Inktober 2019 Retrospective | Day 16: Wild

I guess he's wild, I guess. I guess?

As per usual, my influences stem from retro manga/anime, but this one was specifically influenced by Zenki and Devilman (the original manga and some of the older anime). The eyes and hair, in particular. Which, I mean, may or may not go without saying. The eyes and hair of a manga/anime character are very telling of what time they're from, regarding approximately decade they were created in. I may be wrong, but those two intellectual properties are somewhere around late 80s to maybe the 90s. Yes, this is the internet, yes, I could look it up, and no, I'm not going to.

There are a lot of things I wish I could have added to this piece. Take away, as well. For instance, I wondered why he, Aku Ramba, looked like he didn't have a neck. Now I realize that it's that necklace of teeth that distracts from his neck and makes it look like his head is just sitting on his shoulders. Also, his tail should be in an S-curve as opposed to a C-curve. I really can't feel where he's leaping. He's definitely going somewhere, lemme tell ya, boy howdy.

Much of the pose I like. It's interesting. The anatomy, while not, um, good, is significantly better than my usual fare. Honestly, I feel his chest and the connecting pieces, are better executed than his core. They appear disconnected somehow.

You know, as I type this, it occurs to me that perhaps I should probably just stop trying for realism as far as anatomy goes. I already forego realism for believability as far as faces go. Maybe I'd enjoy doing these types of things a bit more.

I'd really like to draw him properly again. I have cool sketches of him in my book, but this obviously isn't a sketch. Maybe I'll explore things at a later time.

I mentioned using Zenki and Devilman as inspo for Aku Ramba here, but the tail is inspired entirely by the way Akira Toriyama drew Son Goku's tail in the original Dragon Ball manga. My tails, provided they are bushy, have always been like that. Never really used any other reference. There's nothing wrong with having a favored inspiration, but I should really find another source for my creativity. Oh, I do feel general positivity towards this piece, by the by.

Thanks for reading~

#inktober #ink #man