Ayami Kojima is a Japanese artist who started out as an illustrator for various novels before moving into the field of conceptual video game design. In the west, she is best known for her work as a character designer in the Castlevania series. For her paintings, Kojima mainly uses a mix of traditional mediums such as Conté crayons, India ink, acrylics, etc. Her art style is mostly characterized by dark surreal imagery, incorporating contrasting values and color tones reminiscent of the Baroque style.