lol, I realized that I have yet to talk about why I did this piece, what things inspired me, etc.

Okay first of all, as you all probably know, I did this piece originally for a Fan Art contest at the website formerly known as MKI. This particular drawing started out as a sketch to practice for a more final piece that I will do in the future which will be a full body picture of Rayden in this new look. His clothes are loosely based on the image "The Gods of Wind and Thunder" by Sotatsu Nonomura, which I can’t find a copy of and the net O.o. I wanted him to have more of the spirit of his Japanese origin but still be suitable for the god of Thunder of Mortal Kombat.

The inspiration for his face and hat are slightly based on Christopher Lambert in the first movie. I wanted a slightly more realistic feel than the game but still wanted his look to be "Rayden-ish" not "an actor playing Rayden-ish". I think I achieved this to an extent but I know that there is a lot that I still want to do.

I left his skin black and white *or gray, however you look at it* because of several reasons. First of all it was meant to be a sketch and usually I don't color my sketches, I simply felt inspired to this time around. I also felt that coloring his skin would take away from the shading of his skin that I've really grown to love. From my view, coloring his skin would give him a race, and as the former protector of Earth Realm, I wanted him to be able to identify with people all over the world. In the future however, I do plan to color his skin. The reason for him not having a background is similar, he was originally a sketch.

A few more reasons why I kept his skin black and white was because I like how it looked, and wanted to try something new as an artist. I also wanted to see what other people's reactions would be to it. Well, I think I covered everything concerning the image itself.

After this piece I will make the full body image of Rayden in this outfit. That will be followed by a redesign of Fujin, which will also be based on the image by Nonomura Sotatsu as well as a modernized remake of his painting.

I don't know what I will go to after this. I have a list of several Mortal Kombat ideas that I want to try so I suppose I will start on those. I will start all of this after my finals in college, which should end next Wednesday.

Any other questions, feel free to ask.