im just a ghost

and we’re back… kind of.

chloe’s outfit in the show might be the worst out of every character. the girl is the daughter of the mayor of Paris and a fashion icon, why is she wearing a belt i could find in hot topic. i hate her outfit. much like adrien, i decided she needed more designer brands represented. she got mostly chanel with some louis vuitton.

the real question here is does she want to be wearing these clothes. in my version, her mothers influence on her is a lot more apparent. she tries to live up to the expectation that audrey has placed on her. in doing so she forgoes her own tastes to look more like the people in her mothers magazine. as queen bee, she’s allowed a bit more of the self-expression she’d otherwise like to have; a more fun ponytail with less styled bangs, a fluffy sweater, “fingerless gloves”, no heels.

i don’t dislike her original queen bee look, she actually has one of the few designs i didn’t dislike. i just thought she could use a sweater and then worked the rest from there. i pretty much kept her hair as is outside of giving her more streaks of black. her hair design was perfect.

pollen got a little upgrade. i really like the idea that chloe saw pollens general being and decided to match her queen bee outfit to it which is why there are a few similarities.

the miraculous itself was a bit harder to design, they always will be for me. in her civilian form, it’s meant to be passed off as more of an heirloom accessory. in its activated form, i like to think it doubles as a communication device, the antennae can curl down to be a microphone and ear bud. when she transforms the antennae also uncurl from the metal.

this will probably be it until art fight is over, as i’ve started to prep for it, so the next one (luka) will more than likely come out in august or september. i have an idea of what i’m doing for him outfit wise so it depends on what posing will be like. my current plan is to finish luka and kagami and then work on other fandom stuff. if there’s any series, movies, book characters, etc that you’d like to see me redesign let me know. i love reconceptualizing.

as always more character au stuff below the cut.

gang, it’s nino.

i’ve known what i wanted to with nino since the beginning. as we get further into this series, the characters original versions become less and less developed which means i get to take more creative liberties. nino is, unfortunately, the beginning of this.

i feel like, beyond his relationship with adrien and alya, his character isn’t really that developed. we see more of him in season 5 when he starts the resistance with the rest of the students. he’s very supportive and has this comfortable energy to him, which makes it no surprise that he’s the first to befriend adrien, outside of marinette. i wanted both his civilian looks to be comfortable and colorful, really highlighting his energy.

his carapace form, however, i’ve always had a problem with. i never liked how close to his civilian form his carapace outfit was. it still feels like nino. as i said in a previous post, i want their identities to feel different and to explore how these characters might see themselves as superheroes. nino is kind of insecure so i heightened that idea and thought “maybe he wants to appear like a badass. maybe his vision of a cool superhero is the strong silent type”.

as carapace, he’s a lot quieter, maybe he’s been chastised one too many times for calling everyone dude so he decides it’s easier to just not talk. maybe he doesn’t want to blow his cover, believing his day-to-day is too high energy. his energy as carapace could balance out the puns and trickery of chat noir and rena rouge.

in terms of design, i wanted to keep a high collar for turtle reasons. i got inspiration from okarun’s possessed state in dandadan. i like the pushed back hair and collar that almost covers his mouth, giving him this cool, mysterious vibe. the shield probably should have more detail if we could see the front, but trying to find poses in general for him was harder than i thought it’d be.

finally wayzz. i think he still takes on a wise mentor like role but nino pushes him into a more fun loving attitude.

plot stuff under the cut

i won’t lie… part of the reason i’ve been driven to finish alya and nino is to get to chloe.

while i did struggle with alya, i still finished her in a shorter span than adrien so i think that’s a win. my main issue was her posing, once i locked that in, i knew what clothes i wanted to put her in right away.

i do not like the flannel in alya’s original design, but i did like the orange plaid so i gave her a plaid pants instead. i imagine alya would have more ear piercings; i also thought about giving her a nose piercing but decided against it.

alya is martinique creole and her older sister is clearly of african descent. however, looking at alya, this isn’t necessarily obvious. and while i do believe she’s mixed, whether she’s partially white or perhaps indigenous it’s hard to say, having your only black female character in the main cast have light skin and wavy hair feels like a misstep. so i gave her curlier hair but i kept her skin tone. in my au, she’s partially indigenous.

