Thank you for your thoughts, I do appreciate them.
I had to shrink the drawings in order to post them onto SH, I'm unsure you were unable to read the writing within them, which tell more of the story behind each idea, and why I drew things the way I did. Not to say I truly understand color theory, or any of the things you mentioned. I just draw. lol So I'll break down my own thoughts if that helps you understand my thought process in any way.
The first design and the second design, I love it. You actually understand the asymmetry and the border of character design (not overdoing), in those two designs.
First off thank you very much.
I also love these characters.
The First Design, you have the eyes, the shoes, and the asymmetry of the white
Shoes? They're birdy feet! Talons. lol She's a Hawk, essentially a harpy that's lost her wings.
She has stolen cybernetics (called SCiN Tech in universe) throughout the upper half of her skeleton to give her back her wings.
You mentioned this was my strongest character, I just assume she's already your favourite, and don't need to get too much in detail with her.
Additionally, for the second design.
The black color in the back of the clothes, you try to make it like a dealer in blackjack, right? However, It's weird. From the back view, it feels like your character is wearing another vest. But in reality that black colour is attached to your pink vest, like being forced to be in there. You can just let the vest be completely pink as the pattern. If you want the color black to break the pink, you can take it in the collar. Change the collar color to black. In the second design, I see you are scared or afraid that this design isn't being represented as a blackjack dealer, but from the front view, it's enough. The V Neck, the folding at the wrist, and the pink vest with card power are enough to tell.
The Second Character, you write it as diva, able to sing. However, we can only see as dealer not a singer. So where is the side of the diva, you need to dissect that. What about to blend a blackjack dealer with diva. For Diva, maybe the easy reference is Uta from One Piece.
Imagine Uta One Piece with this jacket
However, that jacket is changed with this
And change the clothes with your character's clothes (dealer vest) + add the headphone or maybe a unique earphone (wireless).
You have your unique character, a diva blend with blackjack dealer.
The second character is still just like ordinary blackjack dealer.
"But in reality that black colour is attached to your pink vest, like being forced to be in there", "just like ordinary blackjack dealer."
Yes. This is the exact point. When you walk into a location with a dress code for the workers, they often have shirts with logos, or badges, or very specific colors that need to be worn like bestbuy, or costco. The Casino she works in basically painted a target on each of their employees backs making it VERY apparent, "Yes, this person works for us. Please bother them with any, and all concerns."
The only real choice she has to showing off her personality, while wearing her work uniform, would be her shoes, and accessories: hair clip, anklet, choker.
(Again, I know you probably can't read the smaller writing from it being so blurry here)
Her shoes are one of a kind (within universe lore). They were custom made by a design artist that claimed nobody would ever be able to wear these for longer than a minute because the height of the heel is too long, too thin, too unstable, the straps will never hold any amount of weight if pressure was applied, and any runway model will snap them easily. They were supposed to be a visual representation of the hard pressures, and unreachable beauty standards across the world (in universe) for models.
Amy took that as a challenge, and wore the heels anyway. She is the only one to own these shoes, and has 7 pairs, all in different colors. (Red, Gold, blue, violet, black, white, and tan.)
Her Hair clip originally had a bow when her dad first gave it to her as a child. During one time or another, her mother tore the bow, and then ripped it completely off. Despite the clip being bland, dull, and flat, it is still her most prized possession.
Her Choker isn't flashy, or anything wild. It's pink with a golden clasp to lock it in place, and has a prominent golden crown emblem in front. Amy likes to wear it sideways. She's a refined, and elegant, like a princess, but not a slave to the social standard; She's above it, more than Perfect.
The anklet, is actually a personal choice. A nod to one of my favourite animes, Cowboy Bebop, resembling the one Faye Valentine wore, but is never drawn again, hidden within her ankle high boots to save on animation budget, though able to specifically control her zipcraft, RedTail. For Amy it's just aesthetically pleasing to look at.
