Yoji Shinkawa Interview: Segment 2

	THE ART OF METAL GEAR SOLID 2 has finally been released today. Today, we would like you, Mr. Shinkawa, to talk about the artbook while looking at it. Let's start with the front cover which you worked on just for this artbook.
Shinkawa:	The first thing you see of this artbook turns out to be black. I tried to express the hidden parts of Metal Gear as if it is hidden in the darkness of the night. The illustration is black, done on black paper.
	Part 1 of the book is "Color Illustrations Part 1." The first half of this section consists of image illustrations of the early stages of the development of MGS2. The second half has illustrations for the package and magazine front covers.
Shinkawa:	This Snake is what I worked on to realize the image of Snake for the 2000 E3 premier event. This is one of the very first illustrations.
	Last time you talked abot how you work on the details of characters. Anything about that for this illustration?
Shinkawa:	I try not to think about such things too much. I do give the staff a photograph of someone as reference material so that the staff can work on the eye when modeling the character. When designing the character, I try not to think about details.
	Next is Raiden the other main character. When did you draw this?
Shinkawa:	This was reference material for Mr. Harry Gregson-Williams and Mr. Kyle Cooper when we asked them to work on MGS2. When I was filing illustrations that I did to realize the image of this character, I found out that I did not have a single illustration in color. That's why I did this illustration as the front cover of the file itself. So this was the front cover of the file with presentation materials.
	He carries a shotgun...
Shinkawa:	Initially I thought it would be cool if he could use one. (laughs)
	Next -- the 3 Dead Cell members. Very image-oriented.
Shinkawa:	Yes, I drew it to realize my image.
	In the initial image materials, you use yellow and purple colors. Any reason for this?
Shinkawa:	Why did I do this? (laughs) When I paint.. when I create things, I always end up using these colors. I probably like yellow and purple colors. It's more like a habit. "My favorite colors" ...that's really it. (laughs)
	Would it be the case that you tried to match them to the image color of the Plant Chapter?
Shinkawa:	If you remember, the game of MGS1 took place at night with dark colors. The Tanker Chapter of MGS2 does the same. With the Plant Chapter, we wanted to change this and introduce a sunny beautiful atmosphere. We wanted something that was "not Metal Gear."
	Next page. Metal Gear RAY... When did you...
Shinkawa:	I don't remember. (laughs) When was this? If I remember correctly, I was told that we were going to create postcards. This is a very early image illustration. The tail is more like a -- needle. (laughs) A lot has changed since this illlustration. Comparing the current design with this might be quite interesting.
	Let's move on. This red Snake we got to see quite often.
Shinkawa:	This was a pair with RAY on the previous page. It was for our postcards. It looks like it is out of position a bit. I added effects so that it looks out of position. (laughs) I also paid attention to how to make him look older. Every time I draw Snake, I try to give the illustration a "sneaking" look. But this is never easy. I want him to look like he is infiltrating and is coming out of the shadow.
	Next is Snake again, but with electric bolts.
Shinkawa:	I drew this after the opening demo of the game was completed. This was drawn especially for "Konami Magazine" which is given out for free in Japan.
	It seems like there is more detail added to Snake's facial expression.
Shinkawa:	That's probably because I worked on this while watching the polygon demo and the image was simply there in front of me.
	The next one must be fimiliar to our American friends -- the illustration used on the package of the US version.
Shinkawa:	The monochrome Snake on the right page I drew for E3. Originally, the page position was different and the right edge was white. But then I ended up changing the position. When you look at them as a series, Snake hides, comes out, and shoots. (laughs). With this game, I did many monochrome illustrations. Maybe I'm not good at working with colors. My illustrations are all red or all blue or something like that. Doing monochrome ones are the easiest. I don't have to think about colors. (laughs)
	Next is Raiden, Snake, and RAY. This was for the front cover of the Japanese game magazine "The PlayStation 2."
Shinkawa:	This was one of the covers when we did front covers for all PS2-only magazines in Japan at the same time. Very "Japanese", isn't it? (laughs) The background texture has the Japanese paper look. What I did was paint think black ink on regular copying paper and then take photocopies of that. Normally, I do not care much about the texture of the paper for my illustrations. But this time I wanted the "material" look. It turned out good and I ended up using it. I used this texture quite often.
	Let's move on. The illustration for the Japanese game package.
