castroma-msu

[reanimatestar]

cringe ass hero <3

[image description: digital illustrations of the artist's original project. the first is an illustration featuring the protagonist, a brown man with brown eyes and wavy black hair styled in a mullet. he wears a white shirt with a standing collar and long sleeves, and a teal sash with teal fabric pleated and wrapped around his waist. he stands against a red background, holding a wave-bladed sword with one hand on the hilt and the other on the blade. a white circle is behind him and white text in all caps below him reads: "divine parasites".

the following illustrations are a black and white comic, featuring the protagonist and a deity. the deity is an east asian man with long dark wavy hair in a ponytail and a white halo, wearing similar clothes to the protagonist. the protagonist screams, "We’re nothing more than vultures... picking clean the bones of this world!" a beat passes between them, with the protagonist tense with anger as the deity looks down on him. the deity sighs, "Are you quite done with this tantrum of yours? Do you think you’re the only one with regrets? Do you think you’re the only one to suffer? We cannot afford to waver now. Now, come." he turns. "There’s more work to be done." the protagonist looks at him, fists clenched in anger. /end description]

[alicenpai]

princess tutu: die jahreszeiten 🌸

kind of a companion piece to my 2022 ptutu drawing | it's on inprnt

this print was at anime north; next con is otakuthon!

oops so my hand slipped and i made another princess tutu drawing. i admittedly don't watch that much anime so my catalogue of work is gonna be the same 5 animes LMAO. what can i say, i love "dark" fairy tales, and i've been really enjoying the more fine art approach to a lot of my drawings as of late (and the watercolour brush i've been using has been so perfect for that...!)

as my first princess tutu drawing is now 2 years old, there are some areas i've grown to have ... qualms with... although both drawings as a whole are pretty much exactly what i envisioned, and that's always satisfying!

both of these were drawn in roughly a week's time (yes really...) for con crunch period (and i went back to this drawing after the con to touch up some areas that were a bit rough!). i wanted a different approach to this new pt drawing, with the focus on the line work, rather than on colours and lighting in the 2022 drawing.

this drawing had 2 goals: to continue the style i adopted in my witch hat atelier "lantern bearers" drawing (which i promise i'll post in full soon as soon as all of the zine artists get their go-ahead to post their pieces!), and to emulate the art nouveau movement's heavy emphasis on line work, albeit not a 1:1 style replication of course.

the seasons also aren't a 1:1 representation, as i didn't necessarily pick flowers or colours that are most strongly associated with the season (e.g. summer being a dark tone is a bold choice?). but it's kinda whatever, as i said before i drew this in a week, there may be more appropriate flowers with better meanings. i couldn't spend too too much time drafting and researching.

FLOWER SYMBOLISM:

- spring: apple blossoms, tulips - the apple blossom is a quintessential spring flower, and thus symbolize the arrival of spring. spring is a season of change, which ahiru/princess tutu is a force of, instigating change in her friends and unravelling the story around her. the flowers below her are tulips, and there are many meanings to tulips depending on the colour, due to their ubiquitous nature. i narrowed on one, and intended for them to symbolize happiness. princess tutu's pose is one in which that is open, inviting, and warm - reflecting her nurturing nature in the series, and her willingness to help others achieve happiness.

- summer: deadly nightshade flower, yellow rose - i chose for rue/princess kraehe to symbolize a fiery summer's night instead of the typical dazzling heat of a summer's day, a rather bold and unusual choice. the warmth of sunshine didn't quite fit, as the character is quite dramatic and passionate, with her intentions often hidden in shadow. next, the deadly nightshade - atropa belladonna - has a lot of mythological associations, a lot to do with poisoning, as the flower is toxic. the flowers bloom at night (another reason why i picked a nighttime backdrop for "summer") and also outwardly match rue's dark design scheme, as the cherry on top. yellow roses, at the bottom of her frame, are the archetypal flower depicting jealousy (as with many yellow flowers are), and at one point in the story, rue only wished for her own happiness at the misfortune of others.

- autumn: douglas fir needles, orange calla lily - autumn is another season of change - although much more tumultuous, as this season is traditionally taken to prepare for a long winter ahead - fitting for fakir as the role of the storyteller. the douglas fir is not a flower of course, but is a tree - with many different parts of this tree offering many benefits in advance of the winter season. i wanted the versatile nature of the douglas fir to reflect on fakir's dependable personality. next up, the calla lily is a flower with a dual meaning - on one hand you have life, on the other you have death. a storyteller quite literally can grant both at the tip of their fingers.

- winter: birch tree, snowdrop - winter is a rather still and unchanging season, a lull in the passage of time. this symbolizes mytho's passive nature at the start of the series, especially with his doleful pose here, as if almost in hibernation. to contrast, mytho is perched on the branches of a birch tree, which means new beginnings and renewal - as mytho is one of the characters that undergo the most change throughout the series (i'd argue the most?), regaining pieces of his heart. under mytho's frame is the snowdrop flower - and if you've read my witch hat atelier: seasons piece symbolisms, one of the snowdrop's meanings is rebirth, with connotations to the bible, bringing hope, when all had forsaken eve. the snowdrop is one of the first flowers to bloom even when the snow has not yet fully melted, further echoing mytho as an analogy for rebirth.

[operafantomet]

Hi! I’m currently doing an MA in historical costuming and for my final project I will be making Christine’s “Slavegirl Hannibal” costume as well as the “Elissa” costume, I want to try and base it off of Lucy St Louis costume and I was wondering if you had any in depth, detailed photos of her version of the costumes? Thank you in advance!!

Oh, how awesome!

As per maria Bjørnson's costume design, the bodice is meant to be fairly hourglass-shaped, with gold ornaments over the bust, and as a "belt" around the hips. The skirt consists of "ropes" - this has been solved different in different productions. In the front skirt there's also rows of beading, and the same can be seen over the arms.

The Hannibal bodices usually consist of ten vertical panels in alternating red and green velvet, closing in the back with hooks and bars, or hooks and eyes. They are lined with cotton; sometimes white, sometimes black. The UK ones often have black lining. They can have boning channels in the middle of the lining panels, or sewn on as separate boning channels attached over the inner seams. They may or may not have an inner waistband, and they all close in the back. Here's the inside of a UK bodice from 2016:

As you can see, this depicted bodice has additional padding over the chest and hips. This can be done either for general comfort, or if an existing costume is re-fitted for a new actress / dancer.

Lucy St Louis' bodice had a nice hourglass shape, with two rows of pleated trim in front, one row of the same at the side and back seams, alternating with a narrower looped gold trim.

