Something More Than Porn

As the bells strike

2010-01-04T23:50:00.002+01:00

Happy New Year!

So well, this is my first finished drawing for this year, it was lots of work as I had to color it through the holidays with the usual family gatherings and stuff. So I spend as much time as I could with it in the meanwhile.

We wanted to avoid the typical Holiday themed pics you see with Mrs. Santa Claus fur-trimmed-bikini-clad ladies and do something different instead, New Year over Christmas was a must, because well, New Year is a lot more awesome after all.
So we chose Leona and Iori, from our graphic novel book thing and we wondered how would they receive the New Year. It was interesting trying to show how they relate to each other in a single drawing... so we may do some more of them! :)

I'll let you guess and imagine what happened after their New Year party. ;)

Any of Iori's likeness to Takeshi Kaneshiro from "The House of the Flying Daggers" is purely subjective. XD

Thank you very much for your visit!

Pencils: Dacosta
Color: Me.

Nue dans le Boudoir

2009-11-24T00:13:00.005+01:00

It's been a while without updates, isn't it? What can I say? "Back to school" have never been anyone's favorite words, especially after years away from any kind of educational program.

I just had to post these pictures though, it's more Black Market themed pin-up artwork.

Chose your favorite version! I can't decide myself which one I like the best. Each one has its own thing, I guess.

You can also check them out at Deviantart:
http://uchuujinx.deviantart.com/art/Nue-dans-le-Boudoir-Shadow-140612528
http://uchuujinx.deviantart.com/art/Nue-dans-le-Boudoir-Light-140612348

Warhammer 40k Erotic Pin-up Art

2009-09-15T13:45:00.004+02:00

The grim and dark setting of the 41st century as depicted by Games Workshop's well-known artists such as John Blanche, Karl Kopinski and Adrian Smith is filled with evocative and inspiring motifs, so distinctive that including any of these elements in an illustration allows to inmediately identify it as part of the nightmarish madness of the Imperium of Mankind.

Even though this Sister of Battle appears fully naked in this picture, with the exception of a few pieces of the mandatory power armor, it's obvious that this is more of a pin-up than hardcore porn.

New artwork and random updateness

2009-09-15T13:20:00.003+02:00

So, finally my exams are over, the reason of the evident absence in a while. I probably failed everything.

So now I have some time to post this illustration I finished a while ago. I'm thinking it would be interesting to use limited palettes for these Black Market pictures. I don't really get that much feedback so I don't know what people think. Deviantart is OK but most comments are short one-liners.

Salam Aleikum there!

2009-07-07T18:46:00.004+02:00

This is weird.
Every now and then, I receive random visits from Saudi Arabia. It puzzles me out, because last time I checked, porn was illegal in most of the PErsian Gulf... so then, what else would they be looking for here?

Well, Muhammad, hope you enjoy what you see, and it's worth of going to jail for it!

Raging Fire Princess Azula

2009-05-21T00:57:00.003+02:00

This is a picture I made a couple of weeks ago.
It's the first time I made a picture of Azula all by myself.
She's my favorite character in Avatar because it is like she came out from one of Shakespeare's play.

Zhai from Demon Stone Porn Art

2009-03-02T20:15:00.008+01:00

The 2004 videogame "Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone" (set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting from Dungeons & Dragons) featured a half-drow half-wood-elf rogue character named Zhai which became relatively popular among the players.

Outisde the cover art and one official illustration done by Todd Lockwood, not many reference images were available of her, so there was a need to be creative to complete the image. Similar to a previous painting featuring another character illustrated by Mr. Lockwood, it was reasonable to place he subject in a dark environment, which was fun as it had been a while since we last did a fantasy-themed illustration.

As usual, lineart credit goes to Dacosta, while I worked the CG colors.

Haruko is an Alien Nurse

2009-01-17T03:45:00.011+01:00

The title should be descriptive enough. Those who have watched FLCL probably remember how Haruko assaulted a Medical Mechanica nurse to steal her costume and get a closer look to Naota's head.