Shinkawa:	I used the texture paper mentioned above. I did not want the colors to be too dark. I wanted to the illustration to have an incomplete look. That's why I made it look as if I suddenly stopped drawing. I wanted people to look at the white spots and think that I should have finished painting. Always completing an illustrations is fine, but that does not leave any room for the viewer to do any imagining. This concept is similar to the textures used on the character models in the previous game.
	The next illustration was used as the "reversible jacket."
Shinkawa:	People asked me "What kind of jacket can we get to wear?" (laughs)
	When we say "jacket" we mean the cover of the package, right? (laughs) Snake is printed on the front, and if you take it out and flip it, you get Raiden. The layout of the illustrations contrast the Tanker and Plant Chapters -- a contrast of Snake and Raiden.
Shinkawa:	Originally I drew them separately.
	Really?
Shinkawa:	No one asked me to work on reversible illustrations. Snake was drawn for the cover of an American magazine.
	So Snake came first and when you were told that we were doing a reversible cover, you then drew Raiden in contrast.
Shinkawa:	That's right. Since there was some time between these two illustrations, it was hard to match the colors. I had to recall what I did last time. "What on earth was I thinking last time?" (laughs)
	It seems like you have left some white spots and stopped drawing with this one as well.
Shinkawa:	(Pointing at Raiden's right arm) Here, this line didn't have to be here. I drew too many. Even here at his right thigh.
	Next is Ocelot's illustration.
Shinkawa:	This I did for EDGE -- a UK game magazine. I really had a hard time trying to draw back then. "What am I going to do?"
	You couldn't draw Ocelot? Or you couldn't draw in general?
Shinkawa:	And I ended up with this. (laughs) (Using his fingers) How big is this?
	About 8 cm?
Shinkawa:	Yes, I drew a 5 cm X 8 cm Ocelot. (laughs) I enlarged it, raised the resolution and added colors.
	Any modifications?
Shinkawa:	Not at all. It looks like I used a big brush and did it quickly. Actually I used a very small brush -- not a dynamic work at all. (laughs)
	A 5 cm X 8 cm illustration... Listening to you, we get the impression that you take interesting drawing approaches.
Shinkawa:	Interesting... more like "inconsistent." I get bored easily. (laughs)
	(laughs)
Shinkawa:	If I stick to one style, I'm afraid that's all I'll end up being able to do.
	So, Yoji Shinkawa keeps on evolving.
Shinkawa:	No, it's more like going this way, that way, going and coming back...
	Next page. Raiden.
Shinkawa:	This was for a magazine front cover.
	This looks very different from your other works. You see pinkish particles flowing from the upper right. Cherry blossom?
Shinkawa:	Cherry blossom... or maybe fire sparks...
	This really adds a Japanese look.
Shinkawa:	Yes, like wood block printing style.
	The Japanese paper-ish background -- did you use the texture you talked about earlier?
Shinkawa:	That's right. I wanted to simulate wood block printing style paintings. I wanted to do an actual wood block printing style painting but did not have the chance to. So it's a fake wood block painting. (laughs) I used thin ink. The ink portion -- if I scan it and use it as data, it does not look like wood block printing. So I took a black and white photocopy of the original illustration and then took this rougher image and scanned it. That's how you get this roughness. I almost never scan the original illustration directly. I almost always take a photocopy of it.
	Does the original illustration look very detailed -- delicate?
Shinkawa:	Not really delicate. More...raw. It looks like a filter has been applied. You can do this with Photoshop, but I wanted to use a more analogue means to add this effect. And running a photocopy makes it more suitable for the digital means to follow.
	Here we see Raiden with a sword. This was used for the front cover of the Japanese soundtrack.
Shinkawa:	Here again I took a photocopy. The original illustration is done with thin ink. Very light. Gray. When "raw", it simply looks gray. This roughness -- as if it is like stone -- is something you get when taking a photocopy.
	Next is an image illustration from E3. This reminds you of Snake and the Ninja from the previous game. Who did you have in mind when doing this?
Shinkawa:	Raiden. I gave it a blur, with is skull mask on. This I did with the Photoshop brush tool and not with a real brush. I had to do this illustration quickly. I did not do too much thinking for this.
	Next. An illustration for a poster in Japan. Dead Cell, Solidus, and RAY.
