Saturday, April 17, 2010

Tiger of Death



"Tiger of Death" is my submission for the April 24th PixelDrip Gallery at UGTL 6. I was originally working on a massive Capcom vs. SNK poster, but scheduling would not allow that to happen. It'll have to wait for the next show.

I wanted to create a simple piece using negative space. Again, I was under time constraints due to the submission deadline and the amount of work I already invested in the Capcom vs. SNK poster. A negative space illustration would allow me to ignore grayscale or color rendering. A straight inked piece on Bristol would also mean no time lost scanning and digitally modifying the image.



After seeing a clip of the Bruce Lee vs. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in The Game of Death, I had my idea for the picture. I switched Fei Long for Bruce Lee and Sagat for Kareem. The dark pagoda where the fight took place had great contrasting shapes. The fighters' bright clothing and distinctive silhouettes popped out nicely against the window screens and stairs. The negative space dichotomy would also be complemented by the characters' size disparity.

I wanted both Sagat and Fei Long to perform techniques from their respective movesets. Sagat would be using his standing medium kick (a powerful "poke" attack). Fei Long would be trading hits with it using his Rekkaken attack (his signature combo attack).

The trouble with Sagat's kick is that despite how strong it is in video games, it doesn't LOOK like an impactful move. To compensate for that, I included other elements in the picture that would convey the strength of the kick. His leg would be kicking through the wooden banister and colliding with Fei Long's forearm. I didn't want to draw motion lines to follow the kick's arc because it would clash too much with the window background. I settled for impact lines radiating from Fei Long's forearm since it meshed well with the flying debris.



I started "spotting the blacks" and inking earlier in the process than I normally do. I didn't want to be too concerned with erasing and redrawing minor changes. On one hand, it allowed me to finish in a timely manner. However, it also allowed for some slight perspective errors to remain.

As I continued to ink the piece, I became more concerned with line weights, feathering, and crosshatching than negative space. I was focusing more on rendering the clothing wrinkles and muscles highlights than I was on where NOT to convey lines on the characters' outlines. It all goes back to my admiration for black and white comic art.



In the end, "Tiger of Death" isn't a typical negative space picture like the Scarface poster. The only visible use of it is around Fei Long's Onitsuka Tiger shoes. However, composing the illustration still used negative space principles and I think the piece benefits tremendously as a result. The characters are clearly visible, even when viewing the piece from a distance. If I had more time, I would've done some Art Adams-level texturing on the floor and possibly added some furniture in the background.

With this piece done, I can resume work on the Capcom vs. SNK poster. Of course, working on "Tiger of Death" also gave me other ideas for movies that I can mix with Street Fighter. I'll have to save those for another time.

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