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skyflyinginaction · 1 year ago

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Clamp Art Style Analysis: Part 3: Examining Concept art: X/1999, RG Veda, Tsubasa reservoir chronicle

Examining the Concept Art

As I stated before, Clamp’s creation process resembles a film production. The concept art they do resembles the character sheets in anime with the character's concept Including poses, and expressions. Their concept art looks like a character sheet from an animation production.

When you compare the sketches to the illustrations they don’t have many details they are just a lot of lines for drawing the concept art. They use a regular pencil or mechanical pencil to draw the sketches and the concept art Clamp even colored the sketch over their concept art too.

There are a lot of lines in the characters when you look at the concept art. the concept art In the characters there are just lines the sketches of the poses are close to gesture drawings, that is used to make sense of the character’s movement. The concept art is not as detailed as it needs to know where things are placed.

I already talked about how they create concept art in the creation process. This segment is about examining it.

I am going to examine the concept art that Clamp did in particular and it is going to take a lot of dissecting so let's examine these pieces of concept art in particular.

This is one of Clamps' earliest concept art next to RG Veda since x is from their earliest works. Looking at earlier concept art of x didn’t have complicated details but simple When I look at the concept art for x they are a bunch of messy sketches. The sketches are messy and lose it's not as detailed or defined as the rest of the concept art Clamp did on this list.

The concept art of the characters is drawn in the bulletin chart, Clamp did point out that they drew the original character profile like a New Year's card. Clamp is measuring the heights in a chart with the character height listed and lined up Clamp focused on proportions of the character in x by using the heights of characters. the characters are lined up and the heights are compared. This chart is used to determine their height. The heights are used for the proportions of the characters I pointed out that the height is used to determine the proportions of the characters. x character height chart resembles an anime height chart lineup you would see in character sheets for anime

The hair in the x characters designs looks like the hair is just a bunch of messy lines. There are not defined lines in the hair when it comes to hair. For the concept art here it's lines and shapes. Clamp said they had a hard time drawing Kotori mainly had a hard time inking her Kotoris concept art especially her hair The concept in her hair is not as detailed as in the manga or illustrations they are just squiggly lines Kotori's hair and bangs are a bunch of squiggly lines. The jaw lines and eyes are defined and darkened in the concept art, the clothes are less detailed, you can see the shape in the clothes, the character's silhouettes are defined by the silhouette of the clothes, the concept art is drawn roughly meant to know the placement of what is drawn.

For sketches drawn for the ova RG Veda concept art is not detailed and uses the same loose lines as the Loose messy sketches the jaw lines in the sketches are darkened and the lines for the hair and clothes are loose.

Now for Tsubasa concept art, Clamp took a new approach to art. You can see it with the rest of the concept art. In the concept art, the proportions of the characters in Tsubasa look deformed you can see this in the series. But also in how the concept art is drawn. Clamp has colored their concept art before that had come before except the concept art for Tsubasa is inked sakura and Syaoran

designs were re-used from a different series they are drawn with bolder lines in the concept art. Tsubasa is drawn for a weekly shonen manga, and shounen manga is drawn with bold lines so would it make sense for them to be drawn with thick bold lines?

When it came to hair in concept art they drew the shape of the hair, the lines, the movement, and the silhouette. The hair is not too detailed and the bangs don’t have a lot of details; they are just simple lines. The concept art is full of lines the amount of lines is measured in the concept art so they can be drawn for a weekly shonen manga they reduce the number of lines for inking since they are going to draw it over and over again

There are a lot of lines in the clothes in the concept art, clothes that allow movement and are drawn to match with the character's personality and background in mind.

In concept art, the curly or wavy hair is just wiggly lines the curly hair curly off at the end In art when it comes to curly or wavy hair the shape is designed first then added squiggly lines, and the strands are added next to

For the two main characters Sakura and Syaoran, Syaoran and Sakura went through redesigns like Clamps previous works to fit the genre of the series.

For Syaoran concept design, the first to talk about is his clothes Syaoran Li wore in the Card Captor Sakura series; this is to reference his background from China noting the nationality he represents. Syaoran clothes are straightforward; he has goggles and belts, but these items do not show that he is an archeologist. The cloak he wears is used to keep the desert sand out. These things note Syaoran’s background that he grew up in a desert and his profession as an archeologist. Syaoran’s spots a determined look in contrast to Syaorans Li’s expression in Card Captor Sakura is drawn to look moody and sullen. The expressions in Tsubasa Syaorans changed to emphasize that they are different people. Syaoran's hair resembles Syaoran li's hair except that his hair is drawn with a rough touch. Syaoran bangs have more shape and don’t have a lot of lines.

