A memorable Dragon Ball Z moment is reimagined in a new painting from concept artist Daniel Oxford.
The classically-inspired take on the Goku's original Super Saiyan transformation was posted to Oxford's ArtStation profile. The piece features a visual style reminiscent of Barbizon oil paintings and shows Goku perched above the devastated landscape of Namek while his opponent, Frieza, floats off in the distance. According to the image's description, the gorgeous fan art was created for a contest.
More of Oxford's art can be viewed on their ArtStation page. Oxford is a professional concept art director who has previously worked on a number of popular video game franchises, including Reflections' Driver and Codemasters' DiRT and GRID racing series. The painter has posted many other pieces of Dragon Ball fan art, depicting events from across the series' lengthy timeline, from a young Goku riding on Flying Nimbus, to an adolescent Gohan protecting the Dragon Balls on the surface of Namek. In addition to their original work, they have also posted paintings based on a number of other popular anime, video game and movie franchises, including Final Fantasy 7, My Neighbor Totoro and pieces seemingly inspired by Shadow of the Colossus and The Legend of Zelda.
Oxford isn't the only professional artist to post their take on the Saiyan warrior. A number of famous manga artists, including Naruto's Masashi Kishimoto, Bleach creator Tite Kubo, and most recently, Demon Slayer creator Koyoharu Gotouge, have been taking part in Shueisha's Dragon Ball Super Gallery Project. The project is being held to celebrate the upcoming 40th anniversary of Dragon Ball's original publication, and every month tasks a different famous artist with redrawing one of the original series' manga covers in their own style.
Dragon Ball fans may get to see even more of Goku and his constant power-boosting transformations in 2022, as series producer Akio Iyoku recently teased that there will be more Dragon Ball Super anime this year besides the franchise's previously announced next movie, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. Details about this mysterious new release are still sparse, but fans are hoping that this means the return of the Dragon Ball Super TV anime series, which ended in 2017. Since the anime's conclusion, the Dragon Ball Super manga has published the Galactic Patrol Prisoner Saga and is nearing the end of the current Granolah the Survivor saga, neither of which have received an animated adaptation yet.
Source: ArtStation
