Harvest Moon Art Book Released! Options

[Big Daisy May]

Hey all!

I apologize if someone has already mentioned this, I did a search in the search bar for "art book" and nothing turned up.

I was shopping around today and accidentally ran into a big, fat, oversized, full color Harvest Moon art book!
It must be pretty new because it says it covers all of the games from Super Famicom to Hajimari no Daichi, and that's the latest for 3DS, so there you go! It says it's a 15 year anniversary edition, though I don't know of any art books that ever came out before this one - have there been any? Well, either way - this one's got it all! :D

Great sizes on the individual character art (though I would have liked to see them lavish a little more attention on Wonderful Life - the characters seem a little small on the page), and the only thing that seems a little off is the coloring on the Tree of Tranquility art. Something was lost in the printing, as it just didn't come out as bright as the package art, and the images you can find online. There's even a little special section at the end for promo art!

It's beautiful, and if you can manage to hunt it down, I highly recommend it! :)

[Darth-Paper-Boy]

Crud, how did that slip by me? I got the RF artbook as soon as possible and I've been waiting for something like this. crud, crud, crud. Hope I can get it without too much difficulty...

[Big Daisy May]

crud, how did that slip by me? I got the RF artbook as soon as possible and I've been waiting for something like this. crud, crud, crud. Hope I can get it without too much difficulty...

Oh ya gotta! It's totally worth it! :D
At 2800 yen, it wasn't terribly expensive for a big, oversized art book. Do you have a Kinokuniya near you? I bet they'd carry it or order it for you. If not, there's always Amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/牧場&#...7885&sr=8-5

[Darth-Paper-Boy]

I've never even heard of that place. From the looks of it, Amazon's the cheapest option of the usual places I get import stuff from, but even that's a bit much at $70. Since you seem to actually have the book, is it hardback? None of these sites are specifying...

[Charmy]

I've seen the artbook around while looking up information for the Wiki. I'd like one, but I probably won't buy it. :(

[Daniella]

It'd be nice to have to scan for pictures you can't find of good quality on the internet. :d But my mom wouldn't spend some $70 for a book that's not for school.

[Big Daisy May]

I've never even heard of that place. From the looks of it, Amazon's the cheapest option of the usual places I get import stuff from, but even that's a bit much at $70. Since you seem to actually have the book, is it hardback? None of these sites are specifying...

It's paperback and comes shrink-wrapped, Darth. :)

$70 after shipping costs is....horrifyingly expensive.
I can't believe it got that inflated, though I haven't checked the exchange rates recently. :(

I could try to find another copy and hand ship it, but because of the weight, I don't know if it would go for less than $50 anyway...Mmh...

[Pumpkin Patch]

Oh ya gotta! It's totally worth it! :D
At 2800 yen, it wasn't terribly expensive for a big, oversized art book. Do you have a Kinokuniya near you? I bet they'd carry it or order it for you. If not, there's always Amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/牧場&a...7885&sr=8-5

Ooo ooo I looked and there is a Kinokuniya relatively close to where I live. I have to see if I can get this. Thanks for the info (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lalaevil.gif) .

[Darth-Paper-Boy]

Apparently Kinokuniya has a New York store that ships. Not much cheaper than getting it from the Japanese Amazon, but it's still about twelve dollars saved.

[Mizukithepanda]

Buying Japanese books is ridiculously expensive. I've looked into it before, and was so turned off by the price that I decided to limit my purchases to books I can get at cons and artbooks I manage to find on mandarake and other second hand shops. >.<;

EDIT: Apparently AmiAmi has the book too. I have no idea how shipping would be with them, though. The only book I've ever ordered off of them was Detective Conan vol. 75 and that was small enough to fit in an SAL'able box.

[Darth-Paper-Boy]

Yeah, I typically just keep with figures instead of art books. Really wish they released those for this anniversary... Still, the art book's important since for a while there wasn't much means to digitally preserve old art assets from HM. Take a look at the old Nintendo Power scans that just drew their own stuff, or the pitiful HM64 and GBC2 websites. That alone makes this a lot more interesting than, say, the RF artbook that I didn't bother to scan most of simply because almost all the assets are easy enough to find for those games.

Also, do the characters on this page look familiar to anyone? The style reminds me of BtN's, but I don't recognize any of the characters. If the book contains unused stuff, that's even better. But I'm not sure if I'm not just forgetting something...

edit: Amiami said they were plain sold out without an option to backorder last night... Oh well.

