The Ambush of Dandara

Drawing Digital Art Character design manga anime fanart fanfic Brazil são paulo city

After all attempts to escape from that strange bandaged-eyed man went wrong, Dandara had the brilliant idea to enter one of the most pragmatic buildings in the city of São Paulo, the Alexandre Mackenzie Building. Inside, Dandara planned to hide, but as she already suspected that it wouldn't work, the next step would be to ambush and stop him one way or another. Even if she was forced to shoot him.

Oh, life, a shootout on the first date? And, to satisfy her, Satoru Gojo fell easily into her trap. Or did she fall into his? To find out if the plans succeeded, just read Chapter 5 of the fanfic on the blogs.

In this artwork, I had the pleasure of using the Alexandre Mackenzie Building, now known as Light Mall, as a background. The mall, located in the city center of São Paulo, next to the Viaduto do Chá, is very famous. It's an interesting building as it has both an old-fashioned and modern atmosphere. It truly represents SP. The photo is from the Rooftop where a bar/restaurant operates on the terrace. I obtained it from the Light Mall's own Facebook profile.

Priceless Restaurante Rooftop - Light Mall - Picture: @espaçopriceless

To create the art, I needed to remove the tables and umbrellas to make the environment more dynamic. This was quite simple with the artificial intelligence of Photoshop; it simply erased them. It wasn't perfect, but for what I wanted, it was great. Then I cut out the sunny sky and replaced it with a dark one. Next, I used Photoshop's Filter Gallery to give the image a painted appearance. After that, I used the soft brush to paint the windows lights, water on the ground, and reflections of the lights. The flag of the state of São Paulo is a PNG image.

Background finished.

The fanfic superstar, Satoru Gojo, is exactly the same as in the previous artwork. I exported him as a PNG image and placed him there, just adding the reflections of the lights and shadows. The rest he does on his own; he shines just by existing.

The main challenge of the art was Dandara crouched and ready to strike. I spent a lot of time searching for a suitable pose on Pinterest. This one, which came with others in a set, saved me. It was exactly what I needed. Then it was just a matter of drawing my protagonist in that pose. I drew the revolver, using the reference as a base, but since they were different weapons, it was a bit tricky. However, I had drawn revolver so many times that I remembered some details and got exactly what I wanted.