Jessie by John Smith

 So yeah, when I bought this 2016 dōjinshi by John Smith (a circle name, in case you didn't figure that out) I actually wasn't aware of them being sort of a big shot - from their web site and twitter I discover now they also do commercial work, cover art for novels in particular. 

Jessie is a small-sized, full color collection of illustrations ranging from pinups in abstract landscapes, to recreations of realistic scenes that I assume were either photomanipulated, traced or copied from pictures of real life locales. Little matter as, much like Inio Asano (one of my favourite mangaka), John Smith's tract injects new atmosphere in these protorealistic locales -- and, let's face it, with 3d modeling and such it's hardly a practice to scoff at. 

What matters is John Smith's visual style, which I happen to really dig: their wiry, flowery female figures almost seem at times almost created with traditional media (which I don't think is the case?), and reminded me a bit of another dōjin artist I have covered before. Just the right mix of materiality and abstraction. One could argue that the subject matter is the same old bishoujo but, at this point, who cares? I'd argue that, in the context of dōjin art, little girls are the new still life. Just a convenient subject the artist injects their own style into. As I mentioned before, some locales seem to recreate rewal life locales - probably American? the dōjinshi is, as customary, scant with info save for a few contacts. 

All in all a nice little sample of an artist that has seemingly moved to greater things. You can find much more art on their Instagram as well. 

Stay tuned, as the next review will be a double look at some very interesting ephemera...