J31sh1 - FICTIONAL CHARACTER HOARDER

tf do you call this ship spicecest??? spice x2???

Touhou Design Phylosophy Study and OC Tips and Tricks

I see many people struggle with creating Touhou OCs so I figured I would try and analyze ZUN’s character designs and briefly explain what makes them stand out. If you have any other observations or corrections perhaps, don’t be afraid to message me.

Silhouettes

What most people remember about Touhou designs are the elaborate or strange hats. That however often gets mistaken for the thing that’s most striking about each character, which is their silhouette. Notice how two of the characters below don’t have any headdress at all, yet their design is easy to recognize.

Knowingly or unknowingly, ZUN understands, that fun character designs have strong silhouettes. He even utilizes shape language to convey character through looks.

Circles - Charisma, safety, