mad-hatter-rici - Tumblr blog

mad-hatter-rici · 5 hours

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Oi Hi-chan didn’t ask to dreamwalk

This is the pair piece for the earlier Helias one I made; I ended up upgrading Amaros' design for a bit, and finally drew his familiar. I'm not great at drawing animals though, so Saba looks a bit wonky OTL I also put wayyy too much effort on that bg (it's his mind-palace, its where he invites people he wants to speak to)

(Also, he's talking to my friend's character Hitomi, as he was having a chat with her dad Jurou/Alistair)

This guy is quite important character for both of my stories, as in the main one he's the Deity of the MC, and in the secondary "spin off" he's the literal dad of the MC and his brother lol. He's also Helias' L.I, which is kinda amusing, given their first meeting was less-than-pleasant...

#artists on tumblr #illustration #original illustration #original character #digital art #lumi's chaotic creations #lumi's art scribbles #fantasy #night city parlor #the mage and the mobster

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mad-hatter-rici · 4 days

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Preeettttyyy

I guess I'm done with mermay for this year huh.

Anyway, I recently watched some playthroughs of Hades 2 (and 1) and I really loved the character illustrations they had, so I wanted to try and sort of take inspiration from the style, and see what I can learn from it.

I decided to draw Helias for this experiment, as he needed a design upgrade anyway. I have few other characters on the drawing list too that I'd like to utilize for this.

(I'm imagining Helias is speaking to the kids of my story's main fam, Hitomi and Ichirou, in that bottom fake screenshot. Shaell is their 'Deity/King' as their family are Soul Eaters, although only Helias refers to him by his first name, he's mainly known as Amaros)

I left the BG for the last one simple as I currently had no proper ideas for it.

(ALSO. I can't believe it took me almost 10 years to realize that Helias' name came from a greek myth. I LEGIT forgot about Helios being a thing, I did not give my boy a similar name on purpose I swear)

#artists on tumblr #character illustration #illustration #digital art #hades game #hades inspired #lumi's chaotic creations #lumi’s art scribbles #night city parlor #helias

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mad-hatter-rici · 11 days

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Yup so them

Today's mermay piece; my friend suggested these two with the "otter nap" pose thing.

Figured it does fit Chouma and Youko so here we are. Youko's head admittedly looks a tad too large in proportions, but by the time I realized that I was almost done, and don't feel like fixing it lol

Since they have nothing to do with anything amphibian 'canonically,' I didn't really think about the designs that much; I was more trying to achieve that "some bits poking out of the water" look.

Youko (the kid) belongs to @mad-hatter-rici

#artists on tumblr #mermay 2024 #mermaychallenge #mermay #merman #mermaid #lumi's chaotic creations #lumi's art scribbles #night city parlor #chouma #my squishy #my squishies #youko

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mad-hatter-rici · 12 days

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Since people wanted spooky, here's more spooky.

Angus and his sister Franziska. I figured that Angus would probably be some sort of mysterious horrific eldritch entity, that people don't really know what he is exactly. Roughly seems like a shadow octopus merman or something, but has eyes everywhere. (Also his human part is deceptively simple for a reason)

This made me think of the Pirate AU for some of my characters, and I figured since Angus is the ship doctor for the protag captain of that AU (Azul/Chester's pirate version), this could be related. Angus was always going to be a bit mysterious/scary in that AU, where he can summon horrific things from the deep, so...maybe he's just making a call home to ask for a favor lol

(The speech bubbles are Chester talking with the other protagonist and his LI, Diojas)

#mermay 2024 #mermay #merman #mermaychallenge #spooky aesthetic #spooky #lumi's chaotic creations #lumi's art scribbles #night city parlor #angus belmont #angie is spooky

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mad-hatter-rici · 13 days

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Sooo..... I didn't plan this to end up with spooky vibes as well, but here we are lol. I guess that's just my favorite theme type.

Anyway, this is Gianna, I briefly forgot about her but recently recalled that yeah, she's a siren; while that mainly means she's a birdwoman, given sirens and mermaids get mixed up a lot anyway, she does have a mermaid form as well.

I ended up giving her white fin because her bird form would also have white/pinkish feathers judging from her ref I do have (I don't have the bird form designed yet). It also looks like a cool evening gown that contrasts nicely with her skin tone.

#mermay 2024 #mermay #mermaid #mermaychallenge #artists on tumblr #digital art #illustration #lumi's chaotic creations #lumi's art scribbles #night city parlor

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mad-hatter-rici · 14 days

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Told you he is a disaster xD

Finished this; I initially thought of adding more detail to the BG sand, but I concluded I kind of like it like this? just keeping the focus on these two.

Also, almost forgot: the texts if you can't read them well:

Aiden "*hic* You're not gooOoooOOonna eat mee, are you?" Mihail: Depends. Aiden: You're *hic* Nooottt being a *hic* Very Good Boy Mihaiilllll

Some context: Aiden is my friend @mad-hatter-rici's character and normally a human, whereas his BF Mihail is a Grimmhound (hence the "good boy" comment lol). I couldn't decide what happened here, but either:

Aiden got really drunk from Siren made alcohol and had a wacky dream where he was a merman, or

He drank Siren made alcohol and it turned him into a merman for a short while.

(IDK which option is funnier honestly)

Also, bonus reaction from him the next day:

#mermay 2024 #mermay #merman #illustration #digital art #artists on tumblr #lumi's art scribbles #lumi's chaotic creations #night city parlor #mihail caine

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mad-hatter-rici · 16 days

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ene i want to adopt them. Gimmeeeeee

I'm too tired today to try and make two versions of this, like I initially planned (I had plans for spookier version with more details). Anyway, Caelan is showing off his newest big shell find to his favorite cousin/big brother figure. (side note: I might draw other characters too for Mermay, these two just feel the easiest/most optimal to use, given they 'canonically' have merman-like forms lol)

I also realized while drawing, that technically this more humanoid look is Laurent's "battle form," so him casually hanging out on it is a bit ooc. For this particular piece it just worked better for me, than the more traditional merman one he has.

IDK if the tail-fin for this humanoid form looks very.... anatomically reasonable for this pose, but it is what it is I suppose. I also didn't include the spiky bits for Laurent here, to make him look softer.

#mermay 2024 #mermay #merman #artists on tumblr #digital art #illustration #original illustration #night city parlor #lumi's chaotic creations #lumi's art scribbles

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mad-hatter-rici · 18 days

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I wanna huggle caelan ❤️🩵

I couldn't decide which version I liked more, so I decided to upload both. The second, bluish one is more accurate to what their colors are, but I like the atmosphere of the first one more.

Laurent's updated Humanoid merman form (He's actually a massive Sea serpent; he has 4 forms total, a full human, a traditional merman with a skull mask, this one, and the giant reptile), alongside his baby cousin Caelan as a kid. He's always been protective of him, as Caelan was the smallest in the family & the only survivor after a human caused disaster that poisoned rest of the family accidentally.

I initially meant to give him the long merman fin ears he has in human form/the more traditional merfolk form, but I decided they just don't fit this look, so I scrapped the idea. (Basically, having them there made him look so goofy lmao)

#mermay 2024 #mermay #merman #artists on tumblr #digital art #original illustration #character illustration #lumi's chaotic creations #lumi's art scribbles #night city parlor

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mad-hatter-rici · 18 days

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🤩 sooop cool

Second Mermay piece, this time with Laurent's more "traditional" merman form (he's actually a sea-serpent, hence the dragon skull mask). Again two versions, a more colorful and muted one. Certainly gives a very different vibe to the same piece.

I decided to make his bigger, thicker red scales look slightly different in this form, where they aren't fully fused together like armor pieces when compared to the more humanoid look.

#mermay 2024 #mermay #merman #digital art #artists on tumblr #fantasy #illustration #character illustration #lumi's art scribbles #lumi's chaotic creations

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mad-hatter-rici · 21 days

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Ohhhh so stylish

I've been struggling with this for months, but finally, I have something I like. I concluded that due to the lore behind Soul Eaters in my world setting, considering them Warlocks rather than Demonic beings makes more sense, and thus decided that Jurou's "Soul Eater" look is more of a mage outfit essentially, inspired by the look of their King/Deity, Amaros. I couldn't decide if I wanted his hair open or on a braid, so I decided that he does both depending on his mood.

Note: This particular outfit is something he can't just drape somewhere, like any other garment. They are made of pure magic, so if he wants to remove his coat for example, he just de-manifests it. You also can't knock down his hat, if it gets removed it just disappears and re-manifests on his head.

I had a LOT of lore and design explanations in mind that I thought of including into the images, but its just too much text, so I put bare minimum notes into these, and rest will be under the cut for those curious:

SOUL EATER WARLOCK ROBES:

ALL Soul Eater's Warlock robes, or "Summoning uniforms" as one may call it, share some design elements even if they are also personalized based on the individual:

The Hive: Every Soul-Eater's topmost robe/Coat/Cloak/ETC has that inner magic-essence lining that looks like wispy, flame-like substance with eyes. It is essentially the representation of their King/Deity's hivemind.

The Star: Every Soul Eater has Their Deity's star symbol somewhere in the outfit. Jurou has it on the see-through chest part of his shirt.

The Eyes: Each Soul eater has eyes as part of their design, the number representing how many significant souls they have devoured. Jurou is the only person who still has only 9 eyes, despite his age. (this is due to how insanely strong he is)

Apart from those details however, each Soul Eater also has more personalized elements to their outfit:

It typically bases on the person's individual tastes/the time period/location they spent their "childhood" in, I.E first 25 years of their existence roughly. Jurou has a Victorian gothic feel to his Warlock outfit, because he was born around that time, and his father's family is Scottish.

It also naturally has influences from their non-Soul Eater parent if that is the case. Jurou's mother is a Japanese spiderwoman spirit, so he has spider motifs in his outfit, AND his summoning stone has a spider symbol on it. (His outfit would be more Japanese styled, if his mother had been the S.E)

SOUL EATER LORE

Summoning stones: While most of them are created by devouring a "Significant" soul, Soul eaters can also create them at will. This is very rare to do, as typically that'd require them to want to give it to a specific person. (In Jurou's case, he created a specific one for his daughter Hitomi's mother.)

More souls, less power: The detail that humans especially often misunderstand, is that the less eyes a Soul Eater has decorating their robes, the more powerful that person is. The most powerful Soul Eaters do not need to devour so many souls to maintain their power, but humans who want to utilize their abilities often misunderstand and seem to think more violence = more power...

Family heritage: What makes Soul Eaters different from other warlocks, and led them to be classified as their own beings, is how they manifest other powers. A Soul eater's adjacent abilities ALWAYS come from their Soul Eater power. All their other heritage does, is dictate what kind of shape it takes. Jurou's mother is a Jorogumo, but he doesn't have a drop of Jorogumo essence in him. All his magic is purely Soul Eater power. ----------> As a result, defenses that would normally work to a being with such powers, do not work on the Soul Eater's version. A Soul Eater with vampiric powers cannot be destroyed with sunlight, for example. (This is yet another reason why they are seen as so dangerous; typical tricks don't work on them)

Soul Mastery: No being can manipulate and control souls as well and as naturally as Soul Eaters. This ability can't be "learned" by other beings like other magic types can be. It can only be imitated, but typically takes on a more crude form, often far more harmful to souls than what Jurou's kind can naturally do. His kin are basically the only beings, who can easily remove and devour someone's soul without any damage to it, which basically means once the S.E passes, all the souls devoured will also move on into the next life-cycle. This doesn't happen with the crude mockeries other beings might attempt, as those always badly damage or full on destroy the said soul.

#artists on tumblr #oc reference #character design #fantasy #digitalart #digital art #lumi's chaotic creations #lumi's art scribbles #night city parlor #jurou araknos

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mad-hatter-rici · 25 days

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Fun fact: All of Gwenpool's properly spelled fucks were given to Miguel as a reparations for dealing with Deadpool.

(also shock is stupid, I'm strongly on team let him say fuck ;P)

Sorry for the long delay on everything. We were finishing big work project so I've been bit busy but in free time I was finishing one of my forever wips for the @cindymorganzine and I'm very proud of it but the big reveal will come with time ;)

But as for this comic [first part is here] then [there is bonus drawing with Jeff in his 99 napping glory] and there is obviously [the clear first panel] that was originally posted 2 months ago >.< [and it's sketch]

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mad-hatter-rici · 25 days

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you know what, the old style borders look better for petvengers and I'll continue that way

and yeah, there will be continuation >:3 I've got dumb ideas that I need to get out of my head.

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mad-hatter-rici · 29 days

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UPDATE: I've decided to adjust Laurent's design as I concluded I didn't really like the one he had. Now, his merman forms will remains as is for now, but I will update them slightly sometime during may, as I kinda want to completely re-draw them.

Also fun fact; "Laurent" is just the way his name is translated/written for the Universal Mirror world language; in his own Sea-serpent Tongue, it is actually "La'ruenn" (pronounced la-wrenn, roughly)

The reason he uses this "universal" name instead is that typically Sea serpents only give out their 'true name' to those very closest to them, typically their own kin/family/love interests. It is more symbolic thing, as often the universal name they choose sounds very similar to their real one.

Aaanyway, bio below:

Age: ~50 (human body/biology is that of someone around their thirties)

Nicknames: Big guy (his friends) Snek-chama (Youko, a kid he and Taiga babysit sometimes) Love, Big boy (Taiga, his GF) Renn/Rue (Caelan, his baby cousin)

True serpent name: La'ruenn

Family: Cousin Caelan (Kael' yn, pronounced kai-lynn)

Friends: Roman Bosco (A Grimmhound) Sebastian Kravchenko (A wyvern), Amalia Marek (A wyvern and aunt of Sebastian) Cecil and Quinn Blackthorne (two bakenekos adopted by the said family)

Love interest: Taiga, an arctic kitsune.

A Sea serpent with troubled past, who's slowly moving forward in life Currently works as a bartender/bouncer in a local popular pub.

Personality:

Laurent is blunt, and seems like a man of few words at first glance, not really one for small talk. Many find him very intimidating, not just due to his size but his general aura of "fuck around and find out."

He tends to be a bit suspicious towards anyone new, and is very protective and cautious over his loved ones well being, to the point he might sometimes come off as overprotective, especially when he's agitated. His tendency to go overboard is due to his past trauma.

Despite his kind of intimidating appearance and vibe, he's a kindhearted person deep down, and doesn't like the fact people are easily scared of him. He tends to try his best to not appear scary especially around kids, and is actually quite good with them, being bit of a dad material even if he doesn't necessarily realize it.

When he's relaxed he's quite fun to be around, as he has a good sense of humor and knows how to laugh at himself. He's also secretly bit of a romantic, though he'd never admit that out loud to anyone. He's the guy in their friend group that everyone had a crush on at some point, except Amalia who's a lesbian.

Powers:

Hydrokinesis; ability to control water. This is easiest in human and full sea-serpent form, where he is able to be much more precise with it rather than just using brute force of flooding tides.

Shapeshifting: He can change his size in sea-serpent form, from the average 2-3 blue whales up to the size of a cruise ship. Laurent also has 2 other hybrid forms with different strengths.

Humanoid form: This form is easily strongest out of the 3 non-dragon forms, and for a brief period even stronger than the full serpent itself. He can easily crush and tear apart metal and stone, and is generally bullet- and stab-proof; he can also really create a raging storm with his hydrokinesis that's on the level of a powerful hurricane. Laurent can also choose if he manifests his tail-fin in this form or not.

Merman form: This form gives him more precise control over hydrokinesis, meaning he's capable of affecting the water inside your body. He's also super speedy swimmer like this and has extremely sharp claws.

Water breathing: Regardless of his form, Laurent can always breathe underwater

Physical strength: Laurent is physically strong even among his peers, even in human form. Even as a human he's capable of punching rocks to pieces and bend metal.

Weaknesses:

He struggles to share how he is feeling, preferring to focus on taking care of others. (He does not find sharing your woes weak like some stereotypical toxic guy, he just feels like HIS issues specifically aren't worth sharing)

He suffers from bad nightmares, sometimes waking up in the middle of the night and pacing around for a while/having bouts of insomnia.

Being used to living in more vast open spaces, Laurent has slight claustrophobia, and gets twitchy and jittery in smaller, crowded spaces. His and Taiga's apartment therefore has fairly high ceilings and not too much clutter. (Since Taiga does like things more cluttered though as a fox, she has her own special room that's full of things, including an extra bed she's covered with bunch of pillows and blankets to nest and relax in.)

His humanoid monster form is VERY strong and durable, but he can't keep it up for long in a fight, only about an hour. After that it'll start draining his life force quite fast. He can only bring it out again after a full day's rest at minimum, but often given the situations that would require bringing it out, he'll have to rest at least a week.

Fun Facts

Laurent is Bi with slight preference towards women/feminine presenting folks.

The tattoo he has was made by Jurou, and it represents his girlfriend Taiga.

He doesn't have any particular fashion/style he follows, but he tends to prefer sportier/baggier clothing, and jackets with fluff/fur collars because they remind him of Taiga. Also beanies. Mainly because Taiga's family has knitted him so many of those.

Only people who know his Serpent name/how to say it are Caelan, Taiga, and Jurou.

His humanoid monster form loses his sea-serpent ears, because that form is all about durability and physical strength, and those bigger, thinner ears are an obvious weak spot.

His full serpent form has horns, as shown by his dragon mask in merman form, instead of glowing ear tips like with Caelan.

Unlike most sea-serpents, his sounds are more akin to typical dragonic growls rather than whale-like howls. This is due to him being the rarer, Big Boi type.

He's sort of ended up as the "dad" figure of his friendship group (Roman, Sebastian, Amalia, Chouma, Max, Cecil & Quinn), because he has the tendency to be the responsible/mature one in many situations, and has leadership qualities. (Cecil in turn is the mom friend)

His closest friend out of the group are Roman and Sebastian, and Roman specifically is his best friend, given Sebastian is often busy with his rock band tours alongside Chouma and Max.

He is a hit with tiny kids wanting to ride his shoulders to see faaaar away. Especially a young chimera kid called Youko, whom he and Taiga often babysit.

He is very thankful for Jurou for helping him and his cousin out despite initially being complete strangers, and doesn't mind looking after his two younger kids whenever necessary.

While he works at a bar, Laurent doesn't drink alcohol, as he kind of had a drinking problem during his depressive, stuck-in-a-monster-form episode, where people often left him food and alcohol to "appease" his wrath. He refused to eat most of it out of spite, but did end up drinking the alcohol, which wasn't a good idea.

BG Details

His family died due to an oil-spill poisoning them, and he only managed to save his baby cousin Caelan, who had been accidentally fished out of the water by clueless fishermen shortly after the oil spill. Ironically, by removing him from the water the men actually gave him more time to be recovered, as he was removed from the poisonous environment.

Either way, Laurent managed to sniff out his whereabouts and invaded the boat in his monstrous form to rescue his only living family left. He ultimately did not hurt the fishermen, as Caelan requested him not to; the men had actually been trying to help, thinking he was just a shipwreck human child they'd managed to 'rescue' by accident as he had been in human form.

He used to live in the outskirts beach-side of Japan after bringing Caelan to Jurou. He did not initially want to move in to the mirror world, out of guilt over being unable to save rest of their family.

He was also too traumatized to go back to being a sea-serpent, but refused to use the full human form out of spite, leaving him mentally stuck in the more monstrous and draining merman form, which naturally helped driving people away from him and birthing a local legend in the area about a dangerous sea monster.

Being stuck in this form did also mean he felt very drained of energy a lot of times, but he was physically incapable of changing out of it due to mental blockade.

Things changed when he met Taiga, and helped her escape her abusive "owner" human with the help of some of the man's staff who were very fond of the kitsune and found her treatment unjust.

She convinced him to stay in the mirror world as well, and eventually managed to convince him to let go of his hate for his human shape, given it is a part of him and not inherently a bad thing just like how not all humans are inherently bad, as he saw through the staff members who were willing to help her escape. (not to mention the fishermen back then with Caelan)

#artists on tumblr #merman #oc #digital art #lumi’s chaotic creations #lumi's chaotic creations #lumi’s art scribbles #night city parlor #laurent delune #sea serpent

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mad-hatter-rici · 1 month

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The most fashionable goth dad ever öuö

it's been forever since I drew my supposed "main" character Jurou/Alistair, and I figured he is in need of a slight update. I'd kinda concluded the two-color hair no longer works with him like it used to with his OG design, because his hair is no longer cut into two distinct segments. I also tried to make his hair slightly darker as I feel the red became too bright overtime from what I intended.

Another thing I changed was the use for the name "Araknos" as I just like the name "Blackthorne" as his surname much more lol (I have to update his refs sometime soonish...)

Other than the hair changes, I didn't really change his outfits at all as they were totally fine. I left this looking sketchier, because I didn't feel like doing a neat lineart. Instead, I used the sketches I had done.

(Random fun fact; Despite his mother being the Japanese one, Kouka and her family are related to him through his Scottish/mirror-world native father Harrow instead. I don't know why I find this fact funny.)

#artists on tumblr #digital art #oc illustration #character design #goth dad #lumi's chaotic creations #lumi's art scribbles #night city parlor #jurou araknos

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mad-hatter-rici · 1 month

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Mew-Wow öuö

Rainbow ladies 3: Franziska (Cat witch)

Choosing a character for this color proved difficult at first as I didn't initially seem to have anybody where yellow was their primary color/primary accent color. Then I remembered Frankie's main outfit (That I've not drawn since making her ref lol) was majorly yellow.

The BG is kinda silly, but it fits given she portrays herself as very goofy/silly/mischievous to hide the self-esteem issues and trauma.

Also, I accidentally made this bonus version while fooling around with gradient/cutout effect layers and decided I wanted to post it too, even though it's not really part of this rainbow series:

(Side note; she has gray skin due to being a black cat specifically; she's inspired by the celtic/scottish cat-sith myth, rather than being a general catgirl witch. in human form she has lightly tanned skintone)

#artists on tumblr #digital art #art #illustration #oc #oc illustration #catgirl #lumi's chaotic creations #lumi's art scribbles #night city parlor

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mad-hatter-rici · 1 month

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Rainbow ladies 2: Marci (A Warlock)

Drawing this was super difficult, for a couple of reasons: 1. Marci is apparently hard to draw for some random ass reason, and 2. orange is a color I find tricky to use/theme things around, given it very easily turns into a red, or a brown. This is honestly more browns and reds than orange themed....OTL

The OG Kouka one I made for this color came out better in regards to the color theme imo. However, this piece does fit better in the series style that the Red piece with Mariella set up for me though.

As for the BG pattern; it's a combination of the symbol of the group she used to work under the member of, and the moth like thing peeking from within them is the logo of her favorite in-world band, whose member she's even friends with. (the logo is also on her shirt)

(It's kind of symbolic of how her past job still kind of has a major effect on her even in her private life and shadows a lot of things in ways she's not exactly happy with.)

#artists on tumblr #digital art #art #illustration #lesbian #sapphic #lesbian oc #oc illustration #portrait #lumi's chaotic creations

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mad-hatter-rici · 1 month

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Rainbow ladies 1: Mariella (Tree Nymph)

So I guess I'm doing this rainbow series thing, though I think I'm gonna redo the orange color, as the one I did with Kouka has kind of too different of a style from this. (Although, TBF This is a redraw of a traditional piece I made a while back, so that's also why it looks different lol.)

Finally had use for all the flower photos I've taken from mum's garden, as I decided to change the flowers she's holding from sunflowers in the original, to camellias and roses here to better work with the red theme.

She's naturally very valentine's themed huh, thanks to her nymph form being based on a tree with heart shaped leaves.

#artists on tumblr #digital art #illustration #oc illustration #rainbow #lesbian #sapphic #lumi's art scribbles #lumi's chaotic creations #night city parlor

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