So I ended up finishing these sketches today, not sure why. But it’s done now regardless
I decided I wanted to try and redesign Solus since I’ve decided he’s a party member now, and also because in trying to actually figure out the world of Evoland 2.5, his general lore is so far the only one that I know won’t have to be changed in doing so. So you know, he’s easier than other characters
I also ended up drawing his mom too since I really liked how Solus 2 turned out and I still had half a page left. Also, she’s a more important character now
I don’t really have much to say on the Solus designs because as mentioned, I think I generally got it down with the 2nd one. The only things that may need tweaking are his outfit colors and a bit of his hair, but otherwise, I think he makes a good standard to go off of
With his mother however, I don’t think I’ve figured it out yet. I think the 2nd one looks better, but it’s still not what I want. I think the main things causing me issues are her bangs, horns and general colors
I tried to give her the same swept back hair as Solus, but it never looked right, and maybe the horn shape had something to do with why I was struggling? I’m not sure. She’s not supposed to have the same horn shape as Solus, but I can’t figure out a good shape to make them
I also struggle with her hair in general, because I’m not sure what exactly I want it to look like, other than the fact that she has those side parts. Maybe I need more references
And speaking on her colors, I think maybe adhering to her original intended color scheme, as well as sticking so close to Solus’, is hurting her design overall. The orange hair works on Solus with his dark purple skin, but I can’t get it to look so good on his mother, at least with her lighter skin tone. I was able to make things work with Glaucus, his dark purple working with the light blue of his hair, but I’m struggling with the warmer colors on her. Maybe I need to make her colors a bit more unique
Somewhat related, you’ll notice she doesn’t have freckles like her original, that’s because I realized the golden freckles just don’t look good on her lighter skin tone, so now that’s a Glaucus trait, though his are a different color. I’ll drop a little bit of lore here, in my head Demon freckles are different colors from their skin entirely, unlike human freckles which are generally just a darker tone. Solus’ gold freckles are pretty rare though
But back to design things, one other thing I wanted to mention was that I had more specific references for the outfits here, mainly the da gua and daopao. From what I understand, these are outfits in Taoism, so I thought it would fit best for these guys, since they’re the closest to the Future Demons. Though I don’t plan on doing exact one to ones though, they’re just generally based on these clothes
But overall, like I said, Solus I think turned out well, but his mom needs more work
Also, they need new names; Solus’ mom doesn’t even have one. I had an idea of maybe naming them after famous old poets, to contrast Menos’ mythical king naming, but I might struggle with that in the female department. I know old female poets existed, but it’s a much shallower pool
Solus at least I’m considering naming after Dante (even if technically that’s a couple millennia too recent), though I’m unsure how to tweak the name as Evoland does, outside of maybe Dantes. We’ll see I guess
Oh yeah, I also meant to go into a tangent about figuring out Solus’ new personality, since he’s no longer an NPC linked to Juno but a completely separate party member, so I have to now change him to stand out more, and the struggles of figuring out what his deal is now, but I think this is getting a bit long already, I’ll just leave it as this
But I should probably give at least a little lore for these two. So Solus’ mother is one of the custodians of the Sacred Temple/Temple of Menos, and as it happens, a direct descendant of the Demonia Royal Family, which also makes Solus one. Due to her status, she has extensive knowledge of information collected by her ancestors from before the Great Flood, including powerful ancient magic, but she also never really leaves the Temple either, as she’s meant to maintain and protect it, and because her knowledge is too valuable to risk someone abducting her out in the open. Solus was one of the few modern Demons to be born and raised in the Temple, and he chooses to learn their ways out of a sense of connection with his mother, though he’s not as skilled as she was, something he’s a bit self conscious about
Oh and also, one last thing to say here is that despite how it looks in the art, Solus is the one completely blind while his mother has perfectly normal eyesight, she’s just one of those characters who almost always has closed looking eyes
