#merqtio does a redesign !!

[merqtioooo]

a rough little ifá redesign !!

i love him deeply, however, with the way that he's based on a yoruba god (again) and a cowboy, i wanted to lean into both a little more (and make the colors feel a little less platypus-like iykwim). so i did it!

i think his design is genuinely solid, so i didn't change that much, like, at all, i just embellished it a little.

design notes under the cut <3

normal style:

we'll start small: i loc'd his hair!! very easy way to keep the shape language of straight hair without compromizing a character's visual blackness. even though i don't like the 'dark skin, light hair trope', ifá's design motifs rely pretty heavily on visual contrast, so i decided to just keep his hair the same color.

i removed most of the embellishments on his hat, since i think it needlessly complicates the top half of his design and draws attention away from the fact that its a cowboy hat, which is, of course, the important part. plus, the buttons and the stitching reminded me too much of a voodoo doll, and with the addition of the bones in his nightsoul state, it kind of muddied the actual influences of his design.

i also kept his neck tattoo, since it was fun and worked with some of the patterns i introduced in his design, and i also made his skin less gray to work better with his colors

speaking of colors, i did actually lessen the contrast between the white, teal and orange by unifying the palette, allowing for it to be a little easier on the eyes and a little more warm toned in a way that makes him feel more grounded in genshin's fantasy environments, especially with the modern feeling of the nametag and the style of the clothes.

with his top half, i wanted to add a little more visual intrigue, since all of the complexity of his design felt imbalanced toward his hat, rather than the center of his body. the easiest way to do this was to draw on the african cowboy aesthetic and add a tie and beads to his shirt and jacket combo. the opele chain that his constellation is named after is actually based on the method of divination that the worship of ifá entails, since he's the god of destiny, and so i wanted to give him a little more of that influence, since in his constellation it seems to refer to the string of his hat, which i removed.

on his tie, you can see ankara patterns, which is a direct callback to his yoruba basis, along with turquoise and burnt orange beads which are also yoruba. in addition, i kept the nametag, since it was doing a lot of heavylifting fro denoting him as a medical professional, but i moved the feathers to his hat, and made them cacucu's feather's specifically. i also changed his primary color from the teal to orange to add to the less futuristic feel and to cut the 'a platypus???'-ness.

i also changed the metal accents to be bronze, since bronze is a commonly occuring precious metal in nigeria, and kept the cross motif. i added some pouches to his belt to make his outfit feel more like something he would work in, without over-complicating his silhoutte.

when it comes to his pants, i kept them jawns the same, idk mannn. if it ain't broke don't fix it. i did change the colors to warmer ones and changed the blue to a charcoal gray situation to keep the colors harmonized.

his boots, though?? i changed those a little. they just weren't cowboy enough for me, plus there was a chance to add a couple more instances of yoruba patterns to his design. i just flipped the tops up, added spurs and some stitching down the sides, and that was it.

in putting changing his main color, i also swapped the colors for the inside of his coat, and added ankara patterns on the orange part to match his tie.

nightsoul state

upon realizing that both he and chasca (and i assume the other vision-holding members of the flowerfeather clan) have skeleton motifs in their nightsoul state, i knew i couldn't take it out entirely. since chasca's is more subtle, i just kept the ribs from the original nightsoul design and added lil' vertibrae to his tie.

i also aded ankara patterns to his sleeves as well, and highlighted the scars on his arm.

when it comes to his face, i wanted to incorporate actual yoruba face paint, and since he already has markings under his eyes in the original, i wanted to keep that too (especially since the other option was above his eyebrows which doesn't make sense since you can't see it under his hat and hair).

additionally, i put ankara patterns along the band of his hat, and highlighted cacucu's feathers, since i thought they were an important part of his new design.

on his boots, followed the lines of stitching. i also added little embellishments on the metal accents, just for fun.

closing statements

first, this was fun as fuck. second, to anybody who wants to represent a culture in a fantasy way like this? don't do what genshin did with natlan. don't take the name of our gods and give it to white ass blorbo bleebus who isn't even associated with us in any way. don't take the names of sacred items and just give them to any old thing. do your research. consult real people. be respectful. if you want somewhere to start, @creatingblackcharacters is my favorite resource for all things black character designs. read through all the lessons, i promise you it'll change the way you think about character design forever.

[merqtioooo]

i’ve been playing genshin a lot recently, and so ive also been thinking about what would happen if my main team actually met in canon !!

i very slightly redesigned xingqiu because i don't like his canon outfit (sue me, i don't think that xingqiu looks like the heir to a chinese financial guild) and i also very slightly redesigned navia because i don't think her canon outfit is necessarily manouverable — especially with them long ass boots.

anyway i love them, and there is likely more of this lil squad to come.