ANIME ART ARTICLE: AMISGAUDI: HIS UNMISTAKABLE ART

Amisgaudi: His Unmistakable Art by Sandra Scholes

Amisgaudi's art is unmistakeable, as is his colour scheme. His art ranges from fantasy, to science fiction, and the occasional humorous version of this in his portfolio. His work, as you will no doubt notice is of the highest quality and has an almost realistic feel to it. Earth and Fire is a good example of the way he manages to render the dragon's scales.


Earth and Fire

This one reminded me of the Arthurian legend of the two fighting dragons from the original story. Here they are representing earth and fire, a green dragon and a flaming red one in the clutches of battle. The sky in the background symbolises the rage going on around them as the clouds surround them, while it looks like the green one might get the upper hand with his leg talons, the red one could beat him with a well-thought out bite to its throat.  Amisgaudi has kept his colour palette short and his art looks great due to it, and instead of him using harsh blacks for the darker shades, he has used darker colours.

Eowyn and the Nazgul

For those who remember this scene from the movie, it is an unforgettable moment where Eowyn comes of age and takes up her fathers sword to avenge him being hurt by the evil Nazgul, though here she isn't fighting one enemy, she is in fact fighting two, the dragon and the Nazgul.The mauve in the wings stops the image from being too dark and gives it a sense of majesty, the battle being half won as Eowyn is ready to do what her father would have done and destroy one of the main evils in the movie.

Khaleesi mother of Dragons

Here is a portrait of Dothraki Daenerys Targeryan with her dragons as they were when they were young. As their mother they surround her with their leathery wings while she is in a moment of naked contemplation. The bruised and dark sky behind her shows the troubles she has gone through and others she is about to. Daenerys is in deep contemplation about how she is going to take the Iron Throne and keep an eye on her young dragons. I like how the dark background gives such a lot of contrast - the tones really bring out the face and the two dragons on her head and shoulder.

Luke, Yoda and Chewbacca?

This has to be my overall favourite due to the dual subject matter. On the one hand we have the usual suspects from Star Wars waiting at what looks like a bus stop, Luke with Yoda on his back and what appears to be Chewbacca on his right. On the stop sign is a fluorescent helmet headed Darth Vader that looms from it. What you only get after a few seconds if you are a fan of My Neighbour Totoro is that the character next to a Empire Strikes Back clad Luke is actually Totoro himself, and that the image is based on the poster for the movie. As can be seen, there are some nice touches Amisgaudi has put into the image; a leaf covering Totoro's head from the rain, while Luke uses the force to suspend an umbrella above him for the same reason.

All of these pieces can show the versatility of the artist and how well the artist has captured the subject matter in either a comical or serious way. One thing can be said for Amisgaudi, this is one name we will be hearing a lot of over the next few months.