Haruko cosplaying as Yoko

2009-01-03T12:03:00.003+01:00

Just a little picture depicting Haruko cosplaying as Yoko from Gurren Laggan. The costume seems to fit her. I tried a different approach to the style of coloring with this one for practice.
Hope you like it!

Nyan-Nyan Aisha bikini picture (golden version)

2008-12-22T03:23:00.002+01:00

This is a different version of the Aisha Clanclan picture, from Outlaw Star. Some color filters were applied for a different look. Just some experimentation of chromatic variation. The contrasted golden light seems fitting to the toned body and brown skin...

Nyan-Nyan Aisha bikini picture

2008-12-15T22:58:00.005+01:00

This is a picture of Aisha Clanclan, the hot-tempered alien catgirl from Outlaw Star. Here she poses in a well-fitting green bikini showing all her superior Ctarl-Ctarl strenght. She is a beloved character for many Outlaw Star and Nekomimi fans since her debut in 1998 and it seems like she will continue as an unquestioned champion for a while...

Nothing amazing ever happens here

2008-12-12T04:55:00.003+01:00

It's been like a year or more since I last tried to draw her, this is just one of the many sketches I've been doing of Haruko lately. I'm not 100% satisfied with it. The damned alien space angel...

More Leona pics

2008-11-30T06:36:00.004+01:00

This is the latest promo pic, it took a lot of time to be finished (the files posted here are low-res) because the many details of embroidery and lace. The desaturated version has a different look, closer to a lingerie catalog picture or advertisement while the original version has a warmer, lighter look with the vibrant colors. It's fun to play with filters and change the impression of an alternate picture, especially after all the work done before completing it... Enjoy!

Busy days and ride the shooting star.

2008-11-30T05:44:00.005+01:00

I just noticed on how there haven't been any updates since last month. It isn't like I forgot about ahving a blog or suddenly going offline or something. It's just real life is there and sometimes you feel like you'll overflow. It's doing this or that, coloring previous and newer illustrations en masse, sketching and so on. After what has been like a year since the last time I did any FLCL stuff, last weekends I've been sketching several mock-ups of Haruko pictures, which will hopefully be of interest for the FLCL porn enthusiasts around. I'm watching the OVAs once again since years ago. If you want to call it a Haruko-moe it's none of my business.

I will just copypasta a random quote from Hayao Miyazaki for the lulz:

It's difficult. They immediately become the subjects of lolicon fetishism. In a sense, if we want to depict someone who is affirmative to us, we have no choice but to make them as lovely as possible. But now, there are too many people who shamelessly depict (such heroines) as if they just want (such girls) as pets, and things are escalating more and more.

There will be upcoming new material in the following weeks.
Subscribe to the Atom RSS feed thing at bottom of this page.

Happy Yom Kippur

2008-10-09T16:48:00.006+02:00

EDIT: After having this piece featured at the Rule34 website, I can say I'm satisfied with the overall results. Someone kindly pointed out that I had screwed up the spelling for "Yom Kippur" so I corrected it. Can't blame me for being goy! So there you have it in case you're a collectionist.

TL;DR: I'm in your Mishkan, blowing your Shofar.

Black Market New Picture

2008-08-25T23:04:00.003+02:00

This is another Black Market illustration. We've gone back to the light bondage imaginery, as seen in the actual comic. Unlike previous pictures where black was a dominant color, we chose the straps of the harness to be off-white colored in this one. It's not a frequent color but it's easily available, so we thought it'd be an interesting change.
Lineart by Dacosta, color by me. As usual with most of our pictures, the original file is 65% bigger than this preview.

Warhammer 40k More Sisters of Battle Porn Art

2008-08-07T03:52:00.006+02:00

This is another Warhammer 40k picture we'd been working in but it wasn't on time for the release of 5th edition. Mainly due issues regarding the undecided background, which had to be re-done three times. At least, that gave us time to go through the whole picture and fix every this and that until we were satisfied with the final result.

