Many Magazines: Kikan S / Small S
While I'm not well versed in creating or rather drawing illustrations myself, I always had an aprreciation for them and do enjoy collecting various artbooks featuring them from the artists whose work I particularly enjoy. You may rightfully ask why I'm saying this? But this process of creation sure has some thought behind it; influences, techniques all come togeher to aid in it - the realization of ones vision on a canvas, no matter if analogue or digital.
Introdution
Hold the thought I presented to you earlier as both magazines I should here showcase indulge in it in some way, in how a creation is made. The Kikan S (with Kikan meaning seasonal, so an edition will come out in winter, spring etc.) and the Small S published a month after the seasonal edition are magazines published by PIE International, a publisher focusing on art and design. I haven't browsed through their page much as of now but I'm pretty sure they also published a couple of artbooks.
Now, the reason for the double feature is that both magazies are presented as part of the same family (while not well known in the west one may compare it to the Manga Time Kirara magazine family comprising of four magazines who are almost always treated as a whole) with the page introducing them to starters having them on the same block and the official Twitter/X account not differentiating either.
This little justification aside the magazines do differ in scope. The Kikan S is described as such on the for starters page:
「季刊エス」は、ストーリー＆キャラクター表現の総合誌です。漫画・イラスト・アニメ・ゲーム・映画・舞台・写真など、クロス ジャンルな世界を紹介しながら、物語とビジュアル表現をレポートしています。
or loosly translated
The "Kikan S" is a general magazine of stories and characters. While showcasing the cross genre world of manga, illustrations, anime, games, movies, stage performances, photoraphs etc. it reports the stories and the visual expressions.
The following sentences decribes the Small S
「SS（スモールエス）」は、イラストが大好き！ 描いてみたい！という人たちに送る、メイキング＆投稿マガジンです。 アナログ 画材とデジタルイラストメイキング記事、イラスト投稿ページが満載。
A translation of which may be
The "Small S" is targeted toward the people who love illustrations! wanna try making them!, it's a magazine of making of and submissions. It's full of making of articles and pages of submitted illustrations.
While you may think these descriptions offer some kind of distinction, the reality is much more blurry. The near endless scope of the Kikan S, only being limited by a concept used as a subtitle with each new edition, does make it seem more high brow, like going to the theatre or engaging in some other cultural activity, but it still has the making of article for the cover illustration also provided within the Small S (the covers of both are different each time) which has a more laid back communal atmosphere akin to a club due to its focus on submissions. They even made it possible for people from overseas to submit their artwork so even you could have submitted something but that sadly seems to not be possible anymore.
As with my last entry I'll use editions I have at hand to give more insight into both. One being the "Magical Girl" edition of the Kikan S published in Summer 2018 as volume 62 (cover illustration by Arina Tanemura) and volume 70 of the Small S published in summer 2022 (cover illustration by Kei Mochizuki). To be honest I could have picked up a more flashy Kikan S edition back then such as volume 84 "Glamorous Demons" (with a cover illustrated by rurudo) which even features a showcase about "Blood on the Tracks" and "Okaeri Alice" by mangaka Shuzo Oshimi but I'll just emplore you dear reader to look them up yourself as the selection provided in any of them is stellar.
cover of the provided Kikan S (left) and Small S (right)