Shiba Kuukaku Reference Dump, p1
I was recently drawing a comic that returned Shiba Kuukaku and Ganju. This was my first time drawing either on of them, so I ended up collecting a ton of references. I’m trying to get in the habit of organizing my references after the fact so that a) I can delete them from my main camera roll and b) they are organized in case I want to use them again later. I like to collect multiple small references into one shot because that’s easier to import into my drawing program later and then I can copy the ones I want onto their own layers. This fits very well into my own work flow (I also keep big sheets of, like, 100 ears or 20 hands). Anyway, here are some Kuukakus.
Faces
More faces
Body shots
Back and side
Unfortunately, none of these have a really clear shot of her sky tattoo. I did have one really useful reference that I found on Google images, but it had a great big “do not repost” watermark across it, so to compromise, here is a picture *I* drew of her tattoo, and a bonus one that has a good shot of the design on her shirt (It’s the Shiba family symbol, the Collapsing Whirlpool of the Crashing Heaven. Ganju has it on his battle pants, and Kaien had it as a forearm tattoo).
Some observations I made while drawing Kuukaku:
In the anime, Kuukaku has a prosthesis (you can see it a little in the second image), but this is never shown in the manga. I like to stick to the manga, so I didn’t bother with it.
Kuukaku keeps her sword tied to her right arm. The armband she wears actually looks a lot like Yoruichi’s hair tie.
Kuukaku’s hair is in sort of discrete chunks. She has one on either side of her face, one in the middle, and one that sticks out of her head wrap. In the back, her hair is long, and separates into two parts, which I assume is suppose to be evocative of a swallow’s tail.
Her skirt is slit on the right side
It took me a while to figure out her head-wrap, but it’s not actually that hard to draw once you get used to it. Draw the part that goes across the forehead first, it’s almost exactly like drawing Renji’s Standard Bandana, except the knot is all the way on the side. The knot has a loop and a drapy bit. The last bit just follows the contours of the top of her head, and you can divide into a couple of strips.
Do not forget the Shiba eyelashes. The Shiba eyelashes are vital.