OXIDE 2x Hyung-Tae Kim Illustrations

As mentioned in the review for the first Oxide artbook, Hyung-Tae Kim’s artwork is an acquired taste, and may not appeal to everyone. That being said, his Magnacarta work is definitely much nicer in many ways to his War of Genesis work (possibly because it’s more recent?) Again the characters, clothes and colouring are appealing, but again the poses and proportions are just a bit off (some so much so, that in the real world it would be considered a broken arm or leg!) The 3 page ‘How To Paint’ is supposed to give you an idea of the colouring process, but because no text accompanies the images I don’t know how useful this is to anyone.

There is no wasted space here, most of the illustrations of the characters have a full page spread each, although most don’t have a background. Those with backgrounds are pretty small, or double paged. Each illustration comes with English captions detailing the date the illustration was painted, the name of the character, and what game they are from (as well as pixel size and file size.) The sketches at the back are not out of place either, as it gives you a good idea of how the art looks “uncoloured.” Very good way for budding artists to study his style I am sure!
This book reads from left to right; unusual for Japanese artbooks, which are normally read from right to left.

All in all a book worth getting; and even if you did get the first Oxide artbook, I’d recommend getting this one as well because of the Magnacarta art.