Yoji Shinkawa

Yoji Shinkawa (新川洋司 Shinkawa Yōji, born December 25, 1971) is a Japanese illustrator and conceptual artist. He is most famous for his character, environment and mechanical designs for the Metal Gear Solid and Zone of the Enders series of video games.

Born in Hiroshima, Shinkawa began working for Konami in 199. He first worked as a debugger for the PC-98 version of Policenauts. He moved on to serve as art director for the later console ports of the game, then as character designer for the Metal Gear Solid series. He is now the lead artist on many of Konami's titles.

Style
Shinkawa's illustration style is generally praised as original and artistic yet technically accurate. According to himself he is inspired by anime-related artists like Yoshikazu Yasuhiko and Yoshitaka Amano, but also more western-related and less contemporary artists such as Frank Miller, Aubrey Beardsley, and Willy Pogany. He is also a big fan of French artists such as Mœbius.

Metal Gear Solid games worked on

 * Metal Gear Solid
 * Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
 * Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
 * Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
 * Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Metal Gear Solid publications

 * The Art Of Metal Gear Solid
 * The Art Of Metal Gear Solid 2
 * The Art Of Metal Gear Solid 1.5