1883 - A New Era

Finally, my contest entry for `hakubaikou's 5th annual Rurouni Kenshin fan art contest. There's five days left -- you still have time to enter something, right?! I must be tiring you all with my recent slew of RuroKen art... but I'm not quite done yet, so hang in there!

The theme for this contest is "passages". I chose to depict the passing of one era into the next. If you're not familiar with RK, it's set about ten years after the Japanese civil war. The way of the warrior along with many other ancient Japanese traditions are being replaced with western ideals. Change never comes easily, and though the war has ended, men and women of that tumultuous age are still trying to piece their lives back together. Visually, I was inspired by the movie The Last Samurai. When I first saw that movie, the strangeness of seeing Japaness dressed in western clothing really left an impression on me. So, I tried the same thing with my fan art. Aoshi sama and Megumi san here, are never dipicted in anything but Japanese clothing for the duration of the main manga series. (okay... so Aoshi's trenchcoat is an acception, but he wears a gi under it... so there.) But they look rather nice in 1880's clothing, ya?

Another element revolving around "passages" in this dev are the characters themselves. Aoshi and Megumi are not buddy-buddy in the series -- but with the passage of time, people change can't they? In Haru ni Sakura (set in 1883, incidently) the Kenshin-gumi meets for one final time under the blooming cherry trees. In that quiet, serene scene it seemed that all the old wounds had healed. So why can't even enemies find peace in one another? So here I have them depicted together in relatively relaxed company (*prepares to be mugged by AoshixMegumi haters*).

And that is that. Wow. I wrote alot.
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Copic and Prismacolor marker, water color, acryllic ink for line art, and white paint.