Mika Kazuhiro

Seems everything I'm doing lately is for a contest.... Ah, well. This'n here's for the Design a Swordsman contest. Yeah, it's a bit cliche to have the hakamas and katana, but it's what I think of. It kinda seems like I went a little overboard, since this contest it about the design and not how it's presented, but I just used it as an excuse for more practice in the whole realistic coloring/shading (and to avoid my homework.... ). Obviously, I'm a long way off.

Anyway, tried to make one of those ominous/mysterious backgrounds that are usually foggy and blurry. Please ignore the odd ground cast shadows; I just went with what looked good, and I don't really think it's consistent. The white thing in his hand is one of those paper/cloth things samurais clean their swords with. Oh, and those little ball things on his back/neck/ear/heel are piercings. I saw pictures of the spine ones; the neck ones I actually saw on a girl who sits in front of me in my Modernism art history class; and I figured if you could put piercings in the spine, you could put it in that part of the foot--I may be wrong though; don't hold me to that.

Ah, and the name's supposed to be last, then first name, like Japanese names, but when I thought up 'Mika' it was actually as the first name, then switched. So, technically, it can be inversed, I suppose. It just has to be said in the order it's written; it sounds cooler.

I really hope no one minds the blood.... It's really what swords are for, after all.

Source: Me
Medium: Photoshop CS3
Time: about the whole month.... (damn skin tones)