Thanks for the little excurse into the indie LN scene. That’s something completely unknown to me. But yes, I agree, some of those illustrations are terrible, especially when they are supposed to be the same characters.
Your second Fran/Teacher example there is actually something I dislike a lot when artists do that. I see it as a copout. It’s just a generic “here is character swinging a sword with some effects”. It’s like the transformation scene in a magical girl anime. It is so generic that it can be sliced in everywhere. There is no background, there is no enemy, there is no special expression, and there is literally nothing unique to the scene. Every single time I see this type of illustration I’m disappointed that I don’t get the see the monster/enemy design.
As for the awkward Bookworm illustration, I think that almost none of the illustrations in that series are like frame captures from a movie scene. It’s almost always a composition that shows the characters/their expressions/the object/the place/etc. that’s the focus of the scene. I like this approach since it gives me the information I want. Take this illustration for example in direct contrast to the Fran one I talked about earlier:
Spoiler from P2V4
Instead of just a picture of Myne using her magic like Fran swinging Teacher, we see the people behind her, their and Myne’s expressions, the enemy they are fighting, his expression and Ferdinand swooping in to save the day all in one illustration. It’s everything important in that given scene. The only thing that could be better would be showing off some of the background as well.
Take this illustration for example in direct contrast to the Fran one I talked about earlier
Oh, that’s definitely a good illustration and even uses that “split screen” stuff I’m so fond of. I’m not going to argue that all the bookworm illustrations are bad because they’re obviously not. Just that one in particular stood out to me as just feeling so wrong and out of place. L2 brought up this image and while it is definitely of the composition variety it doesn’t feel nearly as awkward, probably because there’s no fourth wall break and everyone is standing in roughly an acceptable spot
Your second Fran/Teacher example there is actually something I dislike a lot when artists do that.
It’s interesting because I specifically picked that image BECAUSE it was more generic, just to show that even Llo’s generic renderings are well done IMHO. But if we want to talk about scenes which include an enemy, there’s plenty of good examples too
Minor Spoilers (Depiction of Enemies)
This is sword vs sword and I love the depiction and just how DIFFERENT the two are:
Here, Llo could’ve just drawn the enemy and left it at that, but they also put Teacher’s reaction in there, which makes the art just that much better.
Finally, a more generic “battle” scene but you can get the scale of tiny Fran fighting this big Ogre of a person.
And now that you mention the “composition” style of art, Llo also has a good share of that as well.
I like this approach since it gives me the information I want.
I think this just goes to show how insanely bad some of the indie art is, especially on Anime Trope System. It’s so bad that even I couldn’t tell you which characters are depicted on the covers. I’d rather have the Solo-Leveling cover art where it’s just just pretending to be a leather book than the horrible mess of characters depicted on those covers.
With all your examples back to back, I think I can pinpoint now why the Reincarnated as a Sword illustrations fell so flat for me. It’s the lack of expressions. You have an inanimate object and an expressionless girl, so it’s to be expected, but the only illustration I liked from the ones you posted was the last one at the table while eating. and on the flip side it’s probably why I cherish the Bookworm ones so much because there is always such a high emphasis on the character’s expressions.
I’d rather have the Solo-Leveling cover art …
I have always found the Solo Leveling covers to be strange for a series based on source material, where the visuals play the most important role.
Thanks for the little excurse into the indie LN scene. That’s something completely unknown to me. But yes, I agree, some of those illustrations are terrible, especially when they are supposed to be the same characters.
Your second Fran/Teacher example there is actually something I dislike a lot when artists do that. I see it as a copout. It’s just a generic “here is character swinging a sword with some effects”. It’s like the transformation scene in a magical girl anime. It is so generic that it can be sliced in everywhere. There is no background, there is no enemy, there is no special expression, and there is literally nothing unique to the scene. Every single time I see this type of illustration I’m disappointed that I don’t get the see the monster/enemy design.
As for the awkward Bookworm illustration, I think that almost none of the illustrations in that series are like frame captures from a movie scene. It’s almost always a composition that shows the characters/their expressions/the object/the place/etc. that’s the focus of the scene. I like this approach since it gives me the information I want. Take this illustration for example in direct contrast to the Fran one I talked about earlier:
Spoiler from P2V4
Instead of just a picture of Myne using her magic like Fran swinging Teacher, we see the people behind her, their and Myne’s expressions, the enemy they are fighting, his expression and Ferdinand swooping in to save the day all in one illustration. It’s everything important in that given scene. The only thing that could be better would be showing off some of the background as well.
Oh, that’s definitely a good illustration and even uses that “split screen” stuff I’m so fond of. I’m not going to argue that all the bookworm illustrations are bad because they’re obviously not. Just that one in particular stood out to me as just feeling so wrong and out of place. L2 brought up this image and while it is definitely of the composition variety it doesn’t feel nearly as awkward, probably because there’s no fourth wall break and everyone is standing in roughly an acceptable spot
It’s interesting because I specifically picked that image BECAUSE it was more generic, just to show that even Llo’s generic renderings are well done IMHO. But if we want to talk about scenes which include an enemy, there’s plenty of good examples too
Minor Spoilers (Depiction of Enemies)
This is sword vs sword and I love the depiction and just how DIFFERENT the two are:
Here, Llo could’ve just drawn the enemy and left it at that, but they also put Teacher’s reaction in there, which makes the art just that much better.
Finally, a more generic “battle” scene but you can get the scale of tiny Fran fighting this big Ogre of a person.
And now that you mention the “composition” style of art, Llo also has a good share of that as well.
I think this just goes to show how insanely bad some of the indie art is, especially on Anime Trope System. It’s so bad that even I couldn’t tell you which characters are depicted on the covers. I’d rather have the Solo-Leveling cover art where it’s just just pretending to be a leather book than the horrible mess of characters depicted on those covers.
With all your examples back to back, I think I can pinpoint now why the Reincarnated as a Sword illustrations fell so flat for me. It’s the lack of expressions. You have an inanimate object and an expressionless girl, so it’s to be expected, but the only illustration I liked from the ones you posted was the last one at the table while eating. and on the flip side it’s probably why I cherish the Bookworm ones so much because there is always such a high emphasis on the character’s expressions.
I have always found the Solo Leveling covers to be strange for a series based on source material, where the visuals play the most important role.