Tuesday, March 17, 2009

You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance

A few weekends ago, I had a chance to play Street Fighter IV at a friend's house. Had I been wearing socks while playing, those socks would in fact have been knocked off.

I'm a big fan of Capcom in general, and of their fighting games specifically--however, playing Street Fighter IV really pushed those characters and that franchise to the forefront of my thoughts. I find myself humming the music constantly. My mind has been desperately trying to create scenarios where I can justify buying the game itself, a console, a new television, and two tournament quality arcade sticks. Of course this is all going on while I draw fan art until the sun rises. Here's Ryu, perhaps the single best-known of the Street Fighter cast:

click above for larger view

I'm going to be honest with you... this one didn't turn out terribly well. The perspective was supposed to be much more forced and dramatic, but I have this problem where apparently my brain strives desperately for mediocrity, and while drawing, I unconsciously make things moderate and boring instead of extreme and dynamic. Regardless, it's nice to draw a character like Ryu every now and then--he's very recognizable in spite of being so visually plain. Those factors make me feel comfortable drawing him from a rare rear view, because I don't feel like we're missing any interesting costume details from this angle, and I'm also confident that he'll still be indentifiable. I thought that showing Ryu's back turned helped emphasize his aloof demeanor. Likewise, I tried creating poses-reflecting-disposition in the other Street Fighter pieces I drew... which will be flooding this blog shortly. Stay tuned!