I am also on Insta @ spectralreplica.art, Bluesky at @ spectralreplica (still a WIP!), and I have a Carrd. Anything else is a reposter.
Added some tags to make things easier to find on my blog:
Art Only: Spectra Art
Commissions: SpectraComm (also see my Commissions page for more info if you’re on desktop)
Things people sent to me: GFM
Asks: Ask
OCs: OC, TMM OC
Main fandoms: Tokyo Mew Mew, New Danganronpa V3, magical girls in general (but especially Precure)
Pairings: IchiMint, Oumota
Characters from other fandoms redesigned as Precure: Precure Designs
Magical girls grouped by some shared trait: Magical Hangouts
Trickster Mode Designs: Trickster Mode
DR AUs: NDRV3 Precure AU (this one has more story content than my other Precure AUs, some of which is not in the Precure Designs tag!), NDRV3 Madoka Magica AU
TMM AUs: Dark Mews, TMM Precure, TMM Reverse AU (alien and Mew roleswap), Tokyo Black Cat Girl AU
Other: UTDR Shugo Chara AU(s)
(Let me know if there are more series / types of drawing you want me to make a tag for so they’re easier to find!)
Not really headcanons or redesigns, but more like a series of ideas I thought would be cool??? I especially like how the more alien Serenity turned out 👍🌙
Not really headcanons or redesigns, but more like a series of ideas I thought would be cool??? I especially like how the more alien Serenity turned out 👍🌙
Along with Star Detective, I've been trying to finally finish Hirogaru Sky Precure as well! Sky is just such a cool design ✨🩵☁️ More magical girls should get capes!!!
...on the art side I did this all in one sitting in a few hours, which was also fun! Just seeing how fast I can turn around lineart + shading and still have it look cool makes me feel like I've leveled up as an artist in the past few years 💪 ...but I still tend to draw really slowly on thinner line, more naturalistic stuff
Did you know Madoka is under 5ft?? And Tsumugi is almost 5'9"?????? DR heights are wild.
It was fun to come back to my V3 Madoka AU designs... I'm tempted to redraw more of them honestly! I've mostly just done Kokichi and Kaito in the last few years...
idk if you answered this already or if you want to but do you have any advice or guidance for other people trying to do precure designs? you seem to have such a good grasp on it.
Short answer: practice and using lots of reference! By now I just have a feel for how Precure tend to look, but even then I try to have some examples to look at to make sure I don't automatically draw something in my own style out of habit.
Very, very long answer:
For example, when I'm deciding on the poses for any Precure designs I do, I try to find 2-3 canon characters with a similar vibe/personality and see how they're posed. (I use multiple because I don't want to just copy one!). I also double-check how Precure tends to draw eyes, noses, and hands; obviously this varies among seasons, but there are overall trends.
Now, the Precure style can vary dramatically among its different character designers, and the general style has shifted over time, but there is a general kind of Precure vibe that's distinct from other magical girl and idol series. Obviously there are some series with their own art styles: Heartcatch is the most obvious outlier, but Futari wa through Splash Star also have a little bit of a different style than the the franchise going forward. Fresh also stands out a little for the proportions and the slightly different outfit style. Finally, the overall style tends to evolve over the years with larger trends in anime (e.g., the way hairshines are drawn).
So, to make the artstyle look Precure-ish, you really need to study how existing series draw faces, angles, etc. Especially pay attention to the way Precure tends towards very limited and stylized shadows, wispier lines that leave some gaps, big shojo eyes with complicated shines, and thicker eyebrows than most shojo. Also, there's a tendency towards exaggerated perspective in poses.
So that's the art style of Precure... But what about the outfits?
Well, there's no universal Precure style, but at the same time there are a bunch of little trends and motifs that make a design feel Precure-ish as opposed to like other magical girl series.
First off, Precure has a strong tendency towards boots over other types of footwear, and fingerless gloves or arm covers (esp. with a heart or other symbol on the back of the hand) over traditional gloves. If you DO have Cures with gloves with fingers, there's a very strong trend towards short white gloves with a ruffled trim. Boots also tend to have separately colored toe tips, often with a little shine on them. Also, a set of knee high, thigh high, and short w/socks boots for a team.
There's also a really strong trend towards choker necklaces (with or without bow on back), as well as earrings and a hair dec in the shape of a heart OR the Cure's personal symbol. Part of a larger trend of assigning each girl a unique little symbol/emblem in addition to theme color. (This can show up in attacks and especially in merch!). The transformation item is also always part of the outfit; most of the time it's in a pouch at their waist, but it can also be on their chest like a brooch, Sailor Moon-style (but even then there might be pouch anyway). (Obviously there are a few outliers, like Healin Good or Hirogaru Sky).
Some series have much more complicated and/or cartoony hair than others, but overall it's pretty stylized. Hair is almost always a much brighter color than their civilian hair (except for Futari wa), and most often their theme color (or blond...). Some hairstyles tend to repeat (e.g., very long hair down, big high ponytail, pigtails). Also a general trend towards complicated bangs + sidebangs. More recent seasons also tend to have died streaks and/or gradients in different colors.