Having already drawn more than a few Sisters of Battle already, Dacosta came up with the idea of having some other faction in a picture, but doubt arose as which one to choose, because we could have so many options, Inquisitors, Imperial Guard troops, and even members of antagonist races were considered. I participated in the brainstorming, suggesting the pros and cons of each option and quoting some fluff nonsense that would eventually make the choice clear. The idea was to put the characters in a possible setting, some quick inquiry into the Ordo Hereticus rule book portrayed allied forces of Black Templars and Sisters of Battle as example (this should not be surprising, as both loyalist armies engaged in the conflicts of the Crusade of Terra and the Wars of Armageddon just to name a few). Finally, we decided a Space Marine would be interesting for the contrast (size does matter, and also, the chance to include a power armour and maybe bionic parts).

Fluff-wise, Sisters of Battle and Space Marines don't tend to get along well. The Inquisition won't trust genetically mutated individuals who make open use of pyschic abilities, even when said individuals are the living legacy of the Emperor's will. Sisters of Battle pursue any taint of heresy, abnormal use of psychic powers included. But a Space Marine, even if psyker, is descendant from the Emperor himself through the Primarchs. Any Inquisitor would have a dilemma on how to treat and interpret the role of the Chapters in the Imperial scheme. Of course, if those guys go heretic, no debate will save them from persecution and extermination... Any old-school mumbling "Rainbow Warriors" perhaps?

In the other hand Marine Chapters are also too independant and self-assured to allow the prejudicant Inquisitors and their followers to intervene in their own matters... Being there many doctrine divergences in chapters, Black Templars do not trust the use of pyshic powers, Librarians being absent from their army. They are wide spread across the galaxy, ready to deploy wherever required, and therefore not needing navigators to guide them through the Immaterium. And if they ever need to send some astropathic message (send this message to 10 battle brothers for good luck, if you don't some Ork warlord will chew your head), they'll rely on some expendable sanctioned psykers which are -likely- to be sacrified to feed the Emperor's hunger for fresh astronomican fuel (see, that's what happens when you send chain letters). Their devotion to Chaplains and their "Abhor the Witch, Destroy the Witch" vow placed them close to the Inquisitorial ideals, and that was perfect.

So now, the choise was clear, a Sister of Battle, widely recognizable member of the Inquisition, and a Space Marine Chaplain, adept of the Emperor's image to the extreme of being considered a living symbol of religious faith. They'd make such a creepy lovely couple, if the galaxy wasn't burning in a perpetual war since millenia ago. The idea of one skull-shaped helmet was considered, but later abandoned...

Someone may still come and say "but Space Marines don't see the Emperor as a god" like I heard some red-shirt guy say when commenting the Emperor's Champion mini when it was released years ago, but BT are Second Founding Non-Codex chainsword-wielding fanatic walking-tanks, so they can think whatever they want if that makes them happy, and if, as this seems to be the case, it gets them lucky with flamer-wielding fanatic warrior-nun chicks from outer space.

Each to their own, I guess.

Warhammer 40k Porn Art

2008-07-12T00:00:00.006+02:00

With the imminent release of the Warhammer 40,000 5th edition rulebook, it was a perfect opportunity to finish some of the pictures we had already started time ago and post them online. From the many factions and armies of the game, we chose to depict the Sisters of Battle as their inquisitorial background fitted with the concepts of subtle dominance and subordinancy we are interested to include in works. The visible scars and ritual tattoos suggest the zealous fanatism of the characters, and the imperial symbols reinforce the ambient of the ever-present observation and judgement of the authorities.
The grim and dark setting of the 41st century as depicted by Games Workshop's well-known artists such as John Blanche, Karl Kopinski and Adrian Smith is filled with evocative and inspiring motifs so distinctive that the inclusion of these elements in any scene allows to inmediately identify it as part of the nightmarish madness of the Imperium of Mankind.

I'm working in another Warhammer-themed picture, and probably there will be more to come in the future.

Black Market Update

2008-06-27T16:58:00.007+02:00

I haven't updated in a while. This is just another picture featuring the lead character of Black Market, Leona Gaidel, wearing her uniform, well, enough of her uniform.

