First of all, I realize from early drafts his ponytail has gone through So Many Changes. I ended with it here because this is the most ‘realistic’ length. The notes on that are: 

- Hair is not quite black.

The reasoning is because V has black hair, and so does Lady, so Clear’s more of a brunet lol A lot of my reasoning is to make him stand out from the cast in his own way, while still fitting in. 

- Red is more ruddy than Dante’s coat and Nero’s vest. Primary color is grey. 

I made his primary color grey/black since up until Vergil in the reboot/new game, Trish is the only one who wore mostly black. I also am really fond of monochromatic schemes with a pop of color around the waist, especially in action series where people employ a lot of acrobatics and kicks and stuff cuz the color accentuates the motions nicely. I also gave Clear something around his waist to match the long-coat silhouette since he wears a shorter jacket than every other character. 

The reasoning for red as his secondary color is mainly because of his relation to Dante lol But also, the game uses colors really well within the Sparda family to show each character’s alignment, and thanks to DMC5 giving Eva a model we can now assume that red is the color that represents humanity. So, going off that notion, since Clear is fully human, red became his second color. 

Other notes on his clothes: 

- Layers make him look more bulky. Yes, those are moto-jeans, I am trash and accept it. Sheath 4 knives. Generic black combat boots (2lazy2draw lol srry...) 

Notes on physical appearance: 

- Height: 5′9. I wanted him to be a little on the shorter side compared to the other guys, so he and Lady are around the same height when she’s in her usual boots. 

- Built for speed/acrobatics, not like Dante and Nero’s more muscular build. It’s cuz he doesn’t claymore, bro lol. Not super lanky like V tho, kinda in-between. 

Because his primary weapons are a pair of knives, his fighting style is based a lot around hit-and-run, and block-checking his opponent. So, unlike Nero and Dante who just rush in swords blazing (literally in Nero’s case) and just destroy shit in a flashy manner, Clear actually considers a lot of actions and backs out if he needs to reset. 

The Tat: Custom made w/ maximum edge. Also is functionally a Devil Arm.

I’d say that’s a spoiler but it comes up in like, chapter 7 lol Design-wise, it has to be different from V’s so it only covers his arms/upper back/part of his collar and has much more color; it also doesn’t fade in and out of existence and So Far doesn’t give Clear a Devil Trigger (still deciding if I wanna do that or not tho). The current design was no where near what I was intending when I first started designing Clear, but I really like where it’s ended up. The tail was a spur-of-the moment decision. 

- Based off of Sin DT and Clear’s knives. Orbs and alchemic circles are featured.

The two sets of wings, tail, and then scales are what were inspired by Devil Trigger. The reason for basing it off Sin DT is because *lowkey spoiler* the tattoo is infused with Sparda’s blood retrieved from Nero. We don’t have time to unpack all that so the TLDR is the person who designed the tattoo was a heretical scientist from Fortuna. Also, the top set of wings is supposed to be more ‘feathered’ as a homage to how Clear initially was going to have something to do with angels/high-order demons. But I scrapped that idea pretty early on lol 

- Base of circle is a Directional Circle. Disposal nodes. None of these are real elements tho lol

I did my own research into alchemic circles and ended up basing mine partially on a circle used to make bread LOL But the intended use is deconstructing /redirecting energy from demon blood, disposing of the blood/remains, and transferring the energy left over into Clear to give him power. I’m not functioning with the ‘equivalent exchange’ mechanic of FMA, so it’s a little easier to say “these are the parts of the circle and it will do this.” As for the ‘elements’ in the six small circles, I was initially going to use Actual Elements, but finding the makeup of blood that wasn’t more than plasma, water, salt was proving to be too difficult for my feeble tired mind to handle lol So, I made up six 'elements’: the top one is a drop of blood/eye combined to represent blood, the one to the right is just a random design, the two on the bottom are orbs (one is upside-down and grinning while crying, the other is just surprised screaming), and the left one is two crossed S’s with dots that when drawn wrong just look like boobies LOL The one in the very center is based off the sun/moon array but with two moons crossed over to form an ‘eclipse.’