Yoshitaka Amano information

Birthday: 1952 x month x day

Place of birth: Shizuoka City

Graduate School: Tokyo Art Institute

All previous dynasties have painted for Final Fantasy, which can be said to be the father of Final Fantasy.

Famous introduction

Just like in the enchantment of dreams, the misty wilderness dust is flying all over the sky. At arm's length, wandering pupils make people feel like an out-of-touch soul in an instant confrontation. She is slowly approaching and slowly leaving. ...

The color of the picture is usually dark yellow, the artistic conception is ethereal, full of real movement, with the charm of classical oriental style and the connotation of European fantasy literature complex. The human figure is abstract, with irregular slender eyes and sharp corners, and various exquisite decorative props, such as cloaks, earrings, swords, jewelry, helmets and so on.

The work of illustrator Yoshitaka Amano is the special picture described above. Rather than saying that his paintings are unique and avant-garde, I would like to admit that his painting style is unique and completely "amateur" individualism.

In China, he is best known for his personal design and illustration of the famous video game series Final Fantasy, followed by illustrations of the famous Japanese fantasy writer Yoshiki Tanaka's Battle of Duck Island and Legend of the Dragon.

So, let's review some of the history of this master who has been active for nearly half a century-

Yoshitaka Amano was born in Shizuoka on 1952. When he was 1967 and 15 years old, he had already joined the ancestor production company of Japanese animation-Longzi Production.

Now there are documents confirming that Master Amano graduated from Tokyo Art Institute, so when 15 years old, he began to use university work experience? ! Amano joined Son of the Dragon, mainly engaged in animation character setting. As soon as a newcomer joins an animation company, he can play such an important role as "human setting", which shows that his basic skills and advantages have been affirmed. Amano later participated in the production of many animated works, such as Peter Pan in Science (this work is one of the earliest Japanese science fiction movies with two English names, one translated into Gatchman and the other into G-Forch) and Little Bee (is it the one that was introduced to China? Sweat ...)

After this period of work experience in Son of the Dragon, Yoshitaka Amano has established a high reputation in the Japanese animation industry. On the one hand, it is the historical contribution made by Son of the Dragon itself in the Japanese animation session, and on the other hand, Amano himself joined the animation industry at an ultra-low age and created amazing achievements and influences.

For Amano, an important turning point in life began at 198 1. This year, Yoshitaka Amano just turned 29. I took the illustration job for the first time and drew illustrations for famous novels serialized by SF magazine. I still remember that Amano's first illustration novel story was Twilight (translated as "Little Knowledge"), and from then on, Amano began his illustration art career.

A year later, that is, 1982, he stepped in and did another amazing thing. He quit the animation production company "Son of the Dragon", with a cooperative relationship of 15 years, and had a history of his life struggle from teenager to youth. In the same year, he established the production of ten.

The real climax is at 1983. Yoshitaka Amano's positive performance in the field of illustration art finally enabled him to successfully win the "14 nebula award" organized by the authoritative organization "Japanese SF Enthusiasts Association". The nebula award is the highest award specially established for people who have made outstanding performance or contribution and influence in SF and its related fields every year. Moreover, it is even more unimaginable that Yoshitaka Amano won the nebula award for four consecutive times from 1983 to 1986 by virtue of his outstanding talent in illustration creation. Since then, Yoshitaka Amano has reached the peak of illustration creation for the first time.

With the development of Japanese electronics industry in 1980s, the game industry as a new entertainment industry has attracted more and more attention. Square, a famous Japanese game company, was not as popular as it is now in the late 1980s. 1At the end of 987, the game Final Fantasy (also translated as Space Warrior) was launched on Nintendo's mainframe. It is said that the game made by squall line company for many years did not improve, and finally decided to sell a "decisive battle" work made by all the elites of the company at that time. In other words, if the sales volume of this work does not reach a certain number, the company will go bankrupt, and that is Final Fantasy. On the other hand, Square also intends to compete with another famous work at that time-Dragon Quest, the originator of Japanese RPG game, and its success is in jeopardy.

Final Fantasy is not only the hope of Square itself, but also the birth of this work is closely related to Yoshitaka Amano. It is through this work that Amano's illustrator career began to develop across fields.

