Bad-ass geisha girl

Concept artist Gennaro Grazioso reveals how he tackles character design to capture the essence of a geisha girl

Artist Gennaro Grazioso creates a striking and unique character concept in SketchBook Pro.

They say inspiration can be found anywhere. I was just scrolling through Facebook one day when I came across a competition to design a geisha or samurai character. That’s when my idea for Geiko began to take shape.

A young geisha doll, driven by anger and revenge, roams the streets as she takes down all the bad men that hurt people like her. She’s a geisha turned self-serving samurai, a vigilante within a dangerous cyberpunk universe.

I wanted to capture a grungy dark urban vibe, laced with elegant traditional Japanese elements. The idea that kept coming up again and again was to make her ‘ bad-ass’. That’s the core essence of Geiko that I established early on and held on to until the very end.

Here, I’ll explain how I developed this Geiko illustration, and my whole thought process and approach to design. You’ll pick up tips on how to push your ideas forward and craft the final details. I want to leave you with concepts and methods you can adapt and use in your own work. So let’s start with the most crucial bit…