#violet industries

[isdiaz]

A redraw of Ryoba, my sharply dressed, tattooed, fist-fighty bodyguard for Vivian Yasumi, head of the arms manufacturer Violet Industries.

I'm not sure if I ever shared it before, but Ryoba's timeline image here shows why I always draw her with a vertical slit down her mouth. Ryoba volunteered as a subject for Angelus Tech's supersoldier experimentation project, the Rebirth Program, as part of a secret deal between Vivian Yasumi and some Angelus Tech scientists. She has an extendable prehensile tongue, and modified jaws that split into mandibles with sharp teeth and superhuman jaw strength (kind of akin to Mortal Kombat's Mileena). This gives Ryoba a surprise edge against people who threaten her or Vivian, but more importantly, she is Violet Industries' walking sample of Angelus Tech's most valuable research.

Ryoba is Vivian's most dedicated and loyal bodyguard. She was formerly a grassroots bandit getting by on scavenging runs and raids on supply caravans, until her group was themselves raided by a larger marauder group. She was held prisoner for slave trade, and it was only by sheer luck that the marauders who captured her attempted to swindle Violet Industries, prompting Violet to send a kill squad to wipe them out. Violet's leader, Vivian Yasumi, went to the site to personally oversee the aftermath and retrieval of the stolen Violet equipment, where she came across Ryoba and the other prisoners. Ryoba wasn't sure what the arms dealer saw in her, but while Vivian had the prisoners freed, she personally offered Ryoba an opportunity to work under her. From that day forward, Ryoba has always considered herself in Vivian's debt, looking at her with gratitude and admiration, and eventually standing at her side as one of her closest bodyguards.

[isdiaz]

Another redraw of my other Violet Industries bodyguard, Haru Morishita (renamed from Haru Sanada, in case you wanna find his older drawings in my tags).

Between him and Ryoba, Haru is the much older bodyguard with a longer history of working under the company owner, Aiko Yasumi, though he sees Ryoba as an equal, and the both of them are the leaders of Aiko's personal security team. Haru has a disciplined and stoic personality, speaking few words but carrying an aura of intimidation. After years of familiarizing himself with Aiko, he maintains a quiet obedience and faith in the businesswoman's intentions, knowing she always has a method to her choices. Haru even quickly took to being Ryoba's mentor figure when she first joined the security team, after Aiko saw her initial potential and recruited her personally.

[isdiaz]

A line-up and banner for the five private military bigwigs I’ve been redrawing lately. They all form the Grand Cardinal Companies, five massive private military organizations that essentially run all major military power in their setting. Despite all being referred to collectively as Grand Cardinal Companies, they’re actually competitors, and more often than not have tense business relationships. 

They’re all basically big corporate frenemies with guns.

Each Grand Cardinal Company sorta has its own schtick that sets it apart from the others, which they try to use to give themselves an edge competitively. Their setting is a continent mostly comprised of independent walled-off city-states scattered among war-torn and monster-infested wastelands. These city-states often rely on hiring one of these companies to serve as protection against outside monsters or bandit groups, so the GCCs tend to compete for business with these cities.

Angelus Tech is the largest of the five. They’re a military science company that utilizes some pretty seedy bio-sciences to augment chosen soldiers with superhuman capabilities.

NeoLeonard is led by Alexandria, who’s secretly one of last people alive who can wield powerful magic in a world where people mostly rely on tech and bullets now. She herself earned the nickname of the “Calamity Maiden”, and is known to crush entire enemy forces with just herself and a small team. 

Violet Industries actually has a limited military, but that’s because they’re mostly a weapons and tech developer that excels in making highly advanced equipment. They then sell or leverage that equipment to other military powers for profit.

Severa is a more straightforward PMC that specializes in artillery and heavy machinery, choosing to solve its problems using overwhelming force and a big enough gun.

Love & War specializes in stealth and espionage, using any means necessary to eliminate threats both efficiently and with subtlety. Originally formed by those dissatisfied with their former employers, Love & War steals a bit of the other companies’ gimmicks, as many of its agents were likely from those companies.

