Thread by @Richmond_Lee

HOT DANG I LOVE THIS ILLUSTRATION SO MUCH! Let's take a minute to appreciate just how masterful Toriyama Akira's work can be! Buckle up this is gonna be a long thread! ...
#ToriyamaAkira #Toriyama #鳥山明

First off, heck yeah that's one amazing rendition of a gun! The dimensionality of it is incredible. Guns are notoriously difficult to draw, but Toriyama Akira makes it look so perfect that it's easy to take for granted!
#ToriyamaAkira #Toriyama #鳥山明

The attention to detail is remarkable. With just ink and a bit of screen tone, just pure black and white, he's able to convey SO MANY DIFFERENT TEXTURES.
#ToriyamaAkira #Toriyama #鳥山明

LOOK AT THESE TASTEFUL HIGHLIGHTS
#ToriyamaAkira #Toriyama #鳥山明

The way the pure white highlights subtly contrast against the hatching and screen tones to imply all those beautiful, complex, nuanced curves and planes ... OOF 👌
#ToriyamaAkira #Toriyama #鳥山明

And speaking of contrast. It's not just about light & dark. This illustration excels at one of my favorite hallmarks of great manga: DETAIL CONTRAST. Look at how the realism of the gun and the cartooniness of the face play off of each other so wonderfully!
#ToriyamaAkira #鳥山明

The gun is drawn with such exacting realism and detail, but it DOESNT draw attention to itself. It's relative busyness makes it recede as you focus on the bright, iconic face! These contrasting elements don't clash for attention! They're harmonious!
#鳥山明

Your eyes will naturally want to meet the character's gaze. And oh boy, the longer you stare, the more beautiful it gets. You can really get lost in these eyes!
#ToriyamaAkira #Toriyama #鳥山明

From far away, Arale's eyes look simple and cartoony. But the closer you look, the more you see that they're actually rich in dimension and texture. These details don't punch you in the face. They invite and reward closer inspection. You can frolic in them!
#Toriyama #鳥山明

Now, look at how the eyes are framed: Pure black pupils 👉 textured iris 👉pure white highlight 👉pure black glasses (BRILLIANT) 👉detailed hair 👉 pure black hat 👉deceptively simple band with just a spot of hatching! Such a nice visual rhythm!
#ToriyamaAkira #Toriyama #鳥山明

Look at that hair. The masterful control of line weights. Going thick to thin from down to up. It builds the volume of the hair, conveys lighting AND draws your eye upward towards the rest of the composition. Some BRILLIANT use of negative space too.
#DrSlump #鳥山明

And I mean BRILLIANT. Look at how effortlessly the lines in the hair shift from black lines on white space to white lines on black space. All to draw attention AWAY from this part of the image, to support the whole composition. SUCH HARMONY.
#ToriyamaAkira #DrSlump #鳥山明

Look at how the shorter lines in the middle also veer more towards the right. This breaks up the visual monotany, makes things fresh, keeps the lines from feeling too parallel and artificial. AND DAT NEGATIVE SPACE 👌🔥

This single thin white line right here. So stark amidst that pure pool of black. This is visual euphoria. This is the proverbial cherry on top.
#ToriyamaAkira #DrSlump #鳥山明

This line is the reason I started this whole tweet chain lol. You wanna see something crazy? It FEELS unbroken, but it's actually really broken up! Lots of lines intercept it along the way so it doesn't draw too much attention to itself! IT'S SO TASTEFUL!!!!
#Toriyama #鳥山明

REALLY TAKE A LOOK AT THIS ILLUSTRATION. Just this little cross section reveals so many beautiful, contrasting yet harmoneous shapes and textures, layered together so expertly as to convey dimensionality while also working as pure 2d elements of design!

Look at this cute button nose! With just a wisp of hatching to give it a sense of realism so it doesn't exist in a world separate from the gun. Look closer. Look at just how perfect those line weights are in conveying the precise mass and shape of Arale's nose! MY HEART IS RACING

Look at this mouth! Look at how the thick simple outer contour belies a full set of teeth all realistically accounted for! And not just any teeth, these really feel like baby teeth! The shapes are so carefully chosen!
#鳥山明 #Drスランプ

Look at the cigar as a design element! Its interstitial level of detail, and how it guides your gaze from the iconic eyes, down into the detailed gun!
#鳥山明 #Drスランプ #ToriyamaAkira

If you keep following the path of the cigar, it will lead you through the detailed gun into Arale's hands. THOSE HANDS. SO GOOD! Again, deceptively cartoony, but actually full of incredible nuance. Those are such beautiful authentic baby hands!
#鳥山明 #Drスランプ #ToriyamaAkira

Want to see something REALLY WILD? And by wild I mean THE HEIGHT OF FINELY CONTROLLED INKING? Look at this tiny wisp of white here that breaks up that negative space into two separate mounds. Look at all the dimensional and compositional gains from that little whisper.
#鳥山明

But it's not just about technique. It's about FEELING. That is how the delicate folds of a baby's skin FEELS like! Again, all this technical bravura, it DOESNT DRAW UNDUE ATTENTION TO ITSELF. Instead it conveys a very specific feeling. THIS IS GREAT ART.
#鳥山明 #DrSlump

Look at those adorable baby hand dimples! And that fine trigger discipline too!
#DrSlump #Arale #BestGirl

Now lets take a step back and look at the overall composition. Look at how the negative space in the face and hands form a triangle around that super detailed gun. It's beautiful.
#鳥山明 #Drスランプ

And then, look at how the cartoony (yet incredibly dimensional) face & hands are framed from the outside by the pure spot blacks of the suit and hat. And how that is framed by the pure white negative space. It's so balanced. So immediately striking, yet your eye can also meander!

OOF! That black tie is so good! It was such a smart decision to make the tie, suit and hat pure black. Normally spot blacks immediately draw attention to themselves, but here the composition is so carefully harmonized that they act as areas where your eyes can rest.

And ahhhhh these wisps of hair. The control of the line weights. How rarely each strand actually touches another. Look at how much direction and volume is conveyed, again, without drawing undue attention to itself. Interesting on its own but supports the overall composition.

This drawing is a treasure. It's an example of mastery. Every part is interesting on its own, but supports the whole. You FEEL the image first. You can then drink in the little details later. FEELING is absolutely the most important thing about art.

If you are reading this, I hope you were able to FEEL something. Not any message, but the pulse of life that runs through this illustration. This is the heart of art that transcends cultural barriers. This is a universal language.

The internet, in its endless splendor can also numb our sense of wonder. It's my hope to carve a niche where people can slow down and smell the roses. Really drink them in. If that sounds like your jam, then keep track of this little garden I'm trying to grow here :3

GOOD NIGHT