#I've added more details to her design like some little changes in her clothes

[notomys-mordax-blog]

Regrettably, I have not gotten all of my feelings about Veilguard out of my system. I've decided to cope with this by continuing to post novels regarding my thoughts about the narrative. Since I'm generally here for the characters, I'm organizing my thoughts on a character-by-character basis. I'm going to include my general opinions about the characters, things I liked and disliked about their involvement in the game, and thoughts I have about how I may have improved upon their narrative or things that might have made their stories more effective (for me). 

Part 1 Lace Harding

Overall: 5/10

She's a really cute character with an adorable design. Say what you will about the change in art style, but I find the ladies of Veilguard to be absolutely gorgeous. I also liked the visual storytelling that we had with her design. I could really imagine her adding the little embroidered details to her clothing while away on a scouting mission. 

Lace is our returning companion. When this was revealed, I thought that she was a good choice. She was a fan favorite in DA:I and struck the right balance between being familiar, without having too much pre-existing plot that would need to be incorporated into the story. She's the cute girl-next-door, with some really interesting undertones of having been raised in a farm with all of the bloody pragmatism maintaining a farm requires. 

Before we dive into her story arc, I think it's worthwhile to address her personality. While I don't disagree with the sentiment that she'd be different around Rook (a co-worker) versus the Inquisitor (a literal holy figure), I don't think they've struck the right balance between bubbly and cute with the salt-of-the-earth pragmatism we saw when she was younger. This feels odd, because the situation in veilguard is just as, if not more, pressing than the situation in inquisition.

The romance between Taash and Lace didn't really do it for me. I think there are some interesting parallels between the characters, specifically they are both bicultural (although have very different experiences with what this entails). I also think it's interesting that Taash is very much a person who has gotten comfortable with their own anger, while Lace (who hypothetically has this anger) isn't comfortable with letting her friendly and bubbly mask drop. I like the implication that Lace is the kind of person that people underestimate and mischaracterize, Taash has a very direct kind of sexuality that seems at odds with the "girl-next-door" persona that Lace usually carries, but unfortunately I just didn't buy the chemistry between these two.  

Her story arc consists of getting whacked with a magical MacGuffin and obtaining mysterious magical powers. These powers reveal the painful history of the dwarven people, in which the proto-elves magically lobotomized their ancestors in order to create physical bodies. The dwarves in the DA series suffer a problem that seems pretty common to a lot of dwarves in fantasy series. They have the most fascinating lore and interesting culture, but they never really seem to fit properly in the narrative. The role of the Deep Roads with the wardens helped tie Orzammar to the main conflict better in DA:O, but one of the main problems I had with Harding's story was that there was this really fascinating lore reveal that has been hinted at since the beginning of the series, but it's never really tied back to the main conflict. There is essentially a throw-away line in which harding muses about how messed up it is that the entire economy of modern dwarven society is essentially (unknowingly) mining the bodies of their ancestors. 

The end result is an interesting narrative beat that doesn't really hit right. It feels disconnected with the main conflict, and literally absorbing her race's entire ancestral trauma without any real consequence or impact on her characterization. I'm of the opinion that the lore reveal was really interesting, and something that the series has been building up for a while. 

This is where I'd put my thoughts about Lace's Faction, if it existed

Lace is the only companion who doesn't belong to a faction. 

She's also well positioned to be a bridge between South Thedas and the North, she could have acted as a proxy for the player and been used to explain differences between how the previous games characterized Northern Thedas (especially Tevinter!) and what we experienced. While I believe she has a line or two about how poorly elves are treated in the south, I think this was a largely underutilized aspect of her character.

This post is already upwards of 2k words, so I'll save a more in depth analysis of my feelings about what happened with Southern Thedas and the Inquisitor. Let's just say that I laughed (negative) when Emmrich and Harding decided to go on their camping trip almost immediately after I received notice that the South was completely overrun with Blight and on the Brink of collapse. 

I think part of my longing for a dwarven faction is that in fantasy stories, dwarves often have super cool lore that isn't really explored. DA:O was a bit of an exception, because of the importance that the Deep Roads had to the story, but in the later games ... it doesn't really feel like the dwarves are super related to what's happening in Thedas. With all of the big worldbuilding reveals about the Titans, it would have been nice to have a dwarven faction, and Kal-Sharok is right there. I've been dying to see more of this society since they were first introduced, and I feel like they really would have been an interesting thematic inclusion, given that the entire world is in danger of being blighted. I go into more depth about why I think a dwarven faction would have improved Lace's story later. 

How would I fix this?

Whenever I find something narratively unsatisfying, my brain immediately jumps to fix-it mode. 

So I think the first problem has to do with the characterization of Harding. As mentioned earlier, I always understood her as being a character who is outwardly really bubbly, but also very ruthlessly pragmatic. I don't think this characterization was really well portrayed in Veilguard. Making it more clear that Lace has a brutal side would really go a long way in making the Titan's anger and grief feel more impactful, and making it more clear that she has some darker impulses that could make her embracing her anger dangerous. We get a taste of this in some of her banter's with Taash, but I think I would have liked to see her act on some of these impulses. It's odd that Neve and Lucanis are the only companions who can be hardened. This feels like a perfect place to Harden Harding (heh). 

So, we tweak Harding's characterization and add some gameplay impacts. Better, but Harding's story still feels like it's dangling in space. 

My first impulse was that Harding was the wrong character to tell this story. Narratively, the story doesn't really take advantage of her connection to the Inquisition or Southern Thedas. After all, Lace Harding is a surface dwarf with no real connection to her dwarven heritage, she identifies much more strongly with being ethnically Ferelden than being dwarven. Furthermore she is the most devoutly Andrastian member of the party. Surely a character who identifies as more ethnically dwarven would be better suited to tell this story, why was the Lace chosen when Dagna was right there? 

Given the overall narrative of Veilguard, I think the best way to make the story of the Titans feel connected to the main plot would be to have a dwarven faction as described above. However that would involve some heavy narrative shifting. Without shifting too many major beats, I feel like Harding's story could have been made much more impactful if we were asked to choose "what's next?" for her. She's been given the burden of learning traumatic ancestral knowledge for a group of people she's ethnically related to, but not culturally related to. I think it could have been much more interesting if we gave Taash's choice to Lace. Once the Gods are defeated and the heroes can go home, what does she want to do? 

Taash will probably get their own novel later, but I found it really thematically goofy that the thematic thesis of their character involves "gender isn't a binary, but culture is (apparently)". While thinking about Taash and Lace as a couple, I considered that one of the commonalities the two characters have is the fact that they are visibly part of an ethnic minority that they don't really fully relate to. If anything, Lace would probably experience this to a greater degree than Taash because she's a surface dwarf. Unlike Taash who was raised by a person with a very strong connection to their culture, Lace and her mother feel very integrated with Ferelden society (as mentioned, they've even adopted the majority religion of the region). 

Does Lace Harding return to her mother and the country that she obviously loves, or does she embrace her role as an "oracle" and return to dwarven society (either Kal-Sharok or Orzzamar would have worked)? Unlike Rivaini or Qunari culture which could easily exist in a blended capacity, the cultural taboos of dwarven societies could explain why this needs to be a binary choice.

I also think that this could have made the choice to sacrifice Harding a little bit more impactful. Part of the reason why it hurts to lose Davrin is that you lose Assan too. I think if it was more clear what Harding's future looked like, it would have been more impactful to lose it.

Closing Thoughts

Lace Harding is a good example of a few of the problems with Veilguard. Taken on her own, she's a likeable and fun character, but her characterization feels somewhat shallow compared to what is right there, simmering underneath the surface. Objectionable aspects of the character are smoothed down. In Cullen's bad ending it's implied that Lace straight up mercy-kills him! My girl gets stuff done (with a smile, even if those things are ... emotionally challenging)  If you squint you can kind of see that the implications are still there, but it's so subtle that it truly feels like head-canons are doing the heavy lifting. 

As an aside, two aspects that I think negatively impact Lace's character are the general omission of the Chantry in Veilguard's story, as well as the narrative decisions made around the Inquisitor and Southern Thedas. 

Her freckles are cute tho.

[seirei-bh]

I did a remake of my old design about my version of Jak's mother! Feirah, a wastelander and artifact runner. You can see other drawing about her with her son here.

She was away from Spargus all the time because she had some important missions to do outside.