There's more soon to come. We've something planned for the release day of Warhammer 40k 5th Edition, next July 12th.

The Bounty Hunter & The Old General

2008-04-10T02:49:00.004+02:00

Time for another picture already. It's taken its time, but worth of it may I say. The characters chosen are June the bounty hunter and good uncle Iroh, in what may be the aftermach of pursuing the Avatar and his friends. Although June has only appeared in "Bato of the Water Tribe" she's a really popular character among fans of the series.

Black Market Volume 1 On Sale

2008-03-02T16:45:00.003+01:00

It's finally here! Black Market, the first graphic novel by Dacosta and me is released in English under our Judass Publishing label.
This is a story of intrigue between the Yakuza and international Military Contractors, without forgetting a good amount of sexual tension to round it up.

The protagonists:

Leona Gaidel:
Born and raised in Brazil, she joined a Military Contractor at a young age, where she proved skillful earning the rank of Lieutenant. She is a discreet agent whose curiosity makes her excel in the field of investigation
When her Commander establishes business with the Yakuza, she ignores how this will affect her career.

Yagami Iori:
Son of a Yakuza boss, this young man's responsability is only beaten by his arrogance, which is constantly getting him in troubles. New to the family business, he has still lots to learn before earning the trust of the gang.
He considers himself not really a bad guy, but a guy in a bad place.

The book:

At the moment, Black Market is no longer available for purchase through ebay. Contact me if you're interested in getting one.

Magic: The Gathering Porn Art II

2008-02-10T04:20:00.000+01:00

It was MTG Planar Chaos Akroma's turn to get through the rule 34 filter. Lineart credit goes to Dacosta.
This time the reference was Daren Bader (Akroma Angel of Fury) from the Planar Chaos expansion set. May it be still Akroma, but it's an alternate environment which was still unexplored by porn...

Simpathy for the devil (I)

2008-01-31T13:40:00.000+01:00

I want to thank the Rule 34 page for featuring my last piece in their webpage during the Holocaust Day Memorial. I would've not expected a single random picture to cause such a spontaneous and positive reply from people.
The funny thing is I keep getting requests for more stuff like that, one guy even asked me for having Jack Fenton in full uniform having his way with both Danny and Dash.

When drawing pictures, my first interest is to cause and motivate some kind of emotions and feelings from the viewers. Not only the well-kown need for physical relief, but something more than it. That's the reason behind many of the pictures having a place for unconventional imaginery and the ominous feeling of conflictiveness. I subtitled the Pound Puppies picture as "The reward of righteous behavior is suffering" because that's what I think. Nobody will pat you in the back for doing what is accepted as right, and a character like Holly would be the perfect example. In the cartoon series, may Brattina and his mother always receive some kind of absurd and unharmful punishment for their cruel and sadistic nature; but Holly would do nothing but stand there with a wobby smile in her face watching over the dogs who didn't need her at all and never made her feel needed in any way, being fully capable of fixing their own problems.
That's a perfect example of the compassive and charitable personality our society demands from us, only to make those ones the puppy-slaves of sadistic and strong personalities like the one of Brattina.

I don't know about others, but I rather be the one holding the leash, not the one wearing the collar.

Cruelty is such an underrated virtue nowadays. The voracious vice of weakness, in the other side, is too much welcomed by people today, letting the feelings of helplessness and guilt be the compass of their lives. It's (...) the difficult task of really asking ourselves what have we been raised to believe and how we defend it even when it harm and weaken us. The time changes and so does people: Why would we have to keep feeling guilty for things we never did?

Only when people realize they need to understand and learn how to hate each other will they learn how to love each other, not merely the blind concept of unconditional love proclaimed over the centuries from the pages of an obsolete 2000-years-old propaganda manifesto but the real condition of loyalty and compromise, open for suffering and endurance and untainted by the corrupt concept of compassion which is what drains the human will(s) and strenght from individuals.

TL;DR: More wicked porn comin' soon.

