sided prints might require some choices to be made. Personally I would have preferred the 'book' to be a book - it gets fiddly dealing with a lot of separate bits of paper all over the desk and trying not to damage any as you pick them back up. I can appreciate, though, that a book is a lot harder for a fan-type artist to produce, so I'll just be grateful I can have a much greater selection of Heise's glorious art in my house than my walls will allow!
Kiriko Moth's new art book 'In Organica' has 45 pages of her beautiful and highly distinctive artwork. And just to declare myself up front, yes, the artist is a RL friend of mine, but strangers with far better art credentials than mine consider her to be something special too - her work has been selected for and won awards at the Seattle Erotic Art Festival for the last two years.
This is a book in two parts - the first half of the book is filled with sketches at various stages of completeness, as the artist develops her concepts and compositions.
Some of these sketches are mere outlines and hints of figures, while others are very close to the finished piece, showing how the lines have been built up and the details tweaked before the transition to sleek-lined black-and-white digital.
From page 20 onwards, the book is a series of full page plates of Kiriko's finished works. Many of them are the same pieces shown earlier in sketch form, with some extras - more are always appreciated :-).
The book concentrates on the fantasy pieces the artist is most well known for, both 'pure' fantasy and her mechanically-influenced designs, as typified by the cover, but there are also a couple of examples of her contemporary pieces and settings. The print quality of the book is good, with thick, matt pages so there are no annoying reflections to distract from the art. If I have one quibble to make with this book, I'd say it's that the sketch designs make it too interesting, and the curiosity it arouses isn't satisfied. If this was just a book of pretty pictures, I wouldn't want or expect any text, but since the design sketches are there showing how the pieces developed, it would have been great to have had a few sentences of commentary with them - the thought that went into the concepts, how the compostitions changed from sketch to finished piece, what the artist picked out that she felt wasn't working as she wanted. As it stands, the sketches are an admittedly lovely teasing hint into her working and thought processes.
I have to recommend this book, both for fans of Kiriko's beautiful and unique art style who can never have enough walls, and for any artists who are curious to see how her work comes so dramatically to life. Go, go and buy!
Kiriko's work is also found illustrating 'The Call of the Sea', the second short story in mini-book form by
katherine_tagTag's a good writer who develops her characters and their backgrounds fast and unobtrusively. It has pirates! It has old friends who have chosen opposite sides of the law. It has deceit and connection. It has explicit m/m sex. It has illustrations by Kiriko on close to every other page. I just wish it had been longer - there's enough plot there to draw the story out easily twice the length or more, which would really have let Tag's talented prose revel in the detail. An appetiser like this makes me want the main course :-)
I knew that the artist Heise's work was going to be a challenge to my self-imposed art ban - I bought four of her prints last year. So I was delighted to arrive at the con and find her selling an artbook, though 'book' is a misnomer, since it isn't bound. What you get is a beautiful A4-sized folder containing 40 examples of her work (20 double-sided sheets) and a poster.
(The announcement of her artbook on DeviantArt says it will have 55 prints, but those being sold at yaoi-con didn't, so there was obviously a change of plan. No attempt to rip people off, I'm quick to add - there was a sample folder there open on the table so you could see exactly what you were getting.)
Many of the prints chosen are her stunningly detailed fantasy pieces of beautiful men that she's so well known for.
I believe from what I've heard that some of these guys are fantasy game characters, while others are original - I wouldn't have a clue, since I don't play those kinds of games. But who they are doesn't matter - Heise can bring character across with great immediacy in her choice of pose and background.
There are some examples in here too of her more contemporary-styled art, and her guys aren't always posed alone. Nothing explicit, though - most of these prints are fully dressed with guys who are sultry and pretty.
She can occasionally get more hardcore in her themes - this print is the only one of its kind of the set, though the poster continues the scene.
I suppose the advantage of loose leaves over a book is that it gives people the opportunity to frame and display their favourite pieces if they want to, though the double-sided prints might require some choices to be made. Personally I would have preferred the 'book' to be a book - it gets fiddly dealing with a lot of separate bits of paper all over the desk and trying not to damage any as you pick them back up. I can appreciate, though, that a book is a lot harder for a fan-type artist to produce, so I'll just be grateful I can have a much greater selection of Heise's glorious art in my house than my walls will allow!
