Kazuya Minekura Mangaka Saiyuki Reload Series

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BACKCHAT: 15/May/07: For a long while now since my return to MT, I thought it would be an interesting endeavour to look again through the very first submissions within our gallery and review them in a modern and perhaps maturer light. Let's talk about this piece here for a minute:

This is another problematic work. As always nostalgic feelings toward it well deep within simply because the piece as again, stood the test of time. But again I can still fault it. While this particular old work does feature some clever layering special effects and the colours are all there....I can't say anything else about it is even remotely right. Minekura's primary art is poorly blended into the background and the towering Kanji script used in the base art make the over all piece feel claustaphobic and boxed-in. Damn straight I can better this work, today! And how! This work is a very amateurish (or experimentalist, if you're so inclined) strike against Minekura's otherwise flawless illustrations. It feels disrespectful somehow. Regardless, at the time, Without Desire was exactly what it was. And that alone shouldn't be negotiated.
UV
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Genjo Sanzo: Without Desire

Vibrant & Dynamic.
Saiyuki's leading hero returns to the fold, a reluctant Sanzo priest amid an explosion of colour. A lighter work in all respects, this piece contains an official Saiyuki art book scan of Genjo in an exceptionally elaborate Eastern priest's uniform. Behind him, an array of Asian characters blend into the foreground as he sits before the red setting sun, prayer beads in hand and draped over his shoulders. Fans will appreciate Sanzo's reluctance to become a man of the faith. With a heavy heart, a fast hand and a highly unstable temperament, Sanzo takes forth the mantle his Master left behind and continues with his companions on a great journey for redemption to the West!

This work features gradient tuning, rendering FX and multi-layered brush work.
As always, please do not reproduce or redistribute this work in any way without my explicitly expressed written permission.
Enjoy! :)

UV IS AGAINST ART THEFT: PLEASE CLICK HERE AND READ THE TERMS OF USE!