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Name:Yoshitaka Amano
Notable creations and work:Final Fantasy, Vampire Hunter D
Born: July 28, 1952: Shizuoka City, Japan
Died: N/A
Biographical Summary
Biographical Summary
Yoshitaka Amano was born in 1952 in Shizuoka City, Japan. As a young adolescent, he was fascinated with drawing. He designed character and concepts for popular anime such as G-Force and video games series final fantasy. He is the illustrator or science fiction and fantasy stories such as The Sandman. In 1967 he started working for Tatsunoko Productions, worked on character development for such popular animated television series as G-Force.His first paid project was for the Speed Racer anime franchise. In 1982 he began to work for Twilight Worlds series in SF magazine he then started freelance fantasy art and covered art for magazines and books. In 1987 he created visual concept design for the game series Final Fantasy and continues to be concept designer for the series, when he began working as a character designer he originally drew the characters as pixels, but once the art director saw this he told him to just do what he traditionally does and they would work from that. In 1991 he bagan producing lithographs and held his first exhibition in japan in 1994. Since then he has held exhibits in London, Paris, Cologne, Lyon, and Cavalaire. He has a active lithograph production studios in Paris and New York he continues his printmaking as well as a variety of other illustration and artistic works.
Work
Work
The artist genius of Amano began when he turned his attention to the art of printmaking, drawing from influences as art nouveau and art deco, american comic books, japanese ukiyo-e, traditional fantasy, and both modern surrealism as well as realism fluent in many classic and modern techniques. Amano's work capture a breathtaking world. His uniqueness designs come because he does not design images directly for animation or comics. Amano's art revolves around the medium of printmaking which involves the processes of carving wood or scoring copper plates, running ink, and transferring ink to paper. Aside from woodcut and copper plate prints, Amano also uses the method of lithography. He typically uses acrylics to color his prints, using an effect resembling watercolor, and many of his works are influenced by ukiyo-e aesthetics. His prints contrast to many modern Japanese designers because his prints are made with smoother, flowing lines, especially when it comes to hair, a characteristic that defies the stereotype of pointy, spiky hair used by other designers, which is also one of the reasons for the critique of the newer designers for Square Enix.
Before beginning his career as a fantasy illustrator Amano grew up reading Western super hero comics, Amano worked for Tatsunoko Production as a character designer for several of their early super hero anime, including Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, Tekkaman the Space Knight, and Neo-Human Casshern. In the '80s he left the anime industry to illustrate novels, including several Japanese versions of Western heroic fantasy series, and early volumes of Guin Saga and the ongoing Vampire Hunter D series. Recently he has illustrated Neil Gaiman's The Sandman: The Dream Hunters, Greg Rucka's Elektra and Wolverine: The Redeemer, mink's Shinjuku, and his own Hero series. He occasionally returns to work on anime like Angel's Egg, Fantascope: Tylostoma,and NY Salad: Vegetable Fairies. In addition to the Final Fantasy series, he has also worked as character designer for the Front Mission game series.
Project
Project
Writer:
Faeries (2006)
Hero (2006)
Mateki: The Magic Flute (2008)
Penciller:
Amano: The Collected Art of Vampire Hunter D (2007)
Coffin: The Art of Vampire Hunter D (2006)
Dawn: The Worlds of Final Fantasy (2009)
Elektra & Wolverine: The Redeemer (2002)
Faeries (2006)
Hero (2006)
Mateki: The Magic Flute (2008)
Sandman, The Dream Hunters (1999)
The Tale of Genji (2006)
Vampire Hunter D (Novel) (2005)
Vertigo Visions: Artwork from the Cutting Edge of Comics (2000)
Wolverine: Weapon X Files (2009)
Worlds of Amano (2007)
Inker:
Amano: The Collected Art of Vampire Hunter D (2007)
Coffin: The Art of Vampire Hunter D (2006)
Dawn: The Worlds of Final Fantasy (2009)
Elektra & Wolverine: The Redeemer (2002)
Faeries (2006)
Hero (2006)
Mateki: The Magic Flute (2008)
Sandman, The Dream Hunters (1999)
The Tale of Genji (2006)
Vampire Hunter D (Novel) (2005)
Worlds of Amano (2007)
Colorist:
Amano: The Collected Art of Vampire Hunter D (2007)
Coffin: The Art of Vampire Hunter D (2006)
Dawn: The Worlds of Final Fantasy (2009)
Elektra & Wolverine: The Redeemer (2002)
Faeries (2006)
Hero (2006)
Mateki: The Magic Flute (2008)
Sandman, The Dream Hunters (1999)
The Tale of Genji (2006)
Worlds of Amano (2007)
Cover Artist:
7 Brothers (2006)
Amano: The Collected Art of Vampire Hunter D (2007)
Cheval Noir (1989)
Coffin: The Art of Vampire Hunter D (2006)
Dawn: The Worlds of Final Fantasy (2009)
Elektra & Wolverine: The Redeemer (2002)
Faeries (2006)
Hero (2006)
Mateki: The Magic Flute (2008)
Robotech: Invasion (2004)
Sandman, The Dream Hunters (1999)
The Tale of Genji (2006)
Vampire Hunter D (Novel) (2005)
Worlds of Amano (2007)
Video Games:
Duel (1989)
Duel98 (1989)
Final Fantasy(1987)
Final Fantasy II(1988)
Final Fantasy III(1987)
Final Fantasy IV(1987)
Final Fantasy V(1987)
Final Fantasy VI(1987)
Final Fantasy VII(1987)
Final Fantasy VIII(1998)
Final Fantasy IX(2000)
Final Fantasy X(2001)
Final Fantasy X-II(2001)
Final Fantasy XI(2002)
Final Fantasy XII(2006)
Final Fantasy XIII(2010)
Final Fantasy Agito XIII(TBA)
Final Fantasy Versus XIII(TBA)
Final Fantasy XIV(TBA)
First Queen (1988)
Kawanakajima Ibunroku(1992)
Front Mission(1995)
Maten Densetsu (1995)
First Queen 3 (1993)
Dissidia: Final Fantasy (2008)
Lord if Vermillion (TBA)
Front Mission: Gun Hazard(1996)
First Queen 2 (1990)
Kartia: The World of Fate(1998)
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