The Chibi Heroes series now upon us, we were ready to launch a new subscription series, and here we are! Here’s the intro text from the new website:
“The Ukiyoe Heroes Portraits – our subscription series for 2014 – will be a ‘step up’ from our earlier Chibi Heroes series. We’re going to make the prints quite a bit larger (13.5 x 17 cm), giving us more ‘room’ to play with, and intend to use that space to create fully-featured print designs.”
The emphasis through the course of the Chibi series was on the ‘gags’. Jed took each character (or group of characters), put them into a ‘situation’, and drew them in a general ukiyoe style. It was all very light-hearted fun. As you will see from the initial two sample images on the new website, in the Portraits series we’re going to take this to a ‘higher’ level, both in visual concept, and in the physical prints.
We’re going to stay very much within our main remit – images of famous game characters drawn with a Japanese fude and edited into a form reminiscent of traditional Japanese ukiyoe designs – but are going to move away from gags, and present the 12 characters themselves as the focus. The prints themselves, in addition to being much larger than the Chibies, will be more fully carved and printed. When you receive the first prints, with their beautiful linework, full colouring and multiple layering, you will understand just how far advanced over the Chibies the prints in this new series will be.
Please visit the new website to get all the details, and – if you wish – to sign up to receive these beautiful prints over the course of the coming year. Subscriptions are open now, and the first print will be delivered in January, with the rest following at one month intervals.