I saw the YouTube video and read through the Sonic animation thread and it got me thinking, what about Sonic art style? I'm not sure if there is another thread like this so feel free to lock this up/move if so. I won't bore you guys with every single piece of Sonic art style ever made, as I am sure there are youtube videos and other places with that good stuff for you. Instead I want to pick out my 2 all time favorite "styles" of Sonic art over the years. I listed a few honorable mentions as well. First I will start with an absolute Sonic art legend in Patrick 'Spaz' Spaziante. Obviously you know him from almost every Archie cover ever! His style is timeless and is one of my all time favorites. Some of my favorites here. Just so detailed and the characters big shoes and gloves just work really well for some reason. I especially like his older stuff like Archie's Sonic #25 and Mecha Madness era. Here is a sick shot of a shadowy figured Metal Sonic in issue 25. Another good snapshot of some iconic looks from Sonic and Metal. (I still like the corny jokes btw and yes I am an adult...) I also think Spaz drew Robotnik perfectly. Overall, I enjoyed his art so much. He even adapted later on and his covers looked awesome all through the Archie series run. Imo, he very well may be the Greatest Sonic artist to ever live. I wish he would draw all the modern characters in their classic style again like he did in the mid 90's. He's the closest to perfect I've seen when it comes to his art style of the Sonic classic universe. Sonic Adventure art style is my other favorite. You know exactly what I'm talking about. I am not sure who is the original artist of the Sonic Adventure drawings are, but its inspired countless fan arts of newer characters in this style and I absolutely love it! I think it is a combo of nostalgia and how unique of a style it is. If anyone knows the og artist let me know! SA Sonic laughing. Definitely an iconic shot for Sonic fans these days... Here is the picture I mentioned earlier. I absolutely love the Sonic Adventure art style. I can't even explain it to be honest. Love this one of Sticks! Here is another picture I love of Infinite in the SA style. Honorable Mentions: -Tyson Hesse style. He is right behind Spaz at this point. He makes modern Sonic characters look absolutely perfect and is basically the Spaz for this new era. He is a monster who is still in his prime. -Sonic CD Classic anime style. Knuckles with the cowboy hat, Sonic with the short spiky hair, ball fists, belt buckle shoes etc...you know... Love that style too. Ok...I'm done and off to bed... What are your favorite styles you see whether its from an era of Sonic games or an artist you like. It could be anything, I just love looking at and studying the art of Sonic.
I find it a bit weird you don't know who's the Adventure artist, Yuji Uekawa... ^^" He did the 2D artworks for SA1&2, the Advance & Rush games, the Sonic Channel 2D artworks, etc. Other than that, Google's your friend, be my guest.
@Goat By youtube video do you mean this one: Or is there another thread I'm not spotting EDIT: And i'm probably needing to declare myself legally blind. Found it
I would say for Modern Sonic, the "Team Sonic Racing Overdrive" style is pretty much perfect. Characters are expressive, whilst still maintaining a lot of modern stylistic choices. I would personally love to see that style fleshed out more. Imagine cell shading within the games, and then hand animated cutscenes... I think that would personally make for a really unique style. Alternatively, close second is Sonic and Tails from "OK K.O!". I wouldn't want that style to be used in the way it is, but again, characters are expressive, whilst still feeling like the modern characters. Although the show goes off model more often than I would personally like, but I can see that if that was reigned in a bit, it could be a great style. My issue with Yuji Uekawa's art, is it works decently well in 2D, but bringing that to 3D, I just don't think it works. Limbs are too exaggerated, for instance. I also don't like the usage of gradients much, I personally think something more subdued, or something even more contrasted often looks better than the middle ground used in Sonic Adventure's key art style.
What a lonely way to go... Nah, I know plenty of people enjoy the 90s American Sonic. But personally I have never felt it. I don't have a great deal of nostalgia for 90s cartoons (Sonic or otherwise) and everything about this is just... Uninteresting to me. It's an artstyle that just doesn't resonate with me. Now 2014 American Sonic? I don't love it, but I do kinda like it. The 2D art drawn up for Boom has a really awesome style. The 3D models in the show ended up looking very stiff, stale and devoid of Bob Rafei's signature style unfortunately. RoL could have looked alright if the development of the game wasn't such a mess though.
These "I like Sonic" topics - can we maybe stop making these? I come here for productive things (well okay, Sega Retro mostly) and this is anything but. Sonic fans in a Sonic forum? No way! No way! No Way?
That looks so much better than the final models it's not even funny. As for 90s US Sonic, it's fine except for the fauxhawk. That will always be a mistake.
There's not really anything productive about discussing Sonic the Hedgehog on the internet, so outside of the archival purposes of Retro's wiki and the fangaming/hacking sections, the entire message board is moot under that point.
The Boom designs manage to simultaneously look held back by SEGA mandates and also not close enough to the originals. However, I recognize how expressive Boom Sonic is, and I wish center mouth was a thing in the SEGAverse. I'm very partial to this reinterpretation of Boom's designs by CatbeeCache: Aside from one or two aspects (the sports tape on the shoes....not sure that'd be comfortable to run with) I would love designs like these. Simpler eyes that keep the color, diverse silhouettes, and outfits that truly speak to their personalities and abilities.
Ahh... Why's Amy a...magician...? She wields a piko hammer and reads tarot cards. Shouldn't be enough to deem her a magician or so.
Thanks for letting me know about google. I guess I did know it was him, I just never put that together for some reason. He's an absolute legend.
I've always thought Spaz's artstyle looked... weird to me, at least in the 1990s. It think it's the roundness and different-ness from the official models that put me off. The Archives covers look cool, though. Uekawa's stuff is pretty neat. I'll say that any day.
Yeah, this artstyle might've made a damn fine anime, in my opinion ^^" Ugh... I knew I shouldn't have opened that video... Haven't read much good about the guy. Is there any proper evidence of Sonic's aesthetic having been inspired by DBZ's Vegeta? Disney's Mickey Mouse as inspiration, I think I read/saw something about that somewhere.
