It's been a while since I created new OCs!
Featuring Moriyama Kouki and his husband, Moriyama Arata. They're capybara and tangerine gijinkas, and they run a small onsen business up in the mountains.
Below are some longggg (srsly, very long) design ramblings bc I rlly like how these guys came out :)
So the theme for these designs started off as "fruit-themed Japanese winter festival stalls". After some brainstorming, I decided to go with a tangerine-themed onsen, and what goes well with tangerines and onsens than cabybaras? And even better than that, but a pair of old, gay husbands running an onsen together? I'm a big fan of opposites-attract, and immediately upon thinking of the nonchalant characters of capybaras and the refreshing sweetness of tangerines, I knew I wanted to create a stout, round, quiet and somewhat disgruntled capybara man paired with a tall, loud and bright tangerine man. And everything just clicked into place from there.
I spent a longggg time researching different ryokan uniforms as I wanted to be as culturally accurate as possible.
Starting with the clothing designs:
I wanted to design clothes that were both realistic to ryokan staff yet also defined both characters, where you could see their personalities shine through from the way they present themselves. I spent a lot of time going through google images and pintrest for design concepts and traditional ryokan wear. The clothes should be simple, but also have some distinguishable patterns and designs. Nothing too extravagant though, as that wouldn't make sense for staff uniforms. They also couldn't be too fluttery, like how many people design traditional Japanese clothes. Hotel management is a lot of physical labor, so clothing that were easy to put on, presentable, but also easy to maneuver and work in were important for me.
This meant sleeves that don't flap and flutter about. Pants that don't drag or sweep out drastically. Every design choice I made was with intent and purpose; the way the pants taper in slightly so they're not too loose and ending at the ankles. The theme for this was also winter, so I wanted the clothing to have a slightly heavier look to them.
Arata does most of the physical labor and heavy lifting. Bath repairs and cleanings and stock. Therefore I tied his sleeves back so they wouldn't get in the way of his work. He wears an apron instead of a haori since most of his work keeps him indoors or around the onsens. He markedly dressed thinner than Kouki, which you can see from his bare feet, despite it being winter-themed. I chose this to give off the feeling of "refreshing" and "bright". He comes off as the type of guy that runs warm, as he's a passionate sort of person. But initially I had his arms bare, but he didn't give off enough of a "winter" theme as I wanted, so I ended up giving him compression sleeves. This would make sense for someone his age still involved in a lot of physical labor (compression clothes are important!!). I tried to make sure his sleeves came off as compression sleeves and not just a regular shirt by drawing in some muscle details and purposefully keeping his chest bare.
Moving on to Kouki. Kouki is the manager of the onsen (I mean they're both technically the owners). After some research, I found that many managerial ryokan staff wear special haori with the ryokan names printed on the haori, and sometimes either their position, or details about the ryokan if it was especially old. You can tell by looking at Kouki that he's dressed more formally and neatly compared to Arata, and gives off an air of a prim and neat staff member. He wears regular long sleeves under his clothes for winter, and I tried to draw the haori to look thicker. Overall, his look is comfy, warm but neat.
I ended up researching different kanji for their names and surname. Arata using the kanji for "refreshing" while Kouki uses the kanji for "sturdy" and "tree". Their surname is Moriyama, using the kanji for "forest" and "mountain". Fairly straightforward, haha. The kanji on Kouki's haori is "Moriyama Ryokan".
For design patterns:
The main visual themes I wanted to portray were "an onsen in the middle of a gingko forest up in the mountains" and "tangerines in winter".
Again, I didn't want to overdo the clothing patterns as they're meant to be practical and had no use being overtly flashy. I scattered scant gingko leaves on the haori, also reflected in the apron design. The squiggle patterns are supposed to look a little like both bark patterns and water patterns, representing both the onsen and the forest. I had some trouble trying to give more texture/design to the underlaying uniform compared to the apron and haori. In the end I went with a simple, vertical stripe pattern only slightly darker than the color of the fabric so it wouldn't visually overwhelm or compete with the other design aspects. I added very small slits to the pants bottoms in order to give not just some flexibility in the clothes but also to balance the colors and really drive in the look of a "tree" and "bark".
Last minute, I also decided to add in some fancier knot closures for the tops as I saw it featured on the uniforms for a specific ryokan online. The design for the closures is vaguely supposed to represent a tangerine (the center knot) and a vague shape of a gingko leaf (you gotta squint LOL) that matches more with the onsen's logo/crest. Although the knot itself is a common design, it worked well in an abstract, visual way for this design.
For the onsen crest/logo, I searched up a lot of traditional Japanese crest designs to get a feel for the design sense. I played with a few designs but ended up going with this one. I wanted the crest to represent the Moriyamas and their onsen. The gingko leaf in the middle is placed on top of an abstract mountain design, both looking like a tree on a hill/mountain but also being a gingko leaf. The repeating lines of the mountain pattern flows well with the other clothing patterns as well. And by designing a "3 part" design (two hills and a motif in the center", I'm also able to represent the kanji for "mori" in a very abstract way. I originally put the dots in to fill in empty space, but if you rlly squint, the dots can also represent the strokes in the kanji (again, if you rlly squint LOL).
Overall I was pretty happy with how the crest came out, as it both visually matches the kanji for "mori" but also looks distinctly like hills and a tree that is a gingko leaf. Hence: an onsen in a gingko forest up in the mountains.
Colors:
Colors are a bit more straightforward here. We have the obvious use of orange from tangerines, and browns for capybaras. Considering the theme of forests, there is the obvious choice of forest green, complementing both the orange and brown. I decided to add in a dark blue color in order to give a more "winter" feel rather than that of autumn. Blue is also a complementary color to orange, and allows the orange designs to really stand out and pop.
As orange is the brightest color, I use it more sparingly so that it comes off as even brighter. It's used to highlight the details of the designs, such as the crest, knots and sleeve/apron designs.
In order not to use too much orange though, I used brown/desaturated orange as my secondary, complementary color. It works well as a visual color to represent tree bark and cabybaras. The brown slits in the pants are made to look like a tree and its bark. Hints of brown can also be seen as the inner lining.
But the main uniform was still a bit unbalanced to me when paired with the blue + orange apron/haori. I decided to color the sleeve ties orange on Arata, and also added an orange tie closure to the jinbei top of the uniform for Kouki. This added just the right amount of orange to the uniform to balance with the blue pieces of clothing. And I liked that I could reflect the orange ties in both designs in different ways. It also gives more of a "tangerine" look rather than just a forest look.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, if you've made it this far, thank you for reading my design ramblings! I love intentional clothing and character design, and love reading artist commentary on character designs. Even though my OCs designs aren't overtly complex or elaborate, I still put a lot of intentional thought and care into their designs. I spent many hours designing them and am very happy with the end results, and just wanted to ramble here about the design process!