(IMG:http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g281/worthlessnewbie/misc/egg1.png)

[Mizukithepanda]

:OOOOOOOOO! Those are characters from GBC3!

On the left page are Billy, Bigbee, and some mermaid, and on the right page are Cody, Joe, Lukia, Lucas, Chloe, Leila, and the Harvest Sprites. Some of those names may be different in the English version, but I definitely recognize Billy and Bigbee.

[Darth-Paper-Boy]

Oh, wow. I've never seen them in art form, so I didn't even make the connection to the sprites they have in game. I think that settles this as "must buy" status now.

[Mizukithepanda]

Yeah, I didn't immediately either, but then I started reading the names and I was just like, "Holy shit, could this possibly be what I think it is?" I went and pulled out the game to double check and that art definitely matches the sprites of the GBC3 characters.

[Charmy]

/Wantwantwant

I'd love to see it at Supanova. ;~;

[Mizukithepanda]

I went ahead and ordered it off of AmiAmi. It'll probably be a few days to a week before they get it in, and then a couple of weeks before it gets to me since I picked SAL shipping. Darth'll probably end up receiving his before me if he gets it from Kinokuniya. This book is definitely worth having if it's got art from the older games in it. I'll pay the $50 it'll likely cost me.

[Darth-Paper-Boy]

Yes, indeed. Fedex came to my little hovel away from town bright and early today. There's a ton of artwork I haven't seen before... and I really wish I could take the cover off my scanner. Behold: Art of the GBC2 characters we can use instead of dippy screenshots. Gonna scan some more stuff later.

edit: I've decided to make a dedicated topic for these, as otherwise this topic'll become too cluttered. So for now, this'll be a good place to ask specific questions about the book. Such as places to get it, how many pages are devoted to a specific game, so on, so forth. All scans can now be found in this topic: http://www.ranchstory.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=5828

[Gear]

Alright I'm bored and I wanna do something for those guests who've been lurking around for a while now. :)

If you grew up with Harvest Moon and have played almost all of the games that came out, then this book will be a great addition to your collection.

I started drawing fan art of Harvest Moon when I first started playing and I use this book for references. Therefore most of the information is going to focus on the art. The book covers ALL the "official" Harvest Moon games (not the spin offs like innocent life or the two puzzle games) and shows the growth of the art and mediums of the day.

I will start with basic info though

Where to buy it besides online

I bought this book via ordering it from Kinokuniya bookstores in the US. I only spent 46.20 dollars (still pricey but not close to 100 dollars) Their store locations can be found here http://www.kinokuniya.com/us/index.php/fho003 They can order the book from Japan without the need of paying for shipping which saves a lot of money.
I've also seen the book this year at medium to large cons particularly the dealers hall so next time your at an anime convention keep an eye out. (I unfortunately don't know the price though I sense the average is 40-60 dollars)

Number of pages the book covers in term of games as well as the tools used ans style of art

Harvest Moon Snes: 2 pages Drawn: Cover is digital, Character designs are drawn with Copics?/markers Style:Cartoon Chibi
Harvest Moon GB: 1 page Drawn: Copics Style: chibi
Harvest Moon GB 2: 7 pages Drawn: Copics Style: chibi
Harvest Moon GB 3:8 pages Drawn: Copics/digital Style: chibi
Harvest Moon N64:8 pages Drawn: Copics and digital Style:Chibi
HM: Back to Nature:3 pages Drawn :water color and some images in digital also marker Style: Chibi
HM:Back to Nature for girls:1 page Drawn :digital bg, water colored and copics style: chibi
HM:Save the Homeland:8 pages Drawn: mixed media (water, copic, digital?) style: semi Chibi
HM:Friends of Mineral Town10 pages Drawn:colored pencil, digital, copic style: semi chibi to chibi
HM:More Friends of Mineral Town:2 pages Drawn: Digital, colored pencil, and copics style:chibi
Harvest Moon AWL:10 pages Drawn: colored pencil, Watercolor,digital,copics, on rough watercolor paper (character portraits have the paper texture on them) style: semi-chibi to chibi



And this is were I stop for now. Just a heads up though the farther along we go in the games the more digital/realistic the character designs go. A big example is Magical Melody going full digital and almost flat color while still being in chibi style as Tale of two towns gets more "realistic" with the proportions of the characters.