7.09.2009

Art: Kamui Collaboration

This is the full progression for the collaboration between myself and Melinda for Anime Expo 2009.

It took us a very long time to decide what we were going to draw. I remember Date Masamune from Basara and Vincent Valentine cropping up. We were so close to doing Ritsuka, too. Finally, we went with one of her initial suggestions - Kamui. Even if someone doesn't recognize him, he's generic enough and holds enough stereotypically appealing elements (read: dark hair, school uniform, wings), that people would purchase it anyhow. So she sent me two sketches:



I thought they were both kind of stiff because the arms were so straight down, so I tried frankensteining them together and coming up with something new. I liked the globe aspect as well, but I really wanted to add a sword. Partially to complement the linearity of the bar he's sitting on, and partially because I"m good at swords.


We also went through some value trials. We decided no dark backgrounds since I was shading on limited time. I loved the idea of birds, but I really didn't want to shade them.


So, here's a little closer. I wanted toe front-facing view so he'd be more confrontational. I also added come bandages and feathers to show movement (Haha, we forgot about the birds).



Finally, Mel straightened him out and took out the globe which had become too distracting. This is the sketch I worked off of. A bit tough since it wasn't a line drawing, but it was a fun challenge.


Here's the shaded version. Sinc eI didn't have much guide for the fave, I practically re-drew it using her proportions as guidelines. I fixed the proportion of the arm and added bandages with the names of the other six dragons of heaven. Man, this would have been fun if it had more than two nights.


Melinda then colored it over again, especially re-working the face back to its original style. She removed the halo-y moon and earth I added in order to show the light coming from behind him.


And there you have it, the creation of a print which sold out its second day at AX. :O

1 comment:

PeeBun said...

ohh so cool going through the progression again!!