It's a bit cheating, but I do love working out designs by drawing on top of actual photos. Here's an exploration I made for the super-suit of the character Anna Stromm, aka The Millenium Miracle!
After a few sketches, I felt that I had a solid enough idea to attempt a something a bit more rendered. My main guiding concept was "nobility". I wanted Anna to look like royalty-- graceful, but limited by her dignity-- like a warrior queen who fought alongside her people. This design didn't quite hit that, but it was a start.
At least in terms of drawing quality, the second design was an improvement. It's still a design I like, but definitely not for Anna. In general she looks too agile, and too much like a fighter. Ideally, Anna should seem almost restrained by her suit, for story reasons.
While a design I really liked at the time, and one I still am rather fond of, it bothers me greatly that I can't really visualize the different textures or purposes of the various colored segments. The black at the waist couldn't be a belt because it doesn't wrap around, for example, and the yellow parts I just never could picture what all they were supposed to be, so the design fails in that aspect. I really like the fluidity of it, on the other hand, so the bones are there for something good down the line, I believe.
This design was never a favorite of mine, partly because it feels more like an alternate design to something that already exists, and not like its own thing. A design should never make you feel like there's a reference you're not getting, in my opinion. That's not to say I hate it, though-- there's something undeniably striking about darkness leading to the zap of color at the chest-- but it's missing time in the oven and a lot of attention.
This one has really grown on me as time has gone by. There's something about the weight of everything that just seems a bit charming to me now, though I didn't like it much when I first made it. Also, her shoes in this design are among my favorites (though they probably dig into your calves).
Another one that has grown on me, but at the same time I think it totally missed the point. I really still like the subtle way the yellow on the glove connects to the yellow on the shoulders, and it's a bit easier to imagine what part of the suit is cloth, what part is metal, etc. Points deducted because I accidentally had the main cape clip through the smaller cape. :')
This one is probably my favorite, now that I'm looking back on it! Simple, elegant, majestic, ugh so good! Of course, there are things I would change-- the shoes are super lazy and don't fit the rest of the aesthetic, and the torso "symbol" is kinda just placeholder, to name a couple-- but overall I think it's a solid design!
Will continue the breakdown in the next post! :D
PS Bonus points for whoever can guess which movie came out the year I drew this, based on the designs
