Zako Artwork (5 Viewers)

[Watt Khan]

Hey all, it's been a while but I finally found some free time to do a bit of art. The zako this time is the assassin Mei-Ling (or San-Jin) from the Tenchi wo Kurau II (Warriors of Fate) arcade game. She first appears as the 3rd level boss along with her co-assassins Mei-Yu and Mei-Mei. All three of them are demoted to zako status later on in the game. The zako world has its fair share of kung-fu themed baddies and these girls are definitely high on the list of my personal favourites. Other notable ones would include the cheongsam girl from Genkido Advance and the trio from the violent (and Rapey) Fatal Fight games. As usual, screenshot refs and the art:

Just to clarify, I do not speak Chinese and I am not at all familiar with the elegant art of Chinese Calligraphy. I used an online calligraphy generator to help me with the art. There is a bit of inconsistency in how Mei-Ling is portrayed in the game. In her sprite form, she is donning pink/purple; but elsewhere in the game, she's clad in blue. As I've hinted earlier, I haven't really had the time to practice my art and I do feel a bit rusty. Hopefully, this isn't too apparent with the above art.

This.

Most of the pics I've create now are purely for me rather then the community. I used to make genuine effort to make requests for people or pics for people based on conversations that were happening. That said, there's little reason for me to try to post things for the community, when the feedback I get is at best indifference or more likely "Why didn't you do X instead?"

You really don't need to respond to something you don't care for multiple times with "I don't care for it". There's plenty of zako pics posted here I don't particularly care for due to their content not being my particular tea.

It's already kind of sucky that in modern times pictures you post are completely forgotten within 24 hours. It's 10 times worse to see someone responding to it with "everything that person does is boring!".

Pretty much every zako artist I know has talked at some point why they don't share their content on here or the undertow discord. I'm not trying to single you out and it is kind of part of just how the internet works. But making zako stuff is time consuming and a skill that needs to be learned, and most zako content creators I know are almost always on the verge of quitting as it often feels like you're screaming into a void.

It's fine to just skip over it. But there's no benefit to trying to convince people their stuff is bad. Templar spent years essentially building the zako community and hosting artists and great expense to himself when there wasn't anywhere else (on sexyamazons). There is truly no need to reply multiple times about how you don't like his stuff.

You've got the right to do it but why would zako content creators stick around if that's what they should expect by posting.

I really sympathize with you on this. Even though I do appreciate the occasional likes and hearts, the lack of interaction and constructive criticism here can be really demotivating. But hey that's just me.

 

[Tsukachan]

Hey all, it's been a while but I finally found some free time to do a bit of art. The zako this time is the assassin Mei-Ling (or San-Jin) from the Tenchi wo Kurau II (Warriors of Fate) arcade game. She first appears as the 3rd level boss along with her co-assassins Mei-Yu and Mei-Mei. All three of them are demoted to zako status later on in the game. The zako world has its fair share of kung-fu themed baddies and these girls are definitely high on the list of my personal favourites. Other notable ones would include the cheongsam girl from Genkido Advance and the trio from the violent (and Rapey) Fatal Fight games. As usual, screenshot refs and the art:

View attachment 132934
View attachment 132937
View attachment 132938
Just to clarify, I do not speak Chinese and I am not at all familiar with the elegant art of Chinese Calligraphy. I used an online calligraphy generator to help me with the art. There is a bit of inconsistency in how Mei-Ling is portrayed in the game. In her sprite form, she is donning pink/purple; but elsewhere in the game, she's clad in blue. As I've hinted earlier, I haven't really had the time to practice my art and I do feel a bit rusty. Hopefully, this isn't too apparent with the above art.



I really sympathize with you on this. Even though I do appreciate the occasional likes and hearts, the lack of interaction and constructive criticism here can be really demotivating. But hey that's just me.

Looks good, but I still don't get it with Capcom changing the original Chinese names to random-ass Mongolian/Turkic names

 

[jettmanas]

Nice one. And quite the info on the characters. Good point on the lack of interaction here.

