So if you didn't know or couldn't tell...I AM OBSESSED WITH PERSONA RIGHT NOW. But you see. I'm insane. So im making a Persona 6 concept! I just finished the protagonist design so I'll be sharing and talking about them under the cut! And also just saying this here, FEEL FREE TO THEORIZE ABOUT THE PROTAG AND POSSIBLY THE STORY!!!! I LOVE SEEING PEOPLE INTERESTED IN MY STUFF!!!
Let's start with the earliest concept art! Here I was mainly trying to give them a good hairstyle, because I want them to be fairly androgynous. You can quickly see I adopt this key necklace as a part of their design, and this is actually a very important thing for the whole game! The characters summon their personas by putting all of their metaphorical heart into a "Heart Key" that they get when they "unlock" their persona from their heart! Eventually when they awaken to their final persona (still debating if I want third personas or not) the key eventually becomes a "Soul Key" (the name is set in stone I'm still debating how it works). So that's essentially how the key became a needed part of the design!
So then I decided to move to digital because I wasn't really enjoying traditional art. And here I decided I really just needed to set the design in stone because I had been procrastinating for forever! So here I'm just exploring more different hair and somewhat exploring the outfits, as well as what brush I wanna use for concept art. I ended up settling on the top right design for the hair, because I feel like it is anime-like while still maintaining some normality, as well as it feeling very gender neutral and somewhat mysterious...
So then I moved on to the outfits! I started from the right and moved to the left. The pink one is essentially what I had been giving them in the digital hair exploration concept art, and I knew from the start, even on the traditional concept art that I wanted them to have jorts. They felt so gender neutral and just fit the vibe so well, so they stuck in every design. It's also where I adopted the bandaids, because like I just said, they fit the vibe. The yellow one I tried to sorta give it a traditional attire meets street fashion vibes, mainly for story reasons I will not be sharing yet. Even as I was drawing this one I didn't like it, but sometimes you may not like something in the moment but when you come back to it, you'll like it! So I kept doing it. Finally, we have the blue one. For this one I decided to stick more towards the original outfit I had doodled for them traditionally, and I just absolutely loved how it looked with the hair. But, it looked a little plain. So I added some small details, and gave them sick platform boots, and BAM. I was in love. So the blue one was the way to go.
I then essentially redrew the blue pose but just a bit bigger. Looking back at this it's actually one of my least favorite pieces of concept art, but theres nothing I can do about it now! You can also see here I look into their Heart Key a little bit more.
And then these two are just various doodles and some expressions I did of them because I fell in love and they are just so GRAAAAHHHH I WISH I COULD SAY MORE BUT THE PLOT THE PLOT THE PLOT IS HOLDING ME BACK AND I SAID NO SPOILERS!!!! *ahem* sorry about that. Also yeah the protag has RBF (resting bitch face)
And now we come to the colored concept art! Here I basically finalized the design, so nothing really changed. But this was the first time I was coloring them and whew boy I will admit I struggled a bit!!! The main color of the game is orange, so I wanted to Include that. There are a few other design details I won't get into because uhm. Plot. But anyways! Here I also fully show off their Heart Key, which is loosely based off of the velvet room key from p3! So during one of my breaks I realized..."Holy shit, they need a canon name!" So I looked around and found Maro, which means truth or reason! No last name because they actually have no clue where they came from, and that came with forgetting their name. So, Maro is a chosen name! I'm a little tired of the 16-17 year old teens, so I made them 18! Most party members will be 17-18 I think, but we'll see! They don't attend school because well...they showed up out of nowhere so. They are currently living with one of the other party members, who ended up taking them in when they were aimlessly wandering. Also this is just me realizing it after the fact...but their design is kinda giving Tron Legacy or Tron Ares vibes with the orange and black, shirt and shoes. Which btw I fucking love Tron so maybe it was subconscious. I also realized how BORING in comparison Maro is going to be in comparison to the other party members and possibly other characters in general! And I was like "oh well" but then I had the thought that..."I want Maro to look like a somewhat normal person. They [REDACTED] so it fits!" So yeah. It is now purposeful that they will be stylistically drowned out!
BONUS!!!!! I made these before the colored concept art but after all the other concept art I had made, and they're just possible hair styles I made for other characters! Please feel free to tell me which ones you like!