Dragon Ball Art – Vegeta Paintings
The Prince of all Saiyans has awakened!
It’s time to explore Vegeta’s life through digitally painted Dragon Ball fan art.
Over the course of writing The Dao of Dragon Ball book and interacting with fans, I’ve been surprised by how much love there is for Vegeta. I had thought Goku was the most popular character.
But it turns out that Dragon Ball fans absolutely adore Vegeta’s attitude, his raw Saiyan strength, and his stylish hair line.
His transformation from a cold blooded killer to a family man over the course of hundreds of episodes is an iconic example of the power of redemption and personal change.
Vegeta now stands as one of the most recognizable characters in this or any other series. There’s no mistaking Vegeta when you see him!
Now we take a moment to look back on the life of a soul that sought the value of its self worth. A Saiyan who lost his tail and became a man.
Dragon Ball Art – Goku Digital Paintings
Dragon Ball art is alive and well in the Dragon Ball fan community.
The previous post about Dragon Ball Paintings displayed fine art created with a brush.
Today’s article unveils digital art created with a mouse or pen, yet equally fine.
Using the following images of fan created works I have attempted to tell Goku’s story.
There may be a few pieces missing, but the hardcore dragon ball fans know where to fill in the blanks.
The majority of images are from the Deviant Art website, and I have given credit where I could.
Enjoy…
Dragon Ball Art – Paintings
Saluti, and welcome to “Galleria di Dragon Ball.”
The Dragon Ball community is really amazing. Aside from being one of the largest fan bases in the world, it is also filled with a lot of talented artists.
This is because Dragon Ball inspired many people to become artists, whether it be in drawing, painting, digital art or comic book illustration.
Most of us, including myself, began by copying the art of Akira Toriyama. Those who persisted in their artistic training became better and better, eventually reaching the level of fine art, as you’ll see here.
Fine art is a representation of the best that a culture has to offer.
The fine art presented here is an example of the best that Dragon Ball fandom has to offer.
Dragon Ball might appear to be a simple series, but its effect on society has been rather large, and the artists wouldn’t have created these works of art without being inspired in their hearts.
The works are traditional paintings, using acrylics, oils or other natural materials
I have done my best to give credit where it’s due.
As you scroll downward, try to imagine that you are viewing the paintings in a real art gallery.
Please enjoy, and Grazie Mille.
Dragon Ball’s White Rabbit of the Moon
Happy Easter, Dragon Ball Fans. To celebrate this day I’ve decided to dedicate a blog post to our favorite talking bunny, Boss Rabbit.
Who is Boss Rabbit? Don’t remember him? Well that’s not surprising considering he’s only in a single issue and episode. But even if you do, I doubt you know his full story.
In this article you’ll learn about Boss Rabbit’s origins in Dragon Ball as well as his roots in Japanese, Chinese and Indian legends as the white rabbit of the moon. Yes, it goes that far back!
Boss Rabbit’s depiction in Dragon Ball is simple and comical, but Akira Toriyama manages to connect him to an ancient source at the very end.
You may have been confused by this reference since it was intended for a Japanese audience. Today you’ll finally learn what it’s all about.
Follow me as we dive into the rabbit hole and see how far down it goes.
continue …
Dragon Ball Hoshi Explained
“Dragon Ball Hoshi is the new official Dragon Ball series.”
Have you heard of this before? The internet is abuzz.
In this Google Trends image you can see that searches for “dragon ball hoshi” became a noticeable trend in July, 2011. Searches rose sharply in August before taking a dip, and then increased dramatically in early November to December.
So what is it about? Is it even real?
Today you’ll learn what Dragon Ball Hoshi truly is and find out why it matters so much to Dragon Ball fans!
Super Saiyans are Real
On Feb 14, 2012 a young boy named Jalen tried to turn into a Super Saiyan on film and then posted it on YouTube. The video instantly went viral!
The video was so popular that “Super Saiyan” trended worldwide on Twitter.
People everywhere were talking about Super Saiyan’s and Dragon Ball. Retweeting how they loved the show when they were a kid, or laughing in response to his video.
Jalen’s YouTube name is KillerKarisma, and on the KillerKarisma YouTube page Jalen has the following description. “im a very strange character, i like performing social experiments, its hard to put me in one category and im random but i always do things for a reason you never know what to expect from me……..”
