It seemed fitting to post about Amano’s work since he did the concept art for Final Fantasy X, which I only just finished! I know that game came out years ago, however it’s been in my pile of shame of ages anf I thought I should finish it (the ending was so sad, I got teary eyed :() – but back to the artist! This week I’m featuring Yoshitaka Amano, a well known Japanese artist who has created numerous character and logo designs as well as concept illustrations for Square Enix.

His work is always so full of detail and beautiful wispy lines that seem to just flow through the artwork. I like how he uses colour as well; it’s not exactly bursting out of the canvas like Sylvia Ji’s paintings, but he knows how to balance it with the surrounding space and work with tones. His illustrations are often of fantasy/sci-fi subject matter and have a lovely asian styling to them, despite being influenced by Western comic books. They remind me a lot of traditional Japanese paintings actually, in the way he uses colour, the thin pencil lines and the intricate details.

My next favourite artist is Tim Biskup with his wonderful characters, colours and conceptual pieces. I discovered him around same time I was searching for artists who create that ‘1950s storybook illustration‘ style, though I now can’t recall how I came across his work specifically. I do believe it was for researching my graduate project though back in 2009.

I’ve been debating on whether or not to write about him because his work has evolved since I first started following him. His latest works have become more surreal/cubist/structured in nature, while I prefer his older whimsical pieces. His website seems to have also changed and he doesn’t have a lot of work featured. Luckily I have some saved work on my computer and there’s always Google :P.