Do you remember the official Okami contest which came to an end few days ago? Well, there were so many beautiful entries that I thought it would be interesting to post a news featuring a selection of the best works.

You must know that I tried to put my personal tastes aside as much as possible, and only select the best works under a technical point of view. I knew that, doing it this way, I wouldn’t feature many good works (and by many I really mean many), even is some of them were very creative or original.
But I believe than these things (creativity and originality) are also, if not only, a matter of tastes, so I chose to select only the professional or almost professional type of works instead, with a brief comment to elaborate why I selected that specific entry.

I tried to be as much objective as possible, but all in all I just wanted to share with you some Okami works that in my opinion didn’t have the exposure they deserved.
Please enjoy!



Okami official contest – special feature (not in particular order):



Even if not much elaborated or complex, this piece shows a good use of composition, colours and a bit of the traditional Japanese painting style that really fits this game.


This digital painting shows the skills of the author, who managed to make it look like a traditional work; the composition is really good and the colours fit a battle scene well.


While the composition is quite simple, the colours give this picture a great atmosphere, making this a quite effective fanart for what it wants to depict.


The background could create a bit of confusion between the mountains and Amaterasu’s brush strokes, but this fanart has a good composition and sense of humor.


Apparently simple, this completely made with traditional media piece shows a deep understanding of colours, composition and of the traditional Japanese painting style.


The use of many different materials and solutions to create this cosplay outfit and accessory shows the not common skills of its author, who didn’t forget any detail.


Beautiful colours, really good inking and balanced yet complex composition make this a well-rounded fanart, and one of the best among the ones with a narrative intent.


This sumi-e style picture probably has the best inking of all the entries and could be the best portrait; it’s only about a single character, but it’s really well done.


Another picture with a great inking, this one represents really well Amaterasu being the Sun Goddess; the landscape colours are fantastic.


Even if using a different style from the original one in the game, its colourfulness is the same, making this entry one of the most eye-catching.


A really detailed drawing characterized by a wonderful composition; this is another of the few narrative-like pictures that where submitted.


Even if it looks a bit cropped (maybe it was too big to be better scanned?), this picture shows an interesting, more western style and a really good inking.


A quite different, yet effective take on the contest theme; humor is the key to enjoy this fanart, but it’s also nice to look at.


The atmosphere of this entry is really something; this picture is dark yet so full of details that it seems alive, and the colouring is really well done.


Okami in Balinese traditional painting style; inked on paper and then digitally coloured, it has the must complex composition of all the entries and, overall, is the most professional-like.


Even if really simple, this animation showing a real-time painting of Amaterasu well symbolizes the spirit of the game.


While the characters sometimes look a bit too much like the ones in the original artworks, this entry is based on a good idea and its composition is effective.


One of the best battle scene type of pictures submitted for the contest; aside from Amaterasu’s pose that could have been better (for a scene of this kind), it’s really well done.


Even if using a relatively simple style of inking and colouring, this picture has a quite good composition and, overall, is one of the best narrative type of submissions.


This picture is surreal and rich, making it one of the best single character portrait submitted for the contest; the colours and the composition are really effective.


The author of this fanart used a delicate touch to put in this picture many details without making it look heavy or crowned at all; great inking, too.


Well, I think it all. Of course there are still beautiful and or interesting pieces that I didn’t feature here, but you can still check the entries by yourselves… I enjoyed doing it, and I’m sure you would as well (even if I could have never imagined that it would have taken me about three days to watch and examine each and every entry!)!

P.S. English isn’t my native language, so there could be grammatical or spelling errors… please tell me if you find any and I’ll correct them ASAP! ^^’