in my mind, the miraculous would shift to better blend in with their holders. so like, if someone who didn’t have their ears pierced tried to wear the ladybug miraculous, the earrings would shift to clip-ons. that being said, the necklace’s civilian form is modeled after a larimar pendant, as larimar is only found in the caribbean. in her transformation, the tail would “unfurl” into the fox pendant.

i can’t decide if i hate rena’s og tailcoat or not. but i did want to do something else. at first i considered a wrap skirt-like design but shifted gears to a simplified skirt. i wanted to focus the design into a superhero costume, especially because alya loves superheroes. overall, i’m very happy with rena’s design.

i know i don’t like her school uniform. i’m not sure it fully reads as a school uniform. i tried adding a tie but didn’t want to block the necklace. kind of regretting that decision but ehh, we’re moving on.

i think trixx would just be nosy. he gives off “let me spy on people then tell alya everything i saw and heard” vibes.

my au differences, views on the show, and personality shifts for alya beneath the cut.

(new layout)

for marinette i really wanted to highlight the cutesy homemade designs, embroidered pants, knit cardigan, beaded jewelry. i kept to the idea that she’s always running late to school, bandaid on the knee and clumsily tied tie for her uniform.

i don’t like that her original ladybug look is just spotted and skin tight so i added some armor-like pieces, vaguely similar to ladybug elytra, and switched up the dot pattern so it wasn’t just all over. i wanted to keep the pigtails, i think they’re iconic.

i didn’t really change her character too much, i really like marinette. i like that she’s clumsy and goofy as mari but confident and strong as lb and i think her designs should reflect that. if anything i’d change the intensity of her stalking tendencies because it is so uncomfy in the first season

more explanations for the rest of the series under the cut

adrien/ chat noir is next

i’m going to continue with these until i get bored or run out of ideas.

i’m back and returning with a miraculous redesign. shortly after posting marinette’s, i started drawing adrien’s then decided to shift gears to another project and promptly never returned. it doesn’t help that i also started a new job after posting marinette’s… anyway, in finishing adrien’s sketches i decided it looked too plain and gave the entire layout an update. i also wanted to include the kwamis.

(i did update marinette’s and will repost hers soon.)

back to my boy, i take issue with most of the characters og designs, they’re just not very styled, and adrien’s is not only no exception but because he’s a model for his father, who’s a fashion designer, his design makes me even more upset. dude’s controlled so heavily by his dad and yet is dressed in a basic t-shirt and jeans? no. i gave him pleated pants, kept the stripes but turned his shirt into a nicer button up, and made his jacket a little more structured instead of just being an over shirt. his shoes are styled after some valentino sneakers i found. i also gave him more jewelry so his ring doesn’t look too out of place. his school uniform is more classic, i don’t think he’d deviate too much from the norm as he’s just excited to attend.

i’m gonna be honest, i don’t know how i feel about chat noir’s dye job. i love how messy his hair is compared to when he’s adrien but the dye feels a bit busy. otherwise the rest of his outfit i’m very happy with.

in terms of personality, i wouldn’t change much. i love how adrien’s written. most of the characters from here on out will have modifications, whether that’s building on something present or changing arcs, i hate you’ll have to see.

i have included sexuality. i’m queer so typically when i redesign characters (and/or make my own au’s) we get a bit more gay. if i wrote adrien, he’d be pansexual. i truly don’t think he’d let something as simple as gender presentation effect his ability to fall in love. he’s still hopelessly oblivious to his own feelings, though.

plagg’s personality wouldn’t shift too much either. i feel like he’s very much the classic cat, i love you but i’m only going to show it on my terms and begrudgingly. how he is in adrien’s school uniform i think he’s begging for cheese (also this is inspired by a thing my black cat does, i actually used her as a reference.)

in any case, i think that’s adrien/ chat noir.

i saw these cool pants that i thought lock would wear and decided to draw him… and then i thought up designs for shock and barrel.

i found @crystallizedtwilight ‘s grown up designs of these three some time in early 2024 and thought they were so cool. her comics inspired me to develop my own cartoon-y style so i thought it was fitting to draw her characters in it.

every year growing up, I’d watch the Charlie Brown halloween special. for some reason in my mind i convinced myself, they were slowly growing with me and just repeated their halloween adventures each year…