Kratos the Good Butcher

This was done for a contest called “Turn Good 2 Evil – Evil 2 Good” that was held throughout January 2012 on Game Art HQ. The idea of the contest was to draw an evil version of a video game character that’s normally good or vice versa.

I saw this contest as an opportunity for a good creative exercise. I had lots of ideas of things to draw, but I figured it would be more original to make a villain or anti-hero into a good guy. Rather than something epic or “bad-ass”, I wanted to draw something funny and unique that people could look at once and remember for a long time.

I went on to win the contest.

Much of what’s around Kratos are parts of enemies that appear in the actual “God of War” games, but I included the stereotypical string of sausages and meat cleaver simply to make it obvious to anyone that he’s running a butcher shop.

The various meat products and things I drew made for a nice opportunity to practice painting different textures that I had never painted. I practically just used brushes and the smudge tool. I’m particularly satisfied with how the bundle of hooves, the ham and the cleaver turned out.

I found that a slight low angle shot like this is fun to work with – I’ll most likely draw more to keep improving my perspective and anatomy drawing techniques.