Illustrate a game card character

Will Murai shows how to get the right balance between light and dark – and add the necessary details – for a compelling female fighter

Will Murai shows how to balance light and dark, and add all the details, for a compelling female fighter.

Demon stopper Oliveira is a character created for the mobile card game Legend of the Cryptids, developed by the Japanese publisher Applibot.

She is the warrior who prevents demons and monsters coming up to the surface of Earth. In her backstory, Oliveira spent time in Hell and was rescued by a sacred warrior who also taught her how to fight. In this painting I’m depicting a scene where she is receiving the magic katars from her master. They will help her battle against monsters, as she tries to stop them rising from the depths of the Underworld.

As well as telling this particular story in the illustration, I came up with the idea that she should have scars over her body as a vestige of the time she was in the hands of the demons. Every scar, besides being a physical mark, is a little story in its own right. I wondered if this type of attention to detail and character depth could attract players’ curiosity about her and lead them to identify a little bit more with her.