She might hate working for a casino, but at the same time, she's fallen out of the limelight she thrives for; Working at the casino as a croupier keeps all eyes on her whenever she's working a table. She enjoys the attention, likes it, loves it, lives for it. Nothing is more important to her than that sense of fame, and celebrity, that may, or may not, cross into territories of renown, and notoriety.
In third design, I find there is something or a way to make your design more powerful. First of all, the clothes, for you, what is the life of the clothes for this character. Is it the jacket or the pants?
You use blue a lot from hair until tip of the toe. Try to break it, use the opposite colour blue. Yellow or orange. It will give you a break of monotone colour. So back the question again about the life of the clothes. If it's the jacket, change the colour of the jacket of yellow. Because it's the iconic style. For example, David from edgerunner.
So you need something, that iconic in your character or an appeal as the third design use blue entirely, it's missing the iconic.
You can see Chun Li, there are stripes yellow in her clothes, for breaking the color of blue
The third character, you write is kind heart like the name I guess. Yet the kind isn't being drawn. I see a mechanic but not truly genius (you can add maybe some gadget in the hand or in the leg or in the waist, belt.)
The third character is still like cyberpunk theme character
She's the mechanic of a low-end baker's family, and is more about 'doing good', rather than making money. Having any sense of style, or owning anything stylish, isn't on her priority list. She's a normie type character.
ALTHOUGH, her undies are name brand. "
Belle's Lingerie. Beauty and Brawn, for Larger Ladies. Bust Based, Lust Laced." That said, you can see it would still be the most basic style in comparison to Amy's more stylish, or attractive lingerie.
I decided to put on the jacket instead of giving her an action pose like the rest of the cast:
The first with weapons showing her seductiveness
The second with weapons showing her defensiveness
The fourth with weapons showing her aggression
Why the jacket and not an action pose? She is the only character that is willing to walk through wind, snow, rain, or sun if she is needed somewhere. She puts others first no matter what. She is very selfless. She is also the only character to show a lot of skin, without it being a sexual lure, or acting seductive in any way. She's very innocent, and the only character to show all her emotions top right of her character sheet instead of hiding them. The first, second, and fourth being very stoic for most of their arts.
As for clothing, she's mainly in her mechanic coveralls that are tied around her hip like the other 4 versions of her (without the jacket).
In the smaller (blurry) text (because SH doesn't allow me to upload higher resolutions) It explains why:
Her ability is to increase in mass, density, and strength, which make her bigger, taller, stronger, sweatier, and hotter, depending on her "level", becoming twice as strong to 10x, or 20x.
To make it more understandable:
Kind of like when Goku (from Dragonball Z) uses his Kaio-ken (King Kai Fist) jumping power levels ahead of what he's normally at, or when Trunks fought with Cell. Trunks powered up gaining so much more strength in super saiyan form at the cost of speed, but bulging with muscle, and becoming 3x his normal size. Raine does this except she's not a super saiyan, or of saiyan blood. Her body just begins to boil from the inside out. Almost in the same way Luffy (From One Piece) heats up, and begins to steam during 2nd gear, quickly pumping blood, and oxygen throughout his body, increasing/ boosting his speed, and strength. She is the "quick stat boost/ double edge sword" type character.
Her abilities have, and do get out of hand at times, and explain why she has so many scars. Because of this, she loves to use adhesive bandages, and carries them with her at all times. (Specifically the child-like bandages with various different colors, or funny characters.)
Why is her jacket blue along with the rest of her?
Well, her favorite color is blue. lol that part is just that simple. The reason why the jacket is so plain, is because it's just a jacket, any logos or prints would be fine to throw onto it, but overall isn't very important to her style. It only mattered (for me at least) what it represented, which was her willingness to go out into the pouring rain for others who probably wouldn't do the same for her.
As for gadgets, and ingenuity to show her genius. Each of the leathers (The brown in her costume) were all created by her including the manta weapons, and the guard gear (white) on the first, and fourth characters. In the (blurry) text it explains her small business "LycanHart", and the reason it is small, is because she creates things to last lifetimes, unlike businesses IRL that directly implement failure into their products for you to come buy more when the product-life is up. You don't need to buy multiple when 1 will last you forever (counting you don't lose it, or give it away). They're brown, and white because (in universe) DireLycan are brown, and AlphaLycan are white. She hunts them herself (when they're supposed to be really hard to hunt, harm, or kill), and makes the leather gear herself.
