OC Valentine 4 Styles

Depression has been crushing me in an artistic sense lately. So I made a change, I started going on hikes, collecting fallen timber to carve and sand into walking sticks, and fossil hunting on the local trails and beaches. I has really helped, and I recommend just spending more time outside for anyone feeling the Pandemic Blues. As I said, it's done wonders for my mental health.

The added benefit in this lift in my mood, I can draw again without hating everything I create! So, I thought I'd sit down and do a fun little exercise that I've seen floating around with a couple artists on YouTube. I took my OC Valentine Gebelin and decided to try and draw him in other artist's styles. So I chose Kentaro Miura (Berserk), Akira Toriyama (Dragonball Z), Go Nagai (Devilman), and Kazuma Kondou (Deadman Wonderland).

Like many 90's kids, I watched "Dragonball Z" religiously on Toonami. So, obviously I had to pay tribute to Toriyama. "Deadman Wonderland" is amazing, and one of the completed series I own all the volumes of. Love the style of Kondou, so it was a no-brainer. I only recently got into Go Nagai's masterpiece thanks to Netflix's "Devilman vs. Cyborg 009" and "Devilman: Crybaby", so when I got the chance to scoop up the whole collection: I jumped. I can easily see why it is considered a staple, a classic, and genuine influencer of the Dark Fantasy genre, which I love so much. So I had to give Nagai a try. This brings me to "Berserk" by Kentaro Miura. Hands down my favorite of all time. I got into it in high school and followed it dutifully in every media since. I own 40 volumes, the original animated series, The Golden Age arc movies, and The Black Swordsman arc animated series. I cannot sing Miura's praises enough. It has molded my story-telling to allow for those visceral, no-holds-barred sequences that tell a true, compelling, Dark Fantasy saga.

I hope everyone likes the final result. I had a blast pouring through my volumes, studying, and more-over appreciating each artist in a way I can only describe as "spiritually". I highly recommend this exercise to anyone looking to spice-up their creative process and pay a heartfelt tribute to those who laid the cobblestones for your work!

Peace,
E