This is a character illustration for Endejester ([link]), as an entry in her contest This guy is a WoD character--a half-kuei-jin demon hunter named Kai Matsumuro. He belongs totally and solely to her, and she's prone to doing horrible things if her characters are taken, a fact which I mention to avoid grievous bodily harm.

Anyway. The character's *real* name translates to "Glorious Destroyer of Hope," and I hope I have the kanji right, because it should read "despair." It's meant to be a double entendre, as it's his own hopes he destroys more than anyone's.

And by the way, this was all done with MOUSE! Oh, my poor hand...

In other news, I learned a lot from doing this picture. For one thing, I feel comfortable with the brushes in a way I never have before, and I think I'm really starting to solidify a style. After years of drawing, it's only now that I realize, as I'm beginning to overcome it, that I've always been an "OCD artist." That is, I have this obsession with making my lines go in *exactly the right place.* If they deviate from my dream of perfect placement, then I must go in and forcibly move them, and if they won't cooperate, then my work is flawed. This, of course, is crazy thinking. "Perfect lines" just don't happen, and when you try to force them, it sucks the life right out of your work. The beauty of art, at least the art that I like, involves the organic grace of a natural-looking work. Obviously, counterproductive. This, I believe, is also why I've histically had such hideous trouble mastering anything other than pencil. Pen, dear god, the unerasable pen is my nemesis, and paint and other media have always seemed to mock me.

So. The last few pictures I've done have begun to free me from that idiotic mentality. This one isn't perfect, of course. Looking at it now, I can see a few things I'd like to do better. A few of them I might even go change, then repost this. Of course, now that I have access to a Wacom tablet again, there are some things I could undoubtedly spruce up, and it seems to call for some background other than that stark, blood-spattered white. We'll see. I'm proud of it anyway.