African Ronin

These are Nigerian warriors from the Yoruba tribe.. Their father was a faithful worshipper of the Orisha named Ogun and was teaching them to do the same. They were taken from their families, their slave owner brought them to Japan as nameless orphan kids.They were brought to this strange land in hopes of being sold to a local circus due to their small forms and agile ways. Their slave owners feeling they were more trouble than their worth decided to cut their losses when no one would purchase them. A local blacksmith would take them in after watching them defend themselves from the local children who would taunt and bully them regularly. As they grew they'd hear the legend of Yasuke and would wish to take what they knew to serve him, or to be trained by him. They'd go on to fashion armor from leftover pieces of metal and discarded leather. Recycling broken katanas and spears to create their weapons. They'd watch a local clan practice their sword forms and techniques when they'd bring new weapons orders to the clan leader. They would go on to create a style mixing the Samurai techniques with fighting forms they practiced with their clan. Here they are standing as men, as ronin, fighting off samurai warriors who were attacking a small village who refused the increase in taxes. THeir fates, as well as their names, remain unknown to this day.

The original is a traditionally done sketch with a 2B pencil. The second rendering (black and white) was done in Photoshop with a Wacom Bamboo tablet. The final render was done with the Wacom Intuos Pro on Photoshop as well.

I researched the armor sets on Pinterest for inspiration I wanted to remain faithful to the samurai bushido way while still creating something unique enough to these characters based on their culture. Since I couldn't make the armor closer to their heritage and culture I decided to mark them up with symbols in honor of it. After all of the research and changes to their poses and expression I struggled to decide what to do for the background. The background came after I finished with everything with the warriors.