Something something EMD popped up in my brain again while listening to mitski and suddenly this was on my screen... uuhh oops? (it's a doodle gone rogue lol, just fucking around with brushes :D)
Fr though, this AU has a deathgrip on me and my sanity. Hope you enjoy @evenmoreofadisaster ,y'all are amazing :)
how did you go about designing gemini mikey venus and jennika's masks? they look so cool!
Oh gosh what a fun question. I'm about to babble a bunch so I'll put it below a cut 'cause it's long, sorry...
The main motivation for giving Mikey a mask in the first place was I wanted him to have some design element that called back to the horns on Draxum's helmet, (kinda like how @evenmoreofadisaster's Two does) to represent how Mikey looks up to him and emphasize the importance of their relationship. I didn't wanna just do the same thing as EMD, though, of course, and that same design element wouldn't work for Mikey the way it does for Two, anyway. So then the question was-- how do I give this guy horns?
I ended up landing on "oh, I can give him a mask!" I referenced a bunch of different japanese oni masks for the design-- it specifically has 'X's' for eyes to reference his canon kneepads. :3c I hadn't planned to include Venus and Jennika when I designed Mikey, and ended up adding them in a bit later, but it always kinda seemed obvious that they should have masks, too...
I wanted Venus's mask to appear a bit calmer and softer, to kind of reflect her personality, and while I considered giving her the classic "mask tail braid," I also wanted to give her a bow (since all the Hamato Kids have one somewhere!) and keep her 'different,' so I ended up deviating slightly and giving her braids coming from the mask's 'mouth,' instead, to represent smoke, steam, or clouds, which is a somewhat common motif I saw when looking at reference materials for her.
For Jennika, I knew I wanted to give her a big ol' bow, and after a bit of experimenting I decided the best way to do this was to put the mask on the back of her head-- which I also found meant I had the chance to add the fun little design element of giving her 'horns' that sort of appear to be her own by poking out over the top of her head. She's a bit of a spit-fire, so she has sort of 'devilish' little horns to represent this. Her mask being on the back of her head instead of the front like her siblings is also sort of a reference to how she feels a bit less connected to their 'mission' than them, or at least, feels the devotion differently than they do. Venus and Mikey's masks, the visual representation of their relationship with Draxum and their 'divine mission,' is right in the forefront, covering half their faces. Though Jennika still wears a mask, her face is bare-- her mask is behind her, rather than being the very first thing you see.
HERE'S THE FINISHING PRODUCT!! I LOVE THIS ART SM!! 💗💗💗♥️♥️♥️‼️‼️‼️🌟🌟🌟 credits to @evenmoreofadisaster, @teaableu, @3lectricinsomnia and the other blogs that worked on the EMD! AU I seriously love ur work and hope to see more of it from you guys!!
Anyways I finally got around to drawing @3lectricinsomnia and @teaableu‘s EMDT AU. Go check it out if you haven’t, it’s got some great designs and really fun dynamics!
FINALLY this insanely busy january is nearing its end and I can properly return to fic writing for the first time this year!! also reading a non-work book, look at me