Book Review: 背景画集 草薙3 日本の風景編 (Kusanagi 3)

草薙 (Kusanagi) is a Japanese artist group that creates background art for animation and computer games.

Included in their third art book are illustrations from the PS2 game My Family Growing Up in the 21st Century and PS3 game Boku no Natsu Yasumi 3: Summer Holidays 20th Century. As the Japanese title suggest, this book focuses on Japanese scenery. All the full colour paintings are printed on low gloss paper, 2 per page. There are probably close to 200 pieces in this 128-page book.

Coming from Kusanagi, the art is beautiful, of course. What you'll see are idyllic towns, schools, alleyways, sidewalks and countryside. There's great detail in all the illustrations, be it texture on a volleyball, the countless fallen leaves, etc. I just love the lighting and colours. They are perfect. They look to be traditionally painted with watercolour.

If you're into background paintings, this book is for you.

This book is available at:
Amazon Japan

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