#also im trying to remember to add ears to my drawings now bc i don't usually and have no idea why but it's just habit now

[apompkwrites]

Frick I’m so bad at recognizing and remembering faces and appearances and I’m trying to put together who is who in your drawings and it’s painful for me. It’s not your art that’s making me confused, it’s my own brain :( Sometimes I have to wait to hear my brother’s voice to know who he is. Sometimes I have to see how my brother’s girlfriend acts when she puts on makeup to know if I recognize her. I kinda have to rely on same hair styles or accessories like jewelry in order to recognize things/people sometimes.

It’s also okay if this is too much to ask, but could the black sheep maybe have accessories that could help keep track of who is who? Maybe the accessories could be the only thing of color besides the text? Ex. Lil lion having a hair band or hair clip that is dark yellow. Lil Al Asim having some kind of body tattoo/ink that’s dark red around their neck area. Things that’ll fit into their character but also the colors being that of their brothers’ dorms? Again, it’s totally okay if this is too much! It’s just hard for me to keep track of things >.<

- Heartbeat Anon

waaa dont worry i get it!! tbh the designs for the black sheep were just kinda on the fly? but now i have an excuse to make proper refs :D

++ giving them lil accessories would def help with differentiating them, esp when im drawing their sibs :O

fun fact, this ref sheet actually has 8 designs! one lil black sheep has an extra design that i won't be showing until much later ;))

so here’s the og 7 plus my little design notes for them utc ;) gonna use these designs from now on for drawings only, so not in fics and stuff <33 so stuff, esp skin tone, are not canon to the fics

rosehearts (lil rose):

gotta go with the obvious of giving them a rose :D the placement could change but for now its in their hair :)

and i wanted to lean more into a hearts aesthetic without making them blend in with heartslabyul students like ace so i put it on their neck! thinking like albedo's design but its a lil heart instead of a star <3

kingscholar (lil lion/cub):

so i already had markings on their face since their first appearance in the comic just bc i liked the look of it? but i did add the marks closer to their nose in this new design.

thinking about adding a lil feather behind their ear/in their hair. mainly them post mwezi miji because i can see nuru giving them one of his feathers :)

also i made their hair short! i liked the idea of how leona and (probably) falena have longer hair that (name) cuts it after running away.

ashengrotto (lil octo):

so obv they have the same lil beauty mark as azul <33 i also wanna make it clear that they don't all have the same body shape? just used a pose that i use to get a full look at a character's design. so, yes yes, lil octo is on the heavier side.

also their accessory is the shell from the movie! got inspired by the anon that talked about it keeping their human form :)

asim (lil scarab):

I GAVE THEM HENNA-LIKE MARKINGS LIKE ASIM AND NO ONE CAN STOP ME >:))

so they have very intricate design on their neck/collarbone area but bc it wouldn't be visible a lot, i gave them lil dots under their eyes :) i did steal lil bits of kalim's design because i thought it would be fitting :D

schoenheit (lil gala/galaling):

so they have the unqiue eye shape where i gave them lashes :) ofc because they would have 11/10 lashes like vil :D ++ eye shadow but that's only in colored drawings.

i gave them the hair clip with a lil mirror design to hold back their bangs :DD and a ring because i like to think they would wanna wear lil rings :)

shroud (lil flame):

so gonna address their skin color first. i made their skin a bit more gray to mimic how the overblot characters look? i mean, they live on the same floor as the overblot monsters so i feel like it makes sense for their appearance to also be affected by them?

also!! their flame hair is dimmer than idia and ortho's! i thought it'd make sense for it to be like that to mimic a sort of dimmer light? like how they're slowly deteriorating or smth. ++they have an ahoge that i wanna draw in diff poses depending on their emotions >:)

gave them a mask that kinda mimic ink/blot? wanna stick with that motif for them :)

draconia (lil dragon):

so i wanted to keep a close resemblance to malleus? bc i feel like the idea a lot of people have come with where lil draconia doesn't entirely understand that their related despite their very obvious similar appearances.

the main factor i wanted to tell them apart from the others was lil scale like things on their face? idk i just liked the idea while browsing for refs. it was that or!! more branch-like horns?? idk we'll see :)