Today we begin the series of After the Mark of Odin articles with which you can learn about the professionals behind this project, the process of developing its contents, whether history, conceptual arts, illustrations, musical themes or videos. We want to bring you closer to the creative process of everything related to the saga of ‘The Mark of Odin’. We begin with the explanation of the creative process that was followed to create the conceptual art and avatar of the character of Kira Takeda with the help of Manu Nieto, the interim illustrator of ‘The Mark of Odin’.
Next, Manu Nieto explains to us the references that he received from the author about how he wanted Kira Takeda to be visually and what his approach was to this important character in the saga.
The notes I received to illustrate Kira were that he was clearly inspired by the character of Kira Yamato, from the anime Gundam Seed. From him he not only takes his name but also several key aspects of the character, so in the appearance I also wanted to maintain the tribute. Obviously adapted to the artistic direction we had agreed for the entire Odinpedia.
For this, I used, as for almost all the characters in Odinpedia, reference photographs of real people. Among them were photographs of Hiroyuki Sanada or Daniel Dae Kim (both actors seen in the Lost series), but as long as one is too old, the another has Korean features, not Japanese. The revelation came from watching the movie Pure Steel in which the young actor Karl Yune appears. And I saw it clearly.
There he is, there is Kira Takeda… -I said to myself.
Of course, the illustrations then evolve on their own path, because at the end of the day, a character is not intended to have the face of an actor (that must be decided by the reader), but rather to be an inspiration to build a character with its own entity. In any case, this is how the pencil sketch turned out:
Still, before this final version there was another proposal for the character. In it he presented him with a more military haircut and a more adult appearance. Obviously, the author liked the first one better.