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

The Glorious Cacophony

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There they are! The fancy Fae-Dragons (this is a misnomer they’re all fancy)! I toned down the saturation of the red I usually sketch with.

When I designed the citizens of this court, I had the tropics on my mind: jungle birds, bugs, and fancy flowers. Feathers, wings, and bug heads. I also gave them a vintage bent, at least for the commoners. I imagine those with bird wings will fold them in a way to resemble a shawl or short cloak, like the gargoyles from Gargoyles.

An additional concept I had but didn’t include was them having transparent limbs stuffed with flowers, like those glass decorations with flowers in the middle. Or maybe some have glass scales they press flowers behind. Lots of room for expansion here.

The Mycemal Horde

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Hmmm how to design a court of fae-dragons based on decomposition? Add mushrooms and fungi! I wanted to up the inhumanness of my previous Mycemal Hoard designs. For the figure on the left, I removed their face and tore open their chest. Their face is a trypanophobia-causing series of worm holes now.

I also added elements of found and recycled objects into the designs.  They’re pretty complicated to draw. Good thing I’m not doing a comic!

Yet Another Simon Redesign

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I redesigned Simon (again)! He originally had this short-sleeved silk dress shirt, but I got tired of doing all the clothing folds and texturing. So hello blue rashguard! I’ll probably simplify the shirt even more, maybe mess with the colors, but I prefer the silhouette much more. Here are my concepts + some casual and Halloween outfits.

I also added some purple to his skin and face. The tips of his fingers have become purple as well, leading to a gradient to his skin tone. That is because I modified his backstory to include botched mithradism due to family issues. It illustrates his sometimes-toxic and self-destructive nature better. He has become more of a grotesque beauty.

Xhaska Square Redesign

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Here she is! In my mission to make my dnd characters more distinct from my original fiction characters, I redesigned Xhaska. I changed her nose, face shape, hair, and outfit probably, and lessened her eczema. I went with the plan that she’s a hypothetical child of Simon and Taya, who I did consider making a couple in my book outline. I like the ribbon. It gives a softer edge to this hardened space criminal.

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