I decided to not add her bio here, despite of I wrote a lot about her, because I've changed some stuff about her backstory, besides some details are important spoilers about my fanfic (yep, finally I'm going back to keep writing it! Actually I've been working on it, but I couldn't post anything new because I was still fixing plot holes of Jak 3 and doing other stuff).

[tsunamiholmes]

I'm sure many of you have seen the new Among Us x A Hat in Time announcement by now, which consists of new cosmetic items based off of the AHiT characters as part of the new Indie Cosmicube.

However, what I've not heard as much discussion about is the new art featured in the promo.

"New art?" you ask, glancing at the familiar sprite art of the AHiT characters in the background. "I guess Bow Kid's looks new..."

"But what about the rest of them?" I ask, smirking.

"Those have been around for years!" you protest.

"Ah-ha!" I raise a finger, a witty smile spread across my face, "but have they?"

In fact, all of the main character sprite art in the background of this promo has been redrawn. Some, like Hat Kid's, has even had design changes as well.

Let's start with Hat Kid:

Overall new shading and smoother painting lines, including added highlights and shadows to create more depth

New eyes that give her a more cheery and childish appearance

New, more expressive mouth with fangs!

Updated stars on her umbrella

More detailed ears

Below you can see some of the areas pointed out and the original art we've had for years.

Next, Mustache Girl:

Again, completely new shading and highlights

New, sharp gremlin teeth (I'm loving all of the new teeth choices here, Jenna)

Brand new eyes

Changed left eyebrow position to give a more "evil" expression

New styled nose to match the other, newer art

Next, The Conductor:

New shading and highlights

More light spill/reflections on his dark clothing and hat (see the underside of the bill and the left side of his arms/collar)

Larger tongue

Slightly more plump tie

Cleaner line art, specifically on his right hand

The crows are the same from the Welcome to Mafia Town title card, as pictured here:

I didn't bother making a GIF since they didn't have any changes!

~ ~ ~

That about sums it up I think. That new Bow art is super cute, and I can't wait to see it in full. Oh, did I not mention? Gears for Breakfast didn't spend all of this time redrawing these classic images just for some Among Us promotion. Or rather, they might have, but a little birdy told me that we'll be seeing them again soon...

For what? I have no idea. No clue there. But you can be assured that we'll be getting the full, brand new versions of these pieces of art in the near future!

[bella-studio]

◾It always turns out that in every new fandom I draw one or three arts or comics and no longer appear in this fandom with drawings, no matter how much I would like to draw something more (I have a lot of ideas). It's just that every time I'm very busy after that.

◾It turned out the same way with Hazbin Hotel. I made one comic, drawn pretty poorly (but still it got over 20K NOTES, which is CRAZY, guys, this is the largest number of notes I've received here), and there were no more art from me.

◾But slowly I was able to draw the main seven in my own style (also redesigning Husk that was in the previously mentioned comic).

◾I could have drawn something better, but in general I like it)))

◾A few words about each design under the cut :>

◾Charlie. I didn't change Charlie much, just added pointy ears and removed her bow tie (because half of the characters in this series wear bow ties: Charlie, Alastor, Husk, Angel, Pentius, Lucifer, Vox—)

Oh, I also made her underhair... Coral color? This color is present in her original design in the form of lines on her hair.

◾Vaggie. I changed the shape of her hair and bow, also added ears.

Made an eyepatch more noticeable, and made the cross on her eye in the form of hairpins (although they do not have a practical use in this design, but I did exactly that to explain why in the series itself this cross does not overlap even with Vaggie's hair. This cross is constantly in plain sight).

Also changed the color of the pupil to orangish-red. Yellow somehow didn't fit here...

◾Angel Dust. Didn't change much: I changed his pink spots a little bit (also added a heart-shaped spot on his cheek). In case of his clothes, I added some yellow in it to match his right eye and golden tooth. And removed a bow tie.

◾Husk. I changed Husk A LOT. I wanted to make him look a bit more like his Overlord-self. I changed some patterns on his fur and wings, gave him a shirt and tie instead of bowtie. And removed a hat.

◾Alastor. Alastor was the first Hazbin Hotel character that I drew. And I LOVE how I drew him. His curly hair and deer ears, AH— And I made his eyes yellow to make them stand out and match his teeth.

◾Niffty. She just has freckles instead of red cheeks now XD.

◾Sir Pentious. I added a couple of interesting details, like a gear brooch and the iron inserts in the hat. And made his pupils white. And I also wanted to make visible scales in some places, because, you know, snake, but I couldn't do it presentably, so I made freckles instead :'D (I don't really like his purple-light version)

[p5x-theories]

Miyu's Confidant

(last updated 11/21/24!)

This post documents the fully filled-in information on Miyu Sahara gained through progressing her Confidant! It contains things that could be considered spoilers for her Confidant, as part of the information is a summary of its story.

Miyu is available in the evenings most days, when it isn’t rainy. Her Confidant is tied to the Kindness social stat, and level 17 Kindness is required to fully complete it.

Her Confidant also requires changing a heart (technically two hearts, with one fight) in Mementos.

Favorite Presents

(An asterisk (*) marks the special presents added with (and unlocked through) Miyu’s own Confidant, which are liked by all Confidants currently in the game.)

Collector's Edition Complete Collection of Fairytales A collector's edition collection of masterpieces by world-renowned fairytale authors.

Dress-Up Doll Beautifully packaged ball-jointed dress-up doll that can be freely outfitted with clothing.

Cartoon Apron Apron with a cute pattern, made from a fabric that can effectively block kitchen oil stains.

Premium Fragrance Combination A classic home fragrance set with a soft scent.

Collected Set of Psychology Essays A collection of select classic works by famous psychologists. It's not only suitable for collectors, but also works as teaching material or for studying.

Cartoon-Shaped Pillow This round pillow in the shape of a popular cartoon character is very popular among girls because of its cuteness.

Advanced Custom Dollhouse A cute high-end dollhouse. Though not very big, the interior is well-designed and it has a warm atmosphere.

The Latest Drone The latest model of civilian drone. It's small in size, with a longer battery life, and can be modified as needed.

Mini Speaker A compact desktop speaker. It's easy to carry, supports multiple connections, and has specially installed custom color lights.

Limited-Edition Keychain* This keychain has a unique shape, and is well-made, but there weren’t many of it produced. It has a certain collector’s value.

Bulk Snacks Value Pack* A combo pack containing a variety of traditional snacks that will remind people of the taste of childhood.

Advanced Essential Oil Combination* A value-for-money set of essential oils, with multiple functions to help you relax your mind and body.

Chestnut Cake* Fragrant chestnut cake with mild sweetness to suit most people’s tastes.

Musical Snow Globe* A snow globe that plays music, and can be shaken gently to make snow fall inside.

Desktop Incense Machine* A household incense machine that is small in size, so it can be placed anywhere.

Camellia Flower Tea Tea leaves made from dried camellias. They still retain the beautiful color of the flowers, and emit an elegant aroma as they are brewed.

Personal Information

Birthday: April Zodiac Sign: Aries Age: 16 years old Height: 156 cm Weight: 44 kg Interests: Performances, aquariums, fairytale picture books Features: Acting, behaving coquettishly~☆

Story

Character Details A girl who performs her puppet show on the streets, and looks to be about the same age as me. She always avoids talking about herself, and seems to be hiding many secrets...

Personal Data 1 Miyu was a girl performing on the street when I visited Shinjuku. Her puppet show "The Little Mermaid" attracted many people's attention. After the performance, she was questioned by the police. She seemed to be struggling to deal with this, so I helped her out as I was passing by, and we got to know each other and became friends. She seems to like to call me "brother"... it's a bit much.

Personal Data 2 Miyu didn't seem to know much about the street conditions in Shinjuku, and was almost blackmailed by some gangsters. Fortunately, I secretly called the police and helped Miyu drive away the gangsters. The two times I've helped her made her trust me more, so she promised to find an opportunity to tell me the truth of her situation.

Personal Data 3 After the trouble last time, Miyu was ready to move from Shinjuku to another location to perform. But before that, Miyu hoped to fulfill her promise and tell me her actual situation. As she explained, I learned that she wanted to escape the control of her parents, and chose to run away from home and live alone... Miyu's persistence and hard work are admirable, but it's really difficult to live off of french fries. Is she okay?

