Takuji Kawano (川野 琢嗣 Kawano Takuji?) is a Japanese illustrator and conceptual artist employed by Bandai Namco Games. He is best known among fans and the gaming community as the 2D character art designer in "Project Soul", Namco's development team for their Soul Calibur series of 3D weapon-based fighting games. However, Kawano has done work for the Tekken series as well as other Namco games.
Biography[]
Takuji Kawano is Namco's premier 2D artist who is well known for his exceptional style of drawing and iconic body posturing.
List of works[]
Kawano was the character illustrator for Tekken 3, Tekken 4, Tekken Tag Tournament, Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion, Namco X Capcom, and Urban Reign.
Trivia[]
- He decides only shortly before he briefs his other crew members during character design conference meetings.
- Most of the time, Kawano limits his work to designing new characters and making official illustrations. For returning characters, he usually just relies on the costume designs from the team to make a final illustration which is later used to promote the game.
- He also provides pose reference sketches for the 3D renders.
Gallery[]
Character and concept art[]
Tekken 4[]
Jin's player 1 outfit.
Jin's player 2 outfit.
Nina's player 1 outfit.
Nina's player 2 outfit.
Paul's player 1 outfit.
Paul's player 2 outfit.
Lee's player 1 outfit.
Lee's player 2 outfit.
Violet.
Facial concept art of Steve.
Steve's player 1 outfit.
Steve's player 2 outfit.
Xiaoyu's player 1 outfit.
Xiaoyu's player 2 outfit.
Julia's player 1 outfit.
Julia's player 2 outfit.
Lei's player 1 outfit.
Lei's player 2 outfit.
Eddy.
Marshall.
Jin.
Kazuya.
Kazuya.
Paul and Xiaoyu.
Xiaoyu.
Hwoarang.
Christie.
Christie.
King II.
Combot.
Combot.
Miharu.
Miharu.
Marduk.
Namco X Capcom[]
King II.
Jin.
Other art[]
Unmasked Kunimitsu in TTT.
Scrapped Tekken character, "Female Tekken Force soldier".
Promotional art[]
"2004 Fan service" art[]
Anna.
.jpg "Christie(Namco Art).jpg (32 KB)")
Christie.
Michelle.
Julia.
Jun.
Jun.
Kunimitsu.
Nina.
Xiaoyu.
Other art[]
Xiaoyu.