The Samurai of Death

This was done as a homework assignment for the Illustration Basics 2 class at the Ontario College of Art and Design, winter 2003. It was the first assignment in the class, and the only constraints were that it needed to be square and it had to have a bird. I somehow got the idea of drawing a samurai-type warrior who had a pet crow. As I usually do, I wanted to tell a story with this. I see this guy as a very dark and mysterious character who is probably undead with a thirst for destruction. He's inhumanly strong and thus carries with him a sword that is far too big for any normal person.

I wanted the background to be a Japanese castle with some village houses, and the entire scene has been roughed up by our samurai who is now walking away having completed his job. I painted this in Photoshop using a variety of brush techniques, and I thought it'd be interesting to try painting the whole thing using tones of brown and sepia. I also wanted to try the background within a frame technique that you see here.

Here's the background before it was cropped and softened. I just love painting like this. Anyone who says that digital painting is inferior to real painting needs to smarten up, because painting like this is no different at all in principal to the real thing. As for how I did it, that will have to remain a secret for now!

© SykoGrafix Inc

Back to Original Art Gallery.