A while ago, I made a post about doing Touhou redesigns for a guy I know and his AU fanwork. Well, here's another batch of those. I've been drawing these throughout this year, at a rather slow pace. Without further ado... Because I can't think of any further ado...
1) Sakuya
Off to a rough start! Kind of. He caught me at a bad time, I was pretty busy, and he dropped the money on my head without much warning (don't you love it when a man does that?). While I could draw, I couldn't really to do much refining and polishing. Her pose and proportions are a little awkward as a result, and I could have drawn the knives way better, but ended up going with a placeholder.
As a reference, he sent me one of those black and white cosplay dresses that you see on aliexpress and whatnot, and that are called maid uniforms in the listing, but really aren't maid uniforms at all, which maid me quite angry. I tried to make it look better, and it worked, I think, even if it's not maid-like at all. There isn't really an apron, instead, it's just a jumper skirt that's only laced up halfway. Underneath, she's wearing a plain white dress. There's also a petticoat, I imagine, because of the shape.
To be fair, I did give him a sketch of a much more traditional and realistic maid outfit, but he didn't like this option.
(Ignore the clown-sized shoes ok?)
2) Yuyuko
A while ago, he told me that Yuyuko is good the way she is and doesn't need a new design, but I guess he changed his mind. I didn't mention it to him in case he actually just forgot. I'm a big fan of eating.
Her main look is on the right, the other two being something like flashbacks. It's pretty intuitive to lean into Yuyuko's japanese styling in the visual aspect of fanworks, even though she's actually dressed in a kind of märchen chic oldschool lolita-like style in the game, so it's more or less what I did here. It's certainly more japanese-styled than authentically japanese, though. Her ghost form is dressed as a fantastical geisha (partially referenced from a geisha doll) - not a proper one, because her hair would be done up otherwise, and her chest would have been covered.
In her past, in this fanfic, she was a woman from an impoverished aristocratic family, who then became… A buddhist nun, uh… Well, that's what I was told to draw anyway. I'm never going to pass up the opportunity to draw a bald anime girl. Is her round face still recognisable? Hopefully!
3) Komeiji sisters
I like how they turned out, but it's also genuinely quite embarrassing. I recall seeing some discussion around Komeiji sisters' appearances being based on The Two Fridas, so I thought it would be interesting to reference the painting a bit with their dresses, but when I finished, I couldn't help but think that it's somehow wrong to reference such a personal painting when you're drawing something as trite and frivolous as anime girls. And it's a purely visual reference, too, so it's kind of shallow by default... But then I thought... Does it really matter that much? Anyway, naturally, it's not actually The Two Fridas one for one, and Koishi is not wearing a tehuana, just a blouse and a skirt with a similar shape. It would be a little strange for her to be mexican all of a sudden.
My favourite part is their third-eyes. Koishi's uses softer colours and rounder shapes, as she is calmer and more cheerful, and Satori's is brighter and opened wider to reflect her neurotic (?) nature. I'm not sure how they're supposed to attach to their bodies through clothes, but that's sort of the point. After all, if we're referencing a surrealist, however obliquely, there has to be a bit of surrealism.
Bonus pic.
This is how they actually appear within the story, uh, I think they had some kinda scary dramatic incident happen, and Koishi lost all of her eyes, and Satori lost all of her legs. Check out her third-eye-meat-shaped wheelchair wheel! I originally did that because I was struggling to draw an actual wheel, but ended up liking it a lot.
4) Mr. Someguy (his name is Fuuma Tokario, but Tokario isn't a real japanese name...)
An original character, can you believe it? He's part of the supporting cast, but will apparently become quite important later on. He's a weak-willed aristocrat from the human village. By the way, I've been told he's supposed to be an eventual love interest for Alice. Well, she's not my Alice at, so it's not like he has to become a doll, but I think he still turned out cute enough anyway.
I'm not good at male (or, rather, outwardly masculine) characters at all, so I had to do five whole rough drafts to get him right. All five were proper shit, I think. In which they might be charming, but I don't usually really like boy characters, so...
As you can observe, none of them were used, because after some time, he just sent me a reference image of some shounen guy, and I copied that, more or less. The weird haori sleeves are an improvised invention upon being told to make him a little more embellised. I don't know how they work, I presume it's all just sewn-on non-functional decor. There's also a very faint patern on its fabric. I almost forgot about it.
5) Suika
Awfully modern, don't you think? It's because of the t-shirt, I guess. I was told to make her look like a hippie, and you can't really do that without going a bit modern... She was originally going to be more decorated, but he said it looked too stereotypical and didn't want it. That may have been a good point, but it would have made her look a bit more interesting, at least. Anyway, this one is my least favourite so far, I really only like her skirt, since it looks like it has a very pleasant fabric texture. A few people said she was their favourite, though...
6) Rumia
Kind of a no-brainer, right - j-punk Rumia. There's lots of fanart of her in gothic and punk clothing, and even though it's a bit of a stereotype, I love it, because it's a really cute style for bishoujo characters. Therefore, this one is my favourite outfit I've had to draw so far. The tie is a little silly, though. I thought of switching the R to an L (for Luminous), but it was a bit too late by then. Well, it could stand for... Ravenous?
