Tony, to buy or not?

Icie from Hunting The Elusive previously mentioned a new illustration book by famous artist Tony Taka, titled “Tony’s ARTworks from Shining Wind”, which has now been released and I’m mulling over whether to buy it or not.

Had said before I’m a fan of Tony Taka’s art, he has great style and produces stunning illustrations. Any book filled with his illustrations would be a great addition to anyone’s collection.

However, I already have the “Shining Wind Collection of Visual Materials” book so I do wonder if this new “Shining Wind” centric book is really worth it.

Sample images show artworks that haven’t been included in the previous books, but that doesn’t vouch for the entire artbook. For its price, I’d like to be sure of getting a book with illustrations I don’t have yet.

Then again, seeing this amazing illustration of Blanc Neige I’m quite tempted. Tony can render females so well, you can see the passion and lust emanating from the art.

Another recently released artbook that contains several of Tony Taka’s illustrations, next to works done by other artists, is the “Girls Girls Girls! 3 ~ E2 Illustration Collection” which contains gems like the below illustrations.

The ephemeral beauty and appeal of an idealized figure as we see here in Tony’s art can not be matched in reality without losing that unique feeling it has as art.
It is like a butterfly’s wings, you can admire and covet it, but as soon as you touch it, want to make it tangible in your reality, it fades away and is never like the art it spawned from.

Do own the first “Girls Girls Girls!” artbook which contains some great illustrations by many artists, so tempted to get this one as well.

Something else I’ve been considering is that my artbooks just sit there on the shelf and are too rarely picked up to be really enjoyed. I try and take some out to browse through and enjoy the art, but don’t do so regularly enough to my liking.

The main reason for me to purchase such an artbook is to be able to enjoy the beautiful art in it.
Much if not most of my interest in anime and its art is the sheer beauty, it appeals to me so I like to surround myself with it, which artbooks and posters enable me to do.

I’d really like to see a Tony Taka centric artbook someday soon that collects all his miscellaneous illustrations and best work from his different doujins.

Wonder if I should get these or not… I’m not one to splurge money… then again, you only live once so you should live to the fullest!

In the meantime, I was not able to resist and did purchase these wonderful art books.
You can discover all about the “Tony’s ARTworks from Shining Wind” book in my review of it.