Final Fantasy Origins Cover Art

[Griking]

Does anyone else think it looks like it was drawn by a grade school kid? It's horrible! Anyone know the story behind it?




http://cover09.cduniverse.com/CDUCoverArt/Games/Large/66224890301.jpg

[ArnoldRimmer83]

That same picture is the label art for the Famicom Final Fantasy 2. It was drawn by Yoshitaka Amano.

[Achika]

Looks like all the other Final Fantasy character art that I've seen. Take a look at Final Fantasy Anthology, it's the same artist who did that cover. I believe he also did the character sketches (concept design maybe?) for all the games. His art books and comics are gorgeous!


Edit: Whoops! meant Anthology, but was thinking of Chronicles.

[Li Wang]

Arnold is correct, and I personally think it's better than pretty much all the other U.S. Final Fantasy cover arts. Though that guy's style can get on your nerves after you see it too much and the 144375 dozenth otaku geek creams an entire irc chat session or message board over it.

[Arqueologia_Digital]

I don´t think the art is horrible...i think it´s good and similar to other versions.

[Quazick]

Looks like all the other Final Fantasy character art that I've seen. Take a look at Final Fantasy Chronicles, it's the same artist who did that cover. I believe he also did the character sketches (concept design maybe?) for all the games. His art books and comics are gorgeous!

I thought Akira Toriyama of DragonBall Z fame did the artwork for that?

ROCK ON :rocker:

[WiseSalesman]

Toriyama only did Chrono Trigger. His designs for that game beat the living hell out of his dragonball character designs, by the way.


Does anyone else think it looks like it was drawn by a grade school kid? It's horrible!

Heh. You, sir, can kiss my ass. I happen to like his art, but I admire him more for his actual character design work. Every character in almost every final fantasy game (excepting VII and VIII) was designed by him, and some aspect of his work (usually most of it) always makes it into the final product.

[BenT]

Toriyama only did Chrono Trigger.
And Dragon Quest / Warrior, of course.

[WiseSalesman]

Toriyama only did Chrono Trigger.
And Dragon Quest / Warrior, of course.

Good point. I still think in terms of squaresoft, not square/enix or squenix. :D

[briskbc]

I think his art work is fantastic. The guide for SNES FF3 is full of great stuff. Granted most of it is taken from the instruction book.

[Sylentwulf]

Um. That's Yoshitaka Amano's artwork isn't it?

[brandver3]

Yoshitaka Amano art is fantastic. Grade school nothing. Maybe you haven't seen enough of his work. His art is amazing. His Sandman book that he did with Neil Giamen won all kinds of awards. Is is one of Japans more prolific living artists. The Elektra/Wolverine mini-series that came out recently was just....well...wow. Plus he is a very funny guy and very approchable. Even though he speaks not a word of english.

He was doing a convention in New York (he has a second home there) and saw a girl dressed up as one of his characters. So he pulled her aside, drew a picture of her as the charcter, signed it, and gave it to her.

He also has a website that he draws new pictures for every week

If there was no Amano there would be no Final Fantasy, as he did all the design work for the first 6 games. He was a artistic consultant on 7,8, and 10 (that is when the guy who directed Kigdom Hearts took over as designer) and did all the designs for FF 9, which is my personal favorite.

[chocobokick]

I love his stuff too, was it Celes from FF3- looking down with her sword on her shoulder? Haunting. We have some posters of Superman and Batman that he did around here somewhere, I need to get them framed or something.

[Griking]

I don't know, I guess it's personal taste but just look at the face in this picture. The eyes, and especially the mouth are terrible. I honestly and truthfully have seen better art projects when I was in school.

http://www.99main.com/~griking/ff.jpg

[Quazick]

I don't think he was going for realism there Girking..

If one cannot take artistic freedom with what they do there wouldn't be any art...

That's a beautiful work of art in my eyes...

ROCK ON :rocker:

[kainemaxwell]

Setzer's character art always reminded me of Gambit myself.

[captain nintendo]

the art could have been better in my opinion.
then again, i cant draw better myself. so i think i will shut up now :(

[Achika]

It's art, you like it or you don't I suppose. But saying a "grade schooler can do it" isn't really fair. Sure, maybe the can, but that's not all there is too it. The fact is, they didn't get the idea first, Amano did. Look at classic asian art and see that there's similarities between Amano's style and the style in those. Perhaps they aren't highly detailed, etc. but they weren't really known for that so much as they were for the mastery of the medium. You have to atleast respect that.

[Kid Fenris]

When I first saw Yoshitaka Amano's willowy illustrations in that FFIII strategy guide so many years ago, I hated them, probably for the same reasons that Griking hates the artist's style today. Since then, however, I've come to like Amano's unique style, though his tendency to use simplified visages often makes his characters look alike, facially speaking. Still, he's done some great work in a lot of areas, and it was he who created those pointy-hatted black mages of the Final Fantasy series. Respect the black mage, if nothing else.

Besides, how can you knock a guy who drew a super-deformed Neil Gaiman?

[hezeuschrist]

I'd like to see any grade schooler apply colors like that.

[BenT]

Yeah, I really think it's the colors that make it so darn distinctive. They're just out of control.

[brandver3]

That style of art is very hard to draw. I had a few freinds trying to tell me and my old roomamte (we both really like Amano) how simple and esay his style is. So they tried to copy his work. And they couldn't. And these went any hacks, these guys were really good sketchers. Amano's line quality is superb. Every line he draws serves a purpose. And he draws alot of lines. Sure all his faces look the same, but its his style.

And look at the picture that was posted. THe face in the background is amazing. There is just such a sense of despare in her eyes. Very few artist can capture emotion like that.

And aslo it should be noted, despite what a lot of character artists do today, such as using the computer to touch up colors and design and what have you, all of Amanos pictures are done with ink and water color, no computer touchs ups ever.

[Griking]

The face in the background looks decent, its the one in the foreground that I'm talking about. And it's not that all the faces look the same that bothers me, it's how they're drawn.

Oh well, again, to each their own.