This makes me wonder if the whole thing was one big social experiment. I contacted him for an interview and am waiting to hear back.
The next day on Jalen’s Facebook page he said this:
“alot of ppl ask me if i was faking or sincere……….its kind of hard to explain….i have multiple personalities, so the one in that video believed what he was saying, but a part of me did it as a social experiment just to see how ppl would react, all in all, i believe there are powers that we can achieve if we stop limiting our thinking, i believe u can achieve anything with the power of your mind, and that goes for ANYTHING, not just being a super saiyan. if not in the literal sense, we have super saiyans among us everyday, army troops that fight and die for us everyday are super saiyans, single moms struggling to raise kids on their own are super saiyan? know what im saiyan??”
I guess this means he really does have multiple personality disorder.
In any case, in the video, Jalen gives a speech about how he believes people can go Super Saiyan in real life. It is very obvious that Dragon Ball strongly influenced his life.
Jalen’s Super Saiyan Speech
Here’s his speech, transcribed from the video.
“What’s up YouTube. This is something that’s been on my heart for a long time. All I ever wanted to be in life was a Super Saiyan. Ever since I was a kid I used to always look up to Goku and Vegeta, Gohan. I used to look at them and wonder, “How come I’m just a human being? I’m so worthless. Oh, what can I do? I can run, I can jump, I can flip.” And we are just so limited as human beings. And I feel like, when I see superheroes, why can’t life be that exciting and that awesome? Why can’t I wake up, and if I’m late for school, just teleport there and just be on time?
But I feel like, during that time of meditation and just thinking about it, I realized something. All of that is possible and more. It’s in here [points to his head], it’s all in your mind. Think about anything that you ever tried to do. You thought to yourself, “Man, I could never do that.” But then when you practiced it, guess what? You got better at it and you actually achieved it, didn’t you? It’s the same thing when you look at super powers. Of course it sounds absurd when you first look at it. But if you try it! If you actually set your mind to it and believe, you can achieve it.
I saw a Chinese man set a piece of paper on fire with just the power of his hands! Now you gonna tell me that that was fake? No it wasn’t fake! He channeled that energy from within, and he believed, he channeled that energy through the creation of his mind, what his mind believed and what he spoke into existence, of the power that he had! You understand what I’m saying?
I feel like anything that you set your mind to, your mind can create that force, because your mind is just this powerful machine, and whatever you set it to, and you believe, and you work towards achieving it, you can do it! You can do it.
And I believe I can be a Super Saiyan.
So this is my first time exposing this side of me to the world. And I know a lot of you are laughing, but the people who really, who are on my level of intellect, they understand what I am saying. And thank you all for understanding.
I’m going to attempt to go Super Saiyan on film, and I’m gonna upload it to YouTube. This is my first attempt. Now I’m believing. And I’m going to create that energy and channel it through my mind.
Now I might not turn full Super Saiyan, I might turn full Super Saiyan, or you might just see a glimpse of it, of that power. But this is my first attempt, I’m going to turn the music on. Super Saiyan 3 Goku theme.
This is it. Alright.”
Jalen turns on the Super Saiyan 3 Goku Theme music, by Faulconer Productions, featured on the American Dragon Ball Z, and starts to power up!
Dragon Ball Book Review – Akira Toriyama – The Master of Manga
Akira Toriyama – The Master of Manga provides an easy to read summary of Toriyama’s life, career and success in Japan. It’s succinctly edited and well designed. While it doesn’t bring much new content to the table, it is the first book to be written about Akira Toriyama and does a good job at what it set out to do; chronologically revealing the life and career of Akira Toriyama.
Even after more than 30 years in the industry, and after creating the #1 selling shonen manga series of all time (at 300 million copies), there was until now no book about Akira Toriyama, one of the most influential manga authors in the world.
Written in French by author Olivier Richard, it’s clear that Richard gives respect to Toriyama and other shonen works, and that he understands the genre.
From the foreword, “In fact, as a best seller of the highest caliber, Dragon Ball falls into the same category as Star Wars, the cultural phenomenon. Like George Lucas’ space opera, Akira Toriyama’s manga has captivated millions of children, adolescents, and young adults who followed with almost religious fervor the adventures of Son Goku, the fascinating and charismatic hero of a true modern myth.”
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