Art Friday : Motofumi Kobayashi - Japanese Military Artist
© Motofumi Kobayashi
Motofumi Kobayashi does cover art for several military-themed magazines (e.g Strike And Tactical Magazine) (above) and manga publications (a list of works can be found at Wikipedia). For selected works at his official site, visitors can the view the simplified process from the initial concept line art to the finished cover. While notes accompanying each step are unfortunately only available in Japanese, you can use Google Translate to get the rough idea of the process.
© Motofumi Kobayashi
Jan 2001 illustration of the German advance during the early days of Operation Barbarossa done in Photoshop in 20 hours. View the original images here.
© Motofumi Kobayashi
Cover art depicting North Korean troops for a 2006 magazine
Some of my favourite pieces come from this 185 page book on the German armoured forces of WWII (Panzerwaffe) illustrated by Motofumi Kobayashi and put up for perusal at the official site @ genbun.net. It traces the origins and development of the Panzerwaffe with illustrations of their weapons, equipment and uniforms. Interspersed between the chapters are pages of manga with scenes from major battles like Kursk and the Ardennes Offensive.
© Motofumi Kobayashi
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel directing his troops from his command vehicle, possibly his well-known halftrack Sdkfz 250/3 Greif.
© Motofumi Kobayashi
German Tigers and Russian T-34s slug it out during Operation Zitadelle.
© Motofumi Kobayashi
German troops panic as a lumbering British Mark IV tank approaches during WWI.
© Motofumi Kobayashi
Polish cavalry under attack from German panzers during the invasion of Poland in 1939.
Found this talented artist via Alvin Lee’s website for local WW2 re-enactment group, the 5th Japanese Infantry Division which I discovered from an article on the secretive Singapore-based Oka 9420 unit linked to the notorious Japanese WWII human experimentation unit 731, featured on Osprey Publishing’s official blog not too long ago.
Visit Motofumi Kobayashi’s official site or go directly to the main gallery, the aviation art gallery or the Panzerwaffe book.
MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Osprey Publishing’s Military Art “Advent Calendar”
DIA Military Art Collections
Code Guardian - Military CG Short Film
Max Grundy - Fear is the New Beauty
Dick Kramer - Military Artist