Sure enough, since 1987, Yoshitaka Amano has set up and drawn a large number of posters, scene illustrations, original cases of peripheral products and so on for Final Fantasy series. As the game became an instant hit and became an enduring series of works, Yoshitaka Amano also became the spokesperson for almost all the illustrations in this work.

Today, Yoshitaka Amano is still active in the game industry. In addition to Amano's most famous illustration "Final Fantasy", another RPG-style strategic game of Square "Frontline Mission" was also designed and illustrated by Amano. Compared with FF series, the characters used by Front Mission in the game screen began to pay attention to the original design loyal to Amano, and the art of the whole game is very in line with Amano style. It is also talked about by the game industry. In addition, Amano also designed roles for a role-playing game developed by Capcom, another famous Japanese game maker.

Come back and pay attention to the development of Amano in the animation industry. Because Amano himself started from the animation industry, Amano himself has a high level of choice for participating in animation creation. He basically won't take part in general commercial animation and illustration, but he is very interested in avant-garde experimental works and alternative works. Two of them are the most famous. 1984 cooperated with Mamoru Oshii, a famous Japanese animation master and pioneer director, who was also in the "Son of the Dragon" project at that time. This work was called "two people's own work" by the industry at that time. The entire animation "Angel's Egg" lasts for 70 minutes. The picture is composed of fantastic scenes and breath, and the story is quite "conscious". Basically not many people can understand its meaning. The author specially studied its general content, and it seems to be a girl who is associated with "Angel's Egg" and some mysterious and ancient ritual processes ... This work is regarded as the pioneering work of Japanese animation OVA, which has become an out-of-print collection in Japan and one of the rare masterpieces in Mamoru Oshii's early days. Maybe it's the age. So far, this work is the collection target of many young anime lovers. On the other hand, Amano himself hardly included the illustrations drawn for this work in his later personal paintings, which is particularly valuable.

Amano participated in another animated character model, Vampire Hunter D, who participated in the illustrations of Kikuchi Hideyuki's original novels. The director of this animation co-produced with Amano is also a well-known Japanese animation director Yoshiaki Kawajiri. His past works include Laser Man, Beast Soldiers who End the Wind Post, Monster City, and the recent OVA and TV X-War. After the animation of this work was set, many Amano fans thought it was a failure, but Amano's illustration has always been recognized by the industry and the audience as a work that cannot be absolutely visualized. It is understandable that the animation is different from the original painting.

There are only two works designed by Amano participants, but they are highly praised by the outside world. Among other animation works, the background of one work is also related to Amano, that is, Amano once illustrated the novel The Battle of Aslan written by Yoshiki Tanaka. This work was later adapted into a theatrical version and an OVA version of the animation, and the related animator Xing Zi Kammura later made reference to Amano's original paintings to varying degrees.

After successfully dabbling in animation, illustration and games, Yoshitaka Amano's personal works gradually surfaced and were launched one after another. From the first time of 1983 to the early 1990s, Yoshitaka Amano has published four solo albums, Magic Sky, Palace of Dreams and Imagination and Flying, all of which have gained excellent market response and reputation.

Finally, 1989, Amano held his first solo exhibition "Flying" in Yurakucho. Yoshitaka Amano continued to write his wonderful life with his brush.

Since 1990, more than two Yoshitaka Amano albums have been published annually on average. By the end of 1997, Yoshitaka Amano had published 18 solo albums. This figure and the quality of the painting collection should be described as "unique" in Japan.

However, while people are still intoxicated with the "unconstrained style" world described by Yoshitaka Amano, Amano has made an amazing step in the field of stage art design.

At the special invitation of the famous Japanese "Treasure" Troupe, Yoshitaka Amano began to design stages and costumes for various performances of the Troupe. In fact, as early as 1990, Yoshitaka Amano was in charge of the stage art of Neizhu starring the famous kabuki artist Wandong Yousaburo, and later worked as a stage designer for the professional Risheng Theater. In addition, the most famous one was as a stage art designer for the musical Blue Sock Girl, which was performed in Shinjuku, Japan from June 65438 to September 0998.