The larger gold panels in front and back is built up of various gold appliqiées and red and green gems. Albeit not Lucy's, they typically look like this when not attached:

Here's a closeup from Lucy St Louis' collar, which shows the various components better, and the placement of the gems:

As for the grand Elissa gala skirt, it feature a sort of bodice continuation, ending into a pointed front. The grand skirt is just put on top of the main bodice, which allows a super quick costume change, going from ballerina to leading lady:

You have to sit close to notice the discrete horizontal line where the bodice and skirt meets, especially when it's so neatly done as in Lucy's costume. They made the false bodice continuation a lot shorter than previous skirts, which mimick's Carlotta's bodice well.

The skirt itself is made of a shimmering green taffeta (?), possibly shot with black. The hem is multiple rows of fold trims, pleated, and decorated with X-shaped gold trims with gens and tassels. Then an additional red/golden trim on top, and another wavy red/golden trim a bit further up. On top of this is four tabs, red with golden decorations, and a red apron with green/gold trims, fringes and "brooches". There is furthermore a green/red waterfall backdrape, with one of the red tabs on top. Here's the skirt in making, with just the main base and the red apron:

With all decorations it looked like this:

This backdrape is the one they made for Paige Blankson rather than Lucy St Louis. It is not identical, but similar in materials, and identical in shape. So it can serve as an illustration:

Same with the tabs for Paige's costume - not identical, but similar materials and shape:

The skirt is lifted by various layers of tulle, netting and sometimes also hoops. The skirt should ideally have a hint of bustle, to reflect on what was the fashion of the era even if it's a costume. But some versions go more panier, with wide hips and flatter in the front and back. Like the bodice, the skirt closes in the back with a closing hidden on one side under the backdrape.

I think that is the main breakdown of the costume. I hope it gives you a decent base to work on, at least. I can also make you a photoset, showing the photos overneath plus some more. Best of luck with the project, and have FUN!

[dokidokitsuna]

The Eel Deal

This was my first time drawing Frye’s face, and it was honestly one of the most rewarding fan art experiences of my life. She has such a good design!! OMG she has such an amazing design and I never really realized it until now…!

…I think it’s because I’ve never really seen her design rendered in a ‘hybrid-toon’ style like this, with her features ever so slightly exaggerated for effect. Tbh, I’m one of the very few Splatoon artists I’ve seen who draws like this; most artists either do ‘chibi-anime’, ‘semi-realism’ (there are SO many semi-realistic Splatoon artists; and it’s hilarious because you’d think it’d be the opposite), or something reflective of their own unique style that’s not really ‘on model’. And all that is fine, but with a design as unusual as Frye’s it means you never get to see how well it works in 2D all on its own. And it works SO WELL

Anyway, speaking of design: you may have noticed my final ‘bandit’ design for Frye changed a lot from its first draft, just like Shiver’s. I did like the original jacket, but I felt like I needed something less generic for the real thing. So I came up with this abstract shawl-looking thing, designed to resemble the pallu of the Indian saree. The long drape at the back kinda mirrors the shape of Shiver’s kimono-sleeves, which I’m very happy about. ^^

So in this re-concept, Frye’s eels have a job just like Master Mega does, albeit a less-mandatory one: if you feed them Power Eggs, they will accompany you into the lab spaces to search for things: secret rooms, locker decorations, and other hidden collectibles that contribute to your “percent completion” of the game. I imagine this as something you set up before entering a level, like the weapon select screen…maybe it could even be semi-interactive; like Agent 3 holding up different items for the eels to sniff, each one corresponding to something you can tell them to find for you. ^^

I also think it would be cool if, the more times you borrow the eels this way, the lower their Power Egg price becomes, as if you’re gradually ‘training’ them to help you. Maybe once you get down to the lowest possible price, Frye could congratulate you on becoming an ‘Honorary Eel-Charmer’ and give you a prize; something like that~

[maddascanbe-blog]

Miracu-class girls are done! It took less time than I initially anticipated, thank goodness. Let's talk re-write's and re-designs shall we?

Sabrina so freaking cute, give the girl her hat. It was probably a gift from Chloe. For her redesign I thought she would be the kind to dress in cute blouses and flowy skirts. She has tennis skirts in every color for every occasion. As for her re-write- anyone who saw how I changed Chloe probably will guess that their dynamic is drastically changes as well.

Sabrina met Chloe when they were in their tween years, Officer Roger having worked security for the Bourgeois on multiple occasions. One day he had to bring his daughter into work and Chloe found her wandering the halls. When a kidnapper tried to abduct Chloe, Sabrina sprayed him with pepper spray her father gave her and then kicked him in the dick for good measure. Chloe then declared that Sabrina should be her full-time body guard, and she technically is being paid to hang out with Chloe. But Sabrina would have done it with or without the money since Chloe is actually very endearing once you figure out how she works.

Alix is next! Alix's violently pink hair could not be ignored, so I kept it (albeit a little less saturated) Also she is in fact still short. Her outfits are probably all variations of sports gear unless she has an event to attend at the museum. I also tanned her up since I imagine she spends a lot of time outside, girl is sunburnt. She is actually a year ahead in history, having gotten too bored with junior level classes. So she's friends with some of the seniors too. I won't get into Bunnix anytime soon but- let's just say it's a lot more tragic than cannon would ever admit. The rabbit's powers are changing, and Alix still has to live with that.

On a lighter note, Juleka, as stunning as ever. Tall queen. She is a year behind since her lack of participation in classes ultimately tanked her grade in several subjects. Her band director was more then happy for her to stay an extra year though, since she is trained classically as well as electrically on the bass. She may not like talking, but she has little fear of performing when the music can do the talking. Her twin brother actually graduated early, and he's working now to help pay for the band the two want to start. Her design doesn't change much from her cannon one other than the fact I switched her ripped leggings for lace ones. I imagine she actually has many outfits in this color pallet, since Chat Noir quickly becomes her favorite hero.

Mylene, okay the change I made here is pretty obvious. I debated for a long time on whether or not I change her skin tone. And when I did the line art? Wasn't planning too. But changed my mind last second, since I thought it helped the color pallet more. This would imply she is mixed, with her dad looking pretty much the same as cannon. it's hard to tell her unless you look closely but I gave her freckles that just cover every inch of her. She is Sunkissed. He character isn't super different, she is still easily startled, but she knows what she believes and will fight for it no matter what.

