Kappa Final Process

I revisited the Kappa, creating a final piece to represent them as a deadly lake monster, as was in the Japanese myth.

 

A detail in the myth that should not be overlooked is the fact they are adept sumo wrestlers and haul unsuspecting people into the water, as well as animals, making them deadly killers. To accommodate for this,, I opted to use a low stance that make it appear the Kappa the ready to strike.

Different to how I worked on the Minotaur, I created a shadow map and a colour map to reduce the drawing time. The downside is that it is likely to lose saturation or colour to a higher degree since the shadow map is set to multiply.

After combining the colour map, the stance and physical makeup of the creature is much clearer, showing muscle definition, the turtleshell, bill, and the head sink. Only colour correction and adding subtle details were needed to finish this.


The Kappa would appear to be assassin like, which is the kind of stance and feeling I was aiming for. What need to follow is the addition of the Japanese rivers, or perhaps the swamps which should give the creature the correct environmental feeling that it originates from.

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