Following on my latest obsession for Kazuya Minekura's work and having done Saiyuki for my first wall, it's time for Kubota and Tokito from Wild Adapter to get the well-deserved attention for my second wall.

The idea for the title 'Stray Cat' comes from the manga with Kubota picking up Tokito the 'stray cat' as pictured in this wall in their first introduction to each other. Also relates to Tokito's deformed right hand looking like a claw - read manga for more story :)

Here I wanted to create a 'noir movie'-like shot where it's kinda smelling dark and angsty - hence the cinematic widescreen borders and a touch of sepia for extra dramatic effect.

It's done in a comic/manga style because I love the original scan (courtesy of Bane Huntress) which is basically just a pic of the guys in pencil sketch - hence, crazy filtering abuse on the original alleyway stock photo to match the sketchy look.

The background was definitely the biggest challenge here. With minimal brushing involved, the background stockphoto is almost purely transformed using a mesh of complicated composites of various photoshop's basic filters, plus minor tweaks using Dodge, Burn and default brushes.

Massive thanks for people in Session Zero for your comments and suggestions, esp for the sepia idea, really appreciate everyone's help.

Enjoy - cheers! :)