Though it's an artist I've skipped in the past, I decided to grab Aoki Sin's's newest illustration collection, COLORS 7 from Comiket 77. I think it's in part due to his increased exposure, seeing his art work featured in both Megami Creators and 100 Masters of Bishojo Painting really helped to rekindle my interests. That, and his change in coloring style are making Aoki Sin one artist to watch out for ^^

COLORS 7 is a staple-bound, B5 sized doujinshi that's 20-pages in length when counting the covers. The art work is printed on lovely non-textured pages, that are closer to cardstock in thickness and sturdiness than regular paper. The cover art work shown above actually appears again inside as a title page, and then again as a background for the credits page ^^;

As I mentioned earlier, Aoki Sin's coloring style has changed over the years. His earlier works used flat coloring, which doesn't follow the usual shading or hues that make images more dynamic. Another artist who uses a lot of flat coloring is Miwa Shirow; but in that artist's case, I really like the monochrome art and drawing style, so color comes secondary. And that pretty much implies I'm not too keen on Aoki Sin's drawing style, which is true ^^; But for me, coloring and finishing go a long way to improving any art work.

Six of the pages feature Touhou illustrations, which really work in Aoki Sin's style with their bright, vibrant colors. Included Touhou girls are Remilia Scarlet, Flandre Scarlet, Patchouli Knowledge, and Hakurei Reimu. There is also a page of line art of Izayoi Sakuya, and Alice Margatroid that are yet to be finished.

I was using COLORS 7 to gauge my interest and decide whether I wanted to go back and collect his older art works. Overall, I think I'll just stick with Aoki Sin's future works.

• Title: COLORS 7
• タイトル: COLORS7
• Release Date: 12/31/2009
• Pages: 20 (including covers)
• Buy: Toranoana