Introduction

I wanted to just write this just so anyone who reads this doesn’t get lost as I am not sure how to actually structure this, so this is like a guide.

Basically I have split each reason why I have done something in the piece down below with images if I see fit just to get the message across, that way if you need a certain part after looking at it you can easily find it under its respective header.

Then after that is the actual drawing and then a further breakdown of how I have implemented these into it just so you don’t get lost on how one part actually applies to it.

Lastly I will just have a conclusion on it as a whole, just to put down my thoughts on it after I am done and if I would have done anything different now that I have done it

Anime Style

So alot of my art in the past has been anime based, because I just love how expressive it can be and well, the anatomy is easier so it has been easier to learn than normal anatomy while still being similar. So I am going to be doing this character in that style because it is what I am comfortable with, just for future reference and so the style has a reason instead of just being there.

Here is just a example of my style to kind of show you what I mean

It was just something I did for fun, hopefully now you have a better idea of what to expect

Japanese Influence

Then next is the Oni part, I quite like Japanese culture, and no not just the anime part, the history is alot more interesting and I just find it really cool how their history was represented, such as through Onis and samurai. So I thought I would combine these to try to make a Oni samurai, since that is also realistically possible as the Oni would want to blend in so it isn’t found and hunted so easily. 

Onis

Obviously there are alot of types of Oni due to interpretation and media, so here is a example of the Oni I am referring to

《Potato•Sama》, Post made at: 05/16/19, https://aminoapps.com/c/anime-art/page/blog/oni/Z6B5_NxwSBuQ2dD6eb7z2k4Z1wDQVzvPLRK

Anime styled to put it plainly, I like the idea of them being more humanoid and more like people instead of these weird and weirdly always fat beings. I feel this fleshes them out more to be used in more ways instead of just “they are bad.”. Obviously there are variations on this style too, like the skin color being fully red, or the horns being skin color, I think this is what I want to stick with. It is humanoid enough but we can change a few things such as the horns to make them look different enough so they aren’t just a fancy human

Samurai Armor and Mask

Another part of Onis I wanted to add however is the mask, as most samurai have a mask anyways so I thought one that resembles a Oni would make sense and fit the theme, so here is a example to show you what I am actually on about

This not only shows the samurai armor so you know what I am going off and you can see they are wearing a mask, one that actually also looks kind of similar. So it will still be pretty accurate and will not even be too hard as the mask is already part of the samurai design

References Used

Due to my previously bad knowledge on anatomy, I like to use bases a lot, just to get down the basic pose that I can then strip down and make my own, I hope that in future I can rely on them less but for now I will just have to stick with them sadly until I get more comfortable with anatomy.

Dilacerare, Post made at: sometime during 2019, https://pin.it/38IJUEw

This is the first reference, I thought it would just be good to have a more basic pose that also gives them that sense of mystery I was looking for. I also like how it gives the sword a good focus point to empathise that it is there and gives a chance to show what it is like unsheathed, which we can then show sheathed in the next to get both options.

Then it also has a mask already, obviously it needs changing but the fact it is there is nice, I will however have to change the clothing as this is more of a kimono than actual armor. I will admit it looks good, but it also doesn’t look like it would take a blow very well, which I want.

I will actually probably use the hair style as I think it fits what I want, I am not very keen on the helmet and I think it looks better with free flowing hair. I find finding a hairstyle that fits hard so it is convenient that it fits the style I wanted anyways. I will just have to figure out how to apply it to the others, but oh well, I am up for the challenge.

Drawing Process

I used to be a pen artist but recently have been doing it digitally just on my ipad, no fancy pen, just finger, which does mean I have kind of lost my pen skills to time, but I feel I have more control with it just coming straight from my finger. I like to start by just doing a few layers of line sketches off the base, one just getting what parts I want, the next changing or adding to it and then if I need to layer anymore to help make sure stuff doesn’t overlap in the piece.

Sketches

Base Sketch

First is the basic, you can see I skipped over the clothes as I mentioned before, we need to change it anyways, I just wanted to grab the general form so I can build on it on the next, as you can see I like to use opposite colors form the base just so the sketch stands out, as when I used black it tended to lead to a lot of guesswork being needed, making it a lot harder.

