Page of Takeshi Obata Artwork from "Bakuman"

Shonen Jump #89, May 2010

See a two-page color spread from Bakuman here

Obata has a masterful ability to use blacking to round and give the illusion of weight to hair mass (for example on this page). But it strikes me as odd that the heavy blacking occurs for the depiction of hair mass, yet the remainder of the drawing stays with an open form outlining technique (with a modern version of halftoning providing shading). The mixing of these two techniques (blacking and open outlining), along with the extreme anatomical distortion of the manga style, renders a complete graphic design result that suddenly exits from regular illustration.