Happy Holocaust Memorial Day

2008-01-27T13:14:00.000+01:00

I had this one lying around unfinished for months. Then I heard in the news it was the Holocaust Day and told myself "you have to finish that". And there it is, enjoy!

By the way, if you live in Deutschland, I think you may be watching something illegal... XD

Creepy Susie nude picture

2008-01-24T02:31:00.000+01:00

This is one picture I did recently for a client. It's meant to be Creepy Susie from the book Creepy Susie and 13 Other Tragic Tales for Troubled Children and The Oblongs animated series, a little gothic mutant valley girl with the personality of Jean-Paul Sartre. Really cute character, it's kind of a shame that the show didn't last.

I may do aditional shading or even make an alternate version with her wearing a nightie of some sort...

Also, a new template layout for the new year!

Good bye bloody 2007

2007-12-22T07:22:00.000+01:00

Things have been crazy over the last months. To be honest I can't recall the last time when "things were not crazy" around here...

Finally got the Black Market issues the other day, damned heavy boxes filled with the little bastards. What a surprise we found upon closer examination of the issues...

Due to some weird printing mistake, the whole batch of Black Market issues had a page printed with a wrong resolution size. Sure, they say they'll change so it's no big deal, but it won't be ready until January, no exact date. This forces us to delay (again and hopefully for the last time) the release of Black Market Vol. I.

I'm sorry for people who expected to get it as a Xmas present, really. I just don't know how it happened, blame gremlins or whatever. Sometimes I try to convince myself that I don't have motherfucking Murphy's law stuck like a monkey on my back...

Oh well, now that we are already writing and preparing Black Market Vol. II, hopefully delays and last-minute hopefully won't happen...

Fuck this shit (I)

2007-10-23T03:30:00.000+02:00

Finally managed to get some obsolete 133MHz RAM chip for the old steamboat, making it possible for me to paint faster. I didn't know about the whole fucking WPA issue with Windows XP. Sheesh, had to crack ir up and reinstall some software...

I'm fucking tired of those shows that try to brainwash viewers into thinking some lame and totally irresponsible teenager without parental advision is so-fucking-cool because he has a conduct disorder or spiky hair or some asymmetrical stuff in his wardrobe.

Yesterday I saw the last episode of the second season of Millennium, The Time is Now and I've compulsively listening to "Love is blue" like in Room with no View.

Crazy shit.

The world needs a picture of Azula, Ty-Lee, Mai and Zuko in Chan's house from Ember Island having an orgy...

This old steam boat.

2007-10-05T06:42:00.000+02:00

I don't know how I manage to do stuff with only 320 MB of RAM. I guess that's one of the reasons why it takes me so long to finish pictures.
My PC's stuck in stone age lol...

Black Market Promo#1

2007-10-03T16:12:00.001+02:00

So here it is, it took a while but the results were worth of it, I think. This illustration features Leona, protagonist from the ongoing Black Market project, showing her Brazilian gatinha booty.

Lineart by Dacosta, color by me.

I also made an alternate SFW version with her wearing a complete latex one-piece suit under the corset. I'm saving from posting that one for later. Now I gotta go and paint more like this one...

Traci Thirteen teaser

2007-10-02T12:15:00.000+02:00

It's such a shame that days only have 24 hours. We all feel like we would need another extra 12 hours every now and then, don't we? Corruption of morality is such an exigent and ungrateful labour! But someone has to do it...

So here's a little gimplse of something I've been toying around every now and then in spare time:

It's the first panel of a parody page I'm doing featuring Doctor Thirteen and his flirty daughter Traci from "Tales of the Unexpected", such a weird comic deserved a place in the vademecum of porn known as Rule 34. As one single image didn't seem enough to me, I had to go and make a whole page sequence...

Hopefully I'll be posting more stuff later today.

Sam Manson facial

2007-09-24T17:19:00.000+02:00

This is just a little picture I did. I had some free time and didn't know what to do, so here it is. Had fun doing the lingerie though it's not really an interesting picture per se. The dark atmosphere and the grayscale shadows projecting against the figures kind of compensate it.

