(This piece is kinda old, but doesn't get enough love at another art site.. Thought I'd share it here and see what otaku think.)

Good ol' Mario. Eff that plant's face up and get those coins that you so rightfully deserve.

This is the very first piece I've ever done using this digital painting style. For once, I finished a piece without lineart showing! I think I like this style... but it's so time consuming..

I originally did the sketch for this during class and I only wanted the piranha plant. But then Mario made his way on page, with a very Ryu-inspired Hadouken fireball ready to light up that pipe-dwellers face.

There was a bit of a struggle thinking up a background for this piece. So I thought back to mario backdrops and remembered castles and those dildo-mountains. I also added some Mushroom Kingdom smog for a nice eerie effect.

Done with a Wacom tablet and Photoshop CS3.

All comments welcome!

sidenote: ...wouldn't it be kinda neat if Mario could just napalm all hell into one pipe and have all piranhas in the system burn up at once? Just a thought.