Personal Data 4 After a series of preparations, Miyu was ready to start performing again, in Kichijoji. As this was her first performance, she asked that I accompany her. The performance went smoothly, but the audience's comments about the fate of the Little Mermaid made Miyu fall into deep thought... Perhaps it's because of their similarity that Miyu's able to perform The Little Mermaid so vividly.

Personal Data 5 Miyu's performances are becoming more and more successful, and larger and larger audiences are attracted. However, during one performance, Miyu was suddenly attacked by a man of unknown origin in a black suit. Fortunately, we responded in time and Miyu was not injured... but this man in a black suit seems to have been lurking around Miyu for a while. Who is he...?

Personal Data 6 The Tokyo Street Performers Festival event is coming up, and as a street performer herself, Miyu also wants to participate, so she began to actively prepare for it. But the man in a black suit who spies on everything from a short distance still makes people feel a bit uneasy...

Personal Data 7 A disaster happened... During a performance in Kichijoji, the man in a black suit suddenly appeared and stole Miyu's luggage and puppet. Miyu and I tried our best to catch up, but we still couldn't stop him from breaking her puppet... Although Miyu successfully made him confess the masterminds who hired him- her parents- the puppet was seriously damaged. Miyu tried hard to pretend to be strong, but in the end she couldn't help but cry... how can she make her parents understand her? Miyu wants to know the answer.

Personal Data 8 In order to lift her spirits and re-prepare for the festival, Miyu and I planned to go shopping together to relax. Looking at the fish in the aquarium, Miyu gradually confessed her true feelings to me...

Personal Data 9 Seeking to stop Miyu, her parents didn't hesitate to use their resources, and got the venue permit for the Street Performers Festival cancelled. Miyu didn't want everyone to suffer because of her, so she was going to agree to return home... but seeing how Miyu has been working hard all this time, none of us wanted her to give up. We persuaded Miyu not to, and began to search for another place to host the event. Miyu was uplifted by everyone and decided to try as well. Maybe... now's also the time for the Phantom Thieves to try something, too.

Personal Data 10 Miyu's parents had a change of heart, and the event was allowed to be held as originally planned. In order to prepare, Miyu came to the stage to practice. She happily performed her puppet show before the crowd. Not far away, her parents stood secretly watching her... They seemed to gradually understand Miyu more, and let her choose her path based on her own wishes. The future is still far off and requires a lot of hard work, but I believe Miyu will be able to use her own legs to move forward.

Voice Lines

Japanese VA: Kana Ichinose | Chinese VA: YiLei Liu

(As I can only add up to ten audio files per post, I’ll only include the Japanese lines below! Feel free to ask for the Chinese ones, though.)

I'm Miyu Sahara! I do street performances with marionettes. Please support me~

Because I didn't want my parents to decide my future, I ran away from home. Since this is the path I chose for myself, no matter how difficult it gets, I won't give up!

My dream is to become a performer everyone knows, and one day travel the whole world... Hahahaha!

My father and mother just want an obedient daughter. They want to decide my education, career, and even who I marry... I will never accept a life like that.

People think of the Little Mermaid as a helpless girl... but she gave me courage. She gave up her pristine life and proud voice, and pursued love on her own legs... don't you think that's amazing?

I'm an only child, so though my parents took care of me, I always wished I had an older brother to protect me. Ah, but please don't get the wrong idea! I wouldn't be happy with just anyone. My big brother could only be you!

If I were the Little Mermaid, what role would my brother have? The prince isn't wrong, but he's also a bit like a wizard. He gave me beautiful legs, and brought me from the sea to land. He's a very kind, magic-using prince. Ah, hehe! It's a bit greedy, but this will definitely have a happy ending!

Confidant-Specific Bonuses

Rank 1 Tips for People-Pleasing: Unlocks the Limited-Edition Keychain and Bulk Snacks Value Pack for purchase at stores.

Rank 5 Warm Tolerance: The points earned from gifting favorite presents is increased by 15%.

Rank 9 Brother, Please Give Me Some Advice: Unlocks the Advanced Essential Oil Combination and Chestnut Cake for purchase at stores.

Rank 13 Can I Act Coquettishly?: Unlocks the Musical Snow Globe and Desktop Incense Machine for purchase at stores.

Rank 17 Brother is So Cunning: The points earned from gifting non-favorite presents is increased by 15%.

[genshin-impact-redesign]

I absolutely love the redesigns you showcase! They’re so gorgeous and the artists are talented!

Can I ask for your opinion on the design of my Dottore Segment OC Natalia? Keep in mind I didn’t make her outfit design as complex as hoyo does for their characters because I am not drawing all that detail.

OOUGHH

I am a sucker for multi-layered, long dresses. It gives a very medical vibe, which can either be inviting (ala cute/trusting nurse) or can be intimidating. They defo give off the latter vibe, like a creepy WW1/WW2 style nurse garb. Also the curly but still spiky hair makes me think of rose petals with thorns somehow <3 I also adore the little rope that keeps the mask and feathers attached to her shoulder, its a nice bit of asymmetry :D

Also I 100% get you on not wanting to draw all that detail!!

I actually study concept art at the moment, so I know a decent bit about character design. I'll put a more detailed analysis of the design + some ideas for them under a cut so you can choose whether or not you wanna read that, but I think she's super cute and I love her name <3 I would pull her

So the biggest thing I've noticed is that the design could use a bit more contrast, but since they're still meant to be monochromatic like Dottore's design, I'll compare to him to show what I mean by contrast!

If we put a black & white filter over the image, we can see that dottore has a lot of dark layers underneath bright layers, and then more dark layered on that! The contrast could be increased on her existing clothes (make the lightest colours lighter, make the darkest a bit darker) or you could add a few more layers so that contrast is spread throughout, instead of being localised to the mask & boots.

You could make the belt on her skirt a darker colour, change the shoulder piece to be darker, brighten the shirt, etc!

Another way Dottore's design has contrast is through the greys:

If we look here, his boots are actually more of a warm grey. This is the same with all of the metal detailing too! So even though his design is very monochromatic since it's all blue, there's a tiny bit of contrast created by making the neutrals warm tinted.

All the neutrals are slightly yellow/green hued, so they're warmer than blue without being extremely far from blue :) So you could make Natalia's boots & gloves more warm hued to get additional contrast :D

Lastly, you could exaggerate her silhouette by adding more volume to each of the layers of her skirt.

I don't have my tablet on me right now so I just did a quick draw over to show what I mean:

Just having each layer stick out a bit more so it stands out. You could also exaggerate the feathers on her shoulder if you wanted :D The simplicity of the outfit works super well for her actually, so having each layer stand out more will really elevate that!!

Despite the long winded explanation of colour theory, I really like her design and it'd only need a couple adjustments to improve, but she's so cute as is and you did an amazing job making her <3

OH AND LOOK AT WW1/WW2 NURSES they're amazing inspiration for plague-doctor style dresses. I used them as reference in one of my character designs for an assignment.

[rennybu]

Hiii Andy! I've adore your art for years and your characters. Their designs are so lovely!! And expressive!! I was wondering if you had any tips for a cohesive character design? Or even advice on adding little asymmetrical details or features? And help is greatly appreciated! Thanks! Wishing you all the best!

HELLOO!!! AAAH Thank you so much for such a thoughtful question, this makes me so happy to hear! I'm so sorry it took me so long to get back to you, it turns out I have way too many things to say about this topic AKLSDHFKLSDG

(pls take this readmore<3)

For the starting point in a design, I try to stick to whatever rules apply for the setting the character is in, and their role in that setting.

Basic colour theory is always at the back of my mind, as well. I tend to use analogous and complementary colours when I design my characters and their closets. Analogous colours keep a palette contained and feeling similar to itself without being monotone. And then using colours that are complementary to that elsewhere in the design adds contrast while still maintaining that feeling of cohesion :D

The intended use of the character also heavily affects what can make a design cohesive or not - it's very dependent on art style and medium. (A design for use in animation would be extremely different from semi-realistic TTRPG concept art. The rest of what I've written skews more towards the second option!)

