A book of character design key visuals is coming soon with illustrations from Moretsu Pirates – showing a surprising level of complexity, far beyond the average, involved in the creation of these piratical characters.
Anyone could have figured that the character designs for Moretsu Pirates, or any given series for that matter, have quite a bit of work behind them – however, Moretsu Pirates’ characters are seemingly a galaxy or two more elaborate than imagined. Without the color, and broken into basic sketches and lineart, one can see an immense collage of intricacy present with each character – in fact, the details are so abundant to the point its frightening to think how anyone could have spent the time to carefully color them all.
There’s a heavy clash of line present with any character – almost like a web as it simply seems to be that perplexing. This advanced arrangement of lines formulates the basic structure of the characters – and it’s done in such a free yet still so fluent manner. The lines aren’t incredibly fine as one would normally see – they’re rough, yet the artist tied together all the artistic scratches to make a strong form, based around unique shapes.
Additionally, there’s also the shadows, darker spots applied heavily down in certain areas which look to almost reel in all surrounding lines. The deep blotches of shadow offer some contrast truly critical in making key areas of the characters stand out – defining what portions are the more prominent areas, versus the minute and less immediately visible, yet still crucial, details.
If an artbook were to trample atop the others of its kind, one wouldn’t have thought it’d be that of Moretsu Pirates, a sci-fi space opera – though apparently, it is.
Jul 3, 2012 @ 10:27 CDT
My kind of artbook. It not only has finished CGs, but rough sketches and line art – it’s nice to see the process of developing the look of the characters.
Jul 3, 2012 @ 15:07 CDT
Yes indeed – this is the sort of artbook which is truly worth purchasing.