#puddiart

so I have been insane about these guys since uhhh September of last year? I just forgot to put them here.

Giacomo

Giacomo is my precious cringe babygirl and I love her. She is a renaissance Umamusume, but considers herself a painter first and foremost, and is pure California Weirdo (affectionate). Her mother, Holy Bull, continues to be a prolific figure in the racing world in-universe, even after retirement, and Giacomo’s desire to win the derby was to overcome the most prolific loss of her mother’s career. (I have also made Holy Bull, but she is a fucking character and necessitates her own post, lol). Being a Legacy Racer, the thing that fires her up the most is facing off against other children of Prolific Racers— but more than that, she delights in finding “muses” she can observe firsthand. When inspiration strikes her, she will go into artistic fugue states and spend hours frantically drawing or painting out a concept that occurred to her, and then realizes once she finishes that she hasn’t slept or eaten at all. I would liken Giacomo a lot to a chunni character like Yohane, who reverts to being cringe now and then, but understands when it’s time to be serious.

Design notes for Giacomo:

In an interview, Giacomo‘s owner said the horse was (in a roundabout way) named after Giacomo Puccini, the composer of Madame Butterfly, La Boheme, and Tosca, the last of which she is themed and her skill name makes a reference to.

The aria her skill references, ‘E lucevan le stelle‘ (’And the stars were shining’) is sung by the male lead, a painter in love with Tosca, as he waits for execution; My alteration of the phrase attempts to evoke a hopeful future, made with your own hands— in the darkest hour, finding a light again.

(Apologies to anyone who knows Italian, lol, but lucevan is an archaism and was challenging to find conjugations for.)

Her outfit and hair took cues from costume designs from a few productions of La Boheme, past and present, since poor painters are present in both plays. Her makeup is a little derivative of Comedia del Arte to further the connection to Italy, as well. (Also if you look at pictures of the real horse, there’s a specific photo where his bangs are swept to the sides like that, and I found it insufferably cute.)

Afleet Alex

Alex is a Sweetiepie. There is no better way to describe her. For reasons I’ll mention in the design notes, my concept for her was “a hero kids look up to,” and for that reason she has a lot of Precure Energy.. She loves lemon everything and loves her family back on the farm, and always wants to do her best for her older sister, who is frequently in the hospital. Alex spends a lot of time volunteering and visiting at the children’s hospital, and is great with kids. She’s also always good at knowing the right words to say to a friend who needs encouragement, even when they’re fighting words.

Afleet Alex Design notes:

Alex was really challenging, and I had a lot of concepts for her, but from the get-go, I wanted her to be very magical girl-esque. Now, the reason behind this concept is that in 2005, Alex’s team partnered with the pediatric cancer charity, Alex’s Lemonade Stand, to raise money for pediatric cancer research and aid. As such, Alex’s team donated a portion of their winnings from Preakness and the Belmont Stakes to the charity, and encouraged the racetracks to host fundraising efforts during race meets. As a foal, Alex himself had to be bottle fed by his breeder’s 8yr old daughter, as his mother fell ill. Later in life, his breeder himself was diagnosed with cancer…in summary, I think Alex, as a horse girl, would always be empathetic and feel strongly about the need to support others when they’re sick or in pain. In the end, the outfit went to precure by way of 2000s Angelic Pretty, and I am still SO fond of it, especially since precure also started in ‘04/‘05.

Closing Argument

Her close friends call her Carmen (Closing Argument.)

She’s a straight up diva and we can all see that. Her father is a retired judge, and one reason she’s racing is that she wants to become a paralegal. Her observation of her dad’s work was hugely influential on her, and because of that she’s a big dork who always uses legal terms. She’s SUCH a sore loser. She gets SO pissed about losing. But she gets the most upset when she ranks, but doesnt get 1st, bc that means she was “out-strategized.” She obsessively keeps records and notes on everyone she races, and she has the school handbook memorized.

Carmen thinks Giacomo is an annoying upstart, even if she’s talented, and has has a onesided rivalry with Afleet Alex & insists “anyone with her goody-two-shoes image and sterling reputation is hiding SOMETHING” She’s also very fussy about her appearance, and instinctively suspicious of people being nice to her.

She only smiles with teeth when she’s racing, anywhere else she just gives a bitchy little 😊. This isn’t an intimidation tactic, or anything, she just accidentally had a photo taken of her with lipstick on her teeth once & is self conscious about it Forever now, especially given her sharp teeth. She threatens to sue people all the time, but no one can tell if she’s joking or not (she mostly is, she would never waste court resources on dumb shit)

Last but not least, she has a crush and deep admiration for Smarty Jones, who is a working detective and racer in the umaverse. They met at court when they were younger, as her father was the judge presiding over the murder case. (Yup, gonna leave that as a teaser, I’ll post Smarty later, lol)

Closing Argument Design Notes:

y’all its sooo hard to design these horses with fucking. “Legal” themes. So many horses have legal system names and it’s awful. Anyway I wanted her to have big tits and serve, since the other two are flatter and cutesier, and I knew I wanted her to have a very like, Designer silhouette. Since the other two also didn’t have long hair, I decided at first to give her a long braid, and then that became a very Bayonetta-inspired hairdo, lol. I don’t have the photo anymore but her blazer was based off a GORGEOUS designer label one I found online. Lastly, the sword and scales and “Fiat justitia, ruat caelum” (“Let justice be done, though the heavens fall”) in the background were to emphasize her ruthlessness in a race— anyone can win, given the proper preparation.

anyway, if you’ve read all this: thank you!!

I am still being insane and working on pieces and little projects with these horse girls and many others, so please let me know if you like them or have any questions!