 

[Watt Khan]

Looks good, but I still don't get it with Capcom changing the original Chinese names to random-ass Mongolian/Turkic names

Yeaaah that was a real weird choice. I'm guessing that the people in charge of localization thought that the whole Chinese warring states period would be too dense for the regular gamer. But I have to say that the fantasy scenario that they replaced it with is just...meh

 

[Watt Khan]

Nice one. And quite the info on the characters. Good point on the lack of interaction here.

Thanks man! We are social animals after all and to be faced with just silence can be very jarring at times.

 

[Tsukachan]

Yeaaah that was a real weird choice. I'm guessing that the people in charge of localization thought that the whole Chinese warring states period would be too dense for the regular gamer. But I have to say that the fantasy scenario that they replaced it with is just...meh

I see why..
BTW, can you draw this boxer girl from the upcoming beat-em-up, Final Vendetta?
Her name is Karen BTW, and she's very hot!!

 

[Hotdoghero1]

By suggestion from @slayer Thanks for all the Honey Select and Streets of Girls collabs & RPs.
Oh, these poor ladies. The blonde's stunned from a prior attack. The 'hero' is insane.
I'll just keep this to UT. Enjoy.
View attachment 132889

I kind of find a good bit of humor with the image and general situations between dolls and getting blown up with rocket launchers. Obviously, an explosive missile is gonna terrifying the fuck out of anyone in their way, but with dolls being the first to bring in grenades, it's easier to think of it as karma. Nice job!

Hey all, it's been a while but I finally found some free time to do a bit of art. The zako this time is the assassin Mei-Ling (or San-Jin) from the Tenchi wo Kurau II (Warriors of Fate) arcade game. She first appears as the 3rd level boss along with her co-assassins Mei-Yu and Mei-Mei. All three of them are demoted to zako status later on in the game. The zako world has its fair share of kung-fu themed baddies and these girls are definitely high on the list of my personal favourites. Other notable ones would include the cheongsam girl from Genkido Advance and the trio from the violent (and Rapey) Fatal Fight games. As usual, screenshot refs and the art:

View attachment 132934
View attachment 132937
View attachment 132938
Just to clarify, I do not speak Chinese and I am not at all familiar with the elegant art of Chinese Calligraphy. I used an online calligraphy generator to help me with the art. There is a bit of inconsistency in how Mei-Ling is portrayed in the game. In her sprite form, she is donning pink/purple; but elsewhere in the game, she's clad in blue. As I've hinted earlier, I haven't really had the time to practice my art and I do feel a bit rusty. Hopefully, this isn't too apparent with the above art.



I really sympathize with you on this. Even though I do appreciate the occasional likes and hearts, the lack of interaction and constructive criticism here can be really demotivating. But hey that's just me.

Considering how the Mei sisters don't really get enough fanart imo, I do appreciate this one and how their actual martial skills (kick) is highlighted. Beautiful!

 

[jettmanas]

I kind of find a good bit of humor with the image and general situations between dolls and getting blown up with rocket launchers. Obviously, an explosive missile is gonna terrifying the fuck out of anyone in their way, but with dolls being the first to bring in grenades, it's easier to think of it as karma. Nice job!


Considering how the Mei sisters don't really get enough fanart imo, I do appreciate this one and how their actual martial skills (kick) is highlighted. Beautiful!

Thanks!

 

[Joe Bloggs]

I suppose this is partly the right place for this sketch I did on account of the presence of females in it. Couldn't really see a mixed section if one even exists. Anyway thought I would share. A fearsome amazonian heroine tears through a horde of nameless evil cannon fodder.

No real structure to the action as I just tried to fill the page with as many figures as possible.

Spoiler

 

[Watt Khan]

I see why..
BTW, can you draw this boxer girl from the upcoming beat-em-up, Final Vendetta?
Her name is Karen BTW, and she's very hot!!

No promises, but i'll definately think about it

 

[Tsukachan]

No promises, but i'll definately think about it

Okey dokey. I'm not forcing you to draw Karen, just a little suggestion since I still wanna see more fanarts of her.

