25 Beautiful Anime Illustrations

Beauty is subjective.

It is rare for two people to have the same thoughts on a piece of art.  I think that makes the concept of art as beau­ti­ful as the works it produces.

So!  I’ve com­piled 25 beau­ti­ful, loosely anime art styled images to share with who­ever wishes to read this post, and while you may not agree with my views on each work exactly, I do hope you may share in the beauty regardless.

Dhiea — The Light That Melts a Frozen World…

Dhiea is an artist with many tal­ents.  Not only can she draw, but she has writ­ten a poem that matches her art­works.  I am per­son­ally quite grate­ful to the poem, as the char­ac­ters Dhiea draws are those within the poem.  Pause: The Incom­plete Ideo­logy Poem, to be pre­cise.  The star­ring char­ac­ters are Dhiea and Mo Seville, and their life is reflec­ted in the art.

I love the way the light source is not the moon in this image, which is black, but the lower sky.  In some aspects, it throws off Dhiea’s shad­ow­ing a little bit, but for the most part, it’s done quite well.

Pixiv — Web­site

El-Zheng — Water Odyssey

Water Odys­sey is an illus­tra­tion for the Etern­ita: For­got­ten Melody pic­ture book, which goes with the CD, I believe.  I don’t know much about it besides the fact that it pro­duces some beau­ti­ful illus­tra­tions from vari­ous artists.  I knew I wanted at least one of them in this list, and I selec­ted El-Zheng’s because I admire his under­wa­ter col­or­ing, as wel as his per­spect­ive, and his depic­tion of the girls themselves.

Pixiv – Web­site — Devi­antART

ALPHONSE — Mak­i­n­ami EVA-2010

I per­son­ally haven’t seen Evan­gelion, but I do like Mak­i­n­ami, even if she’s a total Kotoha (Yoza­k­ura Quar­tet) ripoff.  I think she has a nice uni­form, and I like her hair band.  Any­way, I picked this Illus­tri­ous illus­tra­tion because, as with the last two, I really like the way the light­ing is done.  And I think it’s rel­at­ively rare to see a girl actu­ally affected by her sur­round­ings, in this case the sun.

Artists tend to draw their char­ac­ter and mold the back­ground around them, so it’s good to see a break from that every now and then.  I also really like Maki’s pose.  Her hand curled under like that looks excep­tion­ally nice.

Pixiv — Web­site

JaneMere — Atelier

JaneMere’s Atelier is her sub­mis­sion for Pixiv’s Oekaki Musume 2009 (お絵描き娘2009 is the tag), which I believe will be an art­book?  All of the works gen­er­ated from the event are amaz­ing, but this was one of my favor­ites.  Many of the illus­tra­tions took on fant­astic ele­ments, such as this work’s float­ing paint pots, which is one of the reas­ons why I love it so much.

JaneMere has a very paint-like style, and it shows quite clearly in this illus­tra­tion.  A painted painter painting!

Pixiv — Web­site — Devi­antART

ky692 — ＊＊☆＊＊

The other favor­ite of mine from Oekaki Musume 2009 was this.  I think there is a cer­tain beauty in sim­pli­city, and while I wouldn’t call this work “simple” over­all, the art style itself is very much so.

Bey­ond the art style, it’s the com­plex­ity of the image itself that I love.  Fish, march­ing from their sta­tions on the can­vas to new life in the air.  Water drip­ping like paint, bloom­ing flowers and empty stems.  It’s not as com­plex as it could be, but it cer­tainly has mul­tiple facets.

Pixiv

VOFAN — Light feed

If you know me at all, you had to know I’d sneak a Vofan art­work into the mix.  I’ve loved Vofan since before Vofan’s work was even very good.  He has a tal­ent for light­ning that I don’t even need to go into, and his char­ac­ter designs and out­fits are superb.

What struck me in par­tic­u­lar about this image was, for one, the set­ting.  You don’t see girls lying on trunks every day.  Addi­tion­ally, I like her pose, as plain as it may be, and I really like Vofan’s new focus effects.  He has star­ted blur­ring the edges of the image to bring atten­tion to the girls’ faces, and I think it works well.  I cer­tainly wouldn’t mind see­ing the entire, sharp image though.

Pixiv — Web­site

Umiu Geso — World of Fairies

Good­ness, what can I say about this work?  Fair­ies of all the import­ant spe­cies (and more) con­greg­at­ing in one place!  I like the fair­ies’ designs; the valkyrie-type espe­cially.  I also like that the focal point is in the middle, but the image still works well around it, which seems to be some­what rare.  Addi­tion­ally, detail is given to the edges as much as any­where else, which I appreciate.

