His name is actually Uriah Virgil Ray. Gotta have a little meme'ry here and there.
So I kinda want to talk about the style I've been developing for Blade Regalia. I invented this style around the time I first began to get the characters in a 3D game to look like a 2D anime character, that is: cel shading. At the time I didn't know how to get the characters to have outlines. Below is a picture of what it looked like in the beginning. Even though their details are gone when rendering them this way, they still stand out from each other. So I really liked it.
The first time I ever used this style was for a commission. (The commissioner actually asked me to put my signature in it so I had to go back and add it. The reason why this happened is because I was asked to make a piece to be printed which natually digital art is advantageous here. Since I wasn't able to draw something photorealistic in digital media, I had to try something minimalistic. That also marks the only time I've ever used my Wacom drawing pad because I had to use it to get my signature on there.
When I implemented this into Blade Regalia it created some design challenges where simplistic designs were more acceptable in a detailed style, they really were disappointing in a minimalistic style. It makes you look at the individual as a whole. One of the things I personally love to work with as an artist is color. And this style really allowed me to make the character's pop with both personality and color.
Now the characters look like this below (a video of Katherine). The cel shading includes outlines, contour lines, and no longer conflicts with the background. But still I want to continue with this style. A similar style appeared in the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena: Gigantic, which I really enjoyed their stylistic choice. (Probably not the best idea to take inspiration from a market failure). I'm always looking to study other artists who work with this style. (If you know anyone please tell me).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iIKxuf9xrQOne of the things that I'm not sure about personally is how to make the most out of outlines, gradients, glows effects etc. Where they become distracting or helpful. These two pieces sort of take their own individual approach, yet if I find them both to be successful in their own way where other pieces weren't as successful.
It's a journey.