I've written before about how enamored I am of Atsushi Kaneko's manga Soil. I admire this panel especially, and I can feel it pulling my drawing style in its direction, for a number of reasons. The line-work is idiosyncratic and expressive, and the trick of carrying the line on into the margin gives it extra force and room to play. Kaneko draws faces that look Japanese, individual, and are very often quite ugly. Most faces in manga are barely humanoid and much too beautiful. The fabric of the cotton jacket is wrinkled wonderfully, and the hands are done with more realism than you hardly ever see in a comic.
The thing that makes this a dangerous model for me is its white and black colour scheme. I still don't know how to shade properly, and this drawing is saying, "Don't try."
This is the closest I've gotten to the above panel, so far:
Douglas
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