Thank you to all the really cool people who checked out our stall yesterday at SMASH! (the Sydney Manga and Anime Show). It was so great to meet you all and talk about our work.
We have to say that the Sydney Town Hall was an awesome venue for SMASH!, and next year's event at the Convention Centre at Darling Harbour should be even more awesome still! A huge thank you to the organisers of SMASH! who are really working hard to put together the best event for Manga and Anime fans in Sydney. Everything went well yesterday (from our point of view).
General view of our table at SMASH!
Our display wall at SMASH!
SMASH! has always been a cool event for Artists, and one of the nicest parts of the day yesterday was meeting and talking with other artist groups. You are all so talented and supportive - so keep up the good work everyone! Thanks especially to the friendly people from Whale Up and S.Squared.
For anyone who missed us yesterday, we will also be having a stall at Animania on 11-12 September at Technology Park, Redfern. We will again be selling copies of our "Candy Smile Love" Visual Book, as well as postcards and bookmarks. And the free candy will be back as well! Hope to see you there.
SMASH! 2010
Momoko guards the candy jar at SMASH! 2010
Also, keep watching this space, because we'll be posting regularly with samples of our current work, Photoshop tips and tricks, and even some new work in the coming months.
4 comments:
Post 1 of 2
Hello everyone, and hello to the Ashita ne staff!
This comment is a short critical review of Ashita ne's new Candy/Smile/Love artbook from a fan of theirs. Throughout the review, I'll also be making comments on what I did and didn't like about the book, and what I would like to see in the future.
The artbook is a 44-page beautifully bound soft cover piece. All the images are in colour except for two pages of Omake at the back (Omake means bonus in Japanese).
At first glance, the three biggest changes that leap out at you are the backgrounds, the ears, and the eyes.
Their work on backgrounds has advanced tremendously, opting to use a watercolour-esque style. The most natable background work would have to be pages 22 and 23. It also appears to me that the group seem far more confident in designing natural backgrounds than urban areas.
The ears and eyes are also a big point for mention. Since 2008, their ears have become far more develloped, using much more detail. The eyes have also had alot more detail put into them, having made them smaller, and using gradient colouring. Both of these changes make the girls appear more "real" and westernised.
The "real" effect is also heightened by their choice of hair colour. As compared to 2008, the hair colours are much more earthy and believeable, making you feel as though the girl has another depth of personality.
Other mentionables in their art evolution include the detail of the girls' mouth colours and designs, their nose sizes, and their skin. The use of shadows in the pictures, and the lines used to draw the girls are much thicher and somewhat rough.
All in all, ashita-ne have evolved so much since 2008 that their work is almost unrecognisable. For better or for worse is up to the judgement of the individual.
There has always been a definitive line between real life, and fantasy, imagination, and make-believe. Ashita-ne's new works blur that line too much for me to wholly enjoy. Personally, I much prefer their 2008 girl's, who had an innocent charm to them. Although their new girls are far more detailed, and the skill in creating them is certainly praiseworthy, but to be honest, they really kinda scare me ^.^;
Post 2 of 2
There are still a couple of points that I would like to make before wrapping this up:
1) I would like to commend 2010 ashita-ne work on their efforts in hyperextension. A lot of artists tend to stretch the hyperextension beyond reality in a comedic way, simply because they can't draw hyperextensions convincingly. Pieces that stand out as done well include Page 10, Page 25, Page 27 (both top & bottom), and Page 30.
2) In my opinion, I think the rear cover of the artbook doesn't accurately represent the content of the book. The picture of a young blonde girl in a red one-piece swimsuit sporting the slogan "LUV U 24/7" is likely to attract the attention of people who will be disappointed in the content of the book, and repell people who would love the content for its artistic value.
3) A critical element that made 2008 ashita-ne images different from everything else was the fact that they named all of their girls. They didn't do this for their 2010 artbook, which I think was a mistake.
4) An element that 2010 ashita-ne art lacked was the portrayal of multiple girls in the one image. All of their art almost looks like the girls are models just posing for the camera. I think they need to draw more than one girl in an image (which they did in one immage on page 42), and they have to draw them interacting with their worlds, not just posing.
5) If ashita-ne were to revert to their 2008 style of drawing (which I personally hope they do) then they'll need to work on backgrounds. The backgrounds I liked from the 2008 series are:
Mai-chan;
Reiko-chan;
Four Girls;
Koi no Natsu;
Sumiko-chan; and
Natsumi-chan.
I particularly liked Natsumi-chan's background. Backgrounds don't have to be complex, just appropriate.
My favourite image from the 2008 series is Koi no Natsu, and my favourite image from the 2010 series would have to be a tie between Page 30 of the girl looking up through the monkey bars with that calculating and mischievious smile (the smile is what really makes this one a winner), and Page 38 of that pink haired sweetheart sitting on the beach. I can just hear her saying "えへへ あなたが面白いです" everytime I see her >.<
Well I hope my efforts in writing this up will be of a help to someone, be it a fellow fan or one of the ashita-ne team. I also sincerely hope that the ashita-ne team take everything I've said as praise or constructive criticism. There's no intent to flame, insult, or hurt any of the artists with this review. I wrote this review to give the artists some honest detailed feedback from a fan - who're ultimately the people they're trying sell their work to.
With that, I'm over and out!
Thanks so much zeo for your comments and constructive criticism. We always welcome feedback from our fans, and we've been working hard over the past couple of years to push our illustrations in a new direction.
Personally, we find it an interesting creative challenge to blur the line between fantasy and reality. We're also very interested in the world of fashion and advertising, and I guess our new work reflects that love - we see it as something of a hybrid between Japanese art book illustration and a glossy children's fashion magazine. "Candy Smile Love" was very much an experiment.
We want to take what we've learned and apply it to producing a manga (with a fantasy story line) for next year. I expect our art style will have to change again to adapt to the new format - mostly b&w with screen tones, much simpler lines, etc.
Your comments are always very valuable to us - so please, keep following our blog and letting us know what you think.
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