Midorisa's art thread

[Midorisa]

Looks great! I didn't know Sephiroth was a Finnish deity.

Thank you! And well, of course there's my inspirations sources that partly come from the games, but if we think that the characters with long hair and long bangs all look/are like Sephiroth there would be quite a few of them. But, it's in the same time done for the different faces practice purposes so I drew there things that liked, and being a fan of the games I of course like the art style as well.

Yeah, it is hard to get away from the long hair and bangs look.

Yeah, it's sometimes hard to design something new when you realize that with all characters designs, there's always tons of similar characters around, having similar color palettes etc. For example I've seen a lot of artworks presenting a character with a long turquoise hair receive messages like "this is a Hatsune Miku rip-off!". That trait is so strongly associated with the popular character that sometimes even a hint of similarity brings it to your mind. In that sense, the character designer has really succeeded in creating a good and memorable character.

So, it's a bit like when composing music, you have to design the 'old ideas' and ingredients over and over again and mix things up to make them feel fresh. And if you you have just a few sources that you're pulling ideas from, it can easily damage your art by making it too similar to it's inspiration sources. There's no absolute originality in anything, as all is based on things we have seen and 'consumed' in our lifetime. What makes the difference is our mind and we ourselves, how we see those things and filter the experience which then continues to take form in our own drawings.The only part being somewhat original, is our brain/mind that is never just 100% like anyone elses .

Oh, I agree entirely, and it does run into that argument of 'well, what is original'? New work is always inspired or referential of other works.

Yeah, that's exactly it. Its quite important to watch what other people do in the field of art and 'consume' all kinds of art yourself, even if you hear the saying that people that do the art for games/ a lot of it have no time to play those themselves. I find it always inspiring to to watch some series, or sometimes play a game. It's after all the reason why I am doing this myself. Of course I don't spend that much time on those as I did in the past, but still it's important for your inspiration.