And finally, Rose! The lovely Rosey! The flower child! Her nonspecific illness still definitely happened, but I like to think she has actually recovered. I do not know enough about most chronic illnesses to make any sort of specification on what she has so nameless headache disease it is! She struggled a lot as a kid, but now she's planning to start a non-profit to help kids who are going through hard times of their own. She definitely still has her down days, the fact that she nearly died so young is not something she is quick to forget. But she will do whatever she can to give other people hope, sinee she knows all too well what it feels like to be hopeless.

As for her design, she had a bucket of pink upturned on her. She did have to have her hair shaved as an affect of her illness but now it's growing back faster than ever. She gets it cut every time it gets past a certain length to donate it.

Luka is next!

[noctilionoidea]

I like them a lot

Really I just wanted to play around with more dynamic poses. Parts of the anatomy may be off, but it at least gets across some aspect of intimacy and has a fun composition.

It’s loosely based on the dream in the Dionysiaca that Dionysos has about Ampelos, but it’s not exact depiction. I really love that passage. Nonnus depicts Dionysos with utter devotion to Ampelos. Imagine praying to the most powerful god, your father, and saying your boyfriend is hotter than his. Crazy. I’d suggest reading book 10 (albeit with the full awareness that Ovid’s work is more connected to the actual religion and stories than a 5th century Christian Greek living in Roman occupied Egypt. And ovid isn’t Greek. Ovid also depicts a variation of the Ampelos story, but it’s extremely different. Cool how stories change among different times and places!)

anyways it’s been awhile since I last made a piece with Ampelos and I very much need to remedy that. Made a few small changes to his design but you can’t really see it lol. Happy pride

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

More dust settling... I'll talk about Pixar some more, given that this was the year a certain Pete Docter quote caught a loooot of fire...

Mainly, him implying that - ahead of the release of INSIDE OUT 2 - Pixar would back down from making more "autobiographical" films like LUCA, TURNING RED, and ELEMENTAL, and going for more "general appeal" sorts of stories.

I read this as Pixar resigning themselves to the sort-of "genre" that some people think they are. Makers of "what-if" movies, "what if [x thing] were alive?" "What if this thing you've heard of was actually like some world/factory/city?" And restraining the filmmakers from telling stories that meant a lot to them.

And yet... The recently-announced HOPPERS, directed by WE BEAR BEARS creator Daniel Chong, seems to contradicts those statements. Now you may be saying, "Obviously HOPPERS began development years ago, so it would be one of their last films in that vein." I know that. I know how these things work. It was in development as far back as 2020, when Chong returned to Pixar.

That being said, significant revisions could've been made thereafter, prior to the rollout at this year's D23.

But, from the looks of it, HOPPERS - which will be the studio's 30th feature, by the way - will follow in the footsteps of LUCA, TURNING RED, and ELEMENTAL. Stylistically, it's a lot different from the usual Pixar look. Apparently Lindsay Olivares, who was production/character designer on THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES at Sony, is all over this one. It looks very wacky and zoogy and cartoony, much more TURNING RED than TOY STORY and FINDING NEMO.

And the premise isn't "what if [x thing] were alive?" Maybe the beaver habitat will have some of that "it's like a city/factory" thing going on, but the main premise is rather out there. Basically AVATAR with beavers, a girl puts a part of her brain into a robo-beaver in order to be among them and ultimately save them from a threat. Chong will probably execute this in a way that's different and very cool.

Then you have ELIO, which had a dramatic director change, but thankfully a release date delay because of it. More time to shape things, and not rush it out under immense pressure. Domee Shi already has BAO and TURNING RED to her name, while Madeline Sharafian has BURROW. It's also worth noting that Adrian Molina, the film's original director, is still at Pixar and is already at work on another film. Sometimes, directors kicked off of their movies during John Lasseter's reign just straight up left the studio. Jan Pinkava, Brad Lewis, Brenda Chapman, to name a few. The latter had WORDS. Molina's still at Pixar, has a new project in the works, and seems to want to stay. It must've been an amicable split.

They both got this, and in the recent interview Pete Docter did for The Wrap, it seemed like they really wanted the movie going forward to emphasize the feeling of being a kid in a big, often scary and intimidating world. Albeit against the backdrop of a cosmic adventure. What he was talking about there was far removed from the corporate-speak talk in the other articles, which were quite cynical to be honest. The Bloomberg one in particular from a few months back, which whined about Pixar's more original movies and posited that SEQUELS would restore their magic... Hunk o' logic right there!

VFX veteran Todd Vaziri put it best, on twitter.

everything about that bloomberg pixar piece is tras it's pro-"content", pro-commerce, anti-art

Couldn't have said it better myself... So, yeah, different Docter when Iger's gun isn't to his head, or the trades having him answer questions specifically.

Weirdly, INSIDE OUT 2... A sequel, and possibly on track to become the highest-grossing animated movie ever, was more creative to me than most of what came out of Disney - across all their film divisions - over the past couple of years. It could've just been a blah rehash of INSIDE OUT, but there were plenty of clever things here, and all the mixed media characters like Bloofy and Lance. Good stuff. It did not, however, restore Pixar's magic in my eyes. Maybe at the box office, but... I still feel TURNING RED is my favorite film to have gotten out of that studio in years, and I really dug SOUL and LUCA, and had great fun with LIGHTYEAR and ELEMENTAL. So yeah, none of that.

Pixar seems fine, really. They continue to do cool stuff, it seems Docter and crew understand that's the way. It's WDAS who I feel are struggling, but I digress. D23 reminded me that they've got some neat stuff coming.

Surely, the sequel announcements make it seem like that's the future... But really, if it were, the announcement of an INCREDIBLES 3 would've been followed by FINDING Somebody, CARS 4, WALL-E 2, ONWARD 2, etc.

In reality, I think INCREDIBLES 3 is a long way off. Brad Bird "developing" it tells me the film is in its Jack-Jack stages. TOY STORY 5 has had a concrete release date for some time and is full steam ahead, INCREDIBLES 3 is different. I'm sure there will be another original between the 2026 release of TOY STORY 5 and whenever INCREDIBLES 3 comes out, granted that it's not the studio's June 2027 picture. Which I kinda doubt it is, but we'll see.

Let's look at both decades...

The 2010s had seven sequels vs. only four originals.

This decade so far and including the announced upcoming films: Four sequels vs. seven originals. Subject to change, a few more originals and maybe one more sequel can sneak in there. But yeah, night and day difference. Pixar doing two pictures every other year allows them to get more originals out. I'm thinking they'll do a spring and summer 2028 thing like they did in 2022 and hope to do in 2026. (They had also planned that for 2020 and this year.) If so, I can imagine spring going to either Domee Shi's next or that project Adrian Molina is now working on, and summer going to INCREDIBLES 3. Meaning an original for summer 2027. KITBULL director Rosana Sullivan's movie, maybe?

I find it ever curious and frustrating that social media blew up over TOY STORY 5 and INCREDIBLES 3, but there was relative crickets on ELIO and HOPPERS... Complaining drives engagement, as does "TOY STORY" and "INCREDIBLES". Household names. ELIO, what's that? HOPPERS? I dunno. So, yeah.

[ping-ski]

Hewwo!!! :3 I hope you are having an amazing day, here is a whole plate of cupcakes! Would it be possible for you to share a few lore details about your Eclipsed By You AU story? I keep looking at the designs and I am so curious about what will be happening, I would wish to nibble on tiny lore crumbs, pretty please?

ama!! hihi! ! i meant to answer your ask much sooner! anyways, since you asked so nicely (and because i am pathetically weak to any sweets </3) prepare for some SERIOUS yappage under that cut

✦ AuDHD demands that I explain EBY origins before any details but you can totally skip this if you want! (Scroll till you see blue text! :3) So... Eclipsed By You was intended to be au/fic just for myself after work when I first got into DCA. I literally was pantsing a self-insert fic from just gameplay, voicelines, and a collection of scenarios I wrote in my notes app before I actually interacted with the DCA fandom lol. I was already in the process of writing it to be a proper fic and planned to make an AO3 acc to post it! I took some time away from it tho cause I got busy irl. During my break I did start to interact more the fandom! The first proper DCA fic I read was 'Solar Lunacy' by BamSara a few months back as a recommendation from a mutual I had from another fandom. I had told them about my fic idea and they suggested I read the fic as my fic had reminded them of SL. After reading through, I was kind of bummed initially because I really didn't think I had anything unique to offer with my own fic that I was hoping to share. I stopped writing it cause damn comparison truly is the thief of joy. SL and EBY had similar ideas going on and I just didn't feel like it was worth posting my fic cause it didn't feel "special" to me anymore. It was easy to give up since writing is really not my strong suit at all, so then I fell back to just drawing! I only came back to it despite the 19 other DCA aus I have lined up rn cause honestly I remembered that wrote it for my own enjoyment! Why did that have to change? Albeit, I did scrap lots of what I initially wrote and started fresh cause my interpretation of DCA changed. Regardless, EBY was always going to be a self-indulgent DCA/Reader fic taking place at the Pizza Plex. Sure not anything original, but that's just a fact of being a creative in general tbh. I felt silly when I realized that haha. I'm having fun and they make me smile, so who cares if its been done before lol. I still enjoy Solar Lunacy and still am a fan of BamSara! (the cotl content has been fueling me lmao)

✦ Some bits on Eclipsed By You- The main part of your ask lol! ✿ On the au/fic name: I actually stole it from another au (of the many) I have. No particular reason for it! I was writing EBY and that au around the same time and alternated working on the two throughout the day. That au is now nameless (actually it's nicknamed "Messiah" as I type) cause EBY grew onto me for what it is now! ✿ On DCA's designs: This might be kind of disappointing lol but- there isn't much of a lore/plot reason for their designs? They just look that way cause... why not :3 It's also part of just how I interpret DCA into my artstyle. Otherwise, they can be interpreted as the canon designs early on! Atleast until some future upgrades! ✿ When in SB are we? Everywhere /hj. EBY will have some pre-virus and post-virus stuff just for funsies! I'm dying to yap but if I say anymore I will get carried away 100%. ✿ On EBY!Eclipse: For this au, Eclipse is his own "person" you could say. With his own AI and personality chip to pair! Carefully built to be a dedicated host and theater bot. He is, including Sun and Moon, the entertainment <3. They are a singular animatronic in this fic! (like those 3 in 1 soaps except it's DCA /j) ✿ On EBY!Y/N: (EBY is a reader-insert, but intended to be written as gender neutral and an adult.) Y/N gets their own bit of lore and issues that may or may not be the stress/frustration from my 2 irl jobs thinly veiled lmao. They work part-time at the Plex as a general theater staff member! Each week, their tasks rotating between concessions, being an usher, and working along side the theater bots! (Kind of like a theater tech.) This is a part-time job just to keep them afloat while they work on their last bit of certifications and training to be a caretaker! They are pretty passionate about helping those in need. A sweetheart honestly. Though, if you don't like kids, maybe look away. Wholesome moments with the littles and DCA + Y/N is pretty decent with kids themselves. (Lots of projection from my own experiences working with children and elderly, as a caregiver turned caretaker. I kind of want to highlight some of my experiences with Y/N.) ✿ On EBY!Sun and Moon: These two are goofballs alongside Eclipse through and through. They all get to be sweet, soft, and doting I promise. Originally, before scrapping a good chunk of the og writing, EBY had a beloved sweetheart anxous Sun and aggressive Moon who was kind of an asshole(Before the rewrite, EBY felt so different. Like everyone was just tolerating eachother and fragments being held together with glitter glue n' dreams. I am very very glad it's different now lol.) Eclipse stayed fairly consistent though. Sweet house husband that he is. Now, Sun is just as unhinged as Moon (making him just as much as a threat!), but we will persevere with the power of friendship <3 We're gonna have some aloof Sun moments. He takes his job pretty seriously! Some goofy Moon bits who's giggles are light and airy. He is very unserious I fear. They're both trying their best, in their own ways. There's not much I can say rn without spoiling haha. It's hard to stay vague hrm. Or atleast I can't think of anything specific to add right now. (I may be able to answer some specific questions if you have any, my brain is just foggy rn) ✿ I'm simplifying it down to your "typical pizza plex fic" with pre-virus and post-fire shenanigans. I'm sorry if none of that is telling I can't think of anything specific cause I'm pretty sleepy rn so maybe it's a little boring sounding but I love it anyways haha Expect some canon-typical violence and non-sexual intimacy! I have intentions on writing the relationship between Y/N and DCA ambiguous so it can be seen as queerplatonic or romantic. (But this could very easily changed, I'm a shameless robokisser sigh.)

[a-legacy-not-to-be-forgotten]

Asking ab storyshift here, I think it’s such a cool idea and you seem to have visualized the settings very well!!! Do you have any specific ideas for the designs of the characters, or even just things that you would/wouldn’t keep from their original designs?