Shinkawa:	"Something very black", I was told when asked to do this one. Snake posters and Raiden posters seemed very white. So I guess they wanted something in black for contrast. Black and white posters at retailers would stand out more than things with colors. Black -- evil. These guys are villains, so I used black. That simple. (laughs) I do quite a few of these.
	You did?
Shinkawa:	I redid this one over and over again. Probably 50 times.
	50 times!
Shinkawa:	You know what? I ended up using the 3rd one... (laughs) And if I may talk about techniques I use, I use a regular retouch pen.
	That's what you did with the postcard shown in the previous artbook.
Shinkawa:	Yes! That's when I came up with this technique. (laughs)
	Carving into the black background with a retouch pen, right?
Shinkawa:	Just simply drawing normal lines with it. That's how I worked on Fortune's face. Since I carve into regular A3 size copying paper, I do a lot of damage to the paper. (laughs) RAY in the background -- I drew that separately and combined it with the others.
	The next is the mass production model of RAY.
Shinkawa:	I drew this while on the train. (laughs)
	...That's it? (laughs)
Shinkawa:	That's it. (laughs)
	Let's keep on moving. Snake and Raiden -- this was for the first soundtrack. Very MANGAish, isn't it?
Shinkawa:	Really?
	The eyes are pretty big.
Shinkawa:	Like MANGA for girls? (laughs) I actually draw eyelashes when drawing Snake.
	You can't tell because of the shadows on his face. (laughs) Next are the animations of the Otacon software and cute Snake.
Shinkawa:	Otacon was done by Mr. Nakamura who worked on the controller vibrations of the game. He is a dot matrix graphics master. He draws really well. Snake was for the package of MGS2 Kubrick dolls. First I was told they did not need any of my illustrations. Then I was told to do some. I worked on this one while picking my nose. (laughs) On the box it is printed in silver. So the data is monochrome.
	Do you draw in this style often?
Shinkawa:	I used to. But not recently. Very much like comedy MANGA.
	On the next page you have realistic Snake.
Shinkawa:	What was this used for? I don't remember. I don't know. (laugh)
	I think you...
Shinkawa:	No, I DON'T KNOW! (laughs)
	You happened to... (laughs)
Shinkawa:	I'm telling you. I didn't do this. Not me! (laughs)
	(laughs)
Shinkawa:	But really... what was this for? (thinking hard)
	Well, let's move on. 3 mass-produced RAYs on folded pages. This was used for the soundtrack.
Shinkawa:	This was used with monochrome colors. So I did not do too much painting. The data was on with colors by then I changed the data to monochrome colors. Since we can use colors here, we are showing it as it originally was.
	Next is the RAY illustration used in the E3 pamphlet that opened up.
Shinkawa:	This is actually much bigger. The original illustration is very big too. I drew this before the Metal Gear model was completed. "It flies! It's flying!" (laughs) People might have thought the next Metal Gear was going to fly.
	OK, the last one of this first section. This was for front covers for two consecutive weeks.
Shinkawa:	I was asked for a MANGA style illustration. Do you remember my works from the previous artbook with American/French comic style cuts? The editor of this magazine saw that illustration in the previous artbook and wanted something similar -- with similar cuts. But as I said before, I do get bored. I did not want to repeat what I have done before. There is an abstract artist that I like very much called Piet Mondrian. I wanted to use cuts (boxes) like one of his works -- "Composition." It would have been better without any illustration. The boxes filled with red and blue colors only. (laughs)
	I guess you really can't do that when you were asked for an illustration. (laughs)
Shinkawa:	I know. That's why I applied the illustration.
	Next. Oops! This is the end of the 1st section. Let's continue with the 2nd section.
Shinkawa:	This interview is taking a long time...(one hour has elapsed since the beginning of this interview)
	Well then, let's speed things up! ...TO BE CONTINUED

How did you like this interview segment? You probably were able to learn how Mr. Shinkawa works on his illustrations. Since the interview ended up being so long, it will be made into 2 segments. Consequently, we are changing the interview upload schedule and will upload the 2nd half of this interview on the artbook on April 5. In the 2nd half, he will be talking about settings and rough sketches. At the end of the interview will be a big announcement to look forward to. Please send us your comments on the Art Gallery, artbook, and the interview. Mr. Shinkawa does look forward to receiving your thoughts. An interactive interview you read while flipping through the artbook -- if you have not yet bought the artbook, or if you are interested, we advise you to make your purchase ASAP!. See you next time on April 5.

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