“Mai Shiranui” by The Artsmith/RobustaArt

Enter Robusta, where the rubber of dynamic anatomical indication meets the road of pretty anime girls. This rendition of Mai Shiranui must be one of the preeminent examples of Artsmith’s ability to seamlessly fuse realism and anime – something that I’ve gone through hell and back to learn how to do in my own art training.

At a glance, the elegance of this piece makes it look like a recipe you could make at home – having successfully hidden its delicate handiwork just below the surface.

Take for instance the large area of mapped shadow that comprises the indication of the leg muscles. Really take the time to pause and soak it all in. Though it absolutely reads like the muscles were painstakingly indicated through blood, sweat and tears, recognize how simple the basic shapes really are.

Zooming in slightly more we can really start to appreciate the magic of this piece. With the faintest flicks Robusta is able to achieve more with less through disciplined and economical brushwork. For example, at the point where the glutes french into the muscles on the underside of the leg, there is literally a single tapered line used to gently indicate the insertion point. It almost looks like a stray line up close, but it works to almost subliminally emphasize the flow and overlapping of the musculature and lock-in that 3 dimensional feel in such a beautiful way.

The underarm is another phenomenal showing of realism injected gracefully into the piece. This is an example of how important it is to nail a composition with regard to the lighting situation and posing of a character. We can see delicate contrast of softer and firmer edges, subtle gradation of shadow and finally the incredibly smart highlights to add further panache to the drawing. This lighting also sets the stage for this brilliant halo effect, really heightening that sense of divinity in what might otherwise be a mundane snapshot in time.

Like any great painting, another thing this illustration does incredibly well is allocate detail to guide the eye. The abs, in particular the section visible through the tank-top, provide a little bit of mystery that really gets the viewer involved in the painting (neuron activation). A running theme in this piece and worthy point of study is the idea of active vs inactive sides. Normally, people refer to this concept with something like the pose of a character such as a weight carrying leg versus a leg at rest. In this piece this concept can be further applied to a great number of different components. The lit side of the hair is rendered and indicated much more than the parts in shadow where the shapes are kept much simpler. The arm closer to the viewer has much more detail than the one further away from us closer to the light. The lit part of the abdomen provides much more action that the shadowed part opposite it. Not only are the active versus inactive areas staggered to avoid monotony, but this creates points of excitement and rest for the eye. Like a nice palette cleanser, the contrast between areas of great detail and simpler supporting areas bring the focal points to life that much more.

One reason that I picked this piece over some of the others is that it has an incredible flow and cohesiveness to it I find very alluring. I can feel Robusta searching for that right balance between realism and anime stylization in all their work and this is one where I feel like damn near everything is working in brilliant harmony. Even the background, though simple does not detract from the high-level rendering of the figure but actually gives a meaningful story and setting to the piece that fits incredibly well with some of the other compositional decision making.

Elegance all too often disguises a universe of complexity and subtlety.