References:
https://www.creativeuncut.com/artist-profile-akihiko-yoshida.html
https://www.creativeuncut.com/art_final-fantasy-tactics_a.html
Akihiko Yoshida
Having looked at a small selection of Yoshida-sans work in my Artist research page I thought it would be best to do self-study on his work first so I can develop techniques and methods through looking into his workflow and art history.
Compared to other artists, Akihiko's character art in his early years is very simplistic in the linework, with simple facial features. However, he uses line work in areas of shading to show not only the darker colour but also the detail of the clothing/landscape.
In the Black Mage art (located below) he draws the weaving of the hat in the shaded areas and the woolen textures of the clothes with small line strokes.
In this promontional art (loacted to the right), Yoshida-san uses the technique of adding detail to the shaded areas, with the shadows created by the characters standing in the light. He uses lines to imitate the grass under their feet.
You can track the sense of motion in the image, with the wind blowing their clothes to the right and the characters looking towards the left.
The rule of thirds isnt followed in this piece of art as the characters are in the middle of the art. However, through the use of light Yoshida-san causes you to look towards the top left of the art and follow the characters down as they get closer to the front.
This artwork of Delita, created by Yoshida-san, was used as concept art for his character. It shows the Outfit he wears alonside his form of combat, which is that of a Squire in the tactics universe.
Squire class is the basic physical damage dealer class in tactics and uses swords, knives, axes and flails. Here you can see Him weilding a sword with a curved blade and hilt. The curved hilt allows you to make movements with mininum force and lunge faster by simply gripping the hilt. These simple designs of the sword tells you how his attacks would look in game.
He has short, slicked back brown hair and brown eyes. He wears a buff coat and squire armor, thigh high boots, brown gloves and a large belt wrapped around his abdomen.
Bravely Default Art
Yoshida-san Continued to develop his style after FFTactics and creates more detailed art now, while still keeping his old stylistic traits, including using more detail for shaded areas.
Looking primarily at the character, it appears Yoshida-san uses water colours to create the sense of shadow under here with thin strokes used for the shadow on her clothes and skin. For the fluffy rim of the dress and the little poms on the boots i can only assume he drew the basic shape and used a brush with pen pressure to push the colour out as if the hairs get thinner.
Theres a sense of motion in the character with the long hair flowing in the wind and the dress swaying.
In the style of the Artist
I thought it would be a good idea to draw one of my own characters, or a new character i create, in the style of Yoshida-san. I want to draw in both of these styles i've looked at briefly, starting with the simpler style he used on the Tactics franchise.
The first step would be to get a good range of reference i can use and then slowy think of a pose i could have them in, thinking how it should be as simple as possible as there will be no environment that they can interact with.
