#goron redesign

All my goron designs involve giving them less cartoonish and caricature-like features and proportions, so of course that was the first thing I tackled here. I made him very square-and-solid looking. I wanted him to have an appearance that read both as very dignified and also very personable. One should be able to tell at a glance that he is someone who commands a great deal of respect and is worthy of that respect, while also being approachable and trustworthy. Simultaneously larger than life and down to earth. His expression is stern, but with an undertone of warmth. In the original game, Darunia seemed to me like a character who wasn't really meant to be taken seriously, but for our version we want to give the opposite impression. When Darunia speaks, you will listen. I intend for him to be a character that commands respect both from the other characters around him and from the audience as well.

Aside from that, his defining characteristics remain, especially his beard and hair which are what make his silhouette most easily distinguishable. Rather than changing very much I mostly just added more, like his accessories, clothes and tattoos. Many people in the past have pointed out that the gorons, in oot especially, have many elements that appear to be based off various cultures from across the African continent, but again, especially in oot, that was done rather insensitively. So I also decided to look to the west African region in particular for some inspiration for my Darunia redesign. I ended up using mostly references from Ghana after searching through a few different sources, and the traditional clothing there influenced how I dressed Darunia, like with the brightly coloured and patterned cloth of his waist-wrap thing and his sandals-- which from now on I have decided to draw all gorons wearing sandals. The cloth Darunia wears is not fully patterned like those from Ghana since I played around with a few different patterns before settling on this, but in the future I may try drawing something more 1-1.

His tattoos are also based off the Adinkra symbols. Researching the Adinkra symbols was very exciting and interesting for me, and there were many that were perfectly suited for the things I had planned. I didn't want to just copy them directly, so I made slightly altered versions of some of the symbols with their original meanings. My hope is that anyone familiar with the Adinkra symbols would easily recognize them as the source, and be able to tell which fantasy versions are derived from which real ones, with or without the meaning listed alongside it. The ones I referenced for Darunia specifically were the Dwennimmen, meaning humility and strength, the Akoben meaning vigilance and wariness-- which is depicted on his necklace-- the Nkonsonkonson meaning unity, or brotherhood, and the Aya meaning endurance and resourcefulness. The anvil symbol, the one representing Temna/creation/ingenuity, is one I invented imitating the existing symbols' style. I chose these for their meanings, which I feel represent Darunia's character well, and seem like the kinds of things he would value and choose for himself to wear.

The red tattoo sleeve framing the goron ruby is meant to represent streams of lava flowing down the mountainside. This one single element gave me more grief than any other part of the redesign, I went though so many drafts of just that one tattoo and it was what caused this redesign to take so long! Though now that I have emerged victorious from the bloodstained battlefield (clip studio paint), I am very pleased with the final result!