THE SPHERE [Pixy Garden Original]

The cover of the book is made out of a strange but pretty pearlescent type of card, with a circle being embossed around the lettering (can’t be seen in the below image unfortunately.) The back of the book has the lettering ‘Chocolate Shop Produced #14 2000 Summer’ with the Choco Shop logo.

The first 32 pages of this book contain colour illustrations (single and double spread) and some of these images are very beautiful indeed. I must note that this style of drawing is generally not to my taste… the girls are a bit too thin and young looking, but at the same time are aesthetically pleasing due to the artist’s style of drawing and in the moods, situations and clothing she/he puts them in (what gender is the artist I wonder?)

The rest of the book contains black & white sketches of what looks like characters from either a game or an anime (I think more game – although if anyone knows otherwise, please tell me!) and are accompanied with notes (all in Japanese unfortunately.) That being said, I really really like these sketches! Infact I prefer them in some ways to the illustrations, because I can really appreciate the artist’s drawing style without the detail being blurred by colour. Whats even cooler, is that the artist in some instances seems to be telling you how to draw in that style… from eyes (which are lovely) to hair styles and facial expressions.
Near the back of the book there are 20 pages of black & white mech designs and modelling.

As doujinshi artbooks go, this seems rather standard and true to form, with the added colour illustrations being a bonus. I want to give it a ‘good’ rating, but I think I’ll stick to average because in the end it is not truly an “artbook,” rather, a sketchbook.