I guess some people still find porn pictures of Danny Phantom insteresting although the series is gone and chances of new episodes are practically none. At least we'll always have rule 34 to keep the memories of old series alive...

Ozai & Ursa - Fire Nation Porn

2007-09-22T23:37:00.000+02:00

A few months ago when "Avatar: The Last Airbender" Season Two had ended, Dacosta and I wanted to make Fire Nation themed illustrations. While a lot of them remain still unpainted, a couple of them have already been painted.
I had an unfinished picture portraying both Lord Ozai and Lady Ursa as they appeared on the episode "Zuko Alone", back when the evil guy's face was still unknown. It wasn't until last month when finally the third season's starting date was anounced when I finally got around finishing the picture. And here we are, the day after Book Fire's first episode aired, with the finished picture.

We also toyed with making another version of the picture, changing the general tones of the picture to make a dreamy sepia-like version, similar to the flashbacks of the episode. Who knows if poor little Zuko ever had such a bad look to catch a glimpse of his parents in such an inadequate situation! May that be one of those memories that keep haunting him?
...I doubt Season Three would give any answer...

Danny Phantom BDSM Femdom pictures.

2007-09-19T19:29:00.000+02:00

These are two pictures from a few months ago, once more done for the rule 34 board. Those anonymous fellows can have the weirdest ideas from time to time, and I couldn't help but give thise series a try for the first time and draw a couple of femdom pictures following some of the suggestions from the anonymous legion.

These pictures were sold on ebay.

Maria Hill from SHIELD - Avengers

2007-09-19T02:41:00.000+02:00

These are two original pictures I made recently of the character Maria Hill from the Marvel Comics universe. It was a nice project and a chance to learn more by trying to emulate the quality of great artist Frank Cho.

Teasy Tush

2007-09-18T03:15:00.001+02:00

Just a little teaser crop of a work in progress picture Dacosta did. I'm coloring it so I've been busy with it. I hope it'll be finished around next week, and then you'll find out who's the beauty this booty belongs to.

Picture Trade

2007-09-18T02:55:00.000+02:00

Picture trades are very interesting and funny experiences for anyone seeking for challenges. Recently I had a picture trade with the wwoec member artist Dark Danny Phantom.

His picture is a personal interpretation of the characters of Iori and Leona, which I must say, it's very original, fresh and expressive. And the beret, gotta love it! It's such details what make his pictures so popular and appreciated. If you don't know his work already, what are you waiting for?

In the other side I made for him this Danny Phantom picture with Sam and Danny's human and ghost forms. The inspiration came from many unexpected places, Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands, medieval Flemish paintings, and the song Weißes Fleisch. I felt a general gothic-theme would fit the characters.

The Kennel Mistress & The Pound Puppy

2007-09-16T04:13:00.000+02:00

"The reward of righteous behavior is suffering."

Little image for the /34/ imageboard. It features Holly and Brattina, nubile protagonists of old-school animated series "Pound Puppies". Didn't feel like wanting to draw the dogs themselves (which I hated when I was a kid), so just drew the girls in a twisted situation.

Busy days...

2007-09-11T06:10:00.000+02:00

Dacosta and I've been working in the last details for the release of Black Market volume 1 which hopefully will happen soon. I'll post a preview image of the cover art soon if Dacosta agrees. Otherwise I'll have to wait a while before posting some of the promo art she's doing lately.
Meanwhile, I've been doing some rule 34 pictures. I'll post them here, along with some other stuff I'm saving for other posts.
WTF? An entry without some porn? Don't worry, there will be plenty of that soon.

Magic: The Gathering Porn Art

2007-09-07T23:57:00.000+02:00

These are three images of the first batch of MTG art done for the Rule 34 board at 7chan. Lineart credit goes to Dacosta.
They're a homage to the great art of the original cards, and of great artists like Kev Walker (Jhoira of the Ghitu card), Matt Wilson (Akroma in the Pacifism card) and Matt Cavotta (Ixidor in the Future Sight card), and Todd Lockwood (Teysa Orshov Scion card), who have created evoking images that inspired us to make our pictures as close as the original quality as possible.