Thanks for the ask! I do indeed have character visual changes in mind! (Also, don't wanna be that guy, but the AU is called SequenceShift).

Ceroba

When it comes to the Empress herself, she wears a black mourning Kimono, which she's had on since Kanako's passing. She did wear a lot more colorful outfits before that, however, and she did wear her signature red and white yukata in more casual settings.

During her boss fight (she's fought on all three routes), she trades it out for a set of Samurai-style armor (Undyne and the rest of the Honor Guard wear similar outfits, albeit not as fancy as the Empress's)

Along with that, she weilds a naginata, which I thought would be a good balance between her canonical staff and Asgore's trident.

Chujin

Chujin is roughly the same when out in the Remnants, wearing his trademark green kimono. At home, he's got the whole divorce fit. Bathrobe, PJ pants, slippers, ect. He's taking care of himself, of course, he's just not super active these days. During his fight, he wears a gauntlet-based device (yes, based off of the Ben 10 Omnitrix) that amplifies his lightning attacks.

Starlo (and the Feisty Five in general)

When it comes to the Royal Rangers, I was thinking of having them wear something along the lines of the NCR Veteran Ranger armor from New Vegas, the coat over armor kinda thing.

While they are a bit more uniform in Sequence Shift, they all wear custom elements with their armor sets. For example, Starlo still wears his poncho, Ed ripped off the sleeves of his outfit, Ace and Mooch still have their scarves, all of 'em keep their canon hats, ect.

They also all have different outfits which they wear off-duty (and during their reunion), but we only got Moray so far: they wear a zipperless hoodie (with the hood up) and jeans. My BF really wanted to see Moray in a hoodie so there, hehe. Also, Mooch dual wields a dagger and sawed-off shotgun in this AU (you'll only see the later on a Vengeance run tho).

Martlet

I don't have any photos of it, but since Martlet's more of a hand-on engineering scientist, she wears more of a mechanic outfit than. Something sturdy and protect, since we all know this girl failure is very much prone to hurting herself and that isn't any different in SS. And goggles, those are important, too. Also, since I am very much a fan of the amputee Martlet headcanon, she's one here, too. She's got a set of fancy metal prosthetic legs that she built with the help of Chujin.

Axis

Axis's base form is pretty identical to how he is in canon. His EX form is where it gets a bit different. My boyfriend being the robot nerd he is, took a bit of Gundam inspiration, as well as somewhat basing it off of Mic Sounders from “king of the braves gao gai gar” (transforming from a cutesy robot into a more proper humanoid robot).

His NEO form (which may or may not be a proper boss fight) is gonna be based off a high-end Gundam or Armored Core, but we don't have any specific inspiration just yet.

Kanako

Kanako doesn't have any changes at first. While she does have some major differences as Iris (her Flowey Form) we're still working on that. However, we do have ideas for her Pacifist route encounter, where she emerges as the Liberator of Monsterkind (her version of Asriel's God of Hyperdeath). She pulls up in a Tokusatsu-style superhero form, with a purposefully overdesigned and cluttered look that only a child absolutely would think is awesome.

And that's it for the main cast. I don't think Clover needs an outfit change, but I might add a few knick-knacks and accessories that they pick up along their journey. I don't think Dalv needs any major changes either. If there's any other characters you wanna know about, do lemme know! Also, I'm not an artist, but if anyone wants to take a crack at some SS designs, feel free to hit me up!

[ut-versotale]

Update Time, Update Time

Welcome back, everyone. Hope you all had a very happy New Years! I come bearing a late present for you all: A Versotale update!

Game Progress

As I anticipated, I needed to take a break around the middle of November so I could focus on schoolwork. Now that we've been on break for a little while again and will continue to be for the better part of January, I've already gotten a sizable chunk of stuff done. Still not as much as I would've LIKED to have completed - There are still like only three fully-completed rooms at the moment, and even then they have a ton of WIP assets and first-pass dialogue and all - but, that is the way of coding a game solo, mostly from scratch, and with the occasional glances at Undertale's code, isn't it?

Unfortunately, while I really want to share stuff with you guys, it's all in some way a spoiler that I don't want to spoil for the people who'd rather experience everything fresh for themselves.

...

So, if you DO wanna experience everything fresh for yourself, feel free to bow out of this post here. If you're sticking around, enjoy some mild spoiler-y content, some character designs, and some fun vague allusions to things I still really wanna talk about! I need to give you guys SOMETHING after this long wait, right?

Game Progress: Slightly Spoiler-y Edition

The OPENING CUTSCENE you saw a while back has been tweaked slightly to make Hercine more likable, and so the dialogue can flow a bit more naturally.

Two new cutscenes have been added to the beginning, albeit with some rough visuals. These three all flow into each other, and if you're speaking through each line of dialogue, they only take up about six minutes total. Still, it is a TAD bit too long for my liking without any gameplay behind it, so there's a chance I might cut a cutscene or switch the order of things around so there's a brief gameplay section before the last one. Who knows.

Undyne has been redesigned. Undyne now sports some less bulky armor that combines aspects of her canon casual and armored forms. If she's gonna be there the entire game, she may as well have a visually-interesting design rather than the blob of bluish-grey her armor used to be. I'm sure some people will consider this a downgrade, which is always the risk you run when you redesign a character you've already shown off... but I personally just can't stand working with that old design any longer. The colors barely pop, it looks messy, the armor's boring and flat-colored and almost even blends into her scales, etc.

You didn't get to see the outdated Frisk design I had for this iteration of the project, and I'm glad you didn't, because upon writing more of their scenes and reconfiguring their personality, I HAD to redesign them again. I don't anticipate this one changing ANY time soon, but, as with Undyne, no promises.

Next up, some important human characters in the first area that AREN'T Frisk! You'll meet them later on, and I really hope you all end up liking them and the story behind them! In the meantime, here, have their designs. Again, they might change, but I'm comfortable with these for now.

That's all I feel comfortable showing off for the first area at the moment! I'm hoping to record everything up until the first save point and post it on YouTube at some point before the end of January (Again, as I must reiterate, in its very unfinished form), but no promises!

While that's all for the first area, I have been poking around with redesigning some of the later characters you guys have not even seen yet. Particularly, the primary antagonist of the new Cold West. I have to admit, I was a little worried that, if I didn't switch up his design, people would start comparing him to Clover since Undertale Yellow is still fresh in a lot of our memories right now, but... I think you guys will really like "The long scarf of the law." He's a fun character.

Alright, that's all from me! I hope you guys enjoyed this brief little peek at some mild spoiler-y content! I hope to be back soon with some neat stuff for y'all to see in action!

