![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/42704ba2bf08ce52e4e3cc064fe5124d/adf679a9-538f-4d15-8719-a0ccda37a3bf_rw_600.jpg?h=de520234e7071ed07516815e4b020984)
When looking for a subject to work from, it came to me that I had not done anything with Samurai, so I sought to rectify that. I started with this image that I found on a Martial Arts forum. It seemed to be an authentic image of a real samurai and I loved the colors so it was a good starting point.
(Credit Unknown)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/42704ba2bf08ce52e4e3cc064fe5124d/9dfdb8a4-4feb-4672-9fe7-bc31e429bfe5_rw_1200.jpg?h=67db30b3f0b110c19a8c75f6c33467f9)
I took that image into Adobe Ideas on my iPad mini and set to work at finding the overall shapes. This used a few layers and simplified shadows to make it a basic outline of what I wanted. I knew that ultimately I wanted to simplify the look, but blob shapes were a good start.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/42704ba2bf08ce52e4e3cc064fe5124d/98449394-87a6-422c-9dad-ed9fc07eea42_rw_1200.jpg?h=3df0af1bdd12b455f7787ce1d6c92f05)
This is my final. After bringing the .idea file into Illustrator, I found the basic shapes I wanted from the original lines used a simplify pass on it then corrected the placement of the lines from that. I then took stock textures and did a few modifications to the colors of them and dropped them as a new fill on each section of colors.
I am happy with the results and will likely make a few more in this series.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/42704ba2bf08ce52e4e3cc064fe5124d/fa5b3047-0689-4f21-bcc6-cf85cf92d4d3_rw_1200.jpg?h=bc6da4cbf3de4a3da014f882c152518e)
This is the original of my second simplified samurai. I pulled it down from a search within Adobe Idea (a feature I hadn't used before this)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/42704ba2bf08ce52e4e3cc064fe5124d/be2d0e18-459f-4224-afba-d8d21d7aa8eb_rw_1200.jpg?h=52f4c7f2536a2fd93e50467ad0445adb)
Here is my overdrawing in Adobe ideas. Again, it's mainly to find the shapes of the shadows and highlights.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/42704ba2bf08ce52e4e3cc064fe5124d/fe239b80-e6d4-4d9b-9f81-f54052aff73e_rw_1200.jpg?h=979809efdbd64b04b08901375f1b75de)
This is my simplified and textured shapes in Illustrator.