 

[Watt Khan]

A surprise for Tsukachan, the boxer zako from the upcoming Final Vendetta game. I'm going to be a bit contrarian here and claim that her name is not Karen. Here's my reasoning, it's common for sprite-based beat em ups to have enemies with different names according to their palette colours. In the screenshot where the name Karen appears, the boxer is wearing yellow boxing attire. It's reasonable to assume that the boxer in blue would have a different name. Looking at other screenshots, you can see how the other flat bottomed zakos have different names based on their palettes. I could be wrong though, only time will tell.

The hair for this zako reminds me a lot of the hairstyle of Han-Juri from the Streets Fighters series and I used her as a reference for the hair. I've taken some liberties from her original design. Boxers usually have their shorts up to their navel as shown with the sprite. In my art, her abs are more exposed and I don't think anyone here will complain. I'm extremely glad that her character is wearing boxing gloves. I'm sure fellow artists will agree that drawing convincing-looking phalanges can be quite the pain. To be honest, I wasn't the biggest fan of this Zako initially. But having drawn her, I've grown to appreciate her a little bit more.

 

[Tsukachan]

A surprise for Tsukachan, the boxer zako from the upcoming Final Vendetta game. I'm going to be a bit contrarian here and claim that her name is not Karen. Here's my reasoning, it's common for sprite-based beat em ups to have enemies with different names according to their palette colours. In the screenshot where the name Karen appears, the boxer is wearing yellow boxing attire. It's reasonable to assume that the boxer in blue would have a different name. Looking at other screenshots, you can see how the other flat bottomed zakos have different names based on their palettes. I could be wrong though, only time will tell.

View attachment 133047
View attachment 133048

The hair for this zako reminds me a lot of the hairstyle of Han-Juri from the Streets Fighters series and I used her as a reference for the hair. I've taken some liberties from her original design. Boxers usually have their shorts up to their navel as shown with the sprite. In my art, her abs are more exposed and I don't think anyone here will complain. I'm extremely glad that her character is wearing boxing gloves. I'm sure fellow artists will agree that drawing convincing-looking phalanges can be quite the pain. To be honest, I wasn't the biggest fan of this Zako initially. But having drawn her, I've grown to appreciate her a little bit more.

Aaahhhhh she looks amazing!! THANKS!!

 

[Watt Khan]

Aaahhhhh she looks amazing!! THANKS!!

You're very welcome. This piece actually breaks my record for fastest art turn-out. Either I'm getting better with this whole art business or I'm just rushing things.

 

[Tsukachan]

You're very welcome. This piece actually breaks my record for fastest art turn-out. Either I'm getting better with this whole art business or I'm just rushing things.

I think you're getting better, pal

 

[Watt Khan]

You know what, I think I'm gonna do one more piece of art before I dip and disappear for a month or so again.
Hint: Double Dragon zako

 

[Watt Khan]

When thinking of Double Dragon and Zako, we naturally think of the Iconic Linda Lash. However, the more recent games have introduced a plethora of new Zakos to the DD universe. My personal favourite would be Ayumi the kunoichi zako from Double Dragon IV. From what I hear the game itself is pretty lacklustre. In the game's ending, one of the Lee brothers said that they do not use Sou-Setsu-Ken to kill their opponents. Yeah, I'm sure the Kunoichis that fell from tall buildings and got impaled by sharp pointy things survived just fine. Art and sprites for reference:

Once more a quick turnaround. I really enjoyed drawing this one especially realizing the lush background and playing around with the lighting. But as a point of self-criticism, maybe I could have made the silhouette a bit better. Ayumi's outfit here is far more revealing compared to her sprite counterpart. Nonetheless, I think I captured her essence just fine.

 

[osw]

Love the cut on the shin guard!

 

[Watt Khan]

Love the cut on the shin guard!

Thanks! That's the advantage of referencing so many different materials; you get inspired on the small little details.

 

[jettmanas]

Nice job on this & the boxer.
Solid writing as well. Interesting point on not killing, then mention of how they can be finished.