HBD KarakureRia!

Ria, character belongs to KR_KRR6 @ Twitter

Alternate Version

Because I've commissioned my inspirational artist, KarakureRia a couple times in the past to draw for my phone wallpapers, I never realised I drew anything in return as a gift after they drew a bonus drawing of my favourite skeletons!

This illustration was originally going to be finished last year, but I didn't continue it and lost the original file after searching for my missing files and drawings from last year. It's upsetting I made a lot of progress on the old file and wanted to draw their persona in my old digital painting art style because current art styles are similar — I took inspiration from their cell-shading after all! 😅

Either way, I'm glad I remade and drew their character this year because I improved a bit more in the anatomy. Also, this is my first time using Adobe Illustrator for the lineart — because I struggle to draw clean lineart — before giving up and finishing the rest on Photoshop. It's still a bit messy in the end, but it has the finished charm similar to every birthday drawing I made for my friends — usually includes their birthdate and their (user)name!

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Step-by-Step Progression

Originally, I wanted to make the illustration like a magazine cover with their usernames as text background, hoping I could use it as my portfolio for graphic design in the future. After the lineart, there wasn't enough space for text, so I made up a different background on the spot after rendering their character.

I browsed every image reference of their persona, and kept my old draft of Ria with a monster arm without his bead bracelet based on one of their drawing. I didn't add his separatory funnel necklace either because the accessory seems optional or missing in some of the drawings of their persona, and it's also where Ria keeps or traps his octopus mascot inside. Without the funnel, I can draw their mascot looking chaotic and chilling on Ria's hand.

The blood was going to be red or purple, but the values were very similar to other colours, especially Ria's red earring, making it difficult to tell if it was all blood or if his earring was missing. Of course, I ended up using my iconic magenta DanganRonpa blood and hope they don't mind the only change different from the references!

Lastly, the background was going to have dripping red/pink blood, but I kept it as black ink once I checked the values again in monochrome. And because the results make it harder to tell which is lineart or dripping ink, I had to give Ria a white border around him — and it's also nostalgic to my old art style and past birthday drawings.

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The last screenshot of last year's lost progress (right) and draft sketch I continued from (left)

Today, on KarakureRia's birthday, they posted a birthday drawing of their persona and it gave me last-minute changes to recolour Ria's inner sleeve red, just what I needed to know without asking until I woke up and realised not knowing their persona's name after searching many tweets on their Twitter!

In the end, I had to ruin a little bit of the surprise by sending them a message with a birthday wish earlier. Once I got their confirmation, I quickly rushed to make an alternate version of the illustration with their name "Ria" in Japanese instead while editing this post as fast as I could!

KarakureRia, I hope you like my birthday gift to you! Your art always gives me joy as my inspiration and keeps me going, and I'm still happy I've met you since I randomly discovered you online! 🥹

External Links: Cara, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter