![]() ![]() This is easy to see in Matsumoto’s most famous character, Kurukuru kurumi chan, which means something like: Little Dizzy Wizzy Walnut. A more accurate tag might be: The Artist who Domesticated North American Cuteness in Japan. The subtitle of a catalogue of Matsumoto’s work from 2006, published to coincide with the first Yayoi show, sums up the artist's reputation: The Illustrator who Invented Shōwa Cuteness. Matsumoto Katsuji: The Illustrator Who Invented Shōwa Kawaii, edited by Uchida Shizue and the Yayoi Art Museum (Kawade shobō, 2006), cover (left) showing Kurumi from 1930s stationery and (right) Kurumi calendar, Shōjo (January 1951), furoku premium.įirst, some background. While the Ten Cent Manga series languishes in purgatory, this is a push to move the inquiry beyond shōnen manga and back before Tezuka. This is my first foray into the world of shōjo, and I cannot claim to have done thorough research, so beware disclaimers, airy hypotheticals, and amateur ignorance. This will be a multipart exploration, this time introducing Matsumoto, with analysis of Clover to follow. In the meantime, let me do what I can to keep the momentum going by poking around inside the aesthetic novelty and historical genesis of the work, and a bit into Matsumoto’s early career more generally. ![]() I’ve heard chatter of full-color publication, which is good because the Tsumugu version is almost too small to read. A miniaturized black and white reprinting of Clover appeared in the November issue of Tsumugu, a monthly magazine dedicated mainly to illustration and fiction. Now there’s a new and more formidable buzz around the work. Soon after, Clover seems to have sunk back under the radar, registering since only as a blip in manga studies – a brighter blip, but still a blip. There had been a Matsumoto show at the Yayoi in 2006, leading to multiple public expressions of amazement and declarations that manga historiography will never be the same. This was actually the booklet’s re-rediscovery. ![]() In that spotlight stood one work in particular: Matsumoto’s The Mysterious Clover ( Nazo no kuroobaa), an 16-page, magazine-format (7 x 10 in.), premium insert furoku for the April 1934 issue of the monthly Shōjo no tomo ( A Girl’s Friend), an iconic magazine in the history of shōjo culture. But there was at the center of the show a ray of sharp, clarifying light that has changed my understanding of the development of manga in that transitional era of the 1930s, when the medium went from adult pastime and occasional kids plaything to big-time commercial entertainment. The recent show, a retrospective of illustrator and manga author Matsumoto Katsuji (1904-86), was filled with the kind of frilly, sentimental shōjo stuff that usually makes me gag. Matsumoto Katsuji, The Mysterious Clover, Shōjo no tomo (April 1934), furoku premium. Thinking back, that exhibition was the shadow inspiration for my piece on emanga. 1921) exhibition two years ago – which unearthed a once-famous, now-forgotten, extremely talented artist of samurai emonogatari from the 1950s – was the talk of the town of manga studies for a couple of months. Defying a small budget, characterless exhibition spaces, and rudimentary display cases, the Yayoi Museum regularly organizes superb shows on twentieth-century illustration (usually Japanese), with some crossover into comics and related narrative pictorial print media. On a recent trip to Japan, I saw a truly eye-opening show at the Yayoi Art Museum in Tokyo. Gles to answer all your 'sight problems'.Features Matsumoto Katsuji and the American Roots of Kawaii If you do have any question, feel free to give me your Private Message. Q: Wait a minute, what about the monster's eyes?Ī: If you can do cat's eye or reptile's eye you're good to go to create your own monstrosity creatures. It's your turn to check on your eyes and do some experiments on yourself. Gles, because she'll be leaving to another job. Now we're at the end of this session with our Dr. Highlights should be subtle and well placed. Redness in the corner of the eyes helps give the eye life. ![]() Make sure the whites are smooth and the eyelids and surrounding skin is textured when doing realistic eyes, as for manga you could just let it very smooth like a porcelain. To wrap it up, remember the eyelid wraps around the eyeball. ◈ For the details of the pupil and iris, I create a new layer on top of sketch layer to achieve better result of contrast colorization (especially by adding highlights with light blue over the iris. I did the coloring with a new layer and place it below the sketch. ◈ In order to color the eye for this piece, I prefer to choose → and combination with to show you my quick coloring method. ![]()
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