Artwork: Lilim and the Boy with the Earring (Persona 1)

Another drawing inspired by some of the character and demon designs of the early Persona series—this time the unnamed protagonist of the first game, and the persona Lilim of the Moon arcana.

This drawing is simultaneously inspired by the Persona 1 game itself, but also the official manga adaptation, wherein the protagonist (named Toudou Naoya in the manga) is menaced by his own dark side, mistaken by Naoya as his deceased twin brother. In the manga, Naoya's 'twin' uses different personas from Naoya himself—including Lilim in his introduction scene. In the actual game, there's no twin, and Lilim is a perfectly viable persona choice for the protagonist, being immune to almost all magic at the cost of being physically fragile.

A boy and his succubus-like protector.

Lilim (or Lilin) are supposedly demons like succubi, descended from Lilith, apocryphal first wife of Adam or possibly a Mesopotamian storm demon, depending on which myths you favour.

This time I tried to experiment a bit more with starker shadows cast by a low light source. I've generally avoided complex shading on these drawings on the basis that smooth shading gradients don't naturally work with the stark outlines and bold colours my current style tends to use, but this means that I have to imply shape with only one or two gradations of shadow, which can be tricky. There's also an urge to 'cheat' the placement of the shadows based on a notion of what makes the thing being shaded (hair, clothing, whatever) look best regardless of the actual direction any light is coming from.