DAWN by みけねこりんご / 幻想探行記 by ゆずりんご

Two reviews for one this time around, mostly because these two artbooks are both very, very flimsy... 16 and 20 pages respectively. As an added bonus, both circles have りんご in their names, though unrelated - at least as far as I could tell...

DAWN by みけねこりんご(the circle name of うろこ) published 2009 is, as mentioned, a fairly thin artbook, but one that visually packs a punch. While the artist has been recently dedicating their craft almost exclusively to Danganronpa fan art, DAWN is simply a full color collection of unrelated illustrations, where thematically the lion's share is taken by armed and dangerous bishōjo of all varieties.

While there might not be much variety as far as subject matter goes, the artist definitely displays a strong sense of both color and composition, developing complex color palettes that enhances the curvy, wavy qualities of their pinups. An unusual amount of attention is also paid to backgrounds. Such a shame that, as far as I could gather, the circle hasn't published a thing since 2013 outside of occasional Pixiv updates and Danganronpa fanart.

The other collection of illustrations I picked up in my last shipment is 幻想探行記 by ゆずりんご, published in 2009. While there seems to be a single artist behind the Yuzuringo name, the dōjinshi actually goes through three or so quite different visual and thematic styles, ranging from slick digital illustrations and pinups in a clear manga inspired vein, to items that display a closer affinity for traditional art.

While, as usual, I am left wishing that both dōjinshi simply had a higher word count, DAWN and 幻想探行記 were overall two very different, yet worthy additions to my collection of illustration works from little known artists. Next time, yet another Heikinritsu from the past, and a whole new, very interesting artist...