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- A short story to birth. (Idea and rough sketch)
🕑 Added 2019-01-11 14:11:10 +0000 UTC
Concepts are <dark and gloomy atmosphere> <White and black> <Mourning dress + bride + priest>
The monster girl of this post is the banshee, which appears before people whose end is drawing near and sheds tears.
The banshee is a kind of undead in the MGE world whereas it is a kind of fairies in the Celtic mythology, which is the origin of the banshee. In the reign of the previous Overload, banshees are hopelessly attracted to person who is dying however, they cannot but cry. This was inspired by inspired by the original banshee. After that, they turned into MGE-world banshees by the power of Hel, goddess of life and death. That's the concept.
Original banshees, who herald the death are regarded as the omen of death. On the other hand, there were folklores that many banshees appear when a great person is dying. For that reason, they are welcomed because they bring prestige.
In the MGE world, banshees, which are messengers of Hel, goddess of life and death and existences leading into wonderful undead world, are welcomed by people who believe in Hel. There are living human in believers of Hel, not only undead monsters and human who already became undead. There are also noble families that secretly believe in Hel besides. In addition, it is said even that there is a small country that recognize Hel as the state religion. For such people, banshees are not sinister, but very welcomed.
Besides, the banshee was a family of elves in the reign of previous Overload. this is the the reason why the banshee is a family of succubi. As you can see that she has long and pointed ears and similar appearance to human, banshees were creature similar to elves or created based on elves by god in the reign of previous Overload, before they turn into the kind of the goddess of life and death.
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She has somber face and there are traces of tears as black line because she often shed tears. (Note that her tears are not black!). Original banshees have red eyes as if they weep their eyes out. However, wight already has white skin and red eyes. For differentiation, I designed her like this.
An idea about her overall atmosphere and concepts are firmed up from the beginning but design was hard to firm up, so I have many rough sketch of her.
Banshees are the race that devote themselves to who is dying and become bride of a dead person, so I thought about combining the mourning dress and the wedding dress. However, when an element of dress is too strong, her clothes became too noble and mismatch with her modest and dark impression and overlap with the wight. So I had a difficult time with her clothes! Because she has an element as a priest of Hel, I had gradually added elements of the priest, which give an modest impression. I adopted one that I felt that this is it. The apron-like dress has an element of the priest and it has loose fitting sleeves. An accessory around her neck represents that banshees are priests with its cross shape.
Bones hanging down from the accessories on various places express tears. In addition, she wears a long and black veil, which is common in mourning dresses and priests. Overall, her clothes have jagged edges as if be torn like undead. However, Wedding dresses and mourning dresses are formal clothes, so it was hard to put jagged edges into these clothes. That was one of the difficult points on her design.
I used only black and white for overall color scheme to make an strong contrast. Black parts are generally see-through!, expect sleeves and around feet. A design of clothes on neckline and around lower abdomen comes from bones, lower abdomen one especially comes from the pelvis. A design on socks comes from skulls and bones. To emphasize silhouettes of sleeves hanging down, I chose white for inside of sleeves.
I aimed to express her foreignness as if her feet assimilate with a shadow on the ground and her body appears from a shadow, by making an silhouette spreading and touching the ground with black clothes covering feet. There are normal feet inside of clothes. Curiously enough, banshees can walk silently without stepping on clothes and catching clothes on things.
At first, I thought to draw her slim. I have no idea why but her boobs and butt became big. That's strange!
Comments
James Dougell
“At first, I designed her slim. I have no idea but her boobs and butt became big. That’s strange!” Never change KC!!!
Krista_Evans
Being of Irish descent myself, I really love what you did with the legend of the banshee, she quickly became a favorite when I saw her art.
Reficul Terumi
Very insightful as well as some more interesting tidbits on the lore. Amazing work as usual. Simply gorgeous.
Perentie
I always love how much thought you put into your designs!
