JSR Cactus

Overview

I created this artwork just after playing Jet Set Radio for the first time, inspired by the 90s aesthetic of wheeled transportation accessories. The cactus itself is based on my CactusMagelord avatar, but also taking inspiration from the old textures for Minecraft cacti with a vertical line of black thorns up the body and along each arm. Crossed arms to fit with the aesthetic are combined with casting magic in each direction; on the left a magic orb is formed as in the avatars, but on the right a skateboard is being held up by magical levitation. While in Jet Set Radio everyone uses magnetic roller skates, the cactus doesn't exactly have legs, so a skateboard is the most fitting alternative.

The cactus' clothes are comprised of a dark grey jacket with ripped sleeves and golden zip-like decorations, attached to an even darker grey hood, with a bandana on its neck. The jacket features large, shredded and torn extrusions on each shoulder, creating almost a wing-like effect while amplifying the size of the shoulders to fit the business-themed bandana which sports a suit-and-tie pattern of brown and white, with an illustration of green glowing crystals to further the magical theme.

The piece is very angular and sharp for the most part, having been illustrated using paint.net's line tool and then cropped at sharp edges with a forced-transparent version of the same tool. The shading follows suit, with aggressive and exaggerated spiky shadows accompanied by subtle soft lighting and shading. The piece is heavily dithered with a variety of patterns to add comic-esque texture; dots are present on the cactus and fraying cloth, lines across the jacket, and a combination on the hood that almost gives it a carbon fibre look. The dithering marries well with the bandana's use of a weave pattern that creates a halftone effect at its scale. Other effects used, primarily on the magic bursting from each hand, include zoom blurs and a crystal filter.