Simon Belmont
'Simon Belmont' is an artwork by artist Dave Rapoza. Commissioned by art gallery Cook and Becker, the piece was created under official license from Konami.
For inspiration, Rapoza drew heavily from his own 'nostalgic memory' of Castlevania as he said in our interview with him.
"I didn't revisit the original NES video game too much for research — not literally anyway. For me, drawing a two-tone purple monster today would feel silly, right? How's that scary at all?"
"But when you tap into your nostalgic memory of Castlevania, the magic is still there — your interpretation of this world that was merely implied by the game makers using the tools at the time. The pixels only imply certain shapes, and you fill in the blanks with your imagination."
Alongside his own memories, Rapoza also looked to other interpretations of Castlevania art, including Ayami Kojima's brilliant Castlevania art and the current iteration of Simon Belmont featured in Super Smash Bros.
"You mix those interpretations and add your own ideas. At the same time, you have to stay true to the established shape language of characters like Dracula or Simon. Everyone has a favorite interpretation, and you have to appeal to this shared idea of the character people carry in their heads — otherwise, they won't accept it."
For inspiration, Rapoza drew heavily from his own 'nostalgic memory' of Castlevania as he said in our interview with him.
"I didn't revisit the original NES video game too much for research — not literally anyway. For me, drawing a two-tone purple monster today would feel silly, right? How's that scary at all?"
"But when you tap into your nostalgic memory of Castlevania, the magic is still there — your interpretation of this world that was merely implied by the game makers using the tools at the time. The pixels only imply certain shapes, and you fill in the blanks with your imagination."
Alongside his own memories, Rapoza also looked to other interpretations of Castlevania art, including Ayami Kojima's brilliant Castlevania art and the current iteration of Simon Belmont featured in Super Smash Bros.
"You mix those interpretations and add your own ideas. At the same time, you have to stay true to the established shape language of characters like Dracula or Simon. Everyone has a favorite interpretation, and you have to appeal to this shared idea of the character people carry in their heads — otherwise, they won't accept it."
Dave Rapoza
Dave Rapoza (1987) is an American concept and comic artist known for his work on Spider-Man and Spider-Verse covers for Marvel comics, on Magic the Gathering cards and the Clayde's Six comic for Destiny 2.