I did this illustration for a good friend of ours who is heavily involved in Amtgard. He hired me to illustrate this piece for a friend of his who was about to receive recognition for his exploits in their kingdom of westmarch. His friend being a fan of rurouni kenshin, wanted the piece to be inspired by battosai, and for it to include my friend and another mutual friend of theirs. We talked about making it look like it was a poster for the anime, and they found a variety of images they liked to base the overall look off of. I then got to work on trying to put the concept together in a way that would be unique, but still feel similar enough to the source.
The linework and greyscale values were done in clip studio paint. I then brought it into photoshop to paint, add wear, textures, and other effects. Overall, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. This is one of those times where I think the composition and color palette really brought it all together. In the end though, it’s never really about what I think of the work. It’s only successful if the client likes it and in cases like these, my personal feelings were just a bonus.
