Had a sudden urge to draw Madara as a child with the manga reference. I am posting the original manga panels along, but I want to clarify that the images on the right are from Naruto, the manga written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto.
I will have to admit that, before now, I didn't really look up Madara's official appearance before drawing him, so I have come to a few realisations when it comes to how I've interpreted his design.
It's just a few details, but when putting it next to the manga panel, you realise how different it is. I think the curly hair is the most noticeable, but you can see that his face is a bit fuller than how I drew him, or that I often forget he has a double eyelid.
But, overall, it's mostly due to how I interpreted his character with how little we have been given, my headcanons and artistic liberties.
Also, something I find very cute is that, kid Madara has this sort of constant frown, like, the way his brows are angled makes it look like he is constantly furrowing his brows. And even when he laughs, it's something that goes along well with this idea of him looking intimidating when he just can't help it.
This is a child who has been shaped by war, I do believe that a lot of his character tends to only be represented as this cynical old war general who only cares about power when so many clues in the narrative shows otherwise.
Yes, Madara is this sassy overpowered and egomaniac madman during the 4th war, and that is the most we get of him, sadly. But even then, there are signs of something else poking at the surface, the humanity he tried to detach himself from without success.
I think that the Madara Hashirama described to Sasuke was really dead at this point, but there were remains of his personalities, remains that showed up more clearly just before he died (for the nth time)
Well, anyway, I should probably stop ranting now, that's just why I really like analysing Madara in his childhood, at least, the glimpse Hashirama gave us.