However as you can see I have left out the hair, as I wanted to put this on its own layer just for future, also leaving out the mask and horns as I wanted to remake those on my next sketch so they can be more to what I actually want. However I did want to keep the sword as most samurai used katanas, so keeping it was kind of a no brainer as it is a pretty big part to the actual pose too. I also highlighted where the knees are just because on the base it is kind of hard to see them, so I wanted to show where they are just to make future me’s life easier

I also then put the hair on its own sketch under a different blue, so I know they are grouped, but so they still stand out from each other enough

I didn’t do any of the details you can see in the hair as I will leave that to the shading, since adding lines now would leave places where the color won’t get a chance to cover later on

As you can see I have added the ears to this layer, as well so they can be colored and put under the hair to help stop clipping.

Second Sketch

After going on with the armor awhile I realised that due to the usage of chain mail and such on the source samurai I do not need a skin layer, as like none is shown, so I decided to make them the same layer, which is why the layer is a light green, I originally wanted a green for skin but did the armor first, so now I will just keep the color the same as changing it to just green has little point now.

Mask

Firstly I did the mask which I used the reference mask for, just changing the horns to fit my style of Oni more

It was quite hard but I think I did pretty well, the eyes were pretty hard, I decided to put one of the horns under her arm so it is in front of her, otherwise her arm would be stuck behind her horns, which is pretty bad for her, so I fixed it. I know the nose is off placement from the actual nose but I wanted it more by the eyes like on the mask, I am just hoping this looks fine when we add color so I do not have to fix it. I did however put the mouth on the mouth as this makes sense, allows for her to breath easily and even drink or eat through the mask.

Armor

I then did the body, which was pretty hard as obviously the base is male, so I decided to break it up into 3 different plates, so it isn’t as stiff and so they can all move free of each other, I think this makes it more realistic as most female armor also does this from what I have seen

I also added the shoulder plate on, it isn’t as big but less armor means less weighing her down, so she can be quicker, plus I think more would just get in the way anyways. I also decided to keep the two belt things as they help bend it down into the skirt I decided to make, I decided this as the split thing the reference has going on looks kinda weird, so I decided to make it look more stylish while still keeping it as different plates. 

Oh and I also kept the sheathe, it is violet so it can be behind the armor since she is holding it behind her. I was originally gonna put it in her belt but it just looked like it would get in the way too much, plus she could just use it to block stuff in her other hand or just thwack people with.

I left some areas just blank such as above the armor plates as I wanted to just make that black, sort of like what the reference has under his chain mail, this obviously is less sturdy but also is lighter, plus it can be just leather, that way it still provides some protection, plus it also means she can be less quiet because she doesn’t have tones of chains jangling when she moves.

Feet

I also decided to make the boots into the wooden flip flop kind of things, since its more accurate pretty much, the boots do look good, but I also want to be accurate so here is that

Katana

I also decided to redo the katana to give it more character, putting it on the previously left alone green layer just so I can easily edit it in future

As you can see I added bandages to the grip as this is actually quite normal for katanas to help with grip, then I put out the end part more so it actually ends as a stop for the hand and I made the guard look like a small version of the oni’s mouth, just missed out the other horns as that would stab the user, which isn’t worth it just to be abit more accurate. I also added cerations to the blade, and yes katanas did have this, it still works fine for slicing, if anything it works better, just is harder to keep as sharp, at the payoff of ripping more at what you cut it at.

I don’t think I will add more details to the actual blade as this is just a concept, I don’t want to go all in on the blade as well as it could take the attention away from her when they are supposed to be more balanced really.

I did realise without the base the sheathe wasn’t fully lined out so fixed that too.

Finished Line Art

Coloring

Now that I have finished all the base line art I can start to actually add color to her, I can then remove the line art to just leave the color, meaning I won’t be left with the bold black lines that can lessen the quality otherwise as it looks better if you use shading instead of just breaking it apart with a line.

I like to put each lineart’s color layer on its own layer so I can do them free of each other and edit one without the other, it also helps if I need to blur one’s color without affecting the other which could be right next to it. It also just helps for organising each one, even if it means I tend to have like 10+ layers in total by the end

Color Reasoning

I just wanted to make this so it is clear why I’m going to be using certain colors just as an overall explanation if you don’t want to go through each description on each part.

