(Context: In this AU, mortals find out about magic in like 2019, but before anyone can get their pick axe the UN and the sanctuaries make a peace treaty or whatever and now everything is kumbaya but to keep the kumbaya the dead men lowkey become a PR prop (mainly pushed by the American sanctuaries) to show that sorcerers can be good. Hope this makes sense. This is all SEVERELY self indulgent🥹)
(Profile context: Fletcher and Valkyrie were in charge of making everyone's profile, except for Taniths. Only like two of them are active and Skul hasn't noticed how they made his profile picture. Omfg why was it so hard finding pictures that match them on Pinterest💔💔)
Y'know how each of these characters have a description that gets hammered into the reader more than anything else?
Skulduggery is a tall, thin bag of bones. Valkyrie wears black clothes. Ghastly's head is covered in scars. China has pale blue eyes and too many sigils. Tanith is jacked and wears tight brown leather. Fletcher's hair is HUGE
What if... we swapped them. Like, we keep the characters as they are but superimpose a different character's main trait on top of that.
Behold, 30 doodles to see what each character would look like with a different 'main' trait :]
Skulduggery: Skeletal
These are such uncanny valley skulls because I actually drew them UNDERNEATH the faces I had already drawn- and ofc my style is not anatomically correct so they look god awful but they are pretty funny.
The implication being here that because I just go straight for drawing the skull on Skulduggery that his skull is normal head/muscle/skin sized; so if I were to draw a face OVER his skull he'd have a humongous head xD
Notes:
Ghastly's curse presumably doesn't reach his skull
China would carve sigils into her bones, rather than her flesh (and they're different sigils than the ones I give her normally!)
Tanith's collarbones are fractured from Kenspeckle's nails
Valkyrie: Black Armoured Clothing
In Phase 1, Val doesn't really have a trait that sets her apart other than the fact that she wears black protective clothing from Ghastly. Later in the series she has her lightning (not a constant trait) and her huge muscles (also applicable to Tanith and Ghastly, and I cut off the doodles at the shoulders.)
Notes:
They look like an emo band lol
Ghastly gets a scarf :D
Tanith: obtains protective clothing
Also Tanith: rips off protective sleeves
(Probably wouldn't happen since she wears a coat a lot too but I thought it was funny ok)
Some are better about protecting their throats and necks than others...
Ghastly: Cursed Scars
Ghastly, Skulduggery and Fletcher were the easiest traits to decide for this experiment. Skulduggery's turned out uncanny and Fletcher's was always going to be stupid but I actually like how Ghastly's turned out. While everyone else looks very strange without their hair, I had a good time trying out different scar patterns!
Notes:
Following the logic of making Ghastly skeletal, Skulduggery shouldn't actually be applicable to this curse (esp since the scars are raised) but I wanted to carve grooves into his head anyway xD
I opted to fully swap China and Ghastly's "Curses" so she doesn't have any sigils (ik they're not the source of her beauty shhh) on her face in this instance. Still has the rest of her sigils though
China also has the three scars on her cheek from DoA, though they're on the wrong side I think.
Tanith's scars are crisscrossed for funsies
Fletcher's are the closest to Ghastly's canonical curse with symmetrical scars running horizontally down his face.
China: Sigils
In China's case her most prominent trait is 100% her blue eyes; they're described over and over and over in the books. But! That's boring so I went with her tattoos xD
I was going to do both, but I decided I didn't want to color any of my lines... (and I didn't know how to beautify every other character without changing them completely?? It's a glamour anyway idk)
Notes:
Dia de los Muertos Skulduggery! Except with.. carving... instead of ink.
Valkyrie's sigils were made vaguely with lightning in mind. The rest were pulled out of thin air on the spot xD
For Valkyrie, Tanith and Fletcher I gave them colored tattoos whereas China and Ghastly get scar-colored sigils.
Here's the other half of Ghastly and China trading curses: Ghastly's scars are replaced by the sigils instead of the sigils being tattooed on top of the scars.
Everyone (except Ghastly) has the same sigils by their eyes, the two that I always draw lit up whenever China has activated any of them :]
Tanith: Brown Leather Clothing
Like Val, Tanith's most hammered traits are her tight brown leather, her muscles and her sword. Since I chose Val's clothes, I reasoned that Tanith's clothes were also fine to choose
I cheated a little bit and also allowed red leather (although not really cheating bc I frequently draw Tanith in reddish pants)
Notes:
Val taking after Tanith and Fletcher taking after them both
Ghastly being the only one with a normal leather jacket makes me laugh
China is in the darkest leather bc ofc she is
Why do I give all the sleeves weird pad thingies? I have no idea!
This is probably my least favourite of the bunch but I really like how Ghastly turned out! He looks really good in brown :]
Fletcher: Ridiculous Hair
Okay. While choosing Fletcher's trait to swap was the easiest- good lord imposing 'ridiculous hair' on everyone else was REALLY difficult and I was not expecting that to be the case. Ultimately I just went with "Not super ridiculous but out of character enough to look silly" or "Very Exaggerated"
Honestly, I don't even draw Fletcher with 'incredibly stupid' hair. I just draw him with major bedhead- and in my style that just looks. Normal xD
Notes:
Obviously Skulduggery and Ghastly don't have hair to make ridiculous. They're wearing funny wigs instead. Skulduggery's probably looks the closest to canon Fletcher, and Ghastly gets an exaggerated swoop as a treat
The girls... man. I couldn't figure out a way to make long hair look ridiculous without going SO ridiculous that they actually dwarfed Fletcher. I chopped them all. We're swapping traits here, not multiplying them to the power of anime and God xD
Valkyrie was probably the most difficult. Every style I tried she just looked super punk and yet still strangely in character. The antennae I gave her ultimately changed it from punk to stupid
China and Tanith both got insane chops because it was either short and spunky or- fuckin- miku (yes I do have screenshots of wips of this project, yes I will share them later do not fret)
China got really short and really spikey
Tanith got way too much hair product. I also accidently straight up gave her a combination of Mushu and Cliff's hair, whoops xD
Fletcher :T
N Finally:
Pairing the True Swaps.
Behold! Wrong Dimension Skulduggery Pleasant xD
Valkyrie and Tanith swapping their Clothing traits
Ghastly and China swapping their curse traits
Skulduggery and Fletcher swapping via process of elimination LOL
I did my best ok xD
Closing Notes:
Tanith looks super warped because her chin isn't as wide as I usually give her, and because her hair is pulled in such a way that it makes the side of her head look super flat :[
I have a ton of funny screenshots from mid-project that I will share later because honestly some of them are friggen hilarious and the others are just fun to see my thought process through
The skeletal necks all look so stupid oh my god lol
China <3
Everyone (except Skulduggery) is looking in such an obvious direction and then there's just Val- staring off angerly into space xD
Overall, fun experiment- not as cursed looking as I originally thought it'd be.
Fletcher's trait was 100% the hardest to distribute, but I think I'm the happiest with how Val's turned out! They all look pretty cool in black individually, even though they look ridiculous all together like that
listen i am a diehard valancholia shipper but i don't blame val for dating fletcher while she had the chance. caelan was a generational fumble. im a lesbian and you better believe i'd go for a boyfriend who respected my boundaries and also was willing to transport me everywhere in an instant helloooo
