Was talking to my friend about my TTRPG character, Mercutio, and we got to discussing fictional character digimon partners. The questions was odd for me because Mercutio was technically a spin off of a decade+ old digimon OC, Reflectmon.
We got to talking about how different the two characters ended up being, and I realized... I made that original design over 10 years ago with very few changes. I'm better at character design now, and should take another crack at it based on the original concept I was going for!
So here is a redesigned Reflectmon!I don't think I'd change there name, but if I were to choose a name now "Flectiomon" would work too. (Like reflection, deflection, inflection, etc.)
I've very please with how it turned out. I know some people might prefer the original, But I think what was lost from the original is still mostly present in the spin-off/spiritual successor TTRPG character mentioned earlier.
I'll leave some rambling notes below the post for anyone curious! (Warning. I repeat myself a lot.)
So the original Reflectmon was designed around 2013. (It might have been even earlier, however a lot of my early art work is unfortunately lost to time.)
I have a better understanding of character design now, and I wanted to make the new design more conceptually cohesive.
Here's what worked:
- Marionette + Ball jointed doll themes
- The mirror mask that emotes in fun ways like a TV screen.
- Eyeless face underneath that is a little creepy.
- More humanoid appearance.
What Could Be Improved:
- The devil tail was an x-men reference, because I really loved Nightcrawler when I designed this character, and the Mercuremon line were listed as "Mutant Type" digimon (haha). However, it is only vaguely related to the actual character concept (via shadow Seraphimon) and really didn't make that much sense by itself. I didn't want to removed it completely as it was good for the character silhouette. So I replaced it with a Marionette string that acts like a tail instead! We go more with the theme, AND we still have a sort of tail.
- The hat, while a reference to AncientWisemon & Wizardmon, went too far in a different direction. Now it references AncientWisemon's hat and Mercuremon's helmet more closely.
- Design was a bit busy over all and needed some toning down and streamlining.
- Pushed the Marionette + Ball jointed doll themes further with more obvious ball-joints and puppet-like aspects.
- Adjusted face and hair colors to have a more faux-porcelain-doll look that a lot of ball-jointed dolls have. They also now have a ball-jointed doll bowl cut.
- I don't remember why I put X's on the eyelids under the mask? I think I just thought it looked cool? My best guess is I was going for a "see no evil" thing since Mercuremon had a bunch of church stuff in Digimon Frontier, but I have no idea. Anyway those are gone now since they didn't help the design read any better.
- Other minor color adjustments to help with contrast.
Reflectmon, as the spirit of steel (a man made alloy), is supposed to be depicted as a toy made of synthetic material (as opposed to the wood spirit, who is made of natural material). This is why I wanted to really reference the look of ball jointed dolls, which are usually made of plastic, and can have a porcelain look. I'm over all happy with the new look!
i can’t draw flecky without making the height difference between them and everyone else look super-awkward
like
let’s say that flecky and lam are standing next to eachother
lam is about half of flecky’s height
now, i’m 5′2″, so if i were in flecky’s position, it’d be like having a 2′7″ person next to me, and if i were in lam’s position, that’d be like having a 10′4″ person next to me.
and the tallest person in the history of ever was just under 9′.
i know which position i’d rather be in.(HINT HINT FLECKY. I’D RATHER HAVE A TODDLER NEXT TO ME THAN A FREAKING GIANT.)
haha lol for whatever reason i’m just imagining flit gingerly tugging at my hoodie with their pudgy little hand and looking up at me with their doe eyes all cutesy and smiling at me in the most adorable way possible WHY ARE TODDLERS AND FLIT SO DARN CUTE
