Parkour meets Ninjutsu!

On this project, I was tasked to create a custom t-shirt design for PK-MASA, a local movement coach. The idea for these shirts word to additional merchandise that could bought any of his many seminars here in Japan. Combing traditional Japanese arts with the hip-hop aesthetics was something was more than happy to explore.

As fan of both Japanese culture and hip-hop this was true labor of love.

PROCESS

To start, we began with thumbnails that we reduce to 3 rough layouts of the final illustration. Here we tried to really combine the ninja aesthetic with a feeling of movement that is found in parkour or free running.

Next, after speaking with the client, we narrowed down the details of the rough pass and played with the layout to give the image the most punch when completed.

After finalizing the layout and the other details for the image, I started the final pass of line work. We also looked at the best way to optimize the image so it could shrunk down for stickers. We also started finding a way to incorporate previous marketing to make a signature brand image for the t-shirt.

FINAL OUTPUT 

After finalizing the linework and playing with the colors for both the character and the text, the final image is complete! This project was a lot of fun to work on & Masa was happy with the overall direction. In addition to the final illustration, also had the chance to make the layout of the t-shirt design. Can't wait to make more like this!