Artwork of Berserk interview - Page 2 (part 2)

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Interviewer: I’d like to know how you design your color manuscripts and through what process they’re created.

Miura: It's not that complicated. Since the color illustrations of manga are supposed to be used for tankōbon or magazine covers, what can be drawn is limited. Because they include a logo and title among other things, the available space is unexpectedly narrow. And for tankōbon, they should attract attention in bookstores and so on. It causes me to fill most of the picture with characters. I think many mangaka draw the main characters of the tankōbon as big as possible (in their color illustrations).

As for my way of painting, I've liked oil paintings and paintings of the same style for a long time, like (those of) Frank Frazetta or Noriyoshi Ōrai, so my style belongs to that lineage. At first, I used oil paint but it took too long to dry. So I underpainted the canvas with oil paint and then completed it by painting with translucent Liquitex (over it). However, when I want to create delicate gradations with this painting method, I should overpaint several times, so it takes (a lot of) time. That is to say, (with this method) it’s difficult to create the texture of children or girls, so it was not suitable for cute characters. As a result, there are many paintings with characters like Guts, wielding (his sword) dynamically. Now I think it could also be considered a style (1), though.

Interviewer: Most of your color illustrations were drawn on canvas before you moved to digital, but there were also some rare watercolors.

Miura: Watercolor is much simpler than oil painting-style (paintings). I just draw lines like for a croquis and then color them with watercolor paint. I don't have a preference for certain painting materials, but my favorite paintings are from the oil painting family, so I think it inevitably led me to canvas and oil paintings.

Currently, my color (work) has also been shifted to digital and it goes as I want for gradation and the like. While underpainting on canvas by itself takes as long as one day *laughs*, once I've decided on a color, I can start painting with one stroke thanks to digital. At the same time, something hand-painted can get better by chance during the painting process. Digital allows us to control everything, but conversely, some charm (1) has been lost because of it.

Note 1: This is the same word in Japanese. There is no perfect equivalent in English.