TL;DR: Every day is a repost day.

Magic: The Gathering - Picture teaser

2007-09-02T16:31:00.000+02:00

This is just a small teaser of the picture I have been working on last weeks. It's a "Rule 34" picture of the characters of Akroma and Ixidor from the CCG Magic: The Gathering. The original version is a full colour image, of course. All that needs to be done is a proper but rather simple background, which hopefully be finished later today.

Making of "Yakuza, Haruko and Cocaine"

2007-08-31T04:20:00.000+02:00

Though I am not really fond of "how to" guides and other kind of tutorials, I decided to post this short story of the development of the second Haruko picture I made for 4chan's /h/ board.

Next weeks after the first Haruko picture, routinary Haruko threads appeared in 4chan's board. I still had many unused ideas from the first time I made a picture of this character, so I had to give it another try and made some of those ideas more evident in the second picture. Apparently there's a whole sub-sub-sub-culture of Haruko denigration worship in the internet, dedicated to the idea of the representation of this character as being object of hardcore gonzo styled situations. One of the ideas I took from them involved fat Yakuza gang members. Expressions like "crackwhore", "slut" and such were also suggested by the anonymous posters, pointing to a rather sad and violent scene.

As you can see in this initial sketch, I already had a clear idea of how many figures I wanted to show in the scene and what I wanted them to be doing. Haruko, in the center, looks to the viewer of the image, while two men appear in each side closing the composition. There are a few lines and notes concerning details like the tattoos and position of those figures. The kanji on top is read "yotsuba" as a reference to 4chan's "four leaves" icon. I had to do some research on Yakuza tattoos, customs and stereotype because I wanted to make the figures recognizable as members of the Japanese mafia. I browsed many tattoo webpages, including a couple of Japanese tattoo studios. Ironically, traditional Japanese "irezumi" style tattoos aren't so popular in Japan due to their association with the criminal groups so many people there go for typical western styled skulls and animals designs. Still I found many useful information about the composition and common distribution of motifs for these tattoos. Reference material is always useful and inspiring when approaching any project.

So here it is, the final result. I wanted to go with a dark scene with lots of barroque details spread across the picture through the tattoos. You will find the yotsuba kanji hidden between the waves, scales and cherry blossom petals so common in yakuza tattoos. Nobody noticed, though. There's a missing little finger there as well. The shiny and tacky watch marks the moment of the night when the three characters have gathered in the privacy of a dark room. Haruko's eyes are lost and her eyelids drop lazily as the cocaine affects her. She's there to get her dose and the gangsters are making her pay for it. I decided that a black and white image would reflect the cinema-noir subject, while the "glowing" yellow eyes meant to be a focal point of the picture and also a reference to crude and violent works like Frank Miller's Sin City and why not, The Schindler List movie.

Some people have commented that Haruko looks fat in this picture. She does look fat indeed when compared to her near-anorexic counterpart depicted in the animation series, but I wanted to give her natural proportions so that would emphasize her as possible in existance. I think it makes the scene more pathetic as a whole. I even supposed one of the Yakuza would have even paid her a boob job, marking her even more as a mere object of their use.

I think one of the last things I painted was Haruko's metallic bracelet, which happens to be again the only thing I still like from this picture.

FLCL & Black Vynil

2007-08-28T22:35:00.000+02:00

Sometime around June, 2006, this picture was posted in 4chan's /h/ board as part of a thread centered around Haruko from FLCL. It was a little experiment I wanted to make because even though I was still busy with personal production, I needed to start giving shape to some concepts that had been lurking around inside my head for a while. I wanted the scene to be dark and pessimistic, almost scary. Against popular demand, I skipped the concept of the "white nurse" persona and replaced it with a black vynil costume. Black vynil is a fetish fabric to me, and it worked right for showing volume and texture while keeping a hint of abnormality to the whole scene.

I like how the metallic bracelet turned out, I'd say it's the only part I still like from that pic up today...