Often, she portrayed as a kid character, but here, she more or less has teen/young adult proportions. Well, it's all just outward appearances anyway, when you're not even human. Her personality isn't too different. You might wonder why she's so thin and spindly, and honestly, I don't have a good answer. Okay, maybe this one is a little good: because she's not alive. Which is also why she's kind of grey.
7) Reisen
Another no-brainer - Reisen in a suit. For some reason, I originally imagined her looking like Columbo for some reason, and even drew that out, but he didn't like the coat, so in the end, she's just wearing a dress shirt and a vest. I tried making her clothes look a little bulky, as if to imply that she might have a bulletproof vest underneath, or something like that.
The symbol on her belt buckle is just a Moon thing. It was chosen largely based on appearance, since I didn't want it to look too much like the modern hanzi, but the earlier forms look too much like the latin D.
Her rifle is based on a real one, a Springfield Hellion. I don't exactly trust the ergonomics of bullpup configurations, but maybe she doesn't have any better options. Or maybe she, like, really, desperately needs a slightly longer barrel. But the truth is... That guy just saw a kewl gun in Call of Duty (Hellspawn Tempus Razorback), and found a similar(?)-looking real-life weapon, so there we have it. It's also why it has a scope and an underbarrel grip.
Despite her serious look, I can't help drawing her ears looking like crumpled ribbons every time. That's what moon rabbit ears are supposed to look like, damn it, and you can't convince me otherwise.
By the way, here are my initial sketches for the previous three. (As you can observe, I usually do these on paper - for some reason it's easier.)
Suika and Reisen were changed according to his request, but for Rumia, I just didn't feel like drawing the suspenders in digital...
8) Mystery spoiler girl
Uh, he said I'm not supposed to show her yet, but just know that she's, like, the best one so far. Lots of things crawling on (in?) her.
9) Remilia
Quite satisfied with her! The outfit based on 1830s english children's clothing, inspired a movie I had watched some time ago, because it was set in that time period. It's a little childish, but not overly cutesy or sweet, and still has some elegance. The mask and the spear were requested by him as plot-important props.
Here is a back view of her dress. The back is fully open, but her shoulders are covered by the collar flap.
By the way, I was going to take her in a slightly different direction originally...
When he said that he wanted her to wear a mask that covers a third of her face, I imagined an old-fashioned medical mask, pulled down a bit, but, as you can see, he actually meant something like the Phantom of the Opera. I actually like this initial design a bit more. The idea was to make an outfit that a vampire can go out in during the day, so everything but her eyes is covered up. It's still the case in the final version, but I'm a bit worried about her fully exposed head.
10) Flandre
Another one with a proper gothic-and-lolita flavour. My only direction here was to make her have a totally different feel to her sister. Well, I think I've achieved that, while still making them fit well together. I'm very proud of it, actually. Probably tied with Rumia for my favourite outfit in this whole project.
Her clothes are actually based on Metamorphose's 2001 pink faux leather pantsuit. I chose a darker colour scheme more fitting for a vampire girl and incorporated something like an asymmetrical cross motif with the lace accents. She also has asymmetrical arm accessories, which were originally symmertical, but he asked for only one glove. It's a more interesting look, actually, so I don't mind at all.
I forgot to draw a back view of her camisole and wings, and it's a bit too late now, but I imagine they're actually just fancy prosthetics she can take on and off freely.
So that's what I've been doing and why I haven't been posting art... There will probably be a part 3, but this is it for now.
Anyway, if you like what you see, I can draw these for YOU 🫵 Yes, YOU 🫵 And you only have to look at my pinned post to find out the details.
Eerie Yukari edit I've had saved on my phone for god knows how long.
I've always wanted to find the source of the image really badly, but sadly I have never had any luck.
The first song is "Death by Elliptical Eye" by Pilotredsun. The second song is also a PRS song, but I'm not sure which one exactly, it's so slow and low, that it's hard to find it.
Sariel's outfits as per my headcanons.
A note on the wings and their lack: I think that Makai residents/natives are all one species, no matter what sort of features (like bat/feathered wings, pointy ears, etc.) they have. These features aren't natural body parts, but are rather more like summons or illusions with mass and a physical presence. Sariel's wings are like that too, so in the body's default state, there are no wings, but any amount can be summoned at will. They also aren't attached to the body, strictly speaking, so clothing doesn't need to account for them.
How convienient.
No way, right? It's not a bad picture at all, but because I didn't know colouring very well back then and didn't take much care to clean my lineart, it came out looking washed out and dirty in an unfitting way. The background is also frankly laughable - I was trying to suggest, like, pillars and columns, but you really would not know that. There are good parts to the image, though. The face is good, I really like the way I used to draw anime faces. I cannot replicate it anymore, it might be a lost art now. The hands aren't half bad, the staff has a nice shine to it... The composition is good, if anything. Basically, it has downsides, but also a decent amount of potential, it's worth a redraw, just to get a better version of it.
Which is what I've been thinking since 2022, when I started redrawing it, but then got distracted or something.
I guess she became th2 Mima for some reason. Which is probably more fitting, right? I think there were pillars and stuff at Reimaden. I was probably thinking or Reimaden when I first attempted that background.
Will I finish it four years later? No. Maybe five or six or seven.
gracieabrams
snowghoul
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
tangentwithtanner
amandla
gamechangershow
blakekathryn
titsay
2087
germansingergirl