Precure have a very strong tendency to wear skirts and not shorts. It's also pretty unusual for Cures to have a long skirt instead of a shorter one or a high-low one. Long skirts usually suggest maturity, so it's basically just Big Sis / Mentor Cures (...and Sango and Milk. Strong purple bias for some reason). Skirts are almost always layered, esp. with ruffled trim/underskirt. Precure also has a strong tendency towards skintight shorts underneath skirts, although not as much in recent years. No pants (except Black Pepper, who is in the category of non-Cure ally), but sometimes tights/leggings.
It's also extremely uncommon for Precure to have long sleeves! Precure tends towards puff sleeves, spiky/wing shaped sleeves, ruffles, or just open shoulders. Overall, Precure tends to have lots of ruffles, esp. ones stylized into a feather shape, as well as hearts. Bows or other ties on the chest are also very common, but tbh this is kind of a larger magical girl trend...
As an overall tip for creating Precure designs from existing characters, I tend to start by asking "how would Precure render their canon hair and design?" as a base. For example, Mami's spiral hair is heavily inspired by Macherie's (rather than Lemonade's or YumYum's, other options I considered), and Zakuro and Kyoko's ponytails are based on Bloom, Aqua, March, etc.
I try to keep the silhouette similar to the original design and keep any iconic outfit pieces + symbols from canon (e.g., Zakuro keeps her bare midriff and thigh high boots, Mabel keeps her shooting star symbol + theme colors, Sayaka keeps her cape). I also try to draw from other canon outfits/forms to give more room for unique designs; for example, I drew from the beta + princess designs for the Sailor Senshi and the Trickster Mode designs for the Homestuck characters.
Speaking of motifs, it's also helpful to settle on some kind of theming for the "season" as a whole and for each individual Cure to stop them from looking too generic (e.g., food types for Delicious Party, objects in space for Star Twinkle, sailor/sea/island related items for Tropical-Rouge). Some series go very hard into this theming, and others have more generic designs, but even then there are repeated outfit elements that make the team look cohesive (e.g., the wings + tiaras in Smile, the side flowers in Heartcatch, striped ribbons in Wonderful). Some seasons have very uniform outfits (e.g., Smile, Happiness Charge, Yes 5) and others are very distinct (e.g., Star Twinkle, Tropical Rouge, Go Princess).
For my designs, the Mew Cures have small elements to suggest their theme animal, and the designs as a whole have repeated elements among them (e.g., bodice with horizontal seams, off shoulder puff sleeves, and the little X motif). The Madoka Cures also have the bodice piece, but with translucent fabric and some form of crinoline (...this is not an element which would actually animate will imo, but hey!!! It's not a real series!!! It's inspired by the look of a Soul Gem/Grief Seed). The HS Cures are strongly themed around sweet + Halloween costume, and they all have striped tights, pointy shoes, and the candy bow.
All of these are my tips for creating designs that look Like Precure TM. BUT I do want to note that you shouldn't feel compelled to stick super closely to canon!!! Precure has basically zero diversity in body type, and the only Cures with a darker skin tone are Soleil and the 2 single-episode Hawaiian Cures from Happiness Charge (notably NOT Cure Nile or the team from India......).
Also, I tend to like the girly aesthetic of Precure and appreciate how even the guys can have more feminine design elements without it being "embarassing" or shameful (esp. Infini, but also Wing, Connect, and Black Pepper a little), but it does kind of... not really leave room for gender non-conformity in the other direction? I think we should let more girl Cures be butch AND let guy Cure wear skirts without it being a joke... And just enby Cures in general, outside of the purely-subtext Infini???
Not as important as those other points, but Precure can also be pretty same-facey! When I draw "Precure style", I pay a lot of attention to making the silhouettes of each character unique, but even then I feel like the characters end up looking way more similar than in my usual style...
✨TMM Dark World forms!! ✨ And also Light World ones for comparison, although those are mostly just canon.
I had a lot of fun designing these! Basically, I think the DW version of a character should essentially be their self insert fantasy, so they should be influenced heavily by each character's interests, personal taste, and conception of a "hero". (e.g., Berdly drawing from video games and anime, Noelle drawing from Dragon Blazers and the Angel, Susie getting a very punk kind of cartoon villain-y outfit, ...and Kris being a knight......). If you want to hear more about my exact inspirations, it's under the cut!
Ichigo is kind of a cross between a witch and a cat thief, with magical girl influences (Minky Momo boots!). I feel like that one doodle Mia Ikumi did of the double-pointed witch hat Ichigo and the bonus of thief Ichigo showing the reader a next volume preview have lived in my head forever... I feel like despite being the one to complain about wanting to go back to normal, Ichigo is also someone who instinctively jumps in to help when she sees a problem. Once Masaya is in the know, her complaints kind of dry up because she does want to help
Mint is obviously very much a ballerina, mostly kind of Swan Lake, but also a little bit of Snow White in the palette! Obviously also inspired by Princess Tutu, with a little bit aesthetic influence from the western parotia, e.g. ballerina bird. ...I feel like this one is self explanatory lol
Lettuce is very mermaid with a little pirate. Her coloring is basically upside-down Ariel, with a little influence from Retasu / Leia from Harvest Moon. I feel like pirate!Lettuce is maybe a hot take, but I really feel it??? Always thinking about how she can't swim, yet the first thing she does with her powers is try to drown other people… plus the one ep where she likes to look at photobooks of far off locations, and the Ikumi bonus comic where she likes isekai fiction… Depending on what DR does with the water theming in the future, this design may become funny in the future??
