Carnelian was the very first eroge/doujin artist I fell in love with, so I’m beyond thrilled to have the opportunity to review this new book. If you follow Carnelian’s work, you’ll know that until now, she never really had a real commercial artbook release. There’s been a fair share of visual books, along with Carnelian Collection and Carnelian Museum – Orbit Works, but the vast majority of the content has been event CGs from the various games she’s worked on. I’m very glad to say that Jewel is the book Carnelian fans have been waiting for.
Jewel follows the trend of having both a limited edition and regular edition. As far as Amazon.co.jp is concerned, I seem to remember the limited edition having actually sold out during the preorder period. I have not seen the regular edition in person, so I cannot say how similar they are. The limited edition, however, comes with a monochrome bonus book of sketches and rough work called “Ore”. (Get it? Jewel and Ore? Yeah. Ok.) This is the edition I will be presenting.
Limited Edition Cover
The book jacket is printed on thick paper with a rough sort of texture, and the title, “Jewel” has a holographic foil embossing treatment.
Black & White Alice
There are tons of newer illustrations within, as well as older ones. Remember Carnelian’s hand-drawn color doujinshi “The Sanctuary Knocker”? The entire thing is actually inside of “Jewel”, along with some her full color BENIGYOKUZUI books from the past few years.
Kao no nai Tsuki
There is actually a refreshingly small amount of the same old game artwork we see from Carnelian in this book. Some of her best Kao no nai Tsuki illustrations are highlighted, and they’re well deserving of being presented alongside the other promotional pieces of art.
I swear that this is for science!
These two fine moe specimens were illustrated for E2 magazine. Since I don’t frequently buy magazines, these are the sort of illustrations from Carnelian that are easy to miss out on!
Elf Ladies
Elf illustrations are one of my personal favorite things. The artwork on the left, which was done Broccoli’s Hybrid Card Collection, is one I’ve wanted in high resolution for years. The elf on the right was done for the Aquarian Age card game.
Aquarian Age
Not all of the illustrations are full-page, but a great deal of them are. Again, these are all illustrations for Aquarian Age.
Miscellaneous Moe
I hadn’t seen either of these illustrations before, but apparently the one on the left is from 2007! The thing that makes this book so great is the fact that it has a lot of images you’ve probably never seen before because they were only published on things like trading cards (and thus too small to bother scanning and putting online.)
Hello Kitty to Issho
This is the character design that Carnelian did for “Hello Kitty to Issho!”, a moe-fied revival of Hello Kitty, with versions of her drawn by many well known illustrators. Some of those illlustrators include POP, Koge Donbo, Nishimata Aoi, Kei, redjuice and many more along with Carnelian-sensei! (Check out these awesome curtains!)
More Hello Kitty to Issho
This is the Hello Kitty to Issho illustration I’ve seen the most of. It’s been printed on a tapestry and even PC speakers. The insanely cute Alice in Wonderland picture on the right was done for a flyer of some sort.
Angels and Demons
More work done for some kind of flyers. Both of these are among my very favorite in the book! Carnelian actually draws male characters a lot nowadays, so I’m hoping that in the future, she’s going to continue her Ura-Benigyokuzui series. *crosses fingers*
Nice Udders.
Both of these illustrations were done for Toranoana. The tiger girl was printed on a tapestry that came in a set.
Coffee Time = All the time.
These coffee girls are pretty recent work from Carnelian. They’re one of my favorites because I’m obsessed with coffee.
Not quite Tinkle frills!
Here’s a double dose of girls with frilly dresses. The gal on the left was done for some kind of illustration collection and the group on the right was an illustration for a DVD that I don’t know the name of. (Sorry. I’m no help with the super-long-kanji titles…)
Gals from Visual Novels
The first image was done for the Caramel Box 5th Anniversary Fanbook. “Caramel Box” is a visual novel released by studio HOBIBOX in 2002.
They really don’t have many friends…?
There’s a number of 2-page spreads in this book, but for the most part I didn’t photograph them because the crease gets in the way. This particular spread is an end card for the anime “Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai”, which you have probably heard of.
Doujin Goods
The bikini girls were available on a tapestry at C76, while the other images were available on various products at C77.
Both Covers!
At the very end of the book, the illustrations for both the regular and special edition of “Jewel” are featured. Sadly, this photograph came out a lot darker than intended, and the actual images (particularly the regular edition cover) are much more vibrant in person.
In addition to the above photographs, I took some ‘close-up’ shots so you can see more details. This book is printed in very high quality, so any flaws you see are just due to the fact that I am using a point and shoot camera in crappy lighting with the macro setting on. The best example of the book’s print quality is picture #3.
Close-Up #1
Close-up #2
Close-up #3
Finally, there is the bonus book that only comes with the limited edition of “Jewel”, titled “Ore”. I haven’t photographed the full booklet, but I thought I’d share a few of my favorite pages!
“Ore” Cover
A lovely 2-page spread.
More gorgeous line work.
As for the details, regular edition of this book costs ￥2,940 and is 158 pages.
This book is a must-get if you’re a Carnelian fan. If you haven’t been able to afford her full color BENIGYOKUZUI doujinshi, there’s a few of them in here (I didn’t photograph those), along with “The Sanctuary Knocker”, tons of promotional illustrations and a bunch of her light novel cover illustrations that you are hard-pressed to find anywhere else. (I didn’t even get to the light novel covers when I was taking photographs, but if you’re wondering, they’re primarily from the MiX! novels.)
Plastic Pleasures 
I’m not familiar with many eroge artists, but I love her Hello Kitty kimono illustration and the Alice in Wonderland flyer one, especially! Also, those coffee girls are pretty darn cute, too. I really like the chibi versions :D
Carnelian also draws REALLY excellent bishounen; in the past couple years she’s done quite a bit of Star Driver and UtaPri art. Unfortunately, because she is mostly famous for drawing girls, it’s much harder to get a hold of her work that is aimed at fujoshi. (I have to get it through Mandarake or Yahoo Japan Auctions. It’s never on eBay.) Anyway, if you’ve ever heard of the yaoi game “Messiah”, she did the CG illustrations for that. Check them out; they’re pretty great!
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