Naoko Takeuchi
I briefly looked at Naoko Takeuchi's art work on my Alphonse Mucha page, I decided to choose her as one of chosen artists because I admire her for writing and illustrating an amazing universe filled with strong, beautiful female characters.
Naoko Takeuchi, born March 15, 1967 is a Japanese manga artist. She is best known as the author of Sailor Moon, one of the most popular manga series of all time. I have known about her work for a long time as I grew up watching Sailor Moon from a young age, the nostalgia from Sailor Moon is what brought me back years later, to look back at her art work in admiration. The images below show some of her art-work that she produced for Sailor Moon.
Takeuchi has a very 'elegant' style when she draws her characters, even her male ones-they are all typically drawn tall, slim and with long hair, giving them a very feminine-looking design. What I particularly enjoy about Takeuchi's style is her use of color inks, the "feathering" or "blooms" as highlights where the color spread through the water they really help with her 'elegant' and 'feminine' look. Using the software, Sketchbooks, I focused more on the 'elegant' form Takeuchi creates with her characters rather than the textures she creates with her inks.
My reference photo
My art work inspired by Naoko Takeuchi's work
For my art work I swapped out the original bald-eagle wings in the reference photo to some fluffy, white ones because Takeuchi is always using wings like these for her characters. I also put some detail in the eye making them look 'doe-like', I done this because Takeuchi is able to portray emotion strongly because of how big and detailed she draws the eyes. Overall, I like this style, it's gives my hybrid character a much more 'simpler' look, this would make it easier animating. However, if I were to change anything, I make the fur on the front of the chest white to match the white wings, I would also to some touch ups on the colouring and lining because I feel as though they are a bit messy.