Elijah and Azuu

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#1205 Prices Paid

Inkmonkey

on Feb. 26, 2007

I love doing these moody pieces with the heavy shadows. Now, shading by itself is hard enough, but exceptionally dark shading like this is a real challenge (which I thoroughly enjoy, by the way). I'm certainly no expert, but I'm hoping that practicing frequently will help me to improve. I got a lot of experience back when Diego regularly showed up because, for whatever reason, I decided he would have heavy shadows all the time. I guess it grew from the fact that he started out as a pastiche of the standard anti-hero vampire hunter prevalent in American comics and movies (I don't want to say "parody", because I realize now that I didn't really do enough to poke fun at these foundations). These models, of course, encouraged a much darker atmosphere, and that was prevalent even in the shading of the characers' faces.