So-ho Shinobi

The good people over at the New York Anime Festival run a small contest every year to select their new mascot for that year's festival. The theme for this years convention is "Anime - New York - Halloween". 3 things that I had a hell of a time putting together. I chose a ninja since they're usually dark/shadowy characters that, at times, can be spooky. The color scheme I chose is brighter than your average ninja. I wanted to stay away from the stereotypical black uniform and go for something more autumn colored. My biggest hurdle with this was his head guard with the empire state building going across it. I think I did at least 3 revisions of it until i settled on something more simple.

Simple was the main objective of this piece. Since I tend to over think and go overboard with my work. My vision of a mascot is something you can display anywhere without having to worry about the little details being lost. At times I stopped and turned my brain off so that I could let the work come out of me naturally.

In the end I'm unsure of my chances of winning. Regretting not doing something with more of a unisex subject matter and believe that maybe a female mascot would probably have played better. Ah well.