As a sid­e­note, the full ver­sion of the image on this site is a scaled ver­sion of the actual image.  Please check out pixiv for the full, full version.

Pixiv — Web­site

Eiri Akikawa — 。*:゜☆piano☆゜:。*。

From the title, I assume the girls are play­ing a piano.  Or are in a piano?  Or some­thing to do with a piano!  I don’t know, but it’s inter­est­ing.  I gen­er­ally prefer smoother lin­earts, but I think the concept beats the lines in this image (even if I’m not entirely cer­tain what the concept is).  The artist could have done the hands bet­ter though.

Pixiv — Web­site

Ukai Saki — When You’ve Fin­ished Eat­ing Alt Heidelberg

This rendi­tion of Tooko from Bungaku Shoujo is one that I have men­tioned on my per­sonal blog many times, and I still love it every time I see it.  The focal point is the girl, but the back­ground of books attracts atten­tion.  And the large moon.  I don’t know the entire story of Bungaku Shoujo, but she seems to be happy, and that hap­pi­ness con­nects with the audi­ence, I feel.

To explain the title, Bungaku Shoujo is a story about a girl who eats books, and Alt Heidel­berg is a novel by Wil­helm Meyer-Förster.  Also scaled slightly, so you know.
Pixiv

Sino — Saya’s Song

Tokido Saya from Little Busters!.  I haven’t played the game, but from what I under­stand, Saya’s story is a sad one.  I enjoy see­ing such a peace­ful Saya, and Sino’s art and col­or­ing style is excel­lent, espe­cially lately.  I think Saya’s torso could afford to be slightly longer, but the hair col­or­ing job and the over­all atmo­sphere of the image can­cel that issue.

Pixiv — Web­site

Goto P — Read­ing Girl

Goto P isn’t an artist that needs a lot of intro­duc­tion.  His work is known many places on the inter­net, and even those who don’t know who he is have gen­er­ally seen some of his work some­where.  I like this piece espe­cially though, because I think it emphas­izes the del­ic­ate joy of read­ing, and the light­ing effect on her hair is nice.

Pixiv — Web­site

Hara — eternal

Hara is an artist who likes to do small things, likes to do big things, and, over­all, likes to do beau­ti­ful things.  Hara’s soft detail­ing cre­ates a very subtle beauty, which I per­son­ally love look­ing at.  I think my favor­ite things about this image are the glow of the sword and the abil­ity to think that the boy is stabbing her, though he is not.  Which is what I thought when I first saw the thumb­nail on pixiv.

Though that might just be me.

Pixiv — Web­site

kb — The Abstract [World] on the Desk

This is not the kind of image I would try to judge from the thumb­nail.  Because it’s also the kind of image that has a lot going on.  A dragon burn­ing Len Kagam­ine (Vocaloid), Poke­mon in the air; this desktop is a busy place!

Pixiv — Web­site

kent­aro — Cities

Well, here’s a scenic image that my pre­view does noth­ing for.  The detail­ing on these build­ings is mag­ni­fi­cent, the tapestries provide a dash of color to the oth­er­wise pale grey, and the light shin­ing down emphas­izes everything that isn’t a build­ing.  But my favor­ite part of this image has to be the birds made from light.

Pixiv — Web­site

Simosi — Nap

This is an old image.  It’s also an image I’ve admired for a while.  Fall themed images are a favor­ite of mine, as I love the col­ors and the other ele­ments of fall.  For instance, squir­rels (rare to see in art) and fall fruits and nuts.  There’s some­thing very homey about this sort of stuff for me, and a drowsy girl thrown into the mix?  That’s close to per­fect har­mony.  Fall is brisk, but it can also be lazy.

Pixiv — Web­site – Devi­antART

Mas­ter Bimo — Byun Byun

The sound of some­thing mov­ing by quickly is the title.  Hmm?  I don’t quite under­stand this one.  Unless maybe the idea is that someone (or some­thing) is rush­ing by and happened to catch sight of this scene as they passed.  Regard­less, I think the art­work itself is pleasant.

I like the rough jungle.  That sort of thing isn’t some­thing you gen­er­ally run into.  I also like the rough look of the jungle’s inhab­it­ant, as well as her solid­ar­ity in the world.  The qual­ity could be slightly bet­ter in this image, but I won’t com­plain.  Also, this is slightly scaled/reduced in qual­ity.  See the artist’s site for a bet­ter one.

