Artbook Rei…you can find her in my NSFW artbook-in-progress A Chaotic Garden, which will be released sometime late this year or early next year.

Tonight

You will die in my arms

And I will scatter you among the stars

Where you will lay in ecstasy

Each breath is my name upon your lips

I was very inspired by Edo period Japan, in particular the Rinpa school of art (which I have always loved) both in the background and the calligraphy, and the geisha/oiran traditional makeup style. Since the artbook follows a similar vein, I thought it would be interesting to put her in an original design that reflected the Chaos element, and symbolized Rei’s predicament within the Chaos realm. Rei’s obi is undone, and has it’s own symbolism that adds to the story of the kimono (although it’s hard to see). Her makeup is inspired the Kyoto-based photo studio Esperanto Kokoro Kyoto Okazaki, which specializes in traditional geisha and oiran costuming and makeup. I gave Rei the more elaborate oiran makeup design (given the NSFW themes of the artbook), which make her face really glow :D. The gold calligraphy reads right-to-left the original poem written above.

In this story the Dragon (Jadeite) and the Phoenix (Mars) are entwined together and one will either take the other out of the darkness, or one will drag the other into the darkness. Done in both Clip Studio Pro and Photoshop 2022.