I consider the colours, shapes and materials that make sense for what I want to convey about the world, and how the character would want to be presented in it. The Dogwood characters are my current exercise; Mel's clothes fit him perfectly since he works a labor intensive job on the farm, and his identity is wrapped up in it so he never strays far from heavy cotton, straight cut. Ryan and Park both wear ill-fitting clothes in completely different ways (Ryan, butchly. Park, autistic and transly) - and they each have work uniforms. Ryan's work uniform suits her gnc appearance (welding coveralls/safety gear), while Park's uniform completely transforms him into "Just Some Guy" and that changes how others read him, too (cashier). And they all shop at Local Thrift Store / Farmer's Surplus / The Walmart 1hr Outside of Town. Their styles give them each a distinct silhouette, and their levels of social comfort as well as public expression contribute to body language, colour choices, and shapes that make them stand apart from each other despite living in the same small bubble. COHESION!

Asymmetrical details and features are my FAAAAV THEY ARE SO FUN, I find inspiration for these in people-watching, nature documentaries, architecture, my reflection, my friends.. <333 This part is also fun to tie in to the character's setting! Springboard questions like. Are they prone to injuries? Magical injuries? Do they have like, modern dental procedures available? Do they give a shit about crooked or crowded teeth? Are they missing a tooth, or did they chip one? Do they smile a lot and have crow's feet/other wrinkles? Do they get a lot of sun, and do they have/use sunscreen? (Even finer wrinkles.) Did they have acne as a teen? Do they still? Are they in a combat-heavy setting, with the scars to show it? Even more uniform features like freckles aren't symmetrical.

Clothing is really good to use to play with asymmetry - maybe the character rolls their cuffs but one is coming undone a little. Jewelry of all types is also great for asymmetry since it can go anywhere on the body!! Facial and other physical deformities or injuries are also incredible to see, and should be researched to find out if they impact other parts of a person's overall health and mobility outright. The different skin texture of a birthmark, for example! I noticed in certain photographs, the subject's red birthmark changed the texture of the skin, so I started drawing Orson with one drooping eyelid on the side affected by his birthmark. The more you look, the more you find!

Before I get too carried away. I try to use asymmetrical details and features as a way to boost that "world setting" cohesion, and to bring attention to parts of the character I am personally endeared by or want other people to notice. Mahon's snaggletooth is an eternal fav, which made me draw him smiling more, which made me more prone to drawing lines around his eyes. And since the anchor is in his left hand, and he tries to hide it subconsciously, I put thumb-holes in his left sleeves, which he plucks through as a nervous fidget, and as a result, his clothes pull a little across his entire body :D ITS VERY FUN to find the right jumping-off point that lets specific details click into place. For Mahon especially, since so many of those details are derived from the setting and his role in it!

Asymmetry and symmetry are just tools at ur disposal. Asymmetry tends to be more comfortable and natural. Symmetry gives a sense of stability and can be pushed for a sense of power, a sense of being uncanny, rigid, etc. Asymmetry can also be pushed into uncaniness depending on what it's applied to!! (But as a matter of personal taste, I find asymmetrical details to feel more natural and inviting than perfectly symmetrical ones. Which. Again. Depending on the character's purpose, could equally contribute to a cohesive design!!!)

OMG ok my final thought. Asymmetry can also be used as a balancing tool which yet again lends to a sense of cohesion. Adding a detail on the left while leaving it out on the right, repeated throughout with different details where applicable. Loam's colour spots, archery gear, scars and jewelry are all areas I've played with this idea.

[celtrist]

Do you like redesign characters?? I was curious of how the hazbin hotel and helluva boss characters would look like in your style

Nooo, I took a class concerning the subject but I'm by no means an expert and haven't redesigned any characters before. I have, however, a BOATLOAD of characters both fan and original, most of which tend to be designed by me. Not all, but I think most of them are. Most of them are also in my wips because I am very lazy in getting around to doing bios and such. I also have some designs on my website.

I have thought about doing some hazbin redesigns, but it just never panned out. I don't actually know how well I'd do as I don't think I'm crazy astonishing at designing. I have moments, but I'm not usually churning anything out like the hellaverse characters. Because for all my gripes with them, I do admit they are relatively strong in different aspects. I do like the official designs well enough, but I've also liked a lot of redesigns I've seen. The only thing with a lot of redesigns, and this was sorta the "spin" I was going to take with it, is that they're not always animator-friendly. Another "spin" I was planning to take with the redesigns is to have them work within the show as "next season" designs. That would mean nothing TOO drastic could be changed (like Husk's wings would remain), but things like clothes, colors, and maybe some smaller features could be changed. Generally just something where it could be plausible for the characters to have that changed look.

If you know Batman the Animated Series a bit, they had a huge design change between seasons. While I wouldn't be looking to change up the whole art style of the show, I would be open to possibly doing some bigger design changes like that show did (like changing Husk's body shape to be more portly or adding a radio embedded into Alastor's chest). Their approach was that it was the continuation from the previous seasons and no one commented on the new looks all the characters had. I think the idea was that no one actually changed their style or anything, but I've never watched the show so maybe they do comment on new attire and faces.

I was planning to more or less act like the designs were going to be what the characters looked like for that next season. So they'd have to be animator-friendly and still work, for the most part, with the pre-established designs. Again, this means that Husk's wings wouldn't just disappear randomly and I couldn't go crazy and give Charlie like snakes in her hair in the first episode of that next season when the last episode of the last season she didn't have any. I never laid out the rules perfectly as I know with Niffty, I'd definitely want to bend that rule by giving her another pair of arms, but I also didn't go through with doing any redesigns.

Two similar routes I'd kiiiinda go with probably involve my two favorite redesigns of the cast: I've mentioned @/cholvoq but they really nailed a lot of the characters down and I love all the little details the characters had (Vox's old TV head being his chest is such a killer design choice for him). @/kaledya has some good redesigns too! You might have to look on their Twitter to see the full lineup, but they actually were rewriting Hazbin Hotel to their own version which uses those redesigns! Alastor in particular looks much closer to a man in his mid-30s to 40s than he does in canon. Same with Husk, he's actually super old but he looks around the same age as Angel within the official series when he's in fact in his 60s-70s. They also have some fun fan characters (I love Serenity, she's so fucking cool in design and I love how she relates to Alastor story-wise ;3;)

And then there's just a bunch of other redesigns I've seen that I've loved as well, but those are the two that came into my head and would be what I'd take some inspiration for my own designs. Granted, would I like these designs canon? Mmm, I'm so used to what we have that although cholvoq has one of my favorite Alastor redesigns, I don't know if I'd want that to be canon (I honestly don't think he'd work as well as a full deer anthro! It's not as unique as him being a kemonomimi. Hell has a lot of anthro characters, so him only being part animal makes him stand out and might relate to his death better I think). It's fun to imagine. Maybe someday I'll get around to it but I have lots of other stuff to worry about before stressing over whether I should keep Alastor red or put him in sepia tones lol I will critique, but I know between Viv and myself she probably can pump out a more appealing character design than I ever could. I wouldn't say designing is a strength of mine. Not a weakness, but not a strength either.

EDIT: Adding on these designs, I really like them too. I've seen the Vaggie one before (Vaggie's official design is boring to me, but I gotta acknowledge that HAS to be a personal thing. Not an actual critique because everyone else says she's relatively fine), but never saw the other ones and I like these ones! This goes with a lot about what I was saying about "next season" redesigns. Again, there's a lot of redesigns I like, but I can't point them all out or we'll be here all day.

[10hourshift]

Stupid/silly rant abt something that probably only I care abt xd

(god i spent so much time on this)

So, for the last two days I've tried to make a redesign of the shadow-magical-girl chica outfit

This one ⬆️⬆️

And it literally sucks so much* that it leaves me with no idea to redesign it without changing everything from it

*in regards of design according Ann's Character, not if the outfit in itself, that is actually really cute*

So I'm just going to point out some things that bother me and mention what I think it would work instead

The outfit as it is

Look, i know this might be a personal bias, BUT magical transformations should be fun!!The excuse of "it's magic, it can do whatever it wants" gives us the opportunity to make cute outfits and stuff!!

Look, the dress is cute, alright, but adding a little bit more of details can really seal the deal here, maybe a bow in there, or some chains if we are going w a more "edgy" design, or adding a few markings on the boots to make them less flat. (Look i know that the design also can not be overly complicated bc the model would be hell to animate, but this girl needs accessories!)

Look, if you added a few random things over the original design it would make it a little bit more interesting, you could call it a day, right? Well yes, but that's what takes me to my second point...

This design is nonsense!!

