Hiwatari Kai
An overly lengthy and pointless rambling about the character aesthetic(?), and how I try to reproduce it in "my style".
Introduction... of sorts (more like context for the madness)
Last month I re-watched Beyblade (2000). This time I went with the Japanese version... and ohmygosh their voices cracked me up!! The voice actors are women for all the main guys... which, if you think about it, actually makes more sense than the English and Portuguese versions, considering they're supposed to be 12 year olds...!! But it's still so weird~!
Here are some examples:
(Portuguese)
(Japanese)
I couldn't find the same episode in the three languages, so...
(English)
(Japanese)
XD I can't help but laugh at the difference!
The Portuguese version was modeled after the English one... but we're not here to talk about that! (Or the clip and story changes >.>).
Yeah... it took me a few episodes to get used to their voices, specially Rai's!!! He just sounds like a girl!!
Yes, I noticed. Kai is super buff for a 12 year old kid. But more on that later...
Anyway! All of this to say that I got slightly obsessed, and with this big urge to draw Kai!
The actual thing
Kai has always been my favorite character in this series. I don't know why, but characters like that, angry/grumpy/mysterious/serious/quiet/brooding/I don't know... are always my favorites. They're "cute".
... So, almost 20 years after I watched this series for the first time, I got obsessed with this character again, and I want to try and draw him in "my style".
|
Hiwatari Kai, Beyblade 2000 |
For future reference, I will always be using as base the 1st season's design (the 2000 one). I "grew up" with that one, and I like the art style the best (compared to the others anyway ^^'). I never watched the other seasons (V-force and G-revolution), and I don't like the art style changes. Call it nostalgia if you want.
For that, I had to try and find out what age he is supposed to be, to know what proportions to give him and what not. Beyblade Wiki was very useful for that! I found out he is the tallest member of the group, with 1.67m, and other interesting tidbits.
He's tall for a 12 year old, I think...
... and so, I started to try and draw a Kai more in "my style".
He always ends up looking older... But fortunately, with the "color coding" of the character, and his face marks, we can understand that it's a Kai...! (aaand the eyes are still too "anime" for my taste).
Making sense of that hair was not easy...! It has to be reduced a lot, and even so it doesn't look natural...! But making him look like a 12 year old is the hardest part, for sure.
I don't know how to draw children!! ðŸ˜
According to Beyblade Wiki, we only know Kai's height (1,67m), and Takao's height (1,52m). So I made a line up just to compare heights, and added a "basic" 1,80m adult for reference.
Now, if I made Kai as a tall and skinny kid, like they usually are, it could work. With the characteristic clothes and colors, we would probably understand who's the character... But, Kai being more atletic than the others also serves to distinguish him from the other characters, and is part of his character...!
Now my problem was if could there be 12 year old kids that muscular...
Then I remembered to research about young competition gymnasts, and voilà ! Small kids with some visible muscle! - which is a bit disturbing, and I'm not sure if it's that healthy for their growth, but... they exist, it's possible! And considering Kai's past in Russia and his education in the Abbey, it sound plausible... So I'm giving him a (young) gymnasts build!
Here is (one of) the reference for my reasoning:
So, I'm going with that!! This way I can keep his more athletic silhouette, which is something that I believe is part of his character.
Conclusion
Now that I am deconstructing this character, I realize how much of an influence this drawing style has been on mine...! The way I draw eyes is based on how Kai's eyes are. ... Not to mention that I have a character inspired by him...>.> but that's (yet) another subject.
And even though the style is kind of weird, I really like the line weight variation they put in some times.
I also realized I really have a hard time drawing kids. That's something to work on, and this silly show is going to help me, apparently... ^^'
Kai has cargo pants... The urge to make / sew a Kai "cosplay" is real!~
sshh
... to be continued...