With Yoshitaka Amano's popularity and winning more and more prizes in China, Amano began to expand his artistic field and other content related to his strength. On the other hand, the activities of expanding his career overseas gradually began. So far, the first well-known overseas special invitation activity was that he was invited as a VIP to attend the 15th World Fantasy Conference held in Seattle, USA 1989.

For example, in 1993, Yoshitaka Amano made a 6-meter-high commemorative stained glass "Fairy Moonlight Feast" for the world's first "Fairy Art Museum" established in Jinshan Town, Fukushima Prefecture, which once became a much-told story at home and abroad. In addition, as mentioned above, Amano's creation in the field of animation is gradually expanding to the field of art animation films and avant-garde paintings. If "The Egg of the Weather" is a work jointly finished by two people after all, then the painting "Yoshitaka Amano-Gorgeous Fantasy and Beautiful World" conceived and created by Amano himself has shocked people inside and outside the industry. This image mainly shows Amano's illustration creation process and the world view he wants to express at the artistic level. It is both an avant-garde expressionism. Moreover, one of the major styles of this film is the fusion of classical music as the performance of the soundtrack and the collocation of the pictures. This was inherited in later paintings about Amano.

The opportunity for the latter to expand overseas was first to hold a number of Amano solo art exhibitions in Japan, which attracted the attention of overseas industry people, so he was strongly invited to hold related exhibitions overseas. Therefore, 1997, 1 1 month, Yoshitaka Amano's first overseas personal illustration exhibition, "Think Like Amono", was successfully held in New York State, USA. At that time, the exhibition caused a sensation. During the exhibition, Amano's paintings jumped on the external walls of various local buildings, street billboards and even the body of subway trains in new york in the form of huge replicas, which also formed the new york at that time. In this way, Amano's first overseas activity ended successfully with a quite successful performance. Later, an exhibition entitled "Thinking Like Amono" was held for the second time in new york, 1999. Since then, with the best-selling of Squawell's eighth FF series overseas, the works of images and shapes designed by Amano were also exhibited in the Angloren Sanz Gallery in new york on 2000 10.26 ... It can be seen from its response and duration that it is at its peak. In addition, it is worth mentioning that the exhibition "Think Like Amono" was held once in Japan, with the name "Think Like Amono", the time was in the middle of 1998 10, and the place was Ueno Art Museum. This is also Yoshitaka Amano's first gallery-scale exhibition in Japan, which is another unforgettable event of Amano.

It should be said that around the year 2000, Yoshitaka Amano's career reached another level and reached another peak. In the world, the name Yoshitaka Amano has been equated with the title of "artist".

After 2000, Amano's personal activities were mainly busy overseas in the United States. In addition to Amano's "Think Like Amono" exhibition in new york mentioned above, another important event is1Movie Harmony-100 1ight, which was released in LA in March, 1998. When the film was released, the FF series set off an "Amano fever" in the United States. As mentioned above, the film Harmony-100 1 Night is also based on the images of Amano's works of art with classical music, and another one is specially made according to Amano's style.

The artistic audio-visual film Filmharmonic-1001Night is only 23 minutes long, but it took the staff of 120 six months to make it. The classic soundtrack of the film is "Filmharmonic Symphony Orchestra", and the word "Filmharmonic" in the title is Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition, "100 1 night" in the title is closely related to Arabian Fable Collection. The story tells the love story of Prince Gamelu and Princess Pudo in Light of Arabia. The music of this film was created by Dipper Newman, the composer of Anna Stasija. "Movie Harmony-100 1Night" was broadcast overseas in the spring of 1999, and then staged in major theaters in Japan, which also caused unprecedented repercussions in China. The collection related to this film is Toastmasters 1996' s collection "The Story of One Thousand and One Nights, Grape Ji" published for Amano.

After entering the international stage, Amano is still busy with various illustrations, and international cooperation matters are becoming more and more frequent, with increasing influence. His latest work is The Sandman, which is a series of novels he wrote for neil gaiman, the most famous American comedian. Although I haven't seen The Sandman, it is highly respected at home and abroad. Its stories are deeply rooted in people's hearts, with fantastic plots, capturing the subconscious, and are faintly related to each other, eventually forming an independent and systematic world view. This series is very popular in America. Amano was lucky enough to draw illustrations for the hardcover edition of the volume 1 1. On the one hand, it was his great charm on the international stage; on the other hand, the content of the volume 1 1 just happened to be an oriental adaptation of the artistic conception of Japanese classical stories. There are a lot of contents related to fox spirits, monks and dreams in Japanese folklore, so it seems that besides Amano. In the end, Amano won many awards for this Sandman with its magnificent, rare, colorful and realistic painting style. The original author neil gaiman was particularly impressed by his profound illustration skills.