Firstly most samurai armor is red and an Oni’s main color is red, so I will be making the armor red to stay to this and be accurate to the base, then the under armor will be a dark black, since I don’t think chain mail will be the best for being quiet and light so I thought something like black leather would be better as it can still act as armor instead of just fabric.

I will be making the mask red to further connect it to the Oni background as this also makes sense as it is a mask of an Oni.

I will be keeping the shoe pad things the same color as on the base for the samurai armor as I want to be accurate, plus it will help break it apart compared to if it was also black like the under armor.

As for the katana I will be making it just plain silver to go with what most katanas are like as a base to again not make it stand out too much as it is just a concept.

As for her hair I don’t want it to be red like the base as I feel we have too much red, however the only other main Oni color is blue and I feel that would stand out too much. So I feel making it a black will fit as most actual anime samurai I can find seem to have black hair, it is probably because it breaks away nicely from the bright colors of the clothing often used.

I believe that is everything, obviously some things will not be covered here like the bracers but they will just be the colors you expect them to be, so red for them as they are part of the armor, the ropes holding them will be white and then the sheathe will be just plain black as they don’t need any fancy colors as they aren’t a main focus.

Armor

Firstly I did the armor as it is the biggest layer and I knew pretty much what I wanted for it all, just black under armor and red armor, so here is that.

I realised after doing the other layers that I wanted the ears to be red since she is supposed to be an oni in disguise, so why should she waste her energy changing her skin color when basically all of it is covered? Exactly. And yes I do want her to have normal skin color when the armor is off, just so she keeps up the disguise then as well.

Other than that the armor went as expected, most of the armor was a red, more of a dark red to reflect her more incline to stealth, and plus more closer to blood which is one of the reasons samurai armor is red fun fact. Then the under armor is just blackand the connecting rope is white, I did want to make it a slight yellow but it looked kind of wrong, so I stuck with just plain white just for the concept.

Oh yeah and I gave her ominous glowy eyes, since this gives a ominous feel and makes sense since oni are magical, so her having glowing eyes to show this makes sense.

Katana

The Katana was very fast since it isjust a few fills, so here it is.

I kept it just plain silver for the concept as of now so it doesn’t draw too much attention from the actual character, then for the guard I used the horn color for both parts since I thought making the teeth white would stick out too much really. 

Then lastly I made the grip bandage a brighter red, but still darker just to stick with the blood theme.

Hair

I wanted to change the hair color so it isn’t red as this wouldn’t contrast very well since like the rest of her is also all red, so it would stand out abit more I chose black since weirdly most other anime samurais I can find have black or white hair, and I think black suits the stealth theme more, plus white would stand out too much really.

Fully Colored

I added a graw background just to show everything since some is just white so it blends into the background, obviously there is spaces but we can fix those in the last step.

Shading

Next of course is to add the shading, this will help show the gaps in the plating and just help give it more of a 3D look and more depth, for this I’m going to be using a wider brush with just 20% so it only applies a bit of the color so we can apply as much as needed. The color for it is a black but slightly purple as I found this is more accurate to shading normally, at least it looks more correct than just plain black shadows to me anyways. It will all just be on one layer at the top of the piece so it covers it all, but also so it doesn’t affect any of the other layers which is really needed as for all of it I will be blurring to give it a fade effect across her instead of just one area being a lot darker then the next being bright as day.

Armor

I thought lets get all the armor out the way first since that had the main bulk of the shading due to the plates all being separate, then I also dest that I want the light on the left of her, so as you can see I think I set that pretty well.

It is abit off but as I do the others I do go back to it abit to patch it up, however it is pretty good and I feel I got most of it to a good level.

Sword

I did the sword next as it would be pretty faster, I made sure to separate the hrip parts and put the shade on the right side of it, I feel it went pretty well and helps it look less flat.

Hair

Last was the hair, here I also patched up and polished the other parts just so they look a bit more clean and have a nicer fade on top of what I did to them before.

If I am honest the hair texture isn’t very good, and that is because I’m pretty new to it so I tried my best, but I will admit it does need a good bit of work.

Finished Piece

Conclusion

I think for a concept it went pretty well and I am quite happy with it, I can see myself using her in the future and am happy I actually did them as a concept. I know I didn’t try many things like different hair styles or keeping the sword plain first but I was pretty certain on these so I didn’t feel I needed to use the time to test these as I doubted they would be better than what I had, although I did think about them I can assure you. Thanks for reading.