#vermer

Back to the Städel Museum after 13 years. I met Vermeer’s The Geographer again.

 😫 - I admire you from the sidelines because you seem cool and I’m just a dork

😟 - I wish I had the courage to start talking to you.my

friend the good news for all of us is that i have never been cool a day in my life. yesterday i burst into tears in front of my boss and two weeks ago i decided to pull the space bar off my laptop and ended up having to get the whole keyboard replaced. we are all dorks In This House.

 “*In Berlin rn, toured in the city today* ITS PAINFULLY IRONIC TO SEE...”

päriselt? ma pole Tallinnas üldse näinud. Suht raske uskuda aga...nojah. :/

TIGER DANCE

STILL IN LOVE

PROMISE THE MOONLIGHT

WHO?

AAA I'm so glad I get to talk about my designs... I don't always know what I'm doing with those but I know enough to answer your questions!

All in all, I would define my approach in designing them in terms of folklore and mythology as similar as to how Touhou does it. I like to say I aim to integrate sufficient references to the Monster/Youkai/Legendary Creature's lore but also sprinkle in my own interpretations when I feel like it's possible AND also put the character's personality on the foreground when designing. It's all about balance and what makes sense for the character. For example, Naoko's design is more "urban" in its approach because of her personality, but I still snuck in some "that's-a-stretch" type references with her scarf being loosely based on the bakeneko's towel. Meanwhile, Akira's design has little to no proper references to Kitsune to underline how she wants little to nothing to do with Kitsunes themselves.

There was a time where I could just churn out written designs on the get go, but nowadays I think this is no longer something I think I can do because, you see, I learned how to draw and to think like a character designer. An amateur one, sure, but I feel like this process is the direction I want to go.

So I think my design process nowadays is as follow:

Define character concept. In my process, the character's personality and story is the very first step of the process. There are cases where the design comes first and then the story, but all in all, the story is what dictates the character.

Research about the elements that are part of the character's design. Not only the folklore surrounding the monster I am basing the MagiMon on, but also the pop-culture perception of that monster. It's always useful to know how it is perceived. In general, I know that whatever type of take i want to have on a certain myth, I know I want to go in a direction that I like, so it's good for me to know what I like and what I hate (This is especially the case for Greek Mythology characters, especially the Olympians)

BRAINSTORM! The most/least fun part and the one where it varies from character to character. Some characters have their designs outlined from the getgo, others take a big while for my brain to figure out something. But in general, I go on google image, pinterest or just browse books I have to build a visual library. Build a moodboard and whatnot!

Recently, I found that the best way for me to properly envision a new character is to mentally faceclaim the character with the closest character there is. For example, Vera, the Pegasus MagiMon (that I have yet to design), I picture her as just Platinum. That gives me a mold that i can just reshape in the future.

I also think that I want to find one thing that makes the character stands out from the rest. The most easy part is with the head: a good tip I have received is to have a very specific head silhouette for the character so that they can be recognized from a glance in a crowd. Akira's spiky hair, Gashadokuro's hood, Naoko's pulled hair, Hikaru's one side front bangs. Yuzuki's simple shape also distinguishes her from the rest since she's the protagonist.

This step also depends on how solidified my character's design is, but I sometimes doodle the character or parts of the character either with a loose brush or on kraft paper. To test the grounds.

And next... Well if i have the courage... I draw them! And then I color them. I usually decide on colors on the go, so I don't know if I have any tips to give related to that. I try to follow my gut feeling and go on a "if it fits, it's fine by me" philosophy.

I hope I answered your question! If not you can still ask me for precisions and I'll gladly answer them. Character designs are my passion and discussing that is such a pleasure no matter what!

i will never stop thinking about avenger Kriemhild (Nibelungenlied based) !!!

BRO

THIS IS