Kaizoku Con 2025 Mascot Commission
In 2024, I was approached by the wonderful Kaizoku Con staff for their 2025 convention with the offer of being their mascot artist for the year. Extremely honoured, I jumped on the opportunity and am incredibly proud of our collaboration. Presenting Kaizoku Con’s 11th mascot: Octavia Ikuchi. The commission was for a T-shirt design and a full figure drawing of the character.
Brainstorming
Before I approach any illustration, I always write two lists: What am I trying to convey, and What are the best ways to convey it visually in a single image? With illustration pieces, we don’t have the benefit of sequence to fully expand on an idea. I sometimes end up writing mini-essays because I interrogate myself on the subject matter and when all corners are turned over, I can be fully satisfied, knowing I did the best I could create.
I got the director and vice-director on a call and asked them multiple questions so that I could have a fully realized picture of the Navy leader, before even putting pen to tablet.
Character has always been the most important thing to me when it comes to creating art. In Syd Field’s “Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting”, he says that there 3 Ps that make a character have dimension: Professional, Personal and Private. Even if only the tip of this iceberg is shown on screen, knowing these 3 Ps of your character will lift them above a 2-dimensional caricature in your head as you write. So I fully wanted to know who this marine captain was before I began.
Visual Development
First concepts for the full figure drawing. My first and foremost objective was to convey how sinister and intimidating she was.
Octavia’s base design wasn’t created by me, but by Emma, a member of the convention committee, and it was my job to enhance what was there and elevate her for her debut to all her fans who hadn’t met her yet.
Kaizoku Con’s mascots have a very unique feature where every year is a new character who is a member of the “Kaizo” pirate crew (the con’s branding is pirate themed). So across the years they had been establishing a robust crew of personality.
After a decade of the swashbuckling heroes, they planned to christen their 2nd decade with their antagonists: the marine navy who doggedly chase them down.
Details
How do you show in one character design, that this marine captain, is the boogeyman pirates fear? I thought some horrifying kind of trophy would be the best way.
I asked if I could make her chain out of severed fingers (I was thinking of how Yakuza gangsters take pinkies) but predictably, wasn’t suitable character design to represent a family friendly convention.
After deliberating, the vice director of Kaizo 2025, Mira, suggested gold teeth to represent pirates. It was a brilliant suggestion, and thus, Octavia got a chain adorned with gold teeth from pirate victims with some gold rings for extra flair.
I noticed that while pirates are famously greedy and treasure hungry, the Kaizo mascots were almost demure and humble in the way they dressed. It makes sense; they’re heroes and are not solely driven by greed.
So I saw the elements of gold on her concept art and decided to elevate and exaggerate that detail to further contrast her as an opposing and antagonistic force to the Kaizo crew.
Her epaulettes, belt buckle, the trim of her boots- every single piece of gold on her has been smelted down from what she’s got as a trophy from defeating pirate scum.
The Squid
There’s been a running element of a giant squid chasing and terrorizing the Kaizo crew for the past few years, and I was told I had the honour of unveiling the one behind it.
Octavia controls the squid with a gold and emerald looking gem attached to her hand with jewelry. I asked if Octavia cared for the squid as a partner in crime fighting, or saw it solely as a tool and a "dumb animal”. The staff decided that it was the former.
I then elevated that and added elements of the squid in other parts of her accessories, and made her proud of her partner, and made squid motifs into her belt buckle and the hilt of her rapier.
Her Hair
After saying the words “marine” and “squid” dozens of times, and thinking it four times more than that, my brain was stuck in the ocean.
When I considered that the concept art had long blue hair, I decided to once more elevate it according to the theme, and had the tips of her hair like the seafoam of waves. When I look at her powerful stance, and robust shock of blue hair, I could hear the crashing of waves. Imperfect thought, successful result!
The Final Render
Thar’ she blows! Exploding off the screen!
The final details I will explain are the projected green tentacles. In the proposal PDF, I was told the green circles in her coat lining were meant to resemble the suckers on a squid’s tentacle. Then O looked it up and realised octopi have suckers, while squids have hooks, then left that face for artistic interpretation.
The tentacles are wrapping around Octavia fondly, to show that this is a mutual relationship and not an antagonistic one.
I truly love how this final piece came out, and hope to work with the Kaizoku Con team again, if they’ll have me once more.
The T-shirt
To bring it home, I had to design the T-shirt that would be purchased at the convention (I b0ught one as a trophy of my own).
In this one, Octavia is more unkept to represent a storm at sea, and further leaned into the representation of Octavia’s hair as powerful waves by aligning it with a wave, one inspired by the famous Japanese painting, “The Great Wave of Kanagawa” by Hokusai.
The Kaizo pirates’ ship has long since been a representation of strength, adventure and camaraderie, in the past years’ illustrations. So to highlight how terrifying a force Octavia is, I shrunk down the ship, removed its warm wooden hues, and washed it out with blue to something in the middle of Octavia’s clawed grasp, at her mercy.
A few people even asked me to sign the shirt when they came by my table! Eeek! It was an honour!
Truly one of the best experiences of my career. Let’s toast to more on the morrow!
