ON_THE_AiR

Doing a profile of ALL the koopalings is admittedly daunting to do all in one go, but I'll do you one better: here's my beloved collection of the koopalings' most Vouge-worthy moments 💚

When it comes to finished pieces with clean line art and shading I do kinda have a certain way (for the most part) that I like to do things, but with messy sketchy stuff like this I definitely get experimental and don’t often do the exact same thing twice when it comes to the way I color and shade it.

I have my usual colors I like to use like hot pink, blues, yellow and purples for my shading and lighting, but I’m always trying new combos and there’s not a ton of rhyme or reason (that I recognize at least, other than I like things to be bold and bright :]) to how I color/choose my colors. I’m constantly just winging it and hoping it looks good, or at least intresting lol. I DO however play with the saturation and color balance very often. I edit the brightness and contrast multiple times in nearly every piece I do, and it’s totally helped me understand color theory and improved my pallets immensely!! Definitely recommend playing around with it and just seeing what hues and contrast you could get, I definitely wouldn’t have thought of some of the pallets I use for characters and backgrounds without exploring that.

And of course I get inspired by other artists wayyyyy better than me! ;) I get SUPER inspired by the art and colors of Toulouse-Lautrec. I have a book of some of his works and have annotated it to death, you should definitely look him up if you’re not familiar! 💚

I wish I could come up with a more “pro” sounding explanation of my process, but it really is just me clumsily slapping down whatever colors I think will look good/convey the mood I’m going for :’]

Thank you for the fun ask! I LOOOVE seeing the behind the scenes of artist’s work so much I just wanna stand over their shoulder and watch them create their beautiful beautiful art please please please (I won’t tho, respectfully, I guess >:(

Here’s the sketch on it’s own as well!

-From oldest to youngest: Bully, Cheatsy, Kooky, Kootie, Big Mouth, Hip N Hop

-Cheatsy is King Koopa’s second in command, which creates a heated rivalry between him and Bully (more like Bully pathetically tries push Cheatsy around and the latter easily evades him). Koopa isn’t playing favorites, Cheatsy just has a multitude of skills better suited for his needs than Bully does. Bully’s a tank, but unfortunately a massive coward as well :’)

-Although the koopalings do go off on their own to cause trouble for Mario and Co., they’re rarely ever sent off by Koopa to carry out certain tasks like in cannon. Koopa encourages them (aside from Hip N Hop, they’re too young according to him. They do still occasionally sneak out, however) to cause mischief in the mushroom kingdom and instill the fear of them in its inhabitants, but he plans to seize the kingdom himself. Throughout the series he continuously plots their demise in the background, the grizzly end goal being to conquer the mushroom kingdom and feed its heros to his koopalings. (Take any violence and threats at 80s cartoonish value!) Everything he does is for his kids once they come into the picture.

-Like their father, the koopalings were created via magic rather than being a naturally occurring species. Though instead of being purely magic like Koopa, his blood was used in their conception. They were all created and hatched in the banishment zone. They all inherited and highlight one of Koopa’s key attributes.

The fourth eldest of the koopalings, and King Koopa's only daughter. Kootie Pie is totally in tune with her royal status and insists on living her ideal, pampered life. She expects complete compliance from everyone, her entitlement going far beyond just her father's kingdom. She likes to keep a prim and proper appearance but isn't afraid to get ugly when her bratty demands aren't met. It doesn't help that Koopa all but endorses her behavior and is keen to cater to her cries - as if trying to make up for his children's earliest years being spent in the banishment zone with him.