The idea I originally had was of Goku returning to Mexico but I decided to to have Bulma tag along this time. In fact, she was the first one to be painted. Well, her car was, then her. The car is from the first chapter of Dragon Ball. Looking online, it seems the car is a Renault 5 Turbo. I’m always amazed at how compact and round Toriyama draws his cars, they look extra cute. The background was painted first which was done very roughly but I wanted the focus on Bulma and Goku so that’s fine.

About 1 or 2 years ago I wanted to make a painting of a Testarossa at night, when I didn’t quite get color theory and how it interacts with each other. So of course that didn’t go very well. But to my surprise, only using the manga panel for reference I managed to paint a good rendition of a car in a night scene with lighting effects and all. Maybe I should give that Testarossa piece another try at some point.

The Renault was apparently meant to be a rally car before it was released as a consumer car so I wanted Bulma to dress like she is travelling across Mexico. I really liked her outfit from chapter 5 (when they first met Oolong). Looking at more panels, there are a couple of details that I could have added but since she is kind of far away it should be fine. As for Goku, I had to think for a while about what he would wear, and I decided to give him a jacket reminicent of Jackie Chan’s jacket from Police Story 4. Looking at Jackies jacket they aren’t really that similar except in the color but I still think it looks good on Goku. As for what Goku is eating, I had him eating some Churros and buñuelos.

Happy New Year!

Hasta la proxima,

-NUBE