“Magi” – No Feminine Physique Necessary

Ridiculous as it may seem, overemphasis of the female physique is seemingly unnecessary when a series has a strong story and characters – and Magi is evidencing this outlandish belief exceptionally well.

Continuing to impress, this illustration features the blonde haired warrior with a raging confidence.

A great aspect of this character is that one can truly see the sort of personality he has – and when combined with what the synopsis reveals of him, one can already assess the sort of colorful individual he is right then and there. He looks like a true up and coming youth with vigor – a determined personality, with quite a mind of wit, alongside an unwavering soul containing a mix of devious and righteous traits alike.

As the story goes, this fellow first attempted to take advantage of our protagonist – yet he ultimately came to become his friend. Based on this, one can insinuate that perhaps this blonde character had experienced something harsh in the past, likely in his childhood, which has made him more open to taking a less than respectable route if necessary – yet in reality, he’s actually still rather well-meaning on the inside, much like how a child in poverty might steal from a stall to feed a sibling.

Assuming that this difficult to deny theory proves true, it means the blonde has quite an interesting background, which will hopefully be shared in the coming animation – and it also speaks of how he’s striving for something. He has a central goal or aspiration – and for this, he’s willing to go quite a distance.

Now in respect to his appearance, it was examined within the first key visual – yet one distinctive detail to note in this artwork specifically is the shadow and color, there’s phenomenal gradients shifting amongst a tan, to a sandy yellow, truly spot on with robes adorned in the desert. Natural elements do take quite a toll on garments in the unforgiving climate – and thus, the color variance is very critical in representing this appropriately. Yet atop of that, there’s also dark spots of shadow – each formulating a contrast to show overlapping areas.

Note that the excellence here is in the combined usage of both color, as well as shadow to show value – the artist understood that light also depends on other factors beyond the source of light itself.

And recognizing one final facet which truly deserves some recognition, despite being rather apparent to the point of impossibility to miss – there’s the incredibly direct foreshortening effect applied to the arm, unconventional in that this technique is often boasted from a more slanted side view, rather than head-on as seen here, although that merely goes to show that this character isn’t one for jokes at the moment.

Indeed, of the many series to soon arrive, this one continually looks to be one of the most arete in class.

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