In preparation for a recent show, I began work on a new painting. The theme was "Japan" and within this pop culture-rich city of mine, I decided to work on an anime/manga piece. Video games are a vital part of youth culture and I thought this would be a perfect theme to mash two of the influences and joys from my adolescent years. I decided to choose one of my favorite characters from the many Capcom fighting series they are so well known for (the Capcom vs. SNK series and the Marvel vs. Capcom series), Morrigan Aensland. Morrigan is one of the sexier fighters in the series and since being such, has a strong following in manga, comics, and video games. A vampiric female that can whoop some ass?--how could I go wrong.

I sketched out a rough concept for Morrigan's pose in my sketchbook. I initially had the idea of painting the moon and castle similar to the logos and imagery found throughout the Nightstalkers culture. After a quick sketch, I taped a piece of bristol to the back of an old Pylex and laid my sketch down, tightening up my lines and anatomy. As you can see, there were some crucial changes from my sketchbook sketch and the actual piece. Her face needed some softening and the layout changed as well. Sometimes a sketch can help to get the muscles loose and thus yield a better sketch when working on the final piece.

I began laying colors in very loosely. It had been a good minute since I painted; this was the first painting I started since moving to San Antonio. Ring rust was present, but not longstanding. During the sketch onto the bristol, I came up with a great idea to replace the static castle in the background. As mentioned, the initial idea was to include the castle in an attempt to give a silent nod to Demitri in the painting. I decided to included a looming shadow behind Morrigan to a) provide stronger contrast, and b) create an area to include Demitri in the piece without making it a dual subject painting. Including just his eyes and grimace allowed me to keep the focus on Morrigan while incorporating her nemesis in a subtle manner. The bats he transforms into would help drive the point of his character home as well as provide some movement in the overall painting.

I worked the colors a bit more, providing a light, textured wash of night behind Morrigan and Demitri. After it dried, I realized I wanted it darker. The wash was too light and I wanted this piece to live up to it's name and reputation of "Darkstalkers" and not be viewed as "Duskstalkers" lol. I laid in a bit more purple and continued on.

I wanted to pump up Demetri a bit so I gave him glowing, red eyes to signify his bloodlust and thirst for violent revenge. I realized this guy is really spooky when I watched a few episodes of the show (for years I was merely a fan of Darkstalkers through the video games and images in comicbooks). When I watched him transform into bats and shadows, I knew I had to include that characteristic into the painting, as well as that wide, villainous grin that is his and his alone.

I finished up the piece up with some inks and a little bit of whiteout to pull Morrigan out from the shadow. After the scan, I decided to pump up the blacks digitally and make them really rich. The piece didn't see completion in time for the show however, when I posted a preview online it got some great responses which is always nice. I hope you find this work just as pleasant.