Street Fighter IV - Rita

Well, I did this as a challenge by to design a character for Street Fighter IV, just for self improvement. I have no idea what I'm doing, here's some text:

Name: Rita Izumi
Origin: Canada
Age: 28
Fighting Style: Zui Quan (Drunken Fist)
Character Backstory: Residing in Canada, Rita has a Japenese ethnic background and learned kung fu from her father since she was a small child, although her mother had passed away they were happy together and hockey was a favorite past time for them. She was 17 when her father passed away then she set out to find her grandfather whom she had also heard was a great master. She had never known her grandfather though, for her father did not approve of his "lifestyle". After finding him she doubts him to be a old drunk, however he bests her in battle and she begs to train under him. Her grandfather was a master of Zui Quan, the drunken fist, and so after a decade of training she returns to the city to spend her time playing street hockey, getting drunk in sports bars and participating in riots and brawls. She has adopted a custom Bō Staff as her choice weapon which she can also use to play street hockey. Now she sets out, determined to prove her skill.

Design choices: Initially I wanted to do a drunken fist fighter because I'm a fan of that and it's not already in use, I also wanted to do a girl. I am Canadian but in trying to come up with a more original character I felt there was a gap in Canadian fighters and normally I wouldn't represent them anyway. In BC there are also some areas that are rich in Japanese heritage so I didn't see a problem in using a non-Caucasian character. The characters from Street Fighter are typically stereotypes of different cultures so I figured hockey is an obvious answer, because she's Canadian. I gave her a mask to depersonify her so that it would compliment her slick fighting style and lead the player to ask what she is meant to be. Later I found out about Vega who also has a mask but it's for show and Rita's is additionally for use in Street Hockey. Many of the girl fighters in Street Fighter are fully clothed but I wanted to show a bit more skin just for me to work with. I referenced the style loosely and I'm not too familiar with digital art tools so I only did a few different things for the line work, referencing the actual art style for Street Fighter IV is why the character is isolated with paint splatters emphasizing her movement. Her pose was referenced from Drunken Master 2, using the hand gesture that some people familiar with the style would recognize. I wasn't happy with any mask style so the end result of that is kind of random, there were other designs initially that got poor feedback. There was another image initially that I ceased because I wasn't happy that the art style was so far removed from the actual presentation of the Street Fighter IV art style, using thick organic lines that also become shadow. Even though she has many similarities to Casey Jones she was the conclusion of a separate thought process and Casey is a pretty cool guy anyway

Paint Tool SAI, 6 hours in one sitting