[adobe-outdesign]

I don't like Urshifu but I'd love to know what you have to say on the Urshifu line.

Kubfu is.... kind of generic, in all honestly. It doesn't have much of a theme at this point beyond fighting-type bear, which is represented by it being bipedal and having a "headband". If it had a theme beyond that, or maybe a more interesting visual basis, it might stand out more. At most, I can say that the overly determined expression is fun, but that's about it.

There's also a bunch of stuff that bugs me about the design. Like, why does the white from the "headband" go over its eyebrows, and why does it stop at the sides of the head instead of continuing around like an actual headband? The chest marking is meant to tie in Urshifu, but it feels very arbitrary here; more complex markings may have helped it, such as having a simplified version of Urshifu's chest. The ears blend into the head but at the same time don't match the shape of the surrounding fur for that to work, and the weird upturned back claws just look overgrown.

What I can say is that this is a pretty harmless design; it's simple enough and isn't terrible looking. It just doesn't do much for me.

Urshifu at least gets a more interesting theme at it evolves; still a fighting-type bear, it now gains a secondary typing depending on how it's trained—one part dark and one part water. It also gains a more unique design, sporting some pretty decent looking chest markings.

However, I find the way both forms are just the exact same 'mon, just with the fur going in different directions, to be underwhelming. There was definitely a missed opportunity to differentiate them more; different colors, different markings, different body builds, etc.

I also feel like there's a bit too much detail in some areas, such as the circles on the knuckles and the white bit above the head. The yellow color doesn't really work that well either; I usually love a good yellow/black contrast, but the black is too gray and the yellow to desaturated for it really to work here, and it only adds more complexity to the design. It would've made much more sense for the yellow areas to be different colors for each form, which would at least add some purpose to the colors.

Side note: I thought these guys had bird beaks and talons originally and I'm very disappointed to realize that isn't the case.

Speaking of colors, the g-max forms are... actually really good, or at least substantially better than the default forms.

First, the colors. Changing all the darker accents to be different colors depending on form instantly differentiates the two, and the bold white and accent-color contrast makes them stand out a lot more than the regular designs. I'm still not a big fan of the yellow (a gray would've been better), but that was a problem with the original design so I won't blame the g-max for that.

There's also more differentiation in the designs themselves; single-strike now sports jagged, spiky lines on the ribbon-like elements and around the knees, while rapid-strike sports much smoother accents to better reflect its water typing. I do wish the chest marking changed more or at least smoothed out for the rapid-strike form, but overall this is a welcome change.

This kind of raises the problem with GameFreak designing Pokemon with a gimmick in mind though—g-maxing isn't going to be in any future games, effectively "locking" the line behind their much less interesting regular designs. This is particularly frustrating because nothing about the g-max design relates to it being bigger; in other words, the g-max could've easily been the regular form. Kubfu then could've been all-white with gray accents. Improves the line significantly in a way that still works with future games.

Anyway, overall: Kubfu is fairly boring, albeit harmless. Urshifu has a slightly better design, but the best design of the line is unfortunately locked behind a one-time gimmick that won't be returning. Hopefully GameFreak takes longevity into account for future designs.

[itsahotminuteinbetween]

okie chokie, let’s go

uhhh

just gonna paste this directly from my notes cuz I suck at summarizing…

Witch au:

Okay, so this entire thing essentially revolves around lunar because um reasons that I don’t feel like disclosing (I have none). Okay. So. There’s this funky lil pendant that pretty much everyone sees as a priceless artifact. There’s legends surrounding at, whispers of untold power beyond time and space, secrets that bend reality to your every whim. (Fun fact that definitely isn’t important at all: KC helped design it!) So of course, a certain orange dorito man goes looking after it. He’s dedicated pretty much his entire life to researching its abilities and whereabouts, and finally, after countless years of searching, it’s in the palm of his hand. Exceeeept…whoops! He doesn’t know how to use it. And he tries everything: he flips through all his texts, all the notes left behind, but there’s nothing said about activating it. He tries knocking, incantations, different acids and solvents (fun fact: he was an alchemist’s apprentice for a lil while in his youth!) to no avail. Finally, he rubs the dumb thing like Alladin’s lamp, grasping for straws before giving up and tossingn the damn thing across the room. And who should come out but a little ghost, curious to see who disrupted its vessel.

Lunar is essentially like Casper. Very sweet and friendly, but a little oblivious of boundaries. Besides, he hasn’t been outside in a loooong time; he’s eager to explore and check out what’s changed, much to Eclipse’s chagrin. He doesn’t exactly like the new spirit, but it’s the only lead he has in unlocking the pendant’s power. So, he puts up with him, albeit not with the…best treatment. Eclipse isn’t exactly well-versed with kids; he hardly got to be one for very long. That, and his main priority is the pendant; Lunar’s a liability. He conducts a good deal of experiments, trying to set Lunar free from the object, but that is seemingly impossible. As Eclipse’s experiments continue to fail, his temper grows shorter, and Lunar suffers all the worse for it. Eventually, Eclipse gives up altogether and scraps the project regarding Lunar’s involvement, and seeks out someone to just break the pendant in hopes that that’ll work (his time working on it have made him…less than mentally stable). So, poor Lunar finds out and is cast to the wayside, seemingly forgotten. He resolves to run away and escape Eclipse’s place (since he has no real ties there besides the emotional abuse and manipulation on Eclipse’s part) with the pendant tied around his neck. 

He wanders around for a lil while, and what should he happen upon but a nice little cabin in the middle of the woods. It’s a lot cozier than Eclipse’s, and he wanders inside in hopes of somehow figuring out how to solve this little amulet issue since it’s…kinda not great for him either. So he explores the little house, only to be caught red handed by our good friend the witch.

Moon is the witch in this au. He, like Eclipse, was also an alchemist under KC, but he actually completed his training and went on to study on his own, becoming fairly well-versed in magic and the dark arts. Anywho, he walks into his cabin and meets this little ghost who looks absolutely terrified at his presence. Moon assures him that he’s not here to cause any trouble, and the ghoul seems to relax, if only slightly. Moon essentially decides to just let him stay for as long as he wants to, only saying that he might have a bit of an issue with his brother…

Sun isn’t a witch like Moon, He dabbled a little bit in alchemy, but he only knows the basics of that and most magic. His knowledge gravitates more towards creatures of myth and legend. He’s a demon hunter of sorts (he runs into a particular demon at some point…), collecting the necessary ingredients for Moon’s experiments, as well as a few of his own. He comes home a week or two after Lunar, and, considering his line of work, may have…overreacted a little. Moon stops him and explains the situation, after which Sun profusely apologizes to a wary and somewhat fearful Lunar. 

