Band of Rogues -- Yasuno's Contest Entry

This was drawn as an entry for Yasuno's contest.

Apparently, sometime during the mid '90s, Guard took a vacation. While wandering the streets of Kabuki-cho, he ran across four giddy delinquents: Ryu, Yasuno, Boo, and The Invincible Woody. The four had just escaped a close call with the police after tagging an area as theirs. To commemorate their great escape, Guard photographed the four and promised to send them a copy.

This was drawn in Sketchbook Pro, colored in Photoshop Elements. Over 20 hours spread over four days.

This was a very fun exercise! After suffering from artist's block for more than 4 years, I find myself able to bring pictures to completion again. I experimented with a number of things with this image, like trying to depict how light alters a character's color without making the character unrecognizable. I tried shading the entire image in black-and-white first, then added color gradually. This was my first time drawing animal faces with smiling expressions, too. I need to get myself back into practice!

I hope you like this, Yasuno and Booking!

This image © Guardian Beast, S. K. Brandl.
Ryu, Yasuno, and The Invincible Woody © Yasuno
Boo © Booking