Moon Cursed Blood

_{BEHOLD! Someone facing to the RIGHT for once!}

FIRST OFF: I had 3 versions of this picture. One without blood, this one with blood and another with a different eye but it looked more sinister even though it was cool. I'm sure I'll do something in the future along those lines but here I thought it made poor Ryo look like an untamed villain (If I made the moon red, even more so like a crazed murderer on the loose). I got feedback from my trusty adviser DI and went with the blood version (which I personally like more, I have a thing against 'plain' faces) but not the one with the wolf eye; though given the full moon showing his werewolf nature peek through would make sense. *is torn*

I wanted to go with a more simple look for this image. I could have gone full out detail and shading but I just liked this simple flat, 2D look. Also I like how the blood came out. I drew this all in Clip Studio Paint, though I used PS for coloring since Studio started chugging on me and PS is just better for coloring imo.

My baby boy Ryo- I mean my sweet werewolf brain child that I first thought of in my Freshman Year of HS. He's one of the few characters I can actually PINPOINT the year and place I came up with them. In reality Ryo is probably one of my oldest still existent characters _{(The idea for Cali and Dei started in 7th grade but I don't think I came up with more of their story and their names until Sophomore year... I have to check when I first drew Dei, if I was smart enough to put a date on it. And Guilly was more of a persona originally then OC, but somewhat retired now).} But more recently I've been rethinking his identity/origins and decided to give him more of a samurai vibe vs typical European-inspired fantasy rouge warrior/adventurer. Which he can be too, but for the people he actually belongs to is inspired by Japanese culture, namely the samurai culture and era. (I read so much on their history for a few weeks and watched samurai films... so much... ALL IN THE NAME OF RESEARCH!) Basically his type of sword and clothing changed, but he wears and uses both still.

Ryo has always been more from a European inspired fantasy world (cuz let's face it, most are and that's the 'traditional' fantasy world most people know, aka DnD and LotR, etc) but I've been trying to make it more mixed as of late, because the world is diverse and it's freaking fantasy I can do what I want screw 'logic'/unintentional exclusion. Especially with me writing a 'modern' AU to his story (which is still way in the works) that's more historical I've been leaning more toward Asian. Given the inspiration of his name and need for diversity, I made him Japanese inspired in my world. Should he be in our world he would be full or half Japanese, which in the historical AU he's full Japanese (or distantly mixed Ainu) but still a werewolf cuz IT'S A SUPERNATURAL AU TOO. WHOO!

Anyways long story short, this is Ryo in his more samurai-inspired appearance. I'm not sure if this scene would be from his canon fantasy story or pre-history to the AU (possibly canon?) since technically it could be either. In the AU he is a samurai, rather a ronin due to circumstances (curse plus roaming), plus it gives me the excuse not to give him the traditional samurai hair cut (plus as a werewolf his hair would grow back so fast and be a mess after transformations that shaving it every day would be a pain). If this were his canon story it could before the story starts or eventually later, as he wears a mix of different outfits to not give his origins away though people tend to wear a blend of European and Asian 'fantasy/medieval' clothing in my world (both or one or the other). Also sorta great I'm showing the side that's he's blind on HUR HUR (a later injury in his life, but current in the fantasy story). Best of all his hair style is basically the same as I've always drawn it, he just can pull it up in the back into a small ponytail in a half-up half-down style (which I looked up and is a real samurai hairstyle, just not the traditional/standard shaven head with pinned up pony-tail hairstyle)

PICTURE STORY: Title is referring to the fact blood has been spilled and that Ryo is in fact one of the "moon cursed bloods" aka anyone of his race/clan is cursed by the moon. Here Ryo has fought off some attackers, probably bandits. Maybe some got away, maybe he let them all go with some serious wounds or he cut them all down. Really he would do any of the three if by himself. He either fought them off and taught a painful lesson (blood happens), then let them go or just ended it there. Given his abilities and skills he's uninjured, that's all his opponents' blood splatter. The moon I put in there is sort of meant to represent a symbol of power/fear as well as his crest. Should there be an actual full moon he'd definitely be way more beastly; this is a rare time I draw him in his completely human form (though he still has slightly pointed ears like some humans have, but are remnants of his usual lupine appearance). I'm blanking on the style of work this reminds me off, maybe a mock tarot card? Idk Maybe I'll do more like this with more of the SW cast (AU and/or the canon story cast).

Below is a ramble about concepting Ryo:
_{Back in 2004 I actually was watching a movie in Film History about the blind swordsman Zatoichi, classic Japanese film character. I was writing some ideas for short stories for an English class taught by the same teacher (I think I still have the piece of paper still somewhere of the 3 ideas) and I came up with a fantasy story idea which is where my dark elf Venn and Brash first appeared, then eventually Ryo came along and Matteo some how got into the mix. But anyways, I was trying to think of a name and here I'm watching the movie with subtitles and they say "Ryo" and I just went with it. (For those who don't know, Ryo is basically a type of old Japanese gold coin). I can't remember how I came up with wanting him to be a werewolf but I had no such characters so he got picked for the job and that's the basis of Ryo's identity. It only made sense to make a character who was inspired by a Japanese film to in fact become Japanese-based himself if not actually Japanese, or my world's equivalent of it. My original worry was him having blue eyes but screw it! It's fantasy, Venn freaking has red-orange eyes and 'colored' eyes do exist for non-Caucasian people in real life!}

Art and character (c) ME

It's so weird that here when you first thought of a character you were much younger than them and now you're almost the same age as them... OTL
Also my unofficial anthem for Ryo, love this song from the liveaction Rurouni Kenshin trio movies: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW1Ze8…

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