This is literally how he looks in my head. It pains me that I can’t be consistent enough to draw him EXACTLY like this every time 😭
Anyways, I struggle a lot with sitting down and just cranking out designs for every d gang character (seriously, idk how Naps or Mayhem did that lmaoo). I’ve tried so many times for the past year to do it, and I just can’t. I get burnt out too quickly. SO. I will instead do it in my own time.
Don is really the only one who has rarely changed over time tbh. I don’t see me changing his design all that much in the future, either, so I’m pretty happy with saying this is his concrete character reference and design :D
That being said, if anyone is interested in seeing my painstaking journey of getting to this point and how Don’s design evolved over time, I’ve left that long explanation under the cut :)
Ahhh. The first time I ever drew Don here on tumblr. Memories.
Looks like shit
You’ll notice the gold armor comes up later in his design before disappearing into the ether forever because I couldn’t be bothered to keep drawing them
Second design: his THRQ one!
Wow. Crazy how both him and Richard have changed so much in their designs over time. They look like literal children here lmao
Also they’re both autistic-
Anyways, there’s several notes that remain consistent in all of Don’s designs for me:
eyelashes (important)
tooth gap (this one has it on his right. Icorreck!!! Left!! Wrong!)
diamond-shaped earring on one ear (my default for any motif or symbol is just a diamond cus I like the shape, but over time, I’ve made it the signature motif of the d gang trio :3).
gold bow and gold… corset and… the thing around the wrists idk the name of. I had the Xs be there cus I didn’t like how naked they looked normally. In later designs for Richard, he has the same Xs on his cowboy hat because Donchard.
eyebrow slits. I refuse to explain (gay)
Anyways! Some time passed. I eventually was able to sit down and make designs for him that I am actually still really happy with, I’ve just changed a few things
Ignoring the jarring jump in my art quality, I still stand by some of the choices I made with this THQ design.
Actually, pretty much all of it apart from the gold armor and satchel parts since I don’t have those in his design anymore
And here’s his THRQ design!
I love this design. It’s so nice. This is pretty much how his design is now, just changed
I later developed the Dommy truther mindset, so Don no longer has the scar in the middle of his chest but rather across his heart and up his shoulder and arm (I’ll go later into depth about this). I made this choice because both Dick and Dashlie have visible scars except Don, and while it still doesn’t show up because of the clothes he wears, they are still very noticeable whenever he does change clothes to something exposing his arms. Or whatever
Here’s when I tried to sit down and draw all my ideas for Don over the THQ timeline. I then got burnt out and gave up. His Mid-THQ2 design is still sick as fuck, though. Idk how much I stick by it now, though (not sure about late THQ2, either. I don’t entirely know how THQ2 has the d gang evolve in their designs)
Anyways
Tumblr image limit doesn’t let me show all these guys separately, so here they are together
Yes there is one with THCQ 😌 aka post-THQ
Time to talk about it
THQ
- Pretty much the final design for Dommy
- The D Gang all have bows and a more formal look to their outfits that make them more uniform, and while it’s more present in Dashlie and Dick’s THQ designs (don’t ask), you can still kinda see it here where his vest is shaped
- I never explained the mask thing, did I? Whoops. Well, anyway, he wears the mask because Tommy wears a mask, only instead of Le Epic Face XD it’s the angry Facebook reaction emoji because I thought it was cute and funny. It doesn’t matter how much sense it makes with how he sees. Tommy can still see fine. Shut up
- Fun fact: my favorite little guy and main character from mine and my friend’s story Trial and Error is named Dominic, which has LOTS of nicknames I wasn’t aware of, such as: Don, Donny, Dom, Dommy, Nick, Nic, Nicky, Nikki, etc. Threw me for a loop. I’m sadly more obsessed with Trial and Error (no one knows because I don’t draw it often) so I’ll accidentally throw myself off by calling Don/Dommy “Dominic” and then kick myself
- His outfit is more Victorian-esc (don’t kill me. im sorry) to match with the d gang yet again, who all kiiinda have that same vibe. Mostly because I like the vibe (hahahaha don’t ask what theme Trial and Error has hahaha). As such, instead of the full jester look with the ruff and everything that the renaissance has, he has the high neck collar with the lil ruffles. I don’t know anything about Victorian fashion or historical fashion I just do what looks nice please don’t kill me
- He is dressed to better fit what Tommy’s original “circus clown” outfit sort of resembled (no I haven’t made a concrete Tommy design. Shut up), but a lot more stuck-up and iron-pressed to show Dommy’s “personality.”
- I switched the satchel to a bow and quiver because I felt it more important to show his occupation, because an assassin is all he is at this point (and a shitty one at that lol. he never even killed anyone). You’ll notice all his weapons have the same blue look a Minecraft trident has. This is because uh themes and blue accents and *runs*
THQ2
- Again, I’m still stuck on what the D Gang looks like in THQ2. I think… I’m… the only one to draw them in THQ2 if I’m not mistaken? So I don’t really have any point of reference or idea of what the “fanon” consensus is. Since Don mentioned him doing the whole blacksmithing and weaponsmith shit in THQ2, I just made him better fit that. He has the hammer and everything. He fell more into the “toxic masculinity” thing that both him and Dick sort of share, so he dresses less flamboyantly than he does in THRQ and on. But he’s.. trying to express himself? A little? Not sure when the transition to being more openly queer happens, or what that’d even look like
- I don’t think he’d be all “grr weapons and anvils and hot sticks and stone and kilns and hot men and blacksmithing” because it’s shown in both THQ and THQ2 that he likes animals (horses and sheep). I think he drifts between the forge and being a shepherd, and the man-eating sheep only let him pet them because of his autistic disposition. In my headcanon, he raised a lamb, whose name was Dolly after the first cloned sheep, just like him. And he still misses her just a little bit in THRQ
- the bandages are on the wrong side. I had them wrapped around his left hand cus I thought that’d be cruel and yay angst since he is left handed (headcanon), but that ain’t where his heart is because hehehehehe his heart is on the right side because his organs are flipped and reflected like a mirror (yippeee headcanon)
THRQ
- oh boy. Let’s not talk about the earmuff phase. I wanted it to work but it was much more difficult to do than just drawing his ears. I wanted him to get protection from the loud winter sounds but BAAHH wHATEVER it’s fine
- he got his gay lol deputy badge. In fake enchanted table language. It doesn’t spell anything I just did it at random
- if you notice I’ve copy and pasted that trident design multiple times no you didn’t
- his ruffle is more fluffy because winter :3 this was a fucking stupid design choice and looks ridiculous. No.
- he has gay little shoulder pads because I think it looks nice
THCQ
- aka just anytime after the events of THQ as a whole. Pretty much the same as THQ, except he has a more rennnaisance (shut up) ruff that I later change because the shape annoyed me
- Don wears gloves and uses his hands too much in his line of work to be able to wear his wedding ring, so he wears it as a nose ring instead :) it makes me so overwhelmingly happy every time I draw it
Today
This was the headshot drawing I made just to get an idea of what he looked like up close. I ended up developing how I draw hair today, with sectioning it off. I felt it did a much better job at defining Don’s hair shape than the loose curls I just improvised everytime with a vague idea of how his hair worked
Don has always had freckles to me. Always. Obviously. It’s kinda fanon. But I couldn’t shake the idea of him having acne scars. And acne scars are pretty and I’m obsessed with imperfections and humanity and beauty and then I made Don drop-dead gorgeous to the point I will NEVER be able to draw him like this again. It is exactly how he looks in my head. Even when I made the design you see at the very top of this post, I just put this over it instead of attempting to replicate it again (I wouldn’t do this for actual drawings though).
I don’t know. Don is just very dear to me. The resident genderman. The sensitive baddie of the group that hides his emotions by acting tough when he’s really just a big ol’ softy that loves his partners so so so much. A character whose sense of justice developed from a past of being treated unfairly and not being able to do anything about it or properly protect his loved ones. A character who is driven by spite and claims to be a nihilist and an introvert when he is instead so incredibly loving and caring and laughs loudly and never hesitates to assert himself and talks with literally everyone in town to the point he knows all their names.
I’m normal. I swear
Thank you for reading my long-winded rant going into detail about my character design and choices. I put a lot of thought and care into these things. I know it’s likely no one cares and I wouldn’t blame a SINGLE person if they didn’t read all this lol. But yeah. If you did, thank you. I’m very happy I get this space to reminisce and speak with fans still sticking around for this long-dead fandom. We’ve reanimated it’s corpse and forced it to live again, just like.. no, I shant say
The Hardcore Quest Family Tree! Shoutout to @orderlymayhem for inspiring to make this
I actually previously made one that was a LOTTT more complicated and included almost every character but it genuinely quite literally made me physically sick SO WE’RE NOT DOING THAT
So here’s the THQ family tree using information we DO know plus my own headcanon stuff. Tumblr kills quality so you may need to full screen it
Also here’s it without the friends branches
I left out some things like LinDsey, Davis, RC Hanger, Dilliker, etc etc just because…. no.. please don’t make me…. Not again
I may have gotten some things wrong. I don’t remember if Lindsey was adopted by everyone or not so I just left her alone and had her adopt Leah because they’re sisters. I think I did get most of it though. Let me know what you think!
