Sody - Akarui Tokoro Art Collection

Title: Akarui Tokoro
タイトル: あかるいところ
Pages: 20 (including covers)
Release date: 05/04/2009

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Akarui Tokoro was a Comitia 92 release by Sody through his circle SLeeVe. It’s the fourth illustration book in his series subtitled SLeeVe Private Art Collection. Sody’s art works are pretty much always school girls, and this one was no different. The bright light of summer was the theme, with all of the character illustrations in partially shaded or glaring sunlight that bring the works to life.

The cover illustration is printed twice in this 20 page, B5 sized, staple-bound collection, although the cover is cropped from the larger illustration shown inside. The covers are also included in that page count, but Sody is another artist that makes use of the inside covers for art work and info, so at least it’s not counting blank pages.

I really like Sody’s clothing designs this time around, as it’s less school uniform centric and just casual clothes. It’s surprisingly scenic, bringing more emphasis on the details of the lighting. Three of the illustrations are paired with a page that doesn’t include a full illustration, but instead features a sketch of the finished work. There is dialogue by Sody and a rough color drawing of the girl pictured.

After a couple of pages of colored rough drawings, there’s a step-by-step process featuring one of the illustrations in the book. I’ve seen a lot more artists doing this lately, and I can’t help but feel like it’s to occupy more space. But it’s still interesting. The illustrations are nice, but you can really tell it’s more of an in-between conventions release.