Look, magical transformations are usually based in a certain theme or idea surrounding the character. Here are some examples

So, with that in mind, what can get get from chica transformation? (That story wise is supposed to show her growth as a person bc it shows that she accepted "her shadows"*)

*what are the shadows anyway, opposite personalities, their biggest fears or just ~bad vibes~?)*

Well, nothing, being the look so basic, and even with the long hair, something that is uncharacteristic of chica, she doesn't look like herself (you can edit the eyes and say it's joy, and it would look more credible) and it's only a problem for Ann, because both Freed and Bonnie have transformations that show their characters

This one is more of a fusion of Freddy and Fred, with the school uniform for Freddy (being his most recognizable look), and the vest for Fred (i want to remember the outfit that Fred uses in the wolf in sheep clothing has a black vest, this one could be representing that but idk)

This one does a Great job, because shows a lot of Bonnie personality (his love for the guitar w the pick, the characteristic hairdo that he does when playing, even the outfit is more "rock" idk how to explain)

So, how did this happen?

Well it's really simple, Chica doesn't have any personality of her own, or things she's recognizable for.

Both Freddy and Bonnie have things that they are known for (Fred and the Yaoi guitarist), that are used in the transformation, Chicago on the other hand isn't recognized for anything else beyond being The Girl™ of the band, in that sense, the transformation does a nice job representing that.

But Chica is more than that

In the series we see different aspects of her, she likes having and supporting her friends, she likes sewing and making clothes, she's the last one to give up on anything, she started a band with the trouble kid, an apathetic dude, a micro niche celebrity and the strange new kid, and somehow she made it work! So there's really no excuse to have her as basic as that.*

Oh hey btw i did make a design for her, but as I said before its really different from the original, and then I realized it kinda looks like @cinnabundolly12 Design--- this one that is waay cooler than mine, so I gave up and made this strange rant

*to be completely fair, Chica has a lack of troubles or conflicts of her own, most of them are related to the whole group, she has a little self doubt one chapter and then sings her song and that's it, she's also very bland as a character xd*

I just put the drawing here bc i liked how the body came out and I will probably delete the file from my phone later

I based the design from here

And it just follows a star theme, i used that bass I found on Pinterest lol. Also I did try to implement some elements from the original but lol ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[savpumpkinhead]

oh my gosh okay. so I saw barbenhiemer a few days ago and i habe just been sitting in my thoughts and I have so many things to say. THIS HAS SPOILERS FOR BOTH!!!

i saw Oppenheimer first so:

the cinematography was gorgeous. this movie was absolutely stunning. not only were the colors and shots beautiful, but I adored the black-and-white shots used for Strauss' perspective (which reminded me of asteroids city's use of b&w for perspective/setting changes!!!).

Florence pugh. oh my goodness. she was BEAUTIFUL I kept turning to my friend and saying oh my god she's gorgeous. I loved her acting, she embodied her character spectacularly. (also she so me for flirting with Cillian a bit during an interview)

CILLIAN MURPHY !!!! i adore him and I went into this very excited because I adore the dark knight and he was spectacular in that. anyways I loved his acting and how he delivered his lines, he added so much to the story. for such a long movie I loved his whole performance, and im super excited to watch it again (can u tell I love cillian murphy)

I understand it was a biopic so they were focusing more on the man himself and not the situation, but my friend who i went with actually googled the movie while we went to dinner- and found that the bomb test they showed had actually hit both Mexican and Indigenous people that were living in/near Los Alamos (mostly with radiation and fallout), which if we can find in one google search, is kinda weird we didn't see it in the movie at all. anyways I went to piss in the middle of the movie (Ik i should have peed before but WHATEVER anyways) when i got back they had already bombed both cities?? i was so surprised i had missed it, they didn't cover it much after that until around the end when the moral quandary is brought up more. anyways im seeing it again so ill definitely pay attention to these details!!

COSTUMING!!!! the costumes were beautiful, I adore the fashion of this era so it makes lots of sense but it was spectacular. my friend and I who both do makeup for theatre were caught off guard by the aging at the end as well, spectacular!!!

some of the dialogue was hard to follow and some moments definitely got a little complicated for me, but I definitely enjoyed the movie overall. Im going to go see it again soon at a theatre near me which is showing it with actual film!!! im very excited

I have a friend in film whod probably look at me like I was crazy for these reviews but that's okay cause I <3 him and I might get to see it with him soon :3

BARBIE:

god i adored this movie. ive seen twice and I've cried very much in that goddamn theatre. its a wonderful message about womanhood and girlhood and also just being human.

did you know all of kens clothes fit him.....

the movie itself was wonderful, the cinematography was nice and I saw some really beautifully framed shots!! the color scheme was spectacular aswell, I adore greta girwig for sure. not to mention the costuming, makeup, set design, the whole movie's tech was just spectacular I have no complaints for real.

this movie is very "first I laughed, then I serioused", the beginning was lots of giggles for me, I love the characters and all the references, it felt very nostalgic to see all the things I loved as a kid come up on the screen.

the feminist takes were very refreshing to see! I've seen many people comment on them being very broad and vague, and I agree some things like fatphobia and racism could have gone a bit deeper, but for what it was I was so happy. i felt my girlhood was really seen and I felt like I had a weight of my chest a lot of the time. thought its hard to separate many social movements from each other, this was a pretty good job

speaking of fatphobia I do wish that there was more fat representation, there was one main plus size Barbie and maybe one or two chubbier ones, but it would have been cool to see more of a body type range. its hard to ask for more because there already is SO MUCH diversity but I noticed a lot that the bigger ken was paired with the bigger barbie and that kinda thing, so I just wanted to mention that. i really do appreciate it though, and I love what Gerwig has given us.

did you know that all of kens clothes fit him.

allen is definitely non binary coded, I lack the words to properly explain this but I've seen many people bring it up!! there's also some more trans allegory I connected too throughout the movie, and I really enjoyed the healthy masculinity that came from some of the movie :3

everyone's gay and ND!!!!!!!!! margot robbies barbie is definitely aroace lesbian and maybe autistic and allen is nonbinary and queer and ken is probably transgender and adhd and he's just like me fr so on so fourth they are all queer. thank you :)

[undeadoracle]

okay i beat veilguard. spoilers + thoughts (it's a lot):

overall i think it's a quite good game. it has some glaring flaws that keep it from being as good as it could be, but i by no means think it's the worst dragon age game. the benefit of having been embroiled in this fandom since 2009 is being aware that every time a new dragon age game comes out people say it's the new worst one and wax nostalgic for the old ones, which are also good games with glaring flaws. time is a flat circle, etc.

the music is beautiful, and the combat is fun once you get the hang of it. combos with your companions are very satisfying. i went into it assuming that i was going to hate the skill grid, but it's actually better than what inquisition gave us, and the companion's skill options are not dissimilar in design to how they were in da:2. some of the ability options are kind of ridiculous (like warriors magically summoning swords? what?), and I don't understand why specs are linked to backgrounds, but overall i thought the grid style of skills was a refreshing approach.

the armor & clothing are like 25/75 good and bad. a lot of it is godawful, garish and cartoony in the worst way possible, but some of it is very cool. would've preferred a little more restraint and realism there. one of my favorite things about inquisition was that every companion had a unique and thoughtfully designed aesthetic, with some variation depending on how you changed their armor. inquisition walked a perfect line between stylized and functional, imo, and that's sorely lacking here.

the maps are fantastic, so visually stunning and fun. i enjoy that they added exploration elements with little puzzles and tricks to solve and multidimensionality that the previous games lacked. it encourages you to really stop and look at how much detail is put into the environmental designs. that being said, i'm mad as hell that we didn't get to see more of nevarra or kal sharok. i was so excited when we finally got to go to those places, so not being able to leave the necropolis and only briefly visiting kal sharok was a huge let down.

we should've been able to play through our backstories like we did in da:o, period. dumping us into the character after they've already been working with varric for a while sucked, narratively; one of the fundamental rules of writing is "show, don't tell," and they did nothing but "tell" for the first 4 hours of the game.

the design of the game seems more heavily influenced by mass effect than any other dragon age game i've played, which i honestly don't much care for. i love mass effect, but it got away with being a much more streamlined, compact story because you played the same character through all three games. the story wasn't just mass effect 1, 2, or 3--it was the sum of its parts. when you're trying to get factions to work together, trying to decide who lives and who dies, you're doing it through the lens of having dealt with those factions in the past; rook is brand new. there's no emotional depth to it, no history to it. it just doesn't have the same effect.

i was also underwhelmed by how few meaningful choices there are. basically it's the treviso/minrathous choice, and the davrin/harding choice, and that's it. other than that the game feels extremely "on the rails," with a very linear story and very few choices to be made.

