Shao Kali and Sindan

Empress Shao Kali and King Sindan

My entry for the Gender-swap competition

I went with Emperor Shao Kahn and Queen Sindel, and transformed them into their gender opposite versions, Shao Kali and Sindan. I picked these 2 characters as they have a strong relationship, as rulers of their respective realms, lovers, and bitter enemies.

The design was difficult but in a fun way. Sindan was easy enough. I originally went with shorts instead of pants, but they just didn't work. I changed her make-up to dark evil generic eye sockets. I made his hair a little more flowy then Sindel, as it made him a bit more masculine. The big volumed hair was NOT going to work

Shao Kali required more work. I hope people don't dislike the helmet. I changed her mask for two main reasons. First of all it was simply too hard to tell by her face that she was female. Putting Shao Kahn's helmet on a female character would have just looked like bad cosplay. Secondly, I figured a female character would have more of her face on show. Shao Kahn is very vein, so his female counter part would be the same but in different ways.

The head held in Shao Kali's hand in Li Kang, the female Liu Kang. The background is Shao Khan's throne room. That was a nightmare to draw. The perspective was tricky to figure out.

I hope everyone enjoys the pic. Drawn on 150gsm layout paper, inked with uni-pins, and coloured in photoshop elements on a wacom bamboo tablet.

27 hours from start to finish, with well over 200 photoshop layers. The original file is 209mb in size