Let’s get scratchin’!

Self Critique: This spot might be more appropriate for the background as the characters were originally drawn by DJ Chidow and then touched up, inked, and colored by me. The residential building with the blue sign above it is still kinda meh to me. Probably could’ve done with being a little wider.

I was approached by fellow JSRL rudie DJ Chidow to work on the cover art of his album, 99th Street Bounce. His friend @damoy_doodles (Instagram name) had already drawn Chidow (the guy in the middle), Rapid 99 and Cube. All I had to do was ink them and color them in. Chidow was an easy ink in, though I did change his pants to JNCO jeans (upon his request). I was told to fix up some of the assets of Rapid 99 and Cube that he did. So I brought out my Body-Chan model to do a partial redraw and make the necessary changes. I kept Rapid 99’s face, while I redrawing Cube’s face to match up to the game’s rendition. Since the background was planned to have a purple tinge, I went ahead and gave them a purple filter and a light purple rim lighting.

Moving on to the background, I was told to base it off the territory of the Rapid 99 gang from Jet Set Radio Future, 99th Street. Thankfully I was given some references to go by since I personally don’t have the game (no Xbox), and video footage online isn’t the best. I knew early on I was gonna put them on the pagoda located in this place, as well as include the dragon that wraps around. This setting also gave me another chance to do buildings at night. Last time I did them was with the buildings in Feedback Romance. This time I had some new tricks up my sleeve over the years, allowing me to add on more buildings than before. Since Benten Street was close by, I added the buildings from that territory in the distance. Couldn’t quite add more billboards to those buildings due to time constraints, but considering they’d be covered by the characters, it wasn’t much of a loss. I attempted to use my newly acquired Background Bood to do clouds at night. However the examples shown weren’t quite what I wanted, especialy since the horizon was covered by the city skyline. I dd however learn to erase away at the starts both for when it’s overlapping a cloud and when there’s stars closer to the moon. Speaking of, I did refer to that same book to try out a more efficient way to render it. And sure enough it worked!

Before I go, You might notice a couple of returning cameosfrom a previous Jet Set Radio pic I did in the background. Can you spot them?

Overall this was enjoyable to work on, and is probably one of the most detailed pieces I’ve worked on in recent memory.

I’d like to thank DJ Chidow for the opportunity t collaborate with him in making the album art, as well as making some good music (which did also help with establishing the mood of this piece). And again I’d like to thank the rudies over on JetSetRadio.Live, and DJ Professor K for the awesome commuity he’s built up!

Done on Clip Studio Paint Pro. Intuos 4 Tablet used. Characters originally drawn by @damoy_doodles, then refined by me.

Jet Set Radio is (c) SEGA. 99th Street Bounce (c) DJ Chidow.