The Sumi: Vagabond Illustration Collection Book

I'll be honest: even though I was at some point responsible for choosing the artbooks for the company of bookstores I work for, I never thought artbooks were "for me". They were pretty, sure, and nice to look at, but why waste money I could use for "real" books for books with just pictures in them.

I've come a long way, baby.

Yes, I definitely could have spent the money I spent on both "Sumi" and "Water" on more volumes of "Vagabond" - but I don't regret my purchase at all. Having recently come into the possession of two artbooks by Kazuya Minekura, I had already had an idea of how gorgeous and pleasurable artbooks can be, I didn't need that much persuasion to give these two a try - especially since the reviews had been really enthusiastic. (And even though enthusiasm can be misleading, in this case it was really endearing - I wouldn't necessarily part with my internal organs like one reviewer would - I'd save them in case I need them for some more of Minekura's artbooks - but I can understand where he was coming from.)

And really, this is breathtaking. Times like these, I kind of regret not having the proper vocabulary to talk about art, but these are the kinds of pictures you can lose yourself in. Both "Sumi" and "Water" are equally beautiful - "Water" contains water colour artworks whereas "Sumi" contains pictures drawn with pen and brushes. It's incredibly detailed and vivid, and as I said, I really lack the words in order to describe this properly. Just - it's beautiful.

The only downside is in my opinion the binding - it's not a hardcover, and so you can't really "flatten" the pages properly, which makes it a bit more difficult to look at them. But despite not being hardcovers, both books are quite sturdy. (And I do agree with the reviewer who said that you have to get both of them - I couldn't say which to pick if I had to, and they complement each other nicely.)