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MicahandtheMoon — Changing body shapes (OCs - Teo and MAtrix)

#oc #matrix #originalcharacter #teo #ampha #randomocfacts
Published: 2018-09-28 18:35:01 +0000 UTC; Views: 644; Favourites: 21; Downloads: 0
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Description Most of us can probably agree upon that it is rare that our characters end up looking exactly like they did in the first concept sketch we made - maybe we were not sure about their hair, skin tone or maybe we hadn't developed their backstory completely yet so we had to go and adjust their looks so it fit the backstory better later.

Teo and Matrix is both examples of  me changing a rather obvious trait from the original design: both characters were slimmer in their original sketches. I won't say any of them are fat per say (Teo is only "chubby") but they definitely have more meat on them than what I first intended and for two different reasons:

(WARNING - a lot of text follows now so if you do not care for the story behind the characters first of all why are you here then - this series is meant to give a behind-the-scenes look on my characters personality, looks and the reflections I did while designing them I would recommend you only reading after the star in the bottom)

The first sketch I have of Teo took me around 5 minutes to draw (top left) looking back on this he almost look unnaturally thin here ...oh and he only has two tails but that is more because I didn't had all his backstory figured out yet so I wanted him to be somewhere between 150-200 years of age. 

When I sketched him digitally I used a reference so there the unnatural thinness of the sketch disappeared - I am not sure if Teo looks directly "chubby" on the CE piece though I researched for his backstory and decided to make him a Mexican kitsune born during the earliest stages of the Mexican Independence war shortly after the Cry of Dolores in 1810 (it is actually his birthday today ) which meant he was over 200 years old and needed a third tail  


What really make me change his body shape for real was when I drew his traditional reference sheet - After lining I realised I had made his shirt a biiit big which made him look (for quoting Apollo in ToA because damn he uses this word a lot especially in BM X'D) flabby ... I didn't want to change the sheet though since I just inked it and I am lazy that way X'D so I rolled with it and made the excuse that Teo is just chubby  


So that was Teo - next is Matrix 

Matrix' story is actually a bit more interesting because before I even knew I wanted to design him/her I fell for the name after reading the word in my Statistics Book - first I had thought I would make Matrix into one of Ansel's dogs (yes, his family has dogs ) then I found the ampha species, broke my promise of not getting more CS characters. But before I even got to sketch I began to think of a possible backstory for her (in the beginning Matrix was supposed to be only female). Then I read the species information and two things caught my eye: one is that they have no nibbles like lizard so they cannot grow breasts (alright I think - I can still make her a female just a flat chested one), another is that the species has the ability to change gender at will (here I started fooling around with the idea of making her into a gender fluid he/she instead). So after these two facts I started sketching the first sketches of him/her:

You may see that especially the amphataur has a bit more female shape (slimmer midsection between chest and hips) while (funny enough) the ampha is more broad shouldered. Oh and he/she has NO VITILIGO - yes, my first concept of Matrix was one coloured it was first much later I begun comparing the doubleness of his/her name (a Matrix splits two worlds of numbers basically ) to him/her having a coloured face  

The one information that changed my picture I had of Matrix was that the species seldom are overweight unless they deny the instinct to change. It was essential for the story I was going to write because it got me ask questions like "if an ampha only gets fat if they do not shift what would happen if an ampha didn't KNOW they could shift? would they feel uncomfortable and think they were sick (in like both psychically but probably most psychologically)? What would happen if an ampha didn't know she/he was an ampha at all but was told they were one or the other (either only dragon or only mermaid/man)? why would their identity be kept a secret for them?"

In short the version I came up with is that Matrix was forced to live by mermaids and mermen with no memory of being a dragon. Not knowing he/she could shift (and even that it was okay for him/her to feel like a different gender everyday) Matrix grew fat and miserable until he/she again joined their kind above the sea.

The Matrix we all know today is not really "fat" - he/she has been bigger but since shifting takes up a lot of energy and Matrix now on the course to becoming healthy (meaning overcome his/her bulimia), he/shee shifts between ampha and amphathere form a lot (this is more because of the fact that Matrix dreams of becoming a rescue pilot and therefore need to fly for real). I wouldn't like Matrix to be completely thin though since I like the fact that he/she is somewhere in between because loosing weight is not as easy as a writer might think (a writer aka past me ) I too have taken inspiration of this sentence from Matrix' story (I link to the chapter below): "I didn’t really look that impressive next to my sisters. I was basically built like a 10 year old merboy" - so that is what I have tried to do with his/her design: make Matrix' body look like the one belonging to a 10 year old  



Conclusion for everyone not wanting to read my wall of text: 

Teo's change in body shape was an accident when going from one media to the other to sketch but I decided to keep it 
Matrix' change in body shape was due to me developing his/her backstory and by the end it didn't make sense to keep Matrix thin anymore 

I hope you enjoyed this little backstory and me trying to get some complexity in my character's traits now also in form of body shape because damn a lot of my characters are either thin or normal weight For males it is just easier to draw and for women I am not really into these too big breasted characters to be honest so mine end up being a weak hour glass So these two are probably my "thickest" characters (again I wouldn't call anyone of them directly "fat" but it is up to you) 

As always thank you for listening to me babbling  

Matrix is an ampha, a closed species by AethernalVoidARPG  
You are not allowed to create your own without permission 
 

Unrelated: I am not a fan of my scanner starting to make the paper look green when I scan >< you will see it down where my signature is - I tried to hide it best possible  

OC drawing from 09/28 2018 - paper size: A4 
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