Yoji Shinkawa, born December 25, 1971) is a Japanese illustrator and conceptual artist. He is most famous for his character, environment and mechanical designs for the Metal Gear Solid and Zone of the Enders video game series.
Born in Hiroshima, Shinkawa began working for game developer Konami in 1994; he was the first artist in the company to receive an "S"-grade evaluation for his portfolio. He first worked as a CG art director for the console versions of Policenauts. He began as a character designer, and is now the lead artist on many of Konami's titles
Shinkawa's illustration style is generally praised as original and artistic yet technically accurate. According to himself he is inspired by anime-related artists like Yoshikazu Yasuhiko and Yoshitaka Amano, but also more western-related and less contemporary artists such as Frank Miller, Aubrey Beardsley and Willy Pogany. He is also a big fan of French artists such as Mœbius.
He uses ink pens with a brush-like felt-tip preferring the Pentel Brush Pen and both Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter for his creations.
Born in Hiroshima, Shinkawa began working for game developer Konami in 1994; he was the first artist in the company to receive an "S"-grade evaluation for his portfolio. He first worked as a CG art director for the console versions of Policenauts. He began as a character designer, and is now the lead artist on many of Konami's titles
Shinkawa's illustration style is generally praised as original and artistic yet technically accurate. According to himself he is inspired by anime-related artists like Yoshikazu Yasuhiko and Yoshitaka Amano, but also more western-related and less contemporary artists such as Frank Miller, Aubrey Beardsley and Willy Pogany. He is also a big fan of French artists such as Mœbius.
He uses ink pens with a brush-like felt-tip preferring the Pentel Brush Pen and both Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter for his creations.
