#itoku

Did up a sketch of Itoku a little while ago (I haven’t updated this blog in a few months - whoops). I enjoy doing up sketches, sometimes colouring them and not caring about being a perfectionist is fun.

I was originally going to save this for Valentine’s Day to post it (because ‘Palentine’s Day’ amirite?) but it was too good to horde until then. I’ve had this cooking for a while but I finally got around in finishing it with the new tablet I got for Christmas.

Nothing says “best friends” like sharing some spit with your buddy! I really wanted to draw up Isontaro and Itoku like this, although canonically Itoku is straight during the course of DIVE, Isontaro? Not so much.

Either way stay thirsty my friends!

I did up a redraw of one of the pictures I made about 5 years ago in between working on some commissions. Pretty wild how much my art has changed during such a small time frame but that's why I like doing these pieces.

Itoku definitely looks better, I had the hunch of changing his outfit to match his current one but I think redrawing his old outfit with a little tweaks here and there was beneficial. This corresponds with a scene in chapter 17, which I'm not going to be spoiling for anyone.

Since the main story of DIVE is finished and so is the playlists that helped inspire me to create the story here’s the one for the 3rd arc. There’s some more heavier tunes amongst the collection of song here between more of the melancholic songs that I had playing throughout the more somber scenes.

Design wise I really love Itoku, he really sticks out from a lot of the other characters (partly due to a friend I used to have helping me come up with his current design that I just happened to keep). He’s one of the few guys in the story that has short hair seeing as most of them have long hair which I kept as a more ‘cultural’ thing the Demyra have.

I almost feel that DIVE follows him more than Robina spite her being the main character. I will admit that he’s probably one of my favourite characters that I’ve come up with, there’s been a lot of tweaking to Itoku over the years. He actually started out as an antagonistic character but I completely flipped his role in the story, made him a lot more grounded and perhaps down to earth than what I had him. 

With regards to his physique I wanted to make him somewhat strong looking but nothing ridiculous, I didn’t want to make him as beefy as Isontaro or some of the other characters even if he is strong in his own right. I was very tempted to go full ‘dad bod’ with him but I made him a bit leaner than that. I think with his job, the amount of travelling and moving he does he wouldn’t have time to be idle so I couldn’t see him being that type.

When it came to his outfit, I once again with something practical in mind. I wanted something to reflect what he mainly does for what he’d wear. I also kept in mind where he normally lives (the realm of Tyrrenia which is typically fairly cold - winter is a big thing there) and the fact that one of his main elements is fire so being all snuggly and warm wouldn’t bother him (hence the fur hooded jacket). I actually kept his outfit I came up with a while underneath the coat (I’m sure there’s photos that I’ve drawn even fairly recently with him wearing it). I cannot see myself changing his outfit design overall. He won’t be wearing the same thing 24/7 (I think it’s strange that a lot of manga/anime have this for their characters but I digress) but this is what you’ll primarily see him in.

In between tweaking my commission prices I did up a cute sketch of Itoku and Sirah. I really love the dynamic between the two, they’re very sweet. Since I managed to get the main story all written out I’m really looking forward to chugging along with the fourth arc and having some of the familiar faces return. Both of these guys being among those that you’ll be seeing again. 

I’m more than happy with both of their character arcs even if Sirah is a side character, she’s one that I had originally had killed off but I’m glad I changed that plot point and really fleshed her out. Makes for a nicer story tbh.

I’ll probably be making more sketches in the nearby future since I do need to work on getting a bit of a portfolio made so enjoy!