Splendor – Haritama Hiroki Illustrations5 min read
Reading Time: 3 minutesSplendor: Haritama Hiroki Color Art Work Collection is a unique book ahead of its time in design. Hiroki is a prolific artist, but he’s not as famous as he was in the early 2000’s. He’s best known as the character designer for the games Ensemble and Natural 2 -DUO-. Art work from both games is in Splendor.
Splendor is an A4-size art book and 96 pages. Each page is essentially a double-sided print on sturdy card stock. The cover is a wrap and the pages easily come apart. Artist comments and publication information are in a separate staple-bound booklet housed in the plastic case.
The cover art work and first six pages features characters from the game Ensemble which was new in 2004. There’s a lot more art work from the game Natural2 -DUO-, most of which did not age well. The styles vary between a soft digitally-painted and a more cel-shaded look. There are even a few done in real media with coloring markers. Natural2 -DUO- art works has 22 pages of illustrations.
PALETTE, another game with character designs by Hirotama Hiroki, has a few pages. The art takes an old school turn with real media illustrations done for Dragon Magazine for about 15 pages.
The most interesting works come from a variety of original works. These reflect the style Haritama Hiroki has nowadays with bright colors and a softly painted digital style.
The collection ends with a few original works that were first featured in Haritama Hiroki’s Comiket publications. There are a couple of fan art illustrations as well though none that I’m familiar with. Splendor: Haritama Hiroki Color Art Work Collection is an older book, but its quality makes it feel more recent.
Title: Splendor: Haritama Hiroki Illustrations タイトル: splendor 針玉ヒロキ画集 Author: Haritama Hiroki Publication Date: 05/26/2004 Size: 48 sheets NDL: https://id.ndl.go.jp/bib/000007362624