Raine likes animals, and relates her sister to a manta ray (A devil ray, to more accurate, which swim off the shores of their hometown): Shy, elusive, gentle, acrobatic, surprisingly energetic, and social side despite her typically solitary, avoiding nature. If people would only give her a chance, they'd learn she's very graceful, captivating, and a bit mysterious at times.
The Fourth Design is so tricky. You want to show this character is a hidden genius and probably timid. Yet, I couldn't still see it.
The most appealing thing about the character is the weapon. However, a weapon in character design isn't the number one priority; a weapon is a symbol of the character. You have a manta ray sleeve design connecting it to the weapon, and you have connected it. However, the sleeve isn't powerful enough to introduce your character because the color palette is the same as others. I tried to dissect it with simple analogous color.
and the fourth one is still like shinobi.
The fourth character is the tricky one. She is silent, maybe timid. Yet the weapon is big as hell, it indicates loud or rebel, basically the weapon says I am not truly silent and timid. The weapon is cool and from the design, it must be came from the sleeves, keep that as appeal. Yet the uniform is shinobi, it means the weapon maybe is her last ditch. Change the cat ear into manta ray's horn. She is a genius, she wants to interact with people, but she hates the noise of the people. She is great character.
You need to focus with " understanding to the people around them" and " without needing to hear the whispers, and murmurs hovering over her shoulders." Basically this character wants to interact if someone invite her to interact. The biggest barrier is the mask, with the mask, you make your character completely shut in visual, indicate like anti-social. Focus it like "socially awkward". She wants people to see her that's why the big weapon is coming out.
The weapon was created by Reine (the 3rd character), and refined by Aoi.
Resonance Manta is a multi-functional weapon, becoming a pair of axes, to gauntlets, to clubs, or a scythe. It can also be used as a variety of musical instruments. She is a studious person; Training, and learning anything, and everything she can earning her the title,
Maestra of the Manta Chord with the very few distinct teachers who do enjoy her company.
Aoi is the stealthiest of the four presented, like a shinobi, sticking to darker, muted colors. She'd rather not deal with combat, although trains daily in case the need arises; Only using harmful tactics if/ when needed, prioritizing information, and reasoning before anything else. Tizaki (the first character) on the other-hand, would gladly fight first, ask questions later.
She likes cats, never needing anyone, looking to take things on much lighter notes than they appear. People like cats. She assumed if she wore cat ears, people would find her friendlier, to no avail.
These cat ears are named SuteNeko. translating to Stray cat, or cat steak, depending on pronunciation.. lol both being somewhat relevant to Aoi. Feeling like a stray without any real ties to anyone, and steak, as in she's pretty much cooked.
The main reason Aoi keeps SuteNeko is because she's deaf. This LycanHart exclusive helps her hear again. Before learning sign language, Reine's mask would translate words into text, and when that wasn't enough, Aoi created SuteNeko with Reine's at her side.
The ability to hear was beyond priceless since Aoi's ability is sound manipulation.
She is socially awkward because she has never truly experienced being social with other people her age, aside from interacting with much, much older folk much more mature. She would rather be anti-social in order to give her sister the chance to be included in other social circles. She would like to be seen, and invited, but not at the chance that things become awkward, and people associate her past mistakes with her sister. It just wouldn't be fair in her eyes. To her, why take that chance? She might be locked in a room, but as long as her sister is enjoying the life she's unwelcome to, it's fine. Why take the chance to ruin it?
Reine helps push Aoi to be noticed to be happier.
Aoi is happy protecting Reine by not standing out.
It's a weird, clashing dynamic between sisters who just want the best for each other.
Beautiful sketch of a proper diva type character.
My character
was a diva, but isn't anymore, she's fallen from grace.
She still acts like she's perfect. (She's not) She's just a low income casino worker.
