Yoshitaka Amano (born July 28, 1952) is a Japanese artist known for his illustrations for Vampire Hunter D and for his character designs, image illustrations and title logo designs for the Final Fantasy video game series developed by Square Enix (formerly Square).
Amano was born in Shizuoka, Japan; as a young adolescent, he was fascinated with drawing. In 1967, he began working for Tatsunoko Productions in the animation department, where he was introduced to the early Japanese anime movement. His first paid project was for the Speed Racer anime franchise (also known as Mach GoGoGo). He worked in character design for anime shows such as the Time Bokan series, the Gatchaman series, Tekkaman and the Honey Bee.
In the 1960s, Amano was exposed to Western art styles through comic books and their Japanese Western-influenced counter parts, and believes Western comics to be his artistic roots. He has cited Neal Adams as his favorite comic book artist, noting that he would often purchase used comics based on his cover artwork, only to be disappointed that the interior artist was different. Amano was also fascinated by the art styles of psychedelic art and pop art of the West, particularly the work of American Pop artist Peter Max.In the 1970s, Amano's intrigue led him to the study of the artworks of the late 19th century and early 20th century European movement of Art Nouveau, as well as the ancient Japanese hand woodblock printing work of Ukiyo-e. While concentrating on illustration, he was still at Tatsunoko Productions until he left in 1982.
In the early 1980s, he concentrated on illustrations for Science Fiction and Fantasy, while still keeping the influence of his animation and other illustration works from the 1960s and 1970s.[4] This in turn created a unique personal style, which was influenced by both modern surrealism as well as realism fluent in many classic and modern techniques.
In 1983, he was behind the illustrations for the novel Demon City Shinjuku and the first of Hideyuki Kikuchi's novel series Vampire Hunter D.This was adapted to a movie in 1985 for which Amano worked as character designer. The film was one of the first anime movies to be released outside of Japan. In interviews, however, Amano has stated that he was not pleased with the final product of the movie. More involvement in illustration had led to the creation of collections of his artwork being published, such as "Maten" in 1984.
n 1989, he had his first exhibition called "Hiten" at Yurakucho Mullion in Tokyo, Japan.He continued to work with Square and their Final Fantasy series, and in 1990 he started to work as an artist for stage theater. His first work for theater was Tamasaburo Bando's Nayotake, which was in the same year.During this time while working as illustrator, character designer and set designer, he had exhibitions of his becoming well-known for his printing works.
In 1994, after Final Fantasy VI, he was no longer the main character, image and graphic designer of the series (he started to provide promotional and character artwork for the next games, as well as working on the title logo designs for most of the games), but in 1995 he started to become better known world wide with his work at the Biennale d'Orléans in France, and then in his newly established workshop and exhibition "Think Like Amano" in New York in 1997, which followed another exhibition in New York at the Angel Orensanz Foundation entitled "Hero". Amano also appeared in the 1998 movie New Rose Hotel which is loosely based on the William Gibson short story with the same name, in which he played the character Hiroshi.
Music by:Steve Roach
www.steveroach.com
Amano was born in Shizuoka, Japan; as a young adolescent, he was fascinated with drawing. In 1967, he began working for Tatsunoko Productions in the animation department, where he was introduced to the early Japanese anime movement. His first paid project was for the Speed Racer anime franchise (also known as Mach GoGoGo). He worked in character design for anime shows such as the Time Bokan series, the Gatchaman series, Tekkaman and the Honey Bee.
In the 1960s, Amano was exposed to Western art styles through comic books and their Japanese Western-influenced counter parts, and believes Western comics to be his artistic roots. He has cited Neal Adams as his favorite comic book artist, noting that he would often purchase used comics based on his cover artwork, only to be disappointed that the interior artist was different. Amano was also fascinated by the art styles of psychedelic art and pop art of the West, particularly the work of American Pop artist Peter Max.In the 1970s, Amano's intrigue led him to the study of the artworks of the late 19th century and early 20th century European movement of Art Nouveau, as well as the ancient Japanese hand woodblock printing work of Ukiyo-e. While concentrating on illustration, he was still at Tatsunoko Productions until he left in 1982.
In the early 1980s, he concentrated on illustrations for Science Fiction and Fantasy, while still keeping the influence of his animation and other illustration works from the 1960s and 1970s.[4] This in turn created a unique personal style, which was influenced by both modern surrealism as well as realism fluent in many classic and modern techniques.
In 1983, he was behind the illustrations for the novel Demon City Shinjuku and the first of Hideyuki Kikuchi's novel series Vampire Hunter D.This was adapted to a movie in 1985 for which Amano worked as character designer. The film was one of the first anime movies to be released outside of Japan. In interviews, however, Amano has stated that he was not pleased with the final product of the movie. More involvement in illustration had led to the creation of collections of his artwork being published, such as "Maten" in 1984.
n 1989, he had his first exhibition called "Hiten" at Yurakucho Mullion in Tokyo, Japan.He continued to work with Square and their Final Fantasy series, and in 1990 he started to work as an artist for stage theater. His first work for theater was Tamasaburo Bando's Nayotake, which was in the same year.During this time while working as illustrator, character designer and set designer, he had exhibitions of his becoming well-known for his printing works.
In 1994, after Final Fantasy VI, he was no longer the main character, image and graphic designer of the series (he started to provide promotional and character artwork for the next games, as well as working on the title logo designs for most of the games), but in 1995 he started to become better known world wide with his work at the Biennale d'Orléans in France, and then in his newly established workshop and exhibition "Think Like Amano" in New York in 1997, which followed another exhibition in New York at the Angel Orensanz Foundation entitled "Hero". Amano also appeared in the 1998 movie New Rose Hotel which is loosely based on the William Gibson short story with the same name, in which he played the character Hiroshi.
Music by:Steve Roach
www.steveroach.com
No comments:
Post a Comment