After getting into Rayman again recently, I started thinking about how much fun it is seeing game mascots together in series like Smash Bros and other crossover games. I decided to do an illustration of some of my favorites coming together, and thought it would be fun to draw their younger selves for it.
This was a rather tough one to figure out at first. I had a general idea of what I wanted to do, but not exactly how I wanted to show it.
First I thought about Rayman telling young Mario, Crash Bandicoot, and Sonic about his adventures in a book, but I wasn’t a fan of the composition.
Then I played around with the idea of him teaching them, since almost all of them had some sort of learning games. However, I still didn’t like how it was coming out.
Eventually I ended up finding a nice solution and a composition I was happy with. I kept the idea of Rayman reading to baby Mario, while having Sonic and baby Crash off in the background.
I refined the character sketches and fleshed out the background a bit. I was referencing referenced Pink Plant Woods from Rayman 1 for the setting.
I refined the background even further for more details, and at this point I decided against inking it and instead coloring it lineless.
I inked the characters then laid out the background flats for later.
Went into more detail and shading in the background, then laid out the flat colors for the characters.
Then finally I added the last bit of details to the characters and background with shading, lighting, and text on the book.
Here’s a video of the process!
This illustration has been one of my most detailed ones so far, I’m very happy with it!