Based on the above cooperation, neil gaiman, the author of Sandman, found Yoshitaka Amano again and named it the new volume of Sandman to draw a cartoon version. On the other hand, Amano said that he is better than comics in terms of illustrations and words presented visually. Thus, a new chapter named "The Sandman: The Dreamcatcher" was born not long ago. This work is the only one in the Sandman series that is represented by illustrations instead of cartoons. In this work, the inserts on each page are sometimes full of moisture, sometimes primitive and rough, full of gorgeous colors of Japanese ukiyo-e and watercolor, and the composition is full and magnificent, which makes people stare. It is reported that the above two works have been published by Taiwan Province DC Comics Publishing House.

Finally, I want to talk about Amano's painting style. I have been paying special attention to the famous painters and their works in the Japanese illustration and comic circles. Only Yoshitaka Amano's painting style is unique. He has never seen any painter with a similar painting style, even a fan painting.

When I first came into contact with Amano's characters, I found that all his characters had some characteristics: thin face, pointed chin, slender eyes, sharp eyes, contemptuous and indifferent expression, with a little sadness and a cold taste. In addition, the richness of props is also an admirable part, and many of them are not chaotic. Then, the flowing lines of the hair depicted by the characters and the clouds, mountains and so on in the background nature are very clear. In terms of color, the author uses a large number of primary colors with high chroma. Surprisingly, after proper composition, color matching and rendering, these strong and different colors do not conflict and repel each other, but show a special sense of richness, saturation and harmony. The dark yellow tone formed by the use of black and gold reveals the splendor and mystery with a little evil.

Generally speaking, Amano's characterization method is his original style. In the world, his classification is the "Vienna Separatist School" whose painting style is close to that of Europe, which once produced famous painters such as gustav klimt. Amano belongs to this school of painting style because, like the Vienna Separatist painters, Amano is good at showing strong decoration and using contrasting colors in the pictures, which makes the layout of the pictures and the modeling of characters form an atmosphere of hot and cold, but more Vienna Separatist painters show a sensational side, and some critics even think that Amano's paintings are "cold fantasy".

This kind of painting style Amano reached its peak in 1989' s painting collection Flying, and then his painting style began to change gradually. Perhaps this is the need for an artist to constantly pursue a higher realm. In Amano 199 1, we can see many characteristics that are completely different from Feitian: the lines in the picture have changed from rigorous to more wild, and the long and soft thin lines have been replaced by broken pens and rough and undulating lines. Amano's use of light colors also reduces saturation, increases transparency, and the sense of texture and quantity disappears, making the whole painting like a wave phantom with a strong impressionist style. Because of this change, and he always let the pencil draft stand on the screen, Tiger Claw didn't erase it (Amano didn't erase the pencil draft before, because the pencil lines would be covered by color, so it is impossible to change it to light color now). In the future, although some people say that it doesn't look as complete as the works in Flying, the pattern of the opposite works has become wider and more magnificent, and an indescribable foreign flavor reminds people of many internal things.

After that, Amano tried to create "lithographs" in his personal painting collection "Japan: The Final antasy" published in 1994. In addition, when France participated in the exhibition in 1995, Amano also released two lithographs "Spring Dawn" and "Sleeping Moon", which were painted in 755x455mm on the back shell fossils of turtles (which should be relatively large turtles). These two paintings have now become reserved works in Amano's personal exhibition.

Now, it seems that Yoshitaka Amano already has the breath, characteristics and posture of a contemporary artist. His works are constantly accumulating, and his increasingly refined painting skills make him believe that there will be something new in the near future that people can't help but shine at the moment!

representative works

★ "Magic Day"

★ "Dream Palace"

★《ィマジソ》

★ "Flying"

The following are some of his works /dispbbs.asp? boardid = 35 & ampid=29037