Akira Toriyama tribute project

Like I'm sure a lot of Dragon Ball fans have, I've been looking back to the series as a way to cope with this sudden and devastating loss. I haven't seen this many people across so many demographics mourning over the same person. And it's not surprising, the world lost a cultural icon. 

I got into the series when I was 11 years old and just entered middle school. The library had every single volume available (or at least it did when I entered 8th grade. Some volumes were missing for a while lol) By the time I had graduated, I had read every volume at least 3-5 times. To make a long and very sad story short: this series got me though the toughest years of my young life.

Akira Toriyama is definitely one of my biggest creative influences besides my mom. His art style has definitely influenced me the most besides Kohei Horikoshi's. (I hope to draw hands as good as him someday.) And reading and watching the iconic fight scenes still get me genuinely hyped. Goku and Vegeta's first fight in the Saiyan saga has always been a personal favorite. The guy is amazing at making something really look like it hurt. I actually own a fully colored version that I've had since I was 12.

But recently I gained a new appreciation of the volume covers. With these being my personal favorites!

I love how a lot of them depict slice of life scenarios with color tones that go from calming and charming, to bold and dramatic for the more serious looking ones. It's nice to see these characters enjoying their cars and not having to worry about planet destroying nightmares.

Getting another look at these gorgeous looking covers made me inspired to do my own personal tribute to Akira Toriyama, like I've been seeing a lot of artists do. I want to draw every volume cover in my own artsyle from volume 1 through 19. Volume 19 just feels like a perfect way to finish it off. While I'm able to draw digitally, it just feels right to do these traditionally. I'll be doing three at a time in order to not overwhelm myself. I'm very new to Spacehey, but I feel like documenting this will be a helpful reminder to myself to not let art block win.