Pixiv — Web­site — Devi­antART

k — If You Were Here With Me

Here’s a change from the scenic beau­ties I’ve been talk­ing about.  I like the sim­pli­city of this image.  A girl in a sun­dress, stand­ing in front of an incom­plete sky.  The sunglasses attached to her back provide a dash of some­thing new that brings the image full circle.  Small things that com­plete an image are wonderful.

Pixiv

M-ca — Star­dust Leash

The star­dust effect is basic­ally what makes this image beau­ti­ful.  Though I like the girl’s calm expres­sion as well.  Sound Hori­zon pro­duces some nice artwork.

Pixiv

Mubouou Aasaa — Boots, Sneak­ers, and a Red Ribbon

Cloth­ing design: Simple, detailed, edgy; awe­some.  Char­ac­ter walk­ing away from the audi­ence.  Light­ing that emphas­izes the more unique parts about the cloth­ing design.  Streaks of bright amidst the black and white.  This is why it’s beautiful.

Pixiv — Web­site

Fuzi Choko — A Girl’s Jour­ney and the Yet Unseen World

A girl embark­ing on a jour­ney!  What fun!  Fuzi Choko works always include col­or­ful detail and a lot to look at.  My favor­ite part of this par­tic­u­lar image, and the reason that I selec­ted it, is the col­or­ing on the train.

Also, image is scaled, see the artist’s web­site for the full ver­sion, etc.

Pixiv — Web­site

Cait — Miku ((♪))

I’m sick of Miku Hatsune’s design, along withthe rest of the Vocaloid cast, but this image stood out for whatever reason.  The best thing I can pin­point about it is the head­phone design, a type that I have a par­tic­u­lar fond­ness for, and the eye coloring.

Pixiv — Web­site

Hana Mizu — It Would Be Nice If We Meet Again

This artist is very spe­cial to me, for reas­ons I don’t under­stand.  This image isn’t a scenic won­der, it doesn’t play with color or light­ing.  There isn’t one cer­tain thing that stands out and makes it beau­ti­ful, but for some reason it speaks to me and has spoken to me since the day I dis­covered it on pixiv.

I think that there is another, less well-recognized, side to beauty.  Not one that speaks to the senses, but to the viewer’s heart (that sounds cheesy, I’m sorry).  An images abil­ity to grab the reader is a spe­cial kind of beauty that stands out more than what first hits the eyes.

Pixiv

Cof­fee Kizoku — Kula Diamond

I’m not famil­iar with this char­ac­ter, but I do think she’s drawn well here.  I believe those shards are ice?  I selec­ted this image to reflect that even images that focus close in on the char­ac­ter, the oppos­ite of a scenic image, can be as beau­ti­ful as the scenic selections.

Though, you have to like the art style to begin with.  (Which I do here.)

Pixiv — Web­site

Hagi­wara Rin — Forest Green

Every now and then, images will be able to make an art enthu­si­ast, or even a reg­u­lar viewer gasp.  This is one of those times.  It’s a rel­at­ively simple image of green and white, but the exe­cu­tion kills me.  I think in this case, the art needs to speak for itself, and the viewer has to form their own opinion.

Pixiv — Web­site

Poko — First in Line, Please Fol­low Me

And to wind it up, I’ll intro­duce Poko, an artist I’ve fol­lowed for a long time.  Poko seems to spe­cial­ize in mod­i­fied Japan­ese dress; short kimono-like out­fits would be the best descrip­tion I can come up with.  Maybe there is a more proper name, but I don’t know it.  And this tra­di­tional dress is off­set by thigh high socks and boots, which cre­ate an enjoy­able contrast.

I also like Poko’s color choice and ima­gin­a­tion.  Whatever that strange creature is, it intrigues me, as does the set­ting and the char­ac­ter.  What brought her to that place?  Being able to string the viewer along with your mys­ter­ies is quite a skill for an artist to have.  It makes the viewer want more.

Pixiv — Web­site

In Con­clu­sion

Again, I say, that beauty is subjective.

One per­son may look at an art­work and be over­whelmed, while another may sneer in dis­gust.  Inter­pret­a­tions vary; art schools and debates were born from that fact.  But essen­tially, a truly beau­ti­ful image will be able to speak to more than just one per­son.  A truly beau­ti­ful image will be able to com­mu­nic­ate its point to many viewers.

Truly beau­ti­ful art, I believe, can speak for itself.  It will not always com­mu­nic­ate the same mes­sage to every­one, but it will com­mu­nic­ate something.

And just as a note…there is nice art out there.  Some­times we just have to look for it.

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Header image by ccru.

This guest post was writ­ten by meflo­raine. meflo­raine is an art con­nois­seur and critic, review­ing and present­ing artists at her blog the Paper Flower. You may also fol­low her on Twit­ter.