CONCEPT ARTIST WHOS WHO?

YOSHITAKA AMANO
WHO IS HE?
Yoshitaka Amano is a Japanese concept
artist and illustrator. He has worked on both
animation and games and won the Seiun
Award for best artist multiple times.
WHAT HAS HE WORKED ON?
Amano began his career in 1967 working
on animations as a character designer. He
worked on animations such as Speed
Racer, Gatchaman, Honeybee Hutch and
Time Bokan. In the 80s Amano spent some
time as a freelance artist until he started
working for Square and designing for
games. In 1987 he started producing
conceptual artwork for Final Fantasy.
HIS INFLUENCES
Amanos inspiration comes mainly from his Japanese background,
one of his main inspirations is Ukiyo-e which is a form of woodblock
printing that was popular between the 17
th
and 19
th
century. He was
also a fan of comic books, he liked manga and western comics books
and particularly liked Neal Adams art in DC comics. He also looked
at Art Nouveau in the 70s.
FINAL FANTASY SERIES
Amano is most known for his work on the popular game
franchise Final Fantasy. He was most involved
conceptually on the first three games of the series but
also worked on character design for 4,5,6,7 and 9. On
other games he has contributed to the illustration side of
things and also created the games logos.
WHY I ADMIRE HIM
My admiration for Amano first comes from helping
to bring one of my favourite game series to life,
Final Fantasy X was the first game I played
properly on the ps2 and its what really got me
hooked on gaming. Its because of gaming that I
developed a love for concept art. Amanos work
for me has always been a joy to look at, you can
quite easily see his influences in his artwork but it
isnt typical of a concept art style nor of a comic
book style. His style is unique and messy but has
this element of beauty which often comes from
the colours he uses.