Author: Micey

J. Shen or "Micey" is a Junior at Umich. She loves character design and telling stories and dabbles in making her own comics. Sketchbook Smashing is an attempt to chronicle her process in designing characters. From first concepts, hairstyle and outfit changes, or even complete shifts in design. She also hopes to map out how her own art style changes throughout the year. Her website is https://wallmouseart.weebly.com Her art Tumblr is https://wallmouse.tumblr.com

Dearest Dumb Boi Hakkun

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I can’t believe it’s the end of the school year. I’m watching the snowfall out of my window as I type this.

This is Hakkun, one of my DnD characters. He’s a storm sorcerer/unauthorized genie warlock multiclass living in a “futuristic medieval” society. His genie’s vessel is a compass. I wanted to make him a very pretty and fashionable boy. I gave him a hat because I liked its silhouette although I do have trouble figuring out horn placement. I’m proud of his fancy-soled boots.

I mixed a lot of feminine-associated design elements into his design. I often have a hard time figuring out men’s fashion because most of it’s so plain compared to female fashion. I’m glad I did what I did about Hakkun, he looks so stylish!

the Fluxcharger Drummer

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Hello there! These are designs for a DnD NPC’s band member. They’re all lightning/thunder-themed because the lead singer is an air genie. I asked my DM for advice on band members and he suggested I add one based on a fluxcharger monster, which was a good idea! I shaped the lightning arching off a charger’s head into an afro-shaped and I played around with silhouette. I thought about making them like a mermaid but the movement seemed awkward. I like the octopus version more. I thought about giving them painted tattoos but those turned out really hard to draw.

The bottom pictures are concept designs for the entire gang.

Io the Snake Person

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This is Io, one of Cyrene’s backstory characters. She’s been tagging along with the party for a while. She’s a yuan-ti warlock who got possessed by her sword/patron, which we got rid of.

I wanted to show her accountant job as well as her managerial position at Cyrene’s old workplace, so she gets a dress shirt and tie. As well as how she’s not really the best fit for the job desire-wise, so I made her clothing a bit mismatched for her occupation. I added her coat to show her allegiance to Cyrene, who has a similar coat.

Kortney with a K

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Behold! Yet another dnd character! This one’s my genie warlock’s patron. She’s a Djinni, which means she’s an air genie. Her name is Kortney.

My warlock wants to be a rockstar, so I made Kortney this aged/retired rocker. I wanted to make her regal and punk, like rock royalty. Simple, elegant clothing and this stormcloud cape. It matches her mood and I hope I showed that. Also I gave her this glam, 1930s style hairstyle.

More Taya

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I modified Taya’s design again for a bit. I made her coat oversized and gave her bad posture. I changed her collar a bit too. I think it shows off her personality more. She definitely has books sewn into that coat. She gets mad when one of those books gets stabbed instead of her.