Anime Clay
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For years I have actively searched through the internet for anime art to adore. After creating a large collection of my favorite artists, I decided it could be nice to share.
In America, I feel that much of the anime fandom neglects the artists and their style and pays more attention to the characters -- often paying no respect to the artist/source even if they like it. As an artist myself, this makes me pretty upset. I made this blog hoping to change that around.
You can call me Miq,
Enjoy the artists, here at Anime Clay.
The elegant, peaceful, and beautiful femininity of Moka (もか), also known as Mokaffe, fashionably enriches each of her images. Moka’s art encapsulates a popular aesthetic for many young girls in Japan, from the cute and innocent to womanly and luxurious, within fashion styles such as Forest Girl (森ガール) and Lolita. I personally adore Moka’s ability to subtlety depict the dreamy faces of her figures, especially when it comes to those starry eyes.
The super colorful, geometric, and fun art of CKS brings together some splendid design work with a catchy anime style. CKS’s work has been gradually improving over the last few years and they have proven themselves to have plenty of potential. I am excited to see what they do next, and hope to see them do some more of the experimentation I know they are capable of.
It is difficult for me to explain the genius, brilliance and originality behind the masterpieces of JNTHED. In many ways, JNTHED seems to be on a different level, his own level, recreating anime art while establishing a new genre. His work already feels timeless to me, as if anime has been around for centuries and he is one of the long dead masters.
A large part of what gives JNTHED’s work such a unique feel is his radical blend of digital and analog art. I do not know all the details of his process, but it seems that he uses analog mediums, such as oil paints and pencil, as well as digital painting and effects. Some of his work seems to be analog to digital (by way of scanner) while some works are from digital to analog. This blend gives his work a detailed richness at some times, and a minimalistic purism at other times — or both in combined harmony.
If you love the work of JNTHED as I do, now is the time to look into the prime of this living master. Along with the other links below, there is a link to the page for the last Japanese show JNTHED was in, A Nightmare is a Dream Come True, at the famous Kaikai Kiki Gallery of Takashi Murakami which took place just last month! Keep your eyes open for more.
- Pixiv
- Official Blog/Site
- A Nightmare is a Dream Come True (JNTHED’s most recent show in Japan)
- List of Works
- (updated) Tumblr “scapbook” (NSFW)
Hiroyuki Takahashi (タカハシヒロユキ) is an absolute genius with no concern for limits. He has clearly established his aesthetic of over-the-top, playful, colorful, Japanese techonophilia, applying it throughout his images, on the character, for the character, and around the character. His compositions, although cluttered with aesthetic props and objects, are masterfully composed, making dynamic use of the simple/blank spaces within the chaos of each subject.
Other than his overall aesthetic, I deeply admire Takahashi for his use of patterns and vectors. I immediately noticed that he used a lot of patterns, but it took me some time to realize how much a part of his art they are. He has a set vocabulary of patterns (like with his object vocabulary) which he employs throughout all of his art, but where he applies them and how they work in each picture really varies. There are a few that seem to be his favorites, and they are as much a part of his art, to me, as his characters are. On the other hand, his vector lines and coloring/shading are handled with mechanical precision and mathematical perfection, making his aesthetic possible while multiplying its effect.
Outside of the aspect of Takahashi’s art and life shown here, there seems to be much more. From what I have seen of his personal taste for fashion and his live art performances, I have come to respect and admire Takahashi as an artist and a person.
I have very high hopes for Hiroyuki Takahashi, and hope he goes very far with his art. In many ways he reminds me of Takashi Murakami, and I could see him leaving a similar impact on the world as a Japanese artist.
Amatiz has a masterful grasp of the digital brush, capable of rendering the subtlest of details with eloquent and seductive style.
I personally love the way they handle the texture of water, hair, clothing and skin. Amatiz’s water has more smoothness and liquidity to it than actual water — and he handles hair in the same manner. The intricate textures and patterns of each characters clothing consistently blow my mind with richness. And the skin of each character has a unique feeling to it, that does not feel warm or soft, but rather smooth, in a classic, statue-esque way that you don’t see to much with modern digital artists. The other aspect of Amatiz’s art I love is their anatomical stylization of the face and body which is hardly a stretch from realism, but very definitely a trademark style with a consistent ideology. This style is often paired with a nature theme (frequently marine life) that is both original and evocative.
Being a professional artist, you won’t find all of Amatiz’s greatest works for free online — much of their best pieces are only available in their art books and comics (which I would highly recommend — go to their Deviant Art if you are interested). However, there is still some of their work available online, and if you would like more of what you see here…
Note: Their base name is Amatiz — sometimes they are called Amatizqueen or Amatizking, depending on the location.
Rain (translation of 雨) is incredibly skilled at bringing drama and emotion to their scenes. On one hand, they are able to take a bustling environment and put you in it — surrounded by the crowd, noises and excitement of the moment. On the other hand, they are particularly masterful at capturing the intensity of silence.
There is something deeply psychological about the way Rain is able to handle the interaction between the characters and the integration of their emotions with the setting. The emotion radiates well beyond the characters and throughout the entire scene, tying each piece together in a potent package of a single feeling.
For Rain’s Pixiv: http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=27087
And for their dA: http://conronca.deviantart.com/
午前4時(or 4:00 am ) is a brilliant graphic designer who applies their gentle and charming minimalist aesthetic to a variety of anime series. They have an exquisite sense of color schemes and a solid philosophy for their shapes and lines.
I personally love how simple their work is while still being unique and recognizable. When it comes to the simplified style of “super-deformed”, a lot of artists’ styles lose originality and take on the generic look of the genre — this is not the case for 4:00 am . Subtle characteristics in their characters, such as diamond-eyes and unique fin-shaped face profiles, keeps their style distinguishable.
For 4:00 am’s Pixiv: http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=171408
The dream-like paintings of KanaOhtsuki drip with a beautiful array of controlled colors and delicate textures. She is somehow capable of creating a paradox of tranquility and chaos that moves the painting back and forth across a fence that most pictures stay on one side of.
Unlike a lot of the artists that I have shared, KanaOhtsuki seems to mostly use traditional mediums (acrylics, colored pencil, marker). Digital art has become the standard platform for anime artists, and suits many of the anime ideals very well. However there are aspects of traditional mediums that go hand in hand with some of the more classic styles. KanaOhtsuki is one of the perfect examples of those styles, in my mind, and I couldn’t think of a better approach to her aesthetic.
For KanaOhtsuki’s Pixiv: http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=2849346
And for her site: http://ohtsuki.rillfu.com/
NEMO*BRAND brings Japanese hip-hop fashion with some street-art style to anime. As a graphic designer, NEMO*BRAND’s art revolves around vectors and clean graphics.
I personally love NEMO*BRAND for his aesthetic. The best word to describe it that comes to mind is “fresh”. From his small, simple characters to his complex, large images, his casually modern subject matter stands out as something you see very rarely in anime — at least for now. And his colors tend to make my eyes water (in the best way possible).
For NEMO*BRAND’s Pixiv: http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=67681
And for his site: http://nemobrand.com/
(Updated) For his Tumblr: http://nemobrand.tumblr.com/