I’m gonna just cut myself off here cuz I ran out of steam for the day.

(uhh @sunnyinajar mmmgonna tag you cuz uh you seemed uh somewhat hyped about this jumble of ideas earlier but uh I dunno yea here’s this um yes right sorry for tagging you if you already saw it or didn’t uh wanna see it and uh yeah I’m gonna stop talking before I delete this entire thing and shove it down a garbage shoot-)

[camping-with-monsters]

I kinda have no idea how to properly introduce this so here we go:

I’ve started development on the very last (canon) issue of Tags of Whistlegrimm.

We’ve had Duck Duck Goose, we’ve had Blind Man’s Bluff. Introducing… Spider’s Tag!

I should clarify that this story is still in bare bones right now with not a whole lot to it yet— let’s just say this is a story where I know how it’s going to end before I know how it’s going to begin or frankly know much about it’s body at all.

So who’s our final protagonist? Why, the legendary figure, said to be the story of stories, the impeccable trickster… Anansi the Spider!

(It’s probably easy to tell that I don’t have finalized references of him or the next one I’m showing oopsies—)

Anansi’s power is not 100% equal to Lord’s, but is not far off. Said to have been granted a portion of his power back as Whistlegrimm first found itself founded, Anansi’s ability stretched more to the external kind where he can shape things around him or use surprising abilities to his advantage. The only trick is that he can’t change anything about himself like how Lord’s only abilities lie within altering his own. Course, considering this is a granted magic, the only thing Anansi could do is release it from himself, but he made a promise years ago to protect that.

Though small, Anansi was considered the right hand man of Lord Whistlegrimm himself. Anansi usually does a lot more roaming around Whistlegrimm as a bit of a problem solver (even if it means causing more problems… for the foes at least) and family man than stay with Lord. He has his own shenanigans to tend to, and god does he have fun while doing it! Of course, a long day’s work is made better by coming home to his lovable sons or to his nearest and dearest friend besides Lord himself… but who might that be?

Enter the marvelous Miss Molly Muffet, or Dr. Muffet for short— an actually professional doctor and one of the few who’s careful enough to tend to tiny critters like Anansi himself! She may look a little intimidating, but she truly never means any harm! She’s more sporadic and eccentric than anything, albeit a bit clumsy in other fields. But she’s perfect for her occupational work, and can surprisingly be trusted with doing what she does gently.

There’s actually quite a bit going on with this one and has a lot of different story inspirations tied together. Obviously there’s little miss muffet. But I also included inspiration from “Dr. Know-All” or “Miss Molly/Polly had a Dolly.” to exemplify more obvious doctor themes. As for her weird crab-like hair, the main character of Dr. Know-All is named Crabbe, and she also takes some Spider Crab inspiration to further tie her in with Anansi!

Her clothes are meant to resemble both traditional doctor wear (as in those fancy long coats) with some frilly ends like how a lot of depictions of Little Miss Muffet are. Also surprisingly, the actual origin of Little Miss Muffet has always been something very up for debate and one of the possible inspirations was actually the daughter of Dr. Thomas Muffet, who was a physician and an entomologist! Though it’s hard to say if this was actually the case. This makes the whole Dr. Know-All inspiration even funnier considering that Crabbe in that story didn’t actually know anything and was making well timed guesses as to everything going on… and is the whole Dr. Thomas Muffet thing not just a guess? Yeah, I said there was a lot to unpack.

I also legit forgot I did this but her eyes have a button look to make the Miss Molly Had A Dolly thing more obvious, but we’ll see how long that sticks.

(Also I’m so sorry I tag you so much all the time but huge thanks to @pazam for all the help she does for not just these character designs but so many others in Tags of Whistlegrimm <3)

I should clarify that there’s not too much to them yet in terms of everything that’s going to happen besides knowing the ending already, but this is a story where I want to tie everything in. Everything in Duck Duck Goose and Blind Man’s Bluff… well, I guess we can leave it at some questions will be answered, and that everything starts somewhere. Despite Spider’s Tag being the only one that’s actually confirmed to happen after DDG and BMB (which happen relatively at the same time), it’s gonna help pave the way for the events in this stories.

Not sure what else to say other than obviously stay tuned for more about Spider’s Tag and hopefully updates on its cast haha!! And also just a huge thank you to people who have shown interest in Tags of Whistlegrimm as a whole. I know I hype myself up as if there’s a large crowd here, but there’s really not a lot of people here. But I see every new note on my posts and even a like from a new viewer goes a long way for me. Even when I only get 5-6 notes, that’s a good sign for a tiny little obscure blog like me :) I just love sharing what I love and knowing that there’s someone out there who’s interested :) so thank you all who’ve ever taken interest in Tags of Whistlegrimm!!

[exeggcute]

your blog is cool and youre the only person on tumblr i really follow on tech stuff. is the transition to manifest v3 really worth all the hubbub?

first of all thank you! and second of all, lol. to be honest I haven't had a major eye on the v2 > v3 transition but you may be unsurprised to learn that I'm not taking hard sides here and am both slightly suspicious of the changeover and also less than convinced by some of the "this is the worst shit ever" blowback. not to suck google's dick either (unless any recruiters are reading this...?) (jk my least favorite person on r/technicalwriting works at google so unless you can guarantee that I will not come into contact with that man, it's gonna be a hard no) but to some extent I think this is one of those things where google, as the de facto governing entity for how internet browsers are designed[1] is, for better or worse, in the seat to steer the ship right now and inevitably has to make design choices that will shape the future of (how people will access) the web.[2]

[1] insert comment about firefox here but considering firefox is almost singlehandedly bankrolled by google it works out the same in the end. hence my perpetual dislike of the way-oversimplified "maverick underdog mozilla singlehandedly holding the line again google" narrative... go tell me where the money is coming from!!!

