what was the inspiration or thought process for designing the unique masks for your babies? reminds me of when people draw leo's markings off of his face <3
Oooh, that's a really good question!!
For the idea of making the masks different themselves, I think it was subconsciously decided very early on the sketching ideas stage that I did not want the usual masks for them, because they translate more for ninjas for me (the whole point of canon, good job hkbgk) and my boys are not ninjas at all, they are magical users to a superhero degree (the whole point of maho shojos out there).
I do admit, that at the time of their first designs, the most experience I had with the magical girl genre was with western media which was inspired after it (and I have since learned that is usually called magical girl adjacent). I had that, way more experience with the superhero genre and a bunch of references in front of me, so I started designing the masks with the premise that hiding their identity in some way was still important to these turtles... plus they make them look cooler.
As for the thought process behind them, there was shape-language as the main focus for Mikey and Leo's masks, while for Raph and Donnie's I was having a way to showcase their powers and still look neat enough be the main priority. It had to fit their whole aesthetic for each of them and I would have to be able to draw them more than once too.
Leo and Mikey's are similar in base-design idea, but they have different executions. Like Leo's having sharper edges that go up, meanwhile Mikey's have way softer curves that could also resemble wings in a way.
Donnie and Raph's I quickly realized had to be redesigned during the AU Comp doodles HKBFKGJ. Yeah, so the first time I revealed these goobers, I was thinking way more of making masks that represent their powers and not so much of 'if anyone could draw them without much difficulty' and that was my bad.
Everytime I see someone draw them from the very first picture reference I'm like 'I'm so sorry I did that to you and that's not how they look like now' gkbgkv.
I have changed them so they have a way more comprehensible pattern for me and everyone to follow. I'm happier with them now 👍
As an addition to their masks redesign, by now I had their little guys designed and that helped with the process too!