(also don't like at all that the only black companion has a more than 50% chance of being the only companion to permadie, because harding is a familiar and popular character and i suspect most people will choose to save her once it becomes commonly known that you have to choose between them. bioware, what the fuck.)

speaking of "on the rails," rook might be the most "on the rails" protagonist yet, as far as personality goes. you have to play them as the good guy, you have you play them as young and impetuous, you have to play them as being emotionally invested in their team, you have to play them as being attached to varric. it's very annoying that basically you can choose their tone and not much else.

that being said, the racial/background reactivity is pretty good; i even got a unique line at one point for being both a dwarf AND a gray warden, which was cool, and when talking to harding about dwarf stuff she talked about "us" instead of explaining my own heritage to me, which was a chronic problem in past games and nice to see fixed. i also really liked that any party banter you miss in game gets played out at the lighthouse; that was a nice touch.

there's some weird choices made to water down the moral ambiguity of the world. like turning the antivan crows--whose primary role thus far has been "the guys who buy child slaves and turn them into assassins" into this like, robin-hood esque group of freedom fighters who are Actually So Chill, Don't Worry About It. it left a bad taste in my mouth, same as them going out of their way to assure the player that the Lords of Fortune aren't, like, pirate pirates. another way in which it's basically impossible to play a morally ambiguous rook. considering the writers clearly understood the assignment of "bad person can still get the job done" for da:o, i don't know why they didn't manage it in this game, where the stakes are even higher.

there's also something very weird going on in the game where like, on the one hand they take some strong stances about lgbtq+ identity that they had to know would piss off conservatives, while on the other hand making the game much more vanilla/sanitized, and i don't know who that's for. there's no brothels, there's less sexuality and nudity than past games, less cursing, less alcohol. i would say it got the disney/marvel treatment except that the disney/marvel treatment would've done away with the queer characters completely, so i really don't know what's going on there. in da:o you could have a foursome with zevran, isabela, and leliana! in inquisition you saw tits AND ass! i don't know what kind of devil's deal was made that we couldn't get trans characters and nudity in the same game, but it's bizarre. maybe they were shooting for a T rating. ugh.

similarly, the degree of "everyone gets along and is besties" was heavy handed, at times. it didn't have to go so far as da:2, which was sometimes just unpleasant to listen to, but da:o and inquisition both struck a good balance of friendships vs hostilities among companions. this feels like a pendulum swing in the other direction from da:2, where everyone inevitably works through their problems and becomes friends so well it feels corny.

the Orientalism and exotification of the lords of fortune/rivain is so bad. it's like something out of a 1940s movie. who is responsible for this.

i really enjoyed emmrich, neve, davrin and taash's characterization and personal arcs. bellara's characterization was good, but her personal arc with her brother was sooo generic and predictable. i liked lucanis a lot as a character as well, but it was kind of bewildering to me that with the whole being an abomination and having a lifetime's worth of ptsd and family trauma and being imprisoned and tortured for a year all on the table, they chose to focus on making him first talon instead. like, that was the least interesting part of his character to focus on, and it feels like a missed opportunity. & as someone who loved harding in inquisition, i was put off by how much they cutesyfied her, for lack of a better word. they gave her smaller, more pert features, changed her tone of voice and mannerisms, made her personality "feistier," etc. she's honestly kind of irritating in this game, which was such a letdown after enjoying her so much in inquisition, and she has such a cool & interesting character arc.

so much dwarf lore finally got woven in, and that made me really happy. with all the elven gods gone, i'm curious if we'll get more dwarf stuff in their absence. if there's a 5th game, of course.

more broadly, i feel like a lot of the moral ambiguity and character autonomy has ebbed out of the series with each passing game, and that's unfortunate and unsatisfying. that being said, solas is a great foil to both rook and elgar'nan in this game; rook is to solas what solas believes himself to be to elgar'nan, and that's so juicy and interesting. elgar'nan isn't the interesting antagonist, solas is, and i think that's the whole point. elgar'nan is just an authoritarian, and it's easy to reject that; what's harder is rejecting a clever, persuasive leader who assures you he cares while doing whatever he wants to achieve his own goals. it's the most interesting villain writing we've gotten since loghain.

anyway. there's some genuinely bad writing at times, sure, but there's also genuinely compelling/satisfying writing too, which is what tends to happen when you have a whole bunch of writers and some of them get fired before the game's done and others get hired and your bosses keep interfering with the creative process. i can tell in playing the game that a lot of love went into it, and i'm really glad that we didn't get an online multiplayer like EA originally wanted. 3.5/5.

[argentumcor]

Why I Believe V is Default Female

I'd like to preface this by the fact that, in RPGs, I don't care about the sex of the default character. Commander Shepherd is written to be a guy, if you look at the scanned-in face of a model used for the default. Fine, don't care. I don't care that Revan is canon male and the Exile canon female. I do not care. I'm not a feminist of any sort. I am certain that, if the Cyberpunk 2077 tv/movie thing gets off the ground (you know how many of these things I've seen flame out in my time?), V will be portrayed as male, because demographics and frankly it's for the best because female characters in genre stuff are written very badly 99% of the time in AD 2023.

I write this because I think the game makes the argument for me that V is written to be default female. Feel free to disagree, it is not particularly important in the grand scheme of things, or a small scheme of things, or even to the game's story, but it is nerdy fun. Do you remember that? I remember that. Good times. We should bring them back.

Whew. Okay. Let's get this show on the road.

Game clothing pieces. There are more clothing pieces designed to be worn specifically by female characters than male ones- the bustiers, the bras, the skirts, the dresses, etc. Oh, I know the male characters can wear these. But the thing is that while a woman holding in a bustier and jeans can look like a cool and dangerous action hero, a man in a bustier and jeans may look like fun to you, may look quirky and interesting to you, may tickle you in a particular way, but he doesn't look a cool and dangerous action hero. V is written to be an action hero, that is the character's role in the story. As the game mocks attempted subversiveness relentlessly, it's not trying to do that.

Johnny's commentary. This is a little bit more...in depth. Johnny talks quite a bit early on about how V's body is different. If V was male, this makes not very much sense, especially the hormone comment. Why?

Ok, well, male V is pretty close to Johnny physically, not just in age (26 compared to Johnny's early 30s) but also build. Men do not experience huge hormone variability at that age most of the time, and the little details he mentions (things being the wrong size) would be only noticed in very limited contexts. The big ones would be the not-missing arm (dependent on cyberware I guess) and the lack of drug-induced physiological damage. By the time he dies, Johnny was a patched-together addict who probably wasn't neurologically capable of thinking rationally. V is not even close to that.

A female V and Johnny are in a different boat when it comes to his comments. The differences are starker, from body structure to hormonal levels that change noticeably day-to-day. It would be right there for him from moment one, contributing to the confusion of the situation- which we see on screen.

The "V is not Johnny" factor. I think. thematically, a big part of the story is how V is not Johnny. V's apartment is not covered in Samurai memorabilia. V is not even a part-time musician. V is not any kind of would-be revolutionary, at least not more than anyone else in a city where people wear and graffiti and say "fuck the corps" all the time. V is written to be other than Johnny, a whole other person, not some sort of twin soul or someone who is easily an accessory to him or vice versa.

This fuels their interpersonal conflict and, I think, Johnny's fondness for V, as well as backs up that game's focus on the value of humanity. V being female reinforces this aspect. It makes her more 'not Johnny' and I think things that reinforce that are really important to the game thematically.

The original cinematic trailer. If I do another run through, I really need to download the mod giving that appearance option. Oh, and Jackie's chica sounds cooler than mano, don't @ me.

All this, of course, comes from the idea that V is not written to be a BGIII style 'player insert', but a specific character. Some of this is done by the way the game pushes you to not be an asshat and the decent people you meet who are V's longtime friends, but V is written to be a specific person with some room for flavor here and there, not a lump of clay like Commander Shepard, Revan, the BG series PC, etc. This frustrated a lot of players who thought they were getting Cyberpunk GTA, but it's part of why I find the game so compelling. It is trying to tell a specific story, one with a bit of mythopoetic flare, even, and so V has a default.

