I just have to ask.. Why so much hate towards sketches?!

[Ms. Poe]

They're all pieces of studio waste anyway. But, people collect another mans trash. Why? Just because tastes are different.

Most all of my sketches hold more detail than the cels themselves do. Sometimes the creators of the series have drawn them, or a famous studio artist. there's funny notes, and drawings on sketches you wouldn't see on a cel. Some of that shit is hilarious to read. While I do prefer cels over sketches...I am loving sketches more and more every day...Especially if it's the only thing I could collect from my favorite newer shows like Naruto, and Fruits Basket.

[ReiTheJelly]

I have sketches from 10 different CG shows in my gallery, but I must say that I greatly prefer cels. I love the colors!

[eddiefb3]

Hmm....Well i have to admit i love cels. But i do like sketches too. As many stated Cels you get to see on the Screen (I love watching my cel on dvd and bragging)

But Sketches are cool too. They arent on screen, but they are a piece of what was on screen.

And I love lots of the new CG shows, so sketches is all i can get for those(not that i can find any)

*switches to speech mode*

Generally for me its not about whether its a cel or a sketch its what is on it, what that character means to me, and how much i enjoy that show.

Collecting isnt about the colors, the paper, the marks, the numbers. Its about collecting the ultimate Swag from shows you enjoy.

That is why i collect anything, Sketch, cel, anything.

[birdie]

If it's a show I love to bits and the only thing availableis sketches I will buy sketches. If there are cels available I'll buy cels. Why set rules for myself when I know I'll only break them?

[blueheaven]

I will say this: sketches are going to be WELL represented in the awards this year. So folks, whether you like them or not, they are now an equal member of the Anime collectible community. My prediction still holds: two sketches will win awards this year.

[star-phoenix]

Well, I must admit, if I saw a cel and a sketch from the same series, I would choose the cel over the sketch. From what I heard a cel painter (from Japan) say, people in Japan seemed to value sketches more than cels.

Now that cels are considered "out-of-date", sketches are the way to gofor original production art.

I only have problems with repro cels and fan cels. I am not saying there is anything wrong with either, just my preference is original production artwork used for the Anime or a hanken.

[Caroline]

i don't collect from cg animated series so i'll always be on the look out for cels. i'm worried that if i purchase a douga, i'll want it's cel counterpart, and it'll just turn into a frustrating mission-impossible... so i leave em alone. but i have seen some *gorgeous* sketches in other collections and there is no mistaking that they can be equally pretty as cels.

[aernath]

I wasn't going to post either, since I obviously have no problems with sketches. heh
And I'll just add one more kudo to Sensei and Redwolf. ^_^
Oh, and I decided to stuff the ballot box for the beta awards this year with paper. heh heh

Most of my paper is one character, take that away and my gallery is mostly cels.
I do love seeing the erased bits and changes that were made. It's just fun. Even on the hanken, there are corrections, and they just trip my trigger.
Plus, there's a little less worry when it comes to taking care of them versus the cels.
BUT, that having been said, I do still like the "ooo pretty" colors of the cels - fan, repro, or rilezu.

[kira]

i guess i'm one of those few weird ones that just doesnt care as long as i can find something from one of the shows i like.

[animejewell]

Hi,
I'm going to try posting my opinion. I tried it last night, pressed submit, and poof it was gone to my dismay. So here goes.....

Cels are near and dear to my heart and they do have that unique position of being used to make one moment in our favorite animes. Their colors make them vibrant and so much nicer than your average sketch....But there are some genga that are absolutely stunning.

I have some genga which I think are much more beautiful than the average cel. They are really, really stunning. The genga shows each stroke of the pencil and is a work of art and the coloring of the genga can be vibrant. Some genga are truly works of art. The other aspect of sketches that I find fascinating is that you can see the thought process behind the scene starting with the layout then the rough genga then the genga then the revision or shusei genga and finally the douga. It's fascinating to see the changes that occur between the genga and the douga. Some of my genga look very different from the finished product, the douga. For the CG anime, the douga is the final piece used for the scenes in the anime.

I love cels, but I'm getting to like sketches as much as cels for many reasons. I still will buy cels over sketches when there are cels for a series, but it is painful to spend lots of money on a cel and know that it has a limited life expectancy. I try to take really good care of my cels, I even had a special closet made for them, change the cel bags every year, and store them in cels books. With my sketches, I use bond paper between them and store them in mylar as well as use cel books. They are not exposed to alot of light nor moisture. But the sad fact is unless alot of money is spent periodically taking cels to a preservation studio, sketches will outlast cels if they are taken care of properly.

There is a place in my heart that likes cels more than sketches or I wouldn't be buying so many rilezu, but sketches have a place too. They tell a story and to the Japanese they are the true work of art. Many in Japan feel that cels are trash, that is why many were burnt or destroyed or even given away. The cels were painted, not by the key animators, but by artists in a line. One artist would paint the eyes, then the next the hair, and so on. It was only the sketches that were drawn by the key animators or even the character or animation directors.

I think both cels and sketches should have an equal footing because they both tell a story or scene in our favorite animes.

Sincerely,
animejewell

[JWR]

When I started collecting CG shows were just starting to come on the scene. For the longest time I resisted purchasing any sketches. I had a problem with spending large amounts of money for a paper item. I instead picked up a few Rilezu cels that caught my eye.

What changed for me was that I found that the choice of scenes that were made into Rilezu's was quite lacking. Who ever was making the choice on which ones to make seemed not to have watched the show very closely. Pivotal scenes were bypassed for a lot of close ups of main characters.

So I broke down first with picking up key moments from my wife's favorite Ai Yori Aoshi then some from Ah My Goddess TV & The World of Narue. At this years AX & Comic-con I found many detailed sketches from Maburaho & Tsukiyomi Moon Phase to increase my collection.

My original hesitation towards sketches seems weird considering I have collected Comic Art for so long. I guess it came down to my being able to identify the artist who did a comic piece while anime sketches could be done by any of a stable of artists working on the series.

[jenn-b]

Well said Linda! I completely agree! As a matter of fact, I find that I would sell some of my cels to help fund purchases of paper from many of my new favorite series. I'm not going to repeat what many of you have so eloquently said...as I will just be redundat. And I'll also bungle it up!

All in all, I think I may love the paper more than cels at this point!

[Krafty]

Insightful comments all round.

MonkeyBoy's DBZ sketches prove that a lot of colour and action is prevalent in genga so they can stand tall alongside cels when it comes to visual impact and detail.
In fact, I won an auction recently from 'Meteor Team Musumet', a series I know nothing about but have been inspired by the quality of the drawings.



The pencil-drawn medium appeals to me especially for images of girls because there's a sense of delicacy and sensuality which cels and CGI can never replicate.

Genga and shuusei from modern anime are usually lovely but the douga artwork is very dull.
The main reason I dislike sketches are because you often buy them in complete Cuts which include all the superfluous eyebrow and lip sheets which take up too much room. I'm never going to look at them or enjoy them.
To have just 1 or 2 genga from a key scene is perfect, but difficult to obtain. If I have a full cut I feel obliged to keep it intact and that prospect sometimes puts me off buying sketches in the first place.

[majinuub]

I think that Sensei made most of the points that I would've made, so just
subsitute "sensei" for "stupid" in the following:

Agreed .