vocaloid

Miki Miyashita's Raisonne IV was a hard cover sequel to Raisonne III with new illustrations and a larger B5-sized format. Raisonne IV already really showcases how Miki Miyashita's style has grown, with better coloring and more proportional character designs. There's a mix of fan art and original works in the art book as well, ranging from Vocaloid to Code Geass.

Ikegami Akane is a prolific artist, who has release many doujinshi along with several doujin-like art books. But Akaneiro Ikegami Akane Art Works marks her first commercial art book, released in both standard and limited editions at the end of March.

U10 is an artist whose work I find, more often than not, as a guest in the collection of others' works. But this time, U10 is the star with U10folio, a full color doujinshi featuring art works that range from Hatsune Miku to the singing group Perfume.

KEI continues to be an unstoppable force, releasing yet another all color volume of his illustration series, GA (画) Vol 07. Like with previous volumes, GA Vol. 07 includes a mixture of fan arts and originals, and this time around many of the characters from the Summer 2010 volume have found their way into the Winter 2010 as well.

Alphonse's B&W White Radio & Black Rock Shooter is a sort of two-in-one collection, where depending on which cover you open the doujinshi from, you get a different story. Both sides feature beautifully illustrated stories, much like the color comics we've seen in GELATIN, that place an emphasis on being able to tell a story that anyone could understand through the art work alone.

Gitabon 03 Illustrations was released for Comiket 78 and includes Guitar's (ぎた) art works from 2009 through 2010. This is the third full-color doujinshi he's released, and like others before it, it features his original mascot character Dokuro-Usako.

Koto was first talked about here with her Pixiv Market release, Marchen, which featured all original illustrations. This time around, Koto has released Partita Vocaloid Fan Book, a full color collection of Vocaloid illustrations that includes tributes to many of the popular songs like Magnet and Eager Love Revenge along with the new design for Hatsune Miku Append.

V-Edition 03 Rainbow Lips Books was released by the former Supercell illustrator 119 (Hikeshi) during Comiket 78. It's a full color collection, and unlike his V-Edition 02 release, it's a book instead of a digital collection. Call me old fashioned, but I still can't bring myself to pay good money for small images burned onto a CD.

If you're a Vocaloid fan, and an even bigger Kozaki Yusuke fan, what could be better than Kozaki Yusuke doing Vocaloid illustrations? My completely impartial answer: NOTHING. Well, if I could change one thing I would have made Kozaki Yusuke's Miki.BLUEPRINT a bit longer. But that's less of a complaint and more about just wanting more ^^

Much has changed since the first issue of Quarterly Pixiv Magazine. For one, the lovely poster is gone, replaced by nothing. On the other hand, the magazine is now much more "how to" art focused, with just about every artist featured doing an illustration walkthrough or presenting tips and tricks for Photoshop or SAI. The artists' interviews are much shorter than in the first volume as well, leaving space for longer art tutorials.

Earlier this year I reviewed one part of Ukke's Comiket 77 release, Girl's Illustrations Winter 2009, with the intention of reviewing Megpoid Crosslight shortly after. I have the "after" part right, anyway. Megpoid Crosslight is essentially a printed version of the art from the Crosslight Project PV which features music by Yuuki Masame and kz from livetune. The Crosslight promotional video where this art work is used can be seen here via the official site, or here on Youtube.

Truthfully, I didn't like Hatsune Miku GRAPHICS Vocaloid Art & Comic when it first arrived amidst many better art books at the beginning of March. But having been recently reminded of it, I decided to have another look through to see how I was feeling about it. I'm slightly more appreciative of the new and exclusive art works done for the collection, but for the most part I still feel like art book really lacks focus and even quality consistency from page to page.