Quarterly Pixiv Vol. 02

Reading Time: 4 minutes

A lot has changed since the first issue of Quarterly Pixiv Magazine. For one, the fold-out poster is gone. Now the magazine is much more “how to” art focused, with just about every artist featured doing an illustration walkthrough or presenting tips and tricks for Photoshop or SAI. The artists’ interviews are much shorter than in the first volume as well, leaving space for longer art tutorials.

The cover of Quarterly Pixiv Vol. 02 features Hatsune Miku Append version illustrated by Miwa Shirow, and it’s probably the sole reason I still bought this. Pixiv ran a contest illustrating the Append version and the more prominent entries as well as the winners are featured in this issue. Miwa Shirow gets an 8 page feature, which includes an interview and a walkthrough of the cover art work. Nice to see Miwa Shirow still starts with good old fashioned paper and pencil.

Immediately following the Miwa Shirow article are the Hatsune Miku Append contest illustrations, covering about 14 pages in total. Like with most Pixiv publications, the majority of the illustrations are featured in thumbnail sizes, but the Pixiv ID numbers are included on all the works, so you can easily look up the art works.

Three of the artists have spreads made for this issue that are accompanied by a walkthrough. The first featured artist is Fuji Choko, who provided a very detailed world with two one-winged angels. You may have also seen her art work in July’s Railway Girls and Scenery Pictorial Book.

Ame is next, with her work recently featured in Railway Girls and Scenery Pictorial Book as well as Neko to Shoujo by RubiconHearts.

The last artist with a spread and a lengthy walkthrough is Mosuko, who draws absolutely adorable girls.

A couple more artists are featured in a similar manner, except the illustrations that get the walkthroughs are now single pages. Gorobots and Izuru are the artists in this section. Akatsuki Katoh, whose doujinshi SCRAP 2 I recently reviewed, gets a 6 page article on his work space and illustration technique, in a section titled “User Report.” There are three “User Report” features in total, each with a different artist.

Another contest that was running was the “Quarterly Pixiv Swimsuit Art Competition.” The top finishers are featured, but only the first place winner gets a spread. Even second place received only half a page. Some of the other sections in this issue are “Draw and Color,” featuring line arts and finished works, along with funny bird illustrations by Monoyou.

Towards the end, we get to see thumbnails of the Pixiv x Key collaboration project, as well as some smaller original illustrations. Also, in a similar fashion to Gelatin Magazine, there’s a small section including the commercial and non-commercial books by the artists featured in this issue. Even though “how to” books have a few nice illustrations, the bulk of their content isn’t something that interests me, and that’s the feeling I’m getting with Quarterly Pixiv Vol. 02.