Maraviollantes said:
SakuyamonX said:
^ Those are absolutely cute! So curious who is the artist drawing them.
Tuxedo_Unmasked said:
My guess is that it's probably a freelance artist. You'd be surprised at the amount of work like this that's outsourced, usually for one-shot work. A friend of mine works is a freelance artist who occasionally wins bids on doing Disney puzzles here in Japan, and I have another friend who occasionally does artwork for official anime licensed games. o_O There are editors who keep strict quality control, though, and make edits which is how character style and consistency is kept.
Sorry to burst your bubble guys, but...
Toei & Naoko apparently outsource those editors enforcing "strict quality control" in Bangladesh, too. Otherwise they would notice that their freelance artist just copy-pasted the same head over several images.
Actually, when you put then side by side and compare them, you can see how impressive the strict quality control really is. These are clearly two distinct images, and yet they did an AMAZING job making it look the same. As one should with a licensed property.
I've rotated the head to match the angle a little better, which you can see here.
And, to highlight just some of the differences:
1. The odango are different sizes
2. The shading (and location of the lines) on the odango is completely different.
3. Her eyeshadow is different.
4. The shading for where her hair parts in the middle is different.
5. The way her hair is broken up on the left and right is different.
6. The light "highlights" in her eyes is different (in the left picture, right eye, she has two marks and only one in the right picture)
7. Her mouth is formed differently.
8. Her nose is more rounded in the left picture.
Among others!