Originally AI slop, but I decided to trace it myself from the bottom up to fully unslop it, then add flourishes so it can be shared and essentially used for others' benefit.
This was way easier than it is for other characters because of the way she's designed.
Ghost, I deliberately designed while trying to invoke Akira Toriyama's lessons: "Keep it simple, stupid!"
She's Dark!Maria, and I've seen plenty of good takes on that concept. But I wanted to keep her design her as stripped back as possible without being generic. Most "Maria Lives!" or "Evil/Villain!Maria" tends to base her visually on either Shadow or Eggman, and both are valid, which is precisely why I wanted to try something a bit different here.
Ghost's shape-shifting "nightmare gown" cloak/bodysuit is meant to be vantablack.
I deliberately envisioned Ghost having a very simple design so as to make it easier for others to draw her, and vantablack is like a cheat code: just set all RGB and Hex values to 0, maybe add just a touch of dark gray for absolutely necessary details (fingers) and you're all set!
I thought it'd be neat to use considering I don't see many vantablack designs for characters. It's also fitting for a character called "Ghost" considering "Shadow" is already, you know.... taken.
It just feels fitting that a Dark!Maria AU would go for the darkest possible color.
Best part is: it's super duper edgy too!
Name "nightmare gown" comes from
