Street Fighter Art and Design: Part 3
The SF character has evolved in style and presentation through the series. One thing is certain; the person who has made the largest contribution to the character design is Bengus AKA CRMK. He has given the SF characters a certain style that has rarely been duplicated. Bengus' design work has gone on to influence manga, videogame and animé character design in Japan as well as internationally. The Vampire (Darkstalkers) game was the first fighting game in which the characters closely mirrored his original designs. These fresh-looking sprites caught the attention of the game community.
Although Bengus has been designing characters and art for Capcom since the first Street Fighter in 1987, it was not until SF Zero in 1995 (following his work with Vampire) that a SF game series had been rendered with the characters looking almost identical to his original designs. Whereas for the original SF II, Capcom greats Akiman and Sensei had designed stylized, almost proportionally realistic characters, Bengus was at the opposite end of the spectrum. The fighters personality spoke through the character designs. Muscles were exaggerated, hands and feet were disproportionate to the body, the good and bad guy archetypes were easy to identify and the animation perfectly complimented the design. Bengus has never been hung up on creating Japanese pop inspired characters but rather fresh and unique ones.
The Zero series went on to influence a number of contemporary designs in other fighting games, however none could equal the work of Bengus. The sprites used in SF Zero were so well done that they were used in almost 10 games altogether. Many who played the SF series grew to learn and love the characters and the art. Many players ended up becoming artists in their own right (myself included). Today many Western artists have borrowed or learned from the many styles Bengus has demonstrated over the years. Without a doubt the artists at both Udon in Canada have learned a great deal. Other popular comic book artists such as Humberto Ramos, Joe Maduera and Jeff Matsuda have also borrowed from his style. Even professional illustrators Jason and Heather Martin have stated that Akiman and Bengus are some of their biggest influences. Almost all of the popular comic book artists today borrow heavily from Capcom's designers' style, characters, media and presentation. In the ideal situation I would have Bengus design all of the new and returning characters for the War.

Above the many styles of Bengus 1987 to 2000. From left to right: Mike from the original Street Fighter, Ryu from Street Fighter II, Ryu (colored by Shoei), Gouken pencil sketch, Dee Jay, Gouki and Karin. The media Bengus has used has evolved with his style, including pen, marker, paintbrush, pencil and computer. His characters have gone from comic-book, manga, classic, exaggerated to animé in the span of almost 20 years. No other videogame artist has reinvented his style yet been as consistently good in any other videogame.

Since the War is so large and complex it would not be feasible to have one person or team in charge of all of the character design, redesign and levels. A large art team, larger than the combined talent of Arika and Capcom must be used. With Bengus as the lead artist his art and design experience would be invaluable in securing a new and accurate look and feel for the characters in the War. Moreover several of the artists at Capcom have a style similar if not exactly like Bengus. The artist Edayan and Ikeno being the ones whose style very closely mirrored Bengus' work on the Zero series. In addition to the Capcom and Arika art staffs there are dedicated art teams at Udon Comics should be used to help design new characters and redesign existing characters.
I do not mean to offend Capcom (of Japan) by suggesting that some of the character designs should be picked up by the other studios, but rather to help offset the cost of production. This is why I suggest the artists and writers at Udon help produce the War. The studio knows SF and Capcom history. Udon also knows what works in character design and in keeping the theme consistent with the work that has come out of Japan in the past decade. Udon is handling the story and art for the SF comic book series and Rival Schools.

Art & Design P. 1, Art & Design P. 2, Art & Design P. 3