Thank you for coming to my stupid TED talk, this why I refer to V as she when discussing the character.

[twisted-confessions]

I'M GOING TO CRY IM TEARING UP RIGHT NOW HOLY FUCK THANK YOU YOUR RANT IS SO SWEET AND BELLA LOOKS SO FANTASTIC!!!!

Now to properly reply to each part lol

Omlll I'm so shocked that people can recognise my twst account now, this is INSANE!!! I'm so glad you and so many others have liked my Nani idea!!! YES YES YES @boopshoops IS SUCH A COOL ARTIST I LOVE EVERYTHING SHE DOES!!! I met her through our gimmick blog server and found out she made the Twst comic with Yuu Shi and my jaw dropped, especially when she agreed to help me out with designing Bella! Oml, it honours me so much that you were going to draw her beforehand I could cry, Bella is such a special OC to me and the fact she's been getting so much love in the twst community more than any other OC i've ever made just absolutely warms my heart, i feel like crying again. I understand getting scared of someone elses art and panicking whenever they interact with you lol, i have the same kinda reaction whenever I edit cards of Twst artists I admire.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!!! She turned out so well in your style and I'll instantly be adding your art into my folder of reference for her!! I also love Hiccup and Toothless lol, I really liked the idea of bringing the big scaley boi over to Twst and just terrorizing everyone there with her lmao. Thank you so much, I love how well she turned out, Shoopy did a fantastic job.

OOOH THATS SUCH A GOOD POSE!!! Really helps show how awkward Bella can be and how the two are related lol. Despite how confident she looks in Shoopy's style, she's just as self-conscious as her brother heheh.

OMGGGGG THE FRANGIPANI FLOWERS!!! Irl, frangipanis are my all time favourite flower, that's such a cute little detail for her outfit! The pony tail looks great!! If i would change anything about it, it would be giving her the Pre-Book 5 hairstyle since I'll be putting the Stitch Event for her AU before Book 4 but it looks so nice regardless!! The skirt and shorts are such a good touch, I feel like Bella would be embarrassed to show off so much skin and exposing her leg/scars from over the years for the first time since she's always worn long clothing all her life so the longer shorts are very in character for her <3. (Speaking of this event, in my AU Stitch 100% comes with Bella and her bois back to Ramshackle HE'S STAYING IN THE STORY BECAUSE I LOVE HIM AND NO OTHER REASON WHY HE'S NOW HER SECOND ADOPTED LITTLE MONSTER SON AND GRIM AND STITCH ARE GONNA TEAR THE SCHOOL DOWN FOR FOOD!!!)

AGCAKAK THE TOOTHLESS SCALE NECKLACE IS SO CUTE TO THINK ABOUT I LOVE IT!!!!! When Shoopy first added the green leaf accessory to her hair, it reminded me of Jack Sparrow's hair beads for some reason so I suggested adding two black Night Fury Scales to the end of it to match her braids!! The scales are taken from both Toothless and Hiccup's Night Fury, Thor, so she can always keep them with her, just like how she has her family's hair braided in her own. And in HTTYD 3, it's said that dragons actually shed a lot which is how they made their armour! I like to think the Book Magic took her hair accessory and changed it into a necklace with your outfit :)), and you're so right, trying to bring a dragon into a library is a terrible idea lmaooo.

I never noticed the bracelets on their outfits!! I did see the fish hook neck but I think that's more a David reference if anything (which is hilarious to think about if my Nani=Yuu idea was right lmaooo Aceyuu shippers winning thanks to Stitch-), but he definitely give Maui vibes to lmao. The little heart is perfect <3, especially cause Nani has stolen mine- SHE IS THE SURFING QUEEN!!!

Lilo and Stitch was my favourite disney movie growing up, I would watch it non-stop and the second one was so beautiful as well, I cried as a kid at the end (oh who am I kidding I still cry at that one scene-). The Pelekai family is the true definition of Found Family which I think very perfectly suits Twisted Wonderland. I hope Stitch comes back in the future for another event, I love him so much.

Bella i'd say is very much like Hiccup, just a mini-him but with powers and more easily provoked lol. A very hot-tempered girl with weapons, so just your standard scrawny Viking lol. I'm so glad you like her, anytime I get to talk to someone about Bella always makes my day :) <3 Thank YOU for accepting my request and doing such a fanastic job!! And never stop ranting, I loved reading every bit of it!!

send me your ocs to draw fan art of!!

I’m a beginner artist, (Haven’t learned much, but I’ve drawn enough that if my art was good, I’d be able to solve world hunger) willing to draw ocs for free and I won’t be amazing at it.

Im just so bored with having art block and making reference sheets for ALL my ocs.

Please! Just three!

[dragynkeep]

Nitpick character designs you hate and why they don’t work?

Character design is my passion,,,

I don't wanna go on about Team RWBY's designs because I've talked about all of them and why the later ones really don't work, so I'm gonna go for designs of the villains! I don't like them!

Salem's goes for a sexy gown similar to robes worn by practitioners of Wicca and Paganism, as I've had personal experience with and recognised it. I like that, what I don't like is the hairstyle being based off Japanese hairstyles, specifically heavily referencing the styles worn by geishas. I don't get it, and added onto how RWBY just throws in Japanese culture as an exotic look, I'm not amused.

Also her Atlas outfit just doesn't work. Why is her tit window more open? Why are her shoulders exposed? What's with the arm braces? They're meant for a more military look, she's finally coming onto the battlefield, but Salem doesn't do anything and this look just works even less than her sleek dress in her original outfit.

The other villains just struggle to actually reference their colours. Watts' has yellow at least, but it's covered up in his purple coat, and otherwise his black jacket and vest. Tyrian is a shade of purple, but he wears no purple on his outfit, the only purple we have is when his eyes change colour and the purple mechanisms of his new tail. It's telling that Watts wears more of Tyrian's colour than Tyrian himself.

Hazel actually wears green on him, and I like his original outfit, but he has a habit of taking off his green jacket so he can jab Dust into his arms, and then all his colour is lost. He only wears black shirt and pants, and without that coat with some details and colour, he's very bland and boring to look at.

His Atlas outfit is even worse. Not only is it very poorly thought out for Atlas, it's downright ugly, and the modellers obviously couldn't model him properly with his ribs deadass looking like challah. I don't get the need to change his outfit either?

It's a big problem with RWBY. They pick outfits first whether or not the character actually needs an outfit change. Yang only changed into her Mistral outfit when she recovered enough to leave Patch and go search for Ruby. Jaune changed into his armour at the start of Volume 4 to denote his growth into a more experienced Huntsman, and using Pyrrha's circlet to show in his design that she was still helping him even after her death.

Oscar didn't change into more suitable Huntsmen clothes until he came to the realisation that, regardless of how much time he had left, he wanted to spend it helping his friends and Remnant against Salem. At least, that's what it should've been if the writers didn't have him go through an entire arc off screen.

Yeah, new outfits are cute, or at least they used to be, but these are supposed to be visual signs of development that tell us what the character is like before they open their mouths.

Ruby was a perky gothic girl who had a love for things that typical teenage girls didn't, while also taking inspiration from her uncle. She wears pitch black and stark reds that pop out at you, she wore a cape and crosses not only to connect to Qrow, but also as a hint to her allusion as Little Red Riding Hood.

Weiss was cold and arrogant. She was unapproachable and put herself above everyone else, while also having some humanity under the surface. Her outfit was detailed and fancy, referencing her rich background, while having many jagged edges in the hem of her dress and her sleeves, making it like icicles and giving Weiss a sharp feel to her outline. While the blues and whites, accompanied with her pale skin, eyes and hair, give her a cold pallete, the pop of red in her collar is immediately eye catching, and the softer frills of her collar help combat all the sharp edges.

All these outfits told a story without using words, but now it seems that CRWBY has lost the idea of what made the original RWBY outfits so great. Now it's just slapping belts and zippers on, making the designs too complicated and busy, and ignoring the characters and their journeys to shove them into outfits that feel like a first draft.

[laranomyprisma]

after a lot of thinking, I decided to "please the fans" by saying my opinion and how I would "change" the designs to see if you guys shut up about the reboot!