Syaoran's gestures are drawn with simple lines and drawn with the shape in mind in the gesture sketches.

Next up is Sakura's concept design, Syaoran is drawn with thick lines, and if you examine Sakura's hairstyle she has the same hairstyle as what Sakura looks in Card Captor Sakura both have short hair both of Sakura’s designs drawn as tomboyish girls. The only difference with Tsubasa Sakura is that her hair is very bouncy and has more strands Sakura’s hair wasn’t fully defined until later in the series. Her hair is not too detailed Sakura’s bangs didn’t have too many lines, she doesn’t have many lines drawn, only with fewer lines in her concept art. Sakura’s clothes are inspired by Egyptian clothing along with ornaments hanging down her clothes. This notes her background that she grew up in a desert so Egyptian clothing is what came to mind when doing a character background from a desert.

Sakura looked very soft and dainty in the concept art Her gestures in her concept art have more lines Sakura is drawn with many lines to emphasize with movement in her gestures. I think the long many lines are used to make her look dainty and it makes sense to know where things are placed

Kurogane is drawn with a sort of thickness that is in his neck to show off his muscles and broad chest, Kurogane's bangs are simple lines and not detailed.

Kurogane is broad and muscular his clothes are used to show off his strong physique Kurogane is quite muscular and his concept art shows this.

Kurogane's early concept of him had a lot of changes mostly notably his expression it has the same clothes but a different expression, his face didn’t look tough or fierce but resembled Domeki’s indifferent look. Kurogane gestures are made simple to draw over and have wider stances the lines are used to tell like with Syaorans kurogane gesture pose is drawn simply to emphasize movement.

Kurogane has a wider build his pose proves this he is manly and his gesture drawing further emphasizes his masculinity The wider stances emphasize his masculinity.

Unlike Kurogane Fais emphasizes his concept art more with his expressions.

We pay more attention to his expressions than his actual poses. We usually see Fai aloof and calm and an aloof expression. He's quite tall standing next to Syaoran

Fai’s body is long and deformed like Sakura's, Fai is drawn with long lines which makes him Appear elusive but soft.

Fai has a thin frame with a soft-edged look in contrast to Kurogane’s rougher and bulky gestures. Kurogane has rough lines in his design while Fai has smooth lines to match his soft character. His hair doesn’t have a lot of details like what Clamp stated in the bio so Fai's bangs are simple lines.

Ryou, Soma, and Kendappa Oh are characters from RG Veda that are drawn this way in this style. This shows how many Clamps changed in their art with these two characters alone in the concept art Soma is drawn with long lines.

The other characters in the concept art have a unique design with Oruha and Xing Hou they have complicated lines in their concept art. The hair in the characters is split into sections and grouped in one shape, There is a shape and silhouette in the hair with there hair breaks off at the end

Yuzuriha is drawn in a different style next to Sakura. Both characters have short hair and different expressions. You can see the movement in her hair like with Sakura which has a natural flow. Her dog has a lot of lines in the concept art.

For Chi, there are not a lot of lines in the bangs. She has long limbs and her art is not detailed. Chi has long lines in her hair and body For Emerald she has long wavy lines in her hair Chi's outfit has simple lines in contrast to Emeraldes who have complicated lines.

Sorata has a lot of gesture drawing which is very active and lively to suit his friendly demeanor. His concept art is just messy pencil lines that show the shape of the head and jawline and there are lines and shapes in the hair

In the male character portion drawn with the shape of the head, there is the silhouette of the head and the lines of the hair. The lines in the male characters are simple and don’t have a lot of details in clothes like the girls. The male characters have straight lines in the concept art and are drawn with simplicity when compared to the girls the female characters are drawn with soft curves.

Clamp did a lot of gestures drawings with the poses There are loose sketches for the poses and gestures the poses are drawn with the character's personalities in mind the poses don’t only say something about the characters but Gestures and poses can be used to establish a character's relationship with character as you see with

fujitaka and Syaoran here there a lot of warmth and gentleness in it, it establishes their father-son relationship well

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#clamp #meta #tsubasa reservoir chronicle #tsubaki nekoi #satsuki igarashi #mokona #nanase ohkawa #x1999 #x/1999 #x #rg veda #my meta

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