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Description
Well... it's done. I told myself that my decision to alter Melee's design and character wouldn't truly be finalized until I finished this reference... and after bouts of distractions, edits, an "art crisis," and brainstorming for notes and a background... it's done, and with it I feel Melee's character shift is finalized (for the most part). New year, new Melee.

So... Melee. I had Melee wearing a light purple tunic for years, and I really didn't want to ditch it when I decided to change Melee, so I opted to redesign it a little. The hardest part was the bottom; I didn't want it to block out the skirt, but I also didn't want to have to increase the skirt length to compensate for that, so I was bit puzzled about what to do with it at first. The Melee poses themselves were actually drawn up sometime last year (although earlier this year, I went back and fixed up the legs a bit). Indeed, I was planning to finish the reference last year, but a number of... things... came up that kept me unfocused and distracted. Looking at the poses now, I feel I would've approached them a little differently had I redrawn them earlier this month, but I feel these current renditions are sufficient enough to post.

My initial plan when making the reference was to do the exact same approach I did with the last reference: put the poses on a big ol' map and slap a few notes here and there. However, that idea was quickly dropped due it feeling wholly lazy, so I decided to ask myself, "How do I make this reference similar, but different?" The answer? Make the map smaller and slap a ton of notes around it so it looks like the background is made of purple Post-It notes! Also, transparent background (and by extension a PNG image)! I wonder why you don't see more drawings with transparent backgrounds?

The notes are very much like the ones from the previous reference - clothing, character, sword, and personality (that last one was really hard to think on, as I was unsure about whether I should make him shy and timid or flirty and a bit of a tease... I opted for the former, but decided to give him a fondness for girly mannerisms on the side). I also slapped a few other notes behind these and made the lettering for them faded to signify their reduced importance. Can you figure out what the less important notes are trying to say? In addition, it was really hard trying to make a bunch of pieces of paper with varying degrees of purple - there are lilacs, purples, violets, and at least two tints of a dark magenta-like color that make me think of red wine (it's a nice color).

Looking at it now, I think I made it look unintentionally cluttered and unorganized with the cacophony of colors, but I really wasn't sure how else to make it look "similar, but different" without it looking too similar to the last reference. I have already spent enough time on this and I'd like to move onto other ventures... maybe a Sharon reference? Maybe more Melee? Time will tell. Until then, I'd really appreciate some feedback on this.

Melee is property of , AKA myself.

EDIT 2/24/2012
The shading on the legs has been redone. It's not really much of an improvement, but I think it looks slightly better... that's gotta count for something, right?
I also redid and relocated the tail on the frontal pose so it doesn't look as awkwardly bent. The size should also be more consistent with the size of the tail on the rear pose.
Lastly, a minor change was made to the bottom of the tunic on the rear pose so the tunic goes down just a little further than before.
Oh, and the overall size of the drawing has been reduced slightly. It's only a small amount, so it's likely no one will notice or care.

Description
Well... it's done. I told myself that my decision to alter Melee's design and character wouldn't truly be finalized until I finished this reference... and after bouts of distractions, edits, an "art crisis," and brainstorming for notes and a background... it's done, and with it I feel Melee's character shift is finalized (for the most part). New year, new Melee.

So... Melee. I had Melee wearing a light purple tunic for years, and I really didn't want to ditch it when I decided to change Melee, so I opted to redesign it a little. The hardest part was the bottom; I didn't want it to block out the skirt, but I also didn't want to have to increase the skirt length to compensate for that, so I was bit puzzled about what to do with it at first. The Melee poses themselves were actually drawn up sometime last year (although earlier this year, I went back and fixed up the legs a bit). Indeed, I was planning to finish the reference last year, but a number of... things... came up that kept me unfocused and distracted. Looking at the poses now, I feel I would've approached them a little differently had I redrawn them earlier this month, but I feel these current renditions are sufficient enough to post.

My initial plan when making the reference was to do the exact same approach I did with the last reference: put the poses on a big ol' map and slap a few notes here and there. However, that idea was quickly dropped due it feeling wholly lazy, so I decided to ask myself, "How do I make this reference similar, but different?" The answer? Make the map smaller and slap a ton of notes around it so it looks like the background is made of purple Post-It notes! Also, transparent background (and by extension a PNG image)! I wonder why you don't see more drawings with transparent backgrounds?

The notes are very much like the ones from the previous reference - clothing, character, sword, and personality (that last one was really hard to think on, as I was unsure about whether I should make him shy and timid or flirty and a bit of a tease... I opted for the former, but decided to give him a fondness for girly mannerisms on the side). I also slapped a few other notes behind these and made the lettering for them faded to signify their reduced importance. Can you figure out what the less important notes are trying to say? In addition, it was really hard trying to make a bunch of pieces of paper with varying degrees of purple - there are lilacs, purples, violets, and at least two tints of a dark magenta-like color that make me think of red wine (it's a nice color).

Looking at it now, I think I made it look unintentionally cluttered and unorganized with the cacophony of colors, but I really wasn't sure how else to make it look "similar, but different" without it looking too similar to the last reference. I have already spent enough time on this and I'd like to move onto other ventures... maybe a Sharon reference? Maybe more Melee? Time will tell. Until then, I'd really appreciate some feedback on this.

Melee is property of , AKA myself.

EDIT 2/24/2012
The shading on the legs has been redone. It's not really much of an improvement, but I think it looks slightly better... that's gotta count for something, right?
I also redid and relocated the tail on the frontal pose so it doesn't look as awkwardly bent. The size should also be more consistent with the size of the tail on the rear pose.
Lastly, a minor change was made to the bottom of the tunic on the rear pose so the tunic goes down just a little further than before.
Oh, and the overall size of the drawing has been reduced slightly. It's only a small amount, so it's likely no one will notice or care.