[2] also I know the W3C is the actual governing entity for internet protocol design and has influenced browser design on a more abstract level but that's still a degree of separation away and tbh I'm not super familiar with W3C drama. although I can only assume there's drama lol.

and google being google has both real and imagined interests in shaping the web by virtue of their other business ventures (e.g. but not exclusively e.g., advertising) and so I think some amount of blowback is gonna be inevitable when they propose Big Fundamental Changes. which, like, I'm the last person who's gonna say "no we should definitely drop our defenses and approach this without an ounce of skepticism" lol so I think the knee-jerk Uh Oh impulse is totally fair and maybe even warranted. but after the initial jerk I also think it's worth hearing shit out and, you know, on the face of it I can see why the changes outlined in the v3 manifest bring positive changes to the table. security and performance and shit. but security and performance are relatively boring selling points, and when google has earned a poor public reputation thanks to the other shit they've pulled I think it's understandable that even well-meaning changes will be met with general suspicion.

buuuut I still get irritated by the verging-on-clickbait headlines where literally every change about v3 is framed as "google is finally killing ad blockers" and then you read the article and ad blockers aren't mentioned directly a single time. like it'll literally just be about v3 lol. arguably I'm just being naive/willfully ignorant because of course it's all really about ad blockers since google is an advertising business and the other benefits are a smokescreen and blah blah blah but I do kinda feel like that borders on conspiratorial thinking, especially since ad blockers will work in v3, albeit differently, and google is actively working with/taking feedback from extension developers (including ad block extension developers). a lot of it genuinely just seems like "major version change will require significant technical work to implement, more at 11".

who knows though, I could eat my words :shrug:

kind of related but I was always kind of surprised by the amount of pushback against the web integrity API thing because I read the proposal behind it and it seemed pretty well-intentioned to me. granted there were some fair/serious concerns that even the proposal pointed out and a lot unanswered implementation details (and tbf it was a proposal/WIP) but I got Why they were proposing it, invalid traffic being the bogeyman it is. and like I am not a cryptography guy in the slightest but as I understand it the WEI was basically just an SSL certificate in reverse?

a lot of it makes me think about the web3 article from a few years back where a guy talked about designing an NFT that looked cool on various storefronts but looked like a poop emoji in your actual wallet after you bought it, which, in the process of trying to google it to link here, led me to this substack post where someone summarized it as "NFTs are centralized and no one cares." which is pretty much exactly what I was getting at (and why I thought about it in this context) with how even ostensibly open protocols can devolve into walled gardens built around those protocols with bonus features tacked on, if the protocols themselves don't offer those features out the gates (and enough people want them). idk. food for thought I guess. I really am just rambling here though so let me humble myself by reminding us all that I have a B.A. in english and love to speculate lolol. not an expert!

[sweet-star-cookie]

what information do libra's library books contain? who is allowed to read them?

Good question, and I saw your other ask so I'll answer that one here too! Actually I should probably start with the library's appearance, though as usual I don't have much in the way of images yet 🥴 I basically have to drag my motivation kicking and screaming to do background design these days, but I did manage to sketch a part of what the back wall looks like in my head tonight at least:

I picture it as an ornate but practical two-level library with high ceilings, lots of wood and warm lighting. Notably, its design and floor plan are entirely symmetrical, a deliberate reference to Libra's exactness and a more literal take on the idea of balance in general. The door on the bottom floor is where new or returned books are processed and then returned to the shelves, and beyond that is Lupus's private room. The door on the top floor leads down a hallway to Libra's private room where the scales that she's named after also reside.

Here's an old concept for another part of the building that might give you a better idea of the overall vibe and colours (though I need to update this too, this is from like 2019 lol)

As for what it contains, the library functions similarly to other places that seek to preserve the Astral Plane's history. Any books that were remnants of past constellations, be they the author or the subject, are kept here.

For example, the previous incarnation of Lepus was a famous warrior known as The Great Hare, and she documented many of her adventures in her war diaries, of which there are several volumes. I have some side stories planned for what happens to the Chamaeleon Three after the events of the main story, and the current Lepus learns more about who came before him, hoping to maybe become more heroic and confident like she was.

Libra and Lupus spend a lot of time cataloguing all of the information in the library's books, both for archival purposes and especially for any that may provide even a hint at answering some of the more mysterious questions about the Astral Plane. The library has speculative and entirely fictional works as well though, and you can bet that Capricorn and Pegasus have penned written versions of their various plays as well.

The library is open to the public, as both Libra and Lupus strongly believe in the pursuit of knowledge for all, though there are strict rules in place for the patrons' behaviour to avoid any destruction or disorganization. Anyone can read any book, and accommodations needed for language, blindness, deafness, etc. are achieved magically, with the book itself changing in appearance and/or function to be tailored to the reader. While it is encouraged to read the books inside the library itself, they can be checked out like in any other library.

That is, with the exception of any books that can be used as weapons, like magical tomes, which are stored and guarded elsewhere. Libra's balancing magic is often used to ensure that, even if they were stolen, their magic could be negated to reduce their potential harm.

It is possible for books entirely from Earth to appear here though, albeit in specific circumstances and not every book either. How this is possible is a bit of a spoiler, though it's pretty nebulous for the characters anyway!

Because they lack context from their presumed origins on Earth, it can be hard to determine if some of these books are fact or fiction, though they're usually interesting enough regardless, and at least are another indicator of the connection between Earth and the Astral Plane's residents. Pegasus loves anything from other playwrights that she can find there, for instance.

Given Libra's various duties as the keeper of balance and the resident healer after Ophiuchus's disappearance, Lupus does much of the maintenance and running of the library himself, and he does so diligently, with great reverence for it and Libra herself. When on duty, he is very rarely seen standing still, constantly finding something to do. Libra's magic is always there to assist all throughout the library as well though, like her air magic carrying books in and out of high shelves so Lupus doesn't have to climb a ladder every time to get to it. Floating books are a common sight here!

[penname-artist]

Dusty Crophopper - 2023 Refsheet

Been meaning to give him a touchup for a long time and FINALLY finished this (albeit kinda basic-styled) reference sheet of his main racer uniform. I also saved a "doll" of this to reuse consistently for even more outfit designs. I REALLY reallyreallyreally want to do a humanized version of his custom livery next.

But until then, here is his 2023 updated version!

Notes:

-in both casual and pilot versions, his jeans can vary in shade and may have stress marks or patches on them (because he works a lot and wears his jeans in very quickly). The difference in the two is just to show that variation.

-Replaced the two black lines on his jacket for the lightning bolts, FINALLY, and they interconnect around the underside of the hood to create the back portion of blue where the D7 is.

-JR symbol is left on his inside shirt and not the jacket; there's one on each sleeve and they were definitely just spray-painted onto a regular t-shirt of his (that shirt btw is a very very light grey, not a flat white)

-Freckles! While faint, he does have them not only on his cheeks but also his arms.

-his shoes probably aren't actually that bright, I just already merged the layers so I can't change it but they're probably muddy now so