One little thing I included in my latest haul is an illustration dōjinshi by 高市, which I discovered first through Twitter's suggestions while aimlessly browsing a while ago. While the somewhat uncomplex drawing style wasn't exactly my cup of tea (though it reminded me a bit of みなはむ, which I actually really like), I was surprised by the vivid colors and... let's say handmade charm of their illustrations. Since most of their stuff was like 3 euros on Mandarake I figured 'why not?', and picked up a copy of their art collection titled 灰景少女 社.
Published in 2015, full color and in horizontal format, it's apparently one volume in a series, focusing on a handful of 高市's original characters. It's an imaginary travelogue of sorts as, and while the artist's three girls characters are clearly your usual moe chicks who are the standard in the dōjin world, the backgrounds seem to be reproductions of some place... which I think might be imaginary, as 青葉鉱撰 train line doesn't bring up any relevant result. There is even a little map included, but I couldn't find a match on Japan's coastline. If anyone knows better, please feel free to correct me.
Now, as I mentioned, the three female travellers that populate 高市's world are fairly standard - short haired one, long haired one, and a tanned plus light hair one who gets extra point because it just happens to be my thing. They are often portrayed in a very stylized manner, with little chiaroscuro and detail. The backgrounds, on the other hand, are very elaborate and accurately executed in what's either pastel / watercolor, or an extremely convincing digital imitation of them. There is a degree of fantasy to them (Venezia-style canals surrounded by palaces, waterway trams that look just like streetcars) which leads credence to my idea that the setting is imaginary, but again, I might be wrong. One plus is that the illustrations are full color, and the horizontal format really allows the artist not to let any space go to waste, when depicting landscapes. A minus is that, as it often happens with illustration dōjinshi, it's a bit on the short side, clocking in at 20 pages.
Overall, a worthy purchase, nothing groundshaking but still a dōjin artist to keep an eye on.
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