[isdiaz]

Another redesign of one of my really old characters for 2020. This is Aiko “Vivian” Yasumi, who I’ve shared here a bunch of times before. Vivian is the name she’s more commonly known by, as that’s the business name she introduces herself under whenever she’s abroad. Also, Vivian’s the old original name I had for her when I first made her up way back when she didn’t necessarily have an Asian background yet. I think the name Aiko didn’t come into her story until 2017-ish, but even then I never mentioned it much as her birth name.

Aiko/Vivian is the owner of a massive tech development company named Violet Industries. The company presents itself as a general technology R&D organization, but at the end of the day they prioritize weaponry and other military equipment. Aiko was originally a talented engineer with a knack for presentation and sales talk. Her inventive mind and mechanical skills got her foot in the door, and her ambition for business combined with her clever mind, silver tongue, and social helped her quickly rise to the top of corporate ladder.

However, underneath her alluring surface is a venomousness one must take care to not incur. Under her seductive and enticing charm is a manipulative and calculating mind, analyzing just how to sway anyone she approaches. Despite her non-combat background, she has an intellectual ruthlessness that is perfectly willing to build her success on a mountain of bodies, and can masterfully pull all the right strings to do so.

While she definitely still has the engineering chops to design and build, she’s mostly a businesswoman now. She handles her military equipment sales personally, flanked by a trusty posse of skilled bodyguards who help make sure transactions go as planned.

[isdiaz]

Happy Pride Month everybody! I thought I’d start it with one of my purple-suited bodyguards, Ryoba Tamika, who--fun fact--has always been a lesbian character. It’s just that in pretty much all of her pictures she’s usually just being a stoic, poker-faced bodyguard on duty, so I don’t tend to depict her personal life often. But hey, that sounds fun to explore more, so maybe I will sometime. 

I played with a somewhat different, even more cartoony style here. Not that I’m dropping how I usually draw, but this version of her is just for a specific portfolio project. I also plan on doing her fellow guard Haru, and her boss, the arms dealer Vivian (or Aiko).

[isdiaz]

An arms dealer and her bodyguards.

The woman in the middle is Aiko Yasumi (who goes by Vivian for business abroad), and her two top bodyguards are Ryoba Tamika (left) and Haru Sanada (right). Aiko/Vivian is a talented engineer and even more talented businesswoman who runs a massive weapons developer and distributor called Violet Industries, that’s responsible for the region’s most advanced military tech. She’s a pretty high profile woman who can decide the winner of any conflict with her merchandise--provided they have the money.

Coincidentally, these three Violet folks all have tattoos, which were fun to whip up even if I’m not much a tattoo artist. They all got their tattoos mostly independent of each other, so even though they may share a few common elements, it’s not like Violet Industries requires them or anything.

[isdiaz]

Kei Watanabe is part of an elite team of bodyguards who accompany Aiko Yasumi, the infamous arms dealer and owner of the weapons developer Violet Industries. Kei is a quiet but highly observant individual with exceptional awareness. Her aptitude led her to being an expert sharpshooter who typically wields both a versatile machine pistol, and an extremely high-powered revolver with range comparable to sniper rifles. Because of this, Kei typically serves as a counter sniper for her team of bodyguards, spotting and eliminating sniper perches set up to threaten Aiko--usually without ever giving them the chance to realize that her and her handgun can outrange most full-sized rifles.

In contrast to Aiko herself, most of her bodyguards tend to fall into the reserved range of personalities (Aiko and the other two guards, Ryoba and Haru, are all in my galleries), though Kei is even more pronounced in that direction than the rest of the team. Kei is very capable of coordinating and cooperating with her fellow bodyguards, but by nature she is very aloof, stoic, and often keeping to herself. She doesn't like to speak much, and will usually reply to people with very short, straight-to-the-point answers. Combined with her tendency to always look annoyed, her demeanor commonly comes off as intimidating.

[isdiaz]

Updated another one of my characters' tattoos. This time for Aiko Yasumi, who also goes by Vivian, head of the giant arms developer Violet Industries. She doesn't have nearly the amount of tattoos as Ryoba, her bodyguard I shared a week ago, instead opting for one large tattoo around her arm. Which kiiinda means these modeling shots are more for funsies than actually showing how her tattoos are laid out.