I always love the badass look especially on a muscular guy. I enjoy drawing muscles a lot so I decided to include one in the drawings I submitted for Spice NFT project. I came up with the concept of drawing a gangster with a handsome face like the ones I see when I watch anime. It matches my bishounen/bishoujo (handsome/beautiful face) style as well. This is my own character design using my art style.
SKETCH
I didn't do much details on this sketch. I just focused on the pose, positioning, and proportions. This is how I imagined the gangster I want to draw. I imagine him holding a spiky bat while his other hand is in his pocket with a slightly tilted head to give him the bad boy vibes.
LINEART
Following the lines I sketched, I drew the details for the clean lineart. This is where I made the adjustments especially for the spiky bat. I want it to look a bit bigger. For the muscles, I made it a bit lean since the guy is in his late teens, like the typical young anime gangster. I made a spiky hair to give him the bad boy look and some bangs to make him look handsome. This is what I came up with.
BASE COLORS
I like the idea of giving this guy a tri-colored hair to match his gangster look. I choose black for the base color to make the other two colors look more visible. For the eyes, my choice is something yellowish to give him a fierce look that matches his facial expression. For the pants, I imagine him looking more badass with a black one plus the studded belt.
SHADING
Here comes the best part of coloring where the details are being completed. I enjoyed coloring the hair most in this drawing. This is the first time I did a tri-colored hair. I was thinking of a few strands of blonde highlights and an ombre hair transitioning to maroon at the same time for a more bad boy look. This is the reason why I chose black for the base color. It turned out well and it gave justice to the look I want to achieve. All thanks to the gradient tool. Another factor that added to his bad boy look is the shading on his face. I darkened more portions of his face to make him look sulky.
Lastly, the tattoo is actually the reason why I made him shirtless. Spice owner requires us to incorporate chili on all our drawings. This is because Spice logo and theme is associated with a spicy chili. I came up with the idea to incorporate the red and green chilis on his tattoo. I'm happy with the result. I achieved the muscles I want while complying with the requirement of the project.
BACKGROUND
The background is usually the most difficult part for me. I always struggle with ideas for it. This one has quite a long process because of its details. The first part is the basic color. I choose black and gray gradient for this one.
I imagine something like an anime poster where some parts of the background includes the faded version of the drawing. I just did a copy-paste, a diagonal cropping and resizing for this one. I decided to put it on the upper left since it has enough space. I made this faded portion with a white background. Lastly, I played with opacity to achieve the faded look.
THE FINAL RESULT
For the final process, I added another layer of gradient colors to match the brick wall I am thinking as an addition to the background. I used a big brush to add the diagonal, reddish color at the center then I played with its opacity as well. I added the translucent brick patterns then I used texture and splatter brushes for the finishing touch. The look and feel that the background gives is satisfying. I achieved the street look and the poster look at the same time and this matches the subject very well. Here's the final result of the handsome gangster I imagined.
I have a few drawings where the subject is holding a sword but I decided to choose this one for a change since a sharp and spiky bat is not common. This is my HivePH art challenge entry for the #sharp theme this week.