I've long loved the work of Patrick Nagel. You know, the guy whose work (or knockoffs thereof) hangs out in every salon you've ever been to?

His style is so clean, and he did it all without any computers. His work looks like vectors, but no, not at all! I could wax poetic on stuff like influences all day, and trace the lineage of his work, but that's boring to normal people, so I won't. Instead, I'll just post this up.

Nagel usually had dark-haired characters in his work, mostly women, but I decided to do Harry. He's not the kind of guy Nagel would have used as a model- his features are very heavy, unlike the almost anime-esque beauties he churned out. However, Harry's everything is 100% 80s-style business sleaze, so I can see him commissioning the guy when he was alive.

What brought this on was me drawing Harry in a style inspired by a certain era of Kaneko Kazuma's work on the Shin Megami Tensei series. I realized, upon seeing a little documentary video that his style during the Nocturne era is intensely similar to Nagel at his peak. The difference is that Kaneko's work is much more detailed and fantastic, with greater use of rendering and color variety, while Nagel's is very muted, relying on a more economic line style and flat shading and splashes of vibrancy here and there to create his striking work.

My personal rendition is far from either of these masters, but I have learned something in the exercise. I do think I managed to convey the spirit I'm reaching towards, if not the exact execution. I tend to use many lines, while both Kaneko and Nagel are capable of communicating much through few, so I had to fight my natural inclination.

This was meant to be a warmup exercise today, but I was having so much fun that I couldn't stop. One day, I will sit down and make a more dedicated effort and study of economy of line and form, but this one makes me happy to look at, for now.