Can Doing the Reseach count as Art Evolution?

Kenichi Sonoda came to Chicago for the first Anime Central in spring of 1998. Book 1 of Gunsmith Cats was out, and he was working on Book 2 (IIRC). If you look at Book 2, you can tell when he makes the trip, as the depiction of Chicago changes.

Would this count as an Art Evolution?

I don't see why not. If a feature is supposed to be representational of reality, research is part of the artist's job, or should be.

Art Evolution is when the style of the art changes (character designs get streamlined, environments get more detail, etc). So unless the style of how he drew the buildings changes (ie, does it look like it belongs to the same art style as before), it wouldn't count.

It would fit under Shown Their Work and Doing It for the Art (as it would effectively contradict the previous depiction, but accuracy is accuracy).

In a lot of cases, the research leads directly to stuff like "environments get more detail," though. For instance, if an artist on a series set in WWII initially draws "generic" rifles, tanks, uniforms, etc., then modifies her approach based on research, "more accurate" will tend to coincide with "more detail."

I'm not saying it doesn't count under any circumstances, but I'm not familiar with this particular work. Does the art style remain the same just with different building designs or does the art style change to reflect the research? For example, the shape of the windows may reflect better research but it might have the same level of detail as before. But if the previous style goes from a relatively simple look to having more detail put into it (showing the full frames, multiple panes, window sills, bricks and mortar in the wall, etc) than it would work.

The reason is that, say the characters go to Chinatown and upon a return trip you don't recognize that area from the first visit. That doesn't mean Art Evolution because it looks different, it could just be a different section of Chinatown (whether or not either version is more "accurate" to what various Chinatowns look like). The style can remain the same while the designs change, but when the style changes is where the "evolution" happens.

Lyger, it would probably be helpful if you'd post some links to the kind of change you're talking about.