I really don’t know how to put my “studying” process into words because I lowkey just stare at their beautiful art and try to reason with myself why they used those colors/shapes/clothes/etc. I did try to analyze calciumdream’s colors to find any patterns, but I’m still working on that… but here’s an overview about what I think about the results:

for nightmare and death, I didn’t work out their designs(specifically for nightmare, since I already had a death design in mind and some doodles) beforehand and went straight into it. I struggled a lot with nightmare since I really wanted him to have apple-shaped ribs(inspired by just-stain’s cygnus design) but also wanted him to have… kinda a royal vibe..? yeah. and then I added death next to him. since I didn’t have a guide to follow, I had more freedom with the composition(death’s wings and halo were planned for at all; death’s right wing also resembles a “crown” on top of nm if you look close enough). I also struggled with the colors a lot…