Buling is inspired by sort of mischievous folk heroes (Peter Pan, Robin Hood, Sun Wukong) but I tried to keep at least a little Chinese acrobat aesthetic as well from her mom (esp. the blue-ish hair flowers like in New). Maybe a little bit fairytale prince??? I'll always remember her manga outfit from the fancy party.
Zakuro's outfit is obv drawing really heavily from That One Outfit she had at the church, but in general I was going for kind of a vampire hunter look, edgy goth with an excuse for crosses! (Again, depending on the DR plot this may become funny in the future...). Obviously also influenced by Nico Robin's early outfit.
Masaya is basically just the canon Blue Knight with some extra elements inspired by kendo armor. I mean, BK was basically already his self insert hero fantasy in canon? It pained me to cut the shorts (ReTurn and New were wrong for this change), but this simplified version of the design looks better with solid blue on the legs 😔
I wanted kind of a white mage / JRPG priest vibe for Ringo, with a touch of doctor / vet and miko. ...the hat is specifically inspired by the one from Granblue Fantasy, but I feel like it definitely comes across as more Mario... Oh well!
Berry is flat-out a fairytale princess, with a little bit of Princess Peach as well. I again feel like this is pretty self explanatory??? "Princess Berry" and all (plus the additional point of so many Disney princesses having dead moms, which could be something painful or inspirational...). Proud of keeping the bunny ear look with the cone hats lol
A couple weeks back I was lucky enough to get to see Halsey 2 nights out of 3 at Hammerstein!!! 🩵🌵
Obv the anime-style visuals stuck out to me at the time (very Sailor Moon!!!), but only when looking back over my pictures did I realize that anime!Halsey is actually the same design as the hologram ad Halsey ("the perfect pet") posing cutely in the BG while actual Halsey is crouched down to sing and scream Dog Years. Way more damning commentary on persona vs reality (or at least competing personas) than I'd realized, and maybe a little Perfect Blue???
ANYWAY, I was struck with the desire to draw the first piece right then. ...and I also ended up doing some studies based on a few of my photos since the lighting was SO pretty! See if you can guess by the angle which 3 photos were taken from the balcony vs GA 😂
Ref for people who did not see the show (probably most of my followers lol):
Various characters people requested like a week ago! I almost captioned the top row as Cure Happy and The Cooler Cure Happy, but in the end I didn't bother writing any character names at all!
To preempt the question: yeah, you can use any of these guys as pfps as long as you credit me as the artist in your bio somewhere 👍
I managed to post at least twice a month again this year. ...there were more months where I ONLY posted 2 things, but I think as a whole I did more pieces with lots of characters, full backgrounds, etc… At this point all of my completed zine pieces have been posted, but I might have more in the coming year since I'm planning to apply again.
As for my goals from last year: I participated in the Godoka Earth Day zine and finished the Madocure designs I'd been workshopping for a while! ...but there are still some PMMM ideas I wasn't able to get to in 2025… I did participate in more collab stuff which was very fun! I'll try and reach out to more people (or to the same people again…) this year as well. I'm considering the digital zine thing still, but I'm still in the stages of deciding on a topic.
I did not end up drawing more V3 Precure or Madoka AU stuff. Sorry to anyone waiting on that! I did not post anything to do with the big DR thing, BUT I have actually been working on it in the background! Uh, maybe I'll finish this year? It would go faster if I did it one game cast at a time, but I kind of want to finish them all together so they look cohesive even if I stagger the posting.
I did make more Precure designs (Madoka Magica and Tokyo Mew Mew!) and finally made a dedicated tag so people can look through all of them. Maybe I'll redo some of the older ones??? I'm also considering other crossover design stuff, like TMM as Kirakira Precure or Cure La Mer and other ocean girls as Sirenix… I also want to do more trickster mode designs! Inevitably I will draw more Deltarune stuff as well.
I did quietly remake my comm page! I did not make a new post about it… Idk I'm just not that motivated when I'm doing fine for money outside of it, but I guess I should probably post at least once since I don't think I've ever mentioned it on instagram!
In 2026, I'd like to actually set up a Bluesky account and start posting there. I'd also like to work on setting up my own website as well to be a full archive of my work… I'm also working on some stuff for my TMM meta blog, and I hope to finish and post them as well.
I am slightly ambivalent to Junko as a character (esp. past the first game...), but MAN is her design so fun to draw. Although I drew a different outfit here anyway... Maybe this reveals too much about my personal taste in (fictional) clothes??? 😅