Clawdeen, would keep the glasses, she wouldn't wear them all the time but would put them on when she went to sew, it's quite common for stylists to wear glasses to see better (an example is Rarity of my little pony friendship is magic) The hair is just like the new design, with swirling purple streaks and all. I don't know much about fashion but I think a more flamboyant outfit would be nice for her to wear, purple cheetah prints would be beautiful, a half train with rips and a half moon belt A skull themed necklace and red nails Freckles and eyebrows are identical to the official egg design. Above all, I wouldn't change anything because personally I think the design is very solid!

Draculaura, for our little vampire, the dress is perfect, the bat print is not necessary, maybe some white polka dots to contrast with the black. I would put more black on the dress and And boots with heart bows! The hair doesn't change and the hat shortens to a mini witch hat with a pink and black heart bow. Between everything I wouldn't change much either.

Frenkie.... No changes, they're so perfect just the way they are! :3

Cleo, the skin is dark as it is, a little bit of tape and metallic details and it would be wonderful! Long hair with metallic gold and blue highlights would also look great on her! She's perfect the way she is for me.

Lagoona will be fun. KEEPING THE COLOR PINK! Hair is still colored but it's looser and more platinum blonde (I think that's what they want to achieve with her hair!) In order not to take the blue out of her name, let's give her skin tones of blue, a gradient from pink to blue on her feet and hands, so the blue color doesn't disappear from her! Some pearl details in the hair, pink fish skeleton earrings, navy blue painted nails, sea monster ears, and the outfit would be a little sportier but also a little Little colorful!( Like, what's the problem with her being colorful??)

Heath, he's going to be changed a lot!! His hair isn't a torch anymore, ruffled red hair that combusts when he wants to. School jacket like the original with a black t-shirt with flame details underneath, flames but pants too, skin a little less orange and more light yellow and a less ridiculous face ;-;

Abbey, she doesn't show up much but I've seen people complaining (🤦🏻‍♀️), she will keep her new haircut, stylish winter clothes with ice details, a little lighter blue skin, fuzzy boots, And the glasses are maintained too, only instead of pink they will be a very light blue almost white!

Gooulha remains the same in the movie so for the animated series I would just put on a more flashy classic intellectual uniform, red glasses, striped clothes like the original,I don't really know how to make a design for her.

Among all, this is how I would redesign the characters for the reboot! But you realize that I haven't changed much, right? I just added what YOU WANT. I didn't change almost anything, because for me, the characters are so great the way they are! (except Heaht because he's really ugly T-T) Clawdeen if glasses look beautiful to me, you fans are the only ones who have a problem for some reason (I wonder if it's some prejudice against people with glasses...um...) Draculaura is as cute as ever, Cleo is even prettier than before, lagoona has become my favorite design and Frankie... Yeah, I won't change anything about them :3

I hope you understand my side, I don't think the designs are rubbish or a disaster, I still love the original but I think we should separate the two once and for all and just accept that everything is changing! And I don't think it's for the worse.

Maybe I'll make drawings of these redesigns Later!

[belovedblabber]

6 and 20 for Adaira, Corin, and Faolán!

Ahhh thank you so much for sending this ask!

Fairly long answer below the cut:

For 6;

Corin dresses like someone's weird uncle if that uncle was like 10 times sluttier. Wandering vagabond chic. Yet somehow also the vibes of a man who owns like, three button ups from target that he's had for a decade plus, and two pairs of pants. He dresses like if you took Aragorn lordoftherings' aesthetic and then ran it through a spin cycle that spit it out gayer and sluttier. In terms of color he wears a lot of browns and grays, and his clothing has been mended and patched a lot. His clothing also has little embroidery details in various spots that have just been added over time by Faolán as an ongoing labor of love. He also has lots of earrings in each ears, all the way up and down, various hoops studs and ear cuffs. Man also often wears a lot of rings (including his wedding ring), and has a distinctive necklace he always wears. He also often wears very beat up fingerless wool gloves

Faolán, unlike his husband, is very neatly and beautifully, if simply, dressed. He takes good care of his clothing, and mends it himself. He also does his own embroidery, and his clothing is covered in traditional embroidery that was passed down to him by his mother. It is very culturally significant, and involves complicated patterns and symbols that speak to various myths and stories. He typically wears dark browns and burgundies and colors in that general vibe. That goes for what he wears under his armor, anyway. Because unlike Corin he is a martial fighter and is often in armor. I have tried designing and redesigning his armor a million times. Fingers crossed one day I'll get it down dfghjk. He has a pair of earrings Corin gave him as a gift many years ago, and he never takes them off. He also has some lovely bracelets. He and Corin also both have wedding bands.

At the start of the story Adaira is orphaned and on her own, and is dressed in beat to hell clothing that is an absolute mess. Once Corin and Faolán take her in they make it a priority to get her a new wardrobe, and Faolán very lovingly decorates a lot of it for her. I have designed out outfits for her a ton, probably more than any of my other ocs, and would love to do so more if I ever get out of my years long art block. Her clothing styles are heavily inspired by Slavic and Armenian folk costumes, and I love drawing them so much.

For 20;

Corin is tall (probably about 6'3-6'5, I keep changing my mind on exact height) and skinny as a rail. A lanky man, an absolute beanpole. He has a long face with sharp cheekbones and a long aquiline nose that's been broken so many times it's kind of forgotten its original shape. He has very very dark brown eyes (or he has gray eyes, I go back and forth. Can you tell I'm indecisive?). He's also just one of those people who has a 'twinkle in his eye,' so to speak, and he smiles easily. Also I am pretty sure he is often rocking some eyeliner. He has lines around his eyes and on his face, and his hair is silver in the present (and salt and pepper in the past) and he wears it about shoulder length, sometimes a bit longer. He also just has perpetual stubble. He's quite pale overall, but has a tan that comes from being out in the elements a lot. He's got a pale scar that starts at the corner of his right eye and then snakes down his cheek to his neck, as well a many other scars all over his chest and arms. His age is very hard to pin. His hands are elegant, with long thin fingers that are tattooed with intricate patterns that sometimes seem to shift around and change places (I am still working on designs) They're not his only tattoos, but they're the only ones I've settled on for sure in terms of location etc. 

Faolán is 5'7, built like a fighter in the way that people who like, do actual strength work are strong (I am not phrasing this remotely right). Point being he's not like showy muscle, he's the kind of muscle that will wreck your shop. He is a swordsman and it shows. He has curly, very dark brown hair that is just now starting to get some gray at the temples, and he typically keeps it about chin length or sometimes a bit longer, with some braids done through it. He has large golden-brown eyes with long dark lashes, and he is very handsome. Just a lovely man. He has a strong jaw and a nose that's been broken many times, and unlike his husband he stays clean shaven. He has medium brown skin with warm undertones, and a multitude of scars in various shapes and sizes that tell the stories of his many adventures, misadventures, and journeys. I want to give him a cool tattoo or tattoos) designs[s], but haven't settled on any yet

Adaira is a c. 11 (indecisive me goes back and forth on if she starts the story at ten or as a new 11), and she has a very distinct face shape that I used to draw a lot but am bad at describing oops. She is also like 11, as I said, and so has a lot of growing to do. She has fairy blood, and her eyes reflect this. They are very large, to a degree that is not quite human, and they are tilted at an angle on her face that is not so startling that it is immediately alarming, but definitely has something uncanny about it that rings of not entirely human. They're also spaced a bit wider than is normal (I am not describing this well, it's something I've drawn a lot but have yet to describe elegantly fghjk). Color-wise her eyes are a beautiful dark brown that catches the light and seems to draw it in and reflect it back (and her eyes are in fact reflective like a cat's at night dfghj). She also has slightly sharp canine teeth. She has brown skin slightly lighter than Faolán's, and freckles everywhere. Her hair is very curly, and she keeps it short, about at chin length. It's a fiery red that seems to have different shades and highlights in it depending on how the light catches it, and it refuses to behave, always a fly-away mess around her face. She is short for her age (idk exactly what that entails), and time spent on her own has left her scrappy and undernourished. She was born missing her left arm from about a bit above the elbow down, and later on in the story will sometimes have an arm made of fire in its place

The story takes place over years so their appearances and clothing will shift throughout, but as Adaira starts the story as a little girl, her changes are the most dramatic as she grows up

Anyway, thank you again for asking me this, it made my night! I'm sure my answers aren't very coherent and have some typos (I fully did not sleep last night). But I had so much fun answering this, so thank youuuuu!