Yoshitaka Amano(天野 喜孝,Amano Yoshitaka?) is an artist who designed many characters in the Final Fantasy series as well as for other series. He is a native of Shizuoka, Japan.
His uniqueness in his designs are such that he does not design images directly for animation or comics. Amano's art revolves around the medium of printmaking. Printmaking involves processes such as carving wood and/or scoring copper plates, running ink, and transferring ink to paper. Aside from woodcut and copper plate prints, Amano also uses the method of lithography. He typically uses acrylics to color his prints, using an effect resembling watercolor, and many of his works are influenced by ukiyo-e aesthetics. His prints contrast to many modern Japanese designers in that his prints are made with smoother, flowing lines, especially when it comes to hair, a characteristic that defies the stereotype of pointy, spiky hair used by other designers, which is also one of the reasons for the critique of the newer designers for Square Enix. To this day Amano has drawn and designed most of the main characters and prominent points in the iconic games of the series.
Before beginning his career as a fantasy illustrator, having grown up reading Western super hero comics, Amano worked for Tatsunoko Production as a character designer for several of their early super hero anime, including Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, Tekkaman the Space Knight, and Neo-Human Casshern. Beginning in the '80s, he left the anime industry to illustrate novels, including several Japanese versions of Western heroic fantasy series, as well as early volumes of Guin Saga and the ongoing Vampire Hunter D series, which he still illustrates. More recently, he has illustrated Neil Gaiman's The Sandman: The Dream Hunters, Greg Rucka's Elektra and Wolverine: The Redeemer, mink's Shinjuku, and his own Hero series. He has occasionally returned to working on anime, such as the surreal Angel's Egg, as well as experimental works such as Fantascope: Tylostoma, and the more mainstream NY Salad: Vegetable Fairies. In addition to the Final Fantasy series, he has also worked as character designer for the Front Mission game series, and "Kartia". He has also appeared as the character Hiroshi in the live action movie New Rose Hotel.
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Promotional artwork from Final Fantasy V.
Artwork of Mog from the JAPAN artbook.
Landscape artwork from Final Fantasy IX.
Promotional artwork of the cast of Final Fantasy XIII.
Poster done for the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary
