Confident Shadow
The story for this piece begins on Discord: I was heavily reliant on Clip Studio's art models when drawing. They helped me with proportions, but after a while, everyone's bodies began looking the same. At the start of July, I told myself that I'd use the models specifically for limb scaling while I experimented with different techniques for drawing torsos. I sketched five reference torsos, got feedback from artists in a server I'm in, and started drawing a character with those sketches as my primary reference...
...But that character wasn't Shadow; it was Electra. Much like my Danganronpa studies, I drew Electra first, Shadow second, and the reasons were the exact same: I wanted to redesign Electra first. It's amusing how history repeated with those two and I didn't realize it, but that's beside the point. I have mixed feelings about Electra's redesign with the reference torso I sketched, but after drawing Shadow and taking a different approach with her, I have a feeling I'll warm up to his new look after a second attempt. Electra's drawings were originally posted on Tumblr, but since deleting my account, I haven't posted them anywhere else. I'm not too fond of how he looks in those sketches, so I don't think I'll be posting them again.
If you're wondering why I spent so much time talking about a character this entry isn't even about, then I don't blame you. After finishing Electra's piece, I wasn't satisfied with "stiff" he turned out and I wanted to find a way to make the next character I drew more expressive. This is where Shadow comes in; as I was sketching her, I was researching if realistic proportions made differences in how expressive a character can be. During my research, I found that although proportions can help a character's expressiveness, the key to expressiveness is body language; My biggest issue with drawing characters if they're facing forward and standing still is that they may come off as "stiff" or "lifeless." After finishing my research, I took a different approach with Shadow's drawing: Focus less on the proportions, more on her personality, and especially more on the emotions I wanted her to convey.
I set Shadow's reference torso to the side as I drew her, but didn't rely on it too much like I did with Electra. I also took liberties with her limbs by keeping the proportions believable while drawing the limbs themselves in a way that was somewhat cartoonish yet still believeable without being too exaggerated. Her pose and expression were vital as well, since I wanted her to exude confidence and one wrong or missing detail could affect her expression as a whole. Overall, I think I did pretty well; Her face is beaming with confidence, she's standing tall, has proud posture, and has a pose that screams "I've got this." While I wouldn't call Shadow perfect here, I definitely think this is a step in the right direction for my style.
To wrap things up, I made a few changes to Shadow's design since I last drew her in 2021; she has a teardrop-shaped head with a smaller chin, her cold-shoulder top has more definition around the arms, the tears in her clothes are slightly smaller, the neckline of her shirt has been raised slightly, her hairstyle is slightly thicker and curlier, and her facial features are less rigid than they were before. I want everyone's facial features to be more dynamic and expressive, so I wouldn't be surprised if I give some characters literal face-lifts. With that said, some of the clothing adjustments may be the result of the scale I was working with and may not stick in future pieces.
My post of Shadow with her 3/4 view was deleted from my Tumblr page, and much like my Electra sketches, I don't think I'll be posting those anywhere either. My next piece will be posted to my website on the day it's finished (or the day after at the latest,) but that'll happen once I have time to finish it. I had to choose whether to finish this entry or resume my current drawing between classes, so with the given context clues, you can probably guess which one I chose to do.