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Description
Normally I don't do fan art. It takes a special show or story or game - whatever - to inspire me enough to draw something for it. Okami is one of those special things.

Now I'm not gunna lie, the intention of this illustration is for the contest DA has going on - but it was more of a pushing point. I really love the visual style of Okami. It's rough and gritty, yet also beautiful and alluring. It is imperfection at its most perfect, it is simplicity at its most complex, and that greatly appeals to me as an artist. And if that wasn't enough, the game itself is incredible! It is graphically amazing in its style (everything looks as if it was painted with a brush and ink), the storyline is wonderful, the gameplay is incredible, and I have to say it is THE BEST game I have played in a VERY long time. It brought me back to when I played Spyro the Dragon for the very first time on Playstation. The beautiful visuals, the free-roaming environment, the fun puzzles, an instant classic.

So when I read about the contest I took one of those "step back" moments and said to myself, "Well damn. Looks like the wait it over." and I went immediately to work.

I had no real image in my mind when I started this, to be honest... I tried to think of the game (which I beat some months ago) and what elements of it I liked and how to incorperate them into an image. I also drew inspiration from the official artwork. What this image boils down to is several of my most favorite things about Okami:

First and foremost I wanted to add the grass growing in her path. When I first moved around in the game and noticed that I was very touched. It reminded me of Princess Mononoke when that deer god walked the grass and flowers grew and died at its feet.

Second I added one of the guardian saplings. The scenes where you revive the trees and they explode into bloom, revitalizing everything around them, are fantastic and also really touched me as I watched them.

And third the style of the clouds... I just love the way they look They were fun to draw.

I've never "inked" something with a brush pen before, but this was surprisingly easy and fun! I used a black Copic marker for the lines. The colors where also done with markers. The background texture and clouds, however, were done in Open Canvas (I used an old paper texture).

Oh, and the red thing at the bottom? That's my initials JK, but drawn like the character for water (which is also my sun sign's element, so it fits ) I thought it would be a creative way to sign it.

Even if I don't win, this was alot of fun to do, so I've no regrets XD Although it would be great to get a copy of the game for the Wii. I'd love to play it again and see how the controls work.

EDIT: According to the rules, the resolution has to be ALOT higher then I originally uploaded... so I uploaded the un-bordered version which was alot larger (I still had to blow it up a bit though to meet the minimum requirements... I wish I'd known sooner. I would've done all this work on the original size before altering it down to a more workable resolution. x.x I had no idea they'd want something this big. Oh well, you can see the FULL size by downloading... I just hope it's ok now. I'd hate to be disqualified over something like that.)

Description
Normally I don't do fan art. It takes a special show or story or game - whatever - to inspire me enough to draw something for it. Okami is one of those special things.

Now I'm not gunna lie, the intention of this illustration is for the contest DA has going on - but it was more of a pushing point. I really love the visual style of Okami. It's rough and gritty, yet also beautiful and alluring. It is imperfection at its most perfect, it is simplicity at its most complex, and that greatly appeals to me as an artist. And if that wasn't enough, the game itself is incredible! It is graphically amazing in its style (everything looks as if it was painted with a brush and ink), the storyline is wonderful, the gameplay is incredible, and I have to say it is THE BEST game I have played in a VERY long time. It brought me back to when I played Spyro the Dragon for the very first time on Playstation. The beautiful visuals, the free-roaming environment, the fun puzzles, an instant classic.

So when I read about the contest I took one of those "step back" moments and said to myself, "Well damn. Looks like the wait it over." and I went immediately to work.

I had no real image in my mind when I started this, to be honest... I tried to think of the game (which I beat some months ago) and what elements of it I liked and how to incorperate them into an image. I also drew inspiration from the official artwork. What this image boils down to is several of my most favorite things about Okami:

First and foremost I wanted to add the grass growing in her path. When I first moved around in the game and noticed that I was very touched. It reminded me of Princess Mononoke when that deer god walked the grass and flowers grew and died at its feet.

Second I added one of the guardian saplings. The scenes where you revive the trees and they explode into bloom, revitalizing everything around them, are fantastic and also really touched me as I watched them.

And third the style of the clouds... I just love the way they look They were fun to draw.

I've never "inked" something with a brush pen before, but this was surprisingly easy and fun! I used a black Copic marker for the lines. The colors where also done with markers. The background texture and clouds, however, were done in Open Canvas (I used an old paper texture).

Oh, and the red thing at the bottom? That's my initials JK, but drawn like the character for water (which is also my sun sign's element, so it fits ) I thought it would be a creative way to sign it.

Even if I don't win, this was alot of fun to do, so I've no regrets XD Although it would be great to get a copy of the game for the Wii. I'd love to play it again and see how the controls work.

EDIT: According to the rules, the resolution has to be ALOT higher then I originally uploaded... so I uploaded the un-bordered version which was alot larger (I still had to blow it up a bit though to meet the minimum requirements... I wish I'd known sooner. I would've done all this work on the original size before altering it down to a more workable resolution. x.x I had no idea they'd want something this big. Oh well, you can see the FULL size by downloading... I just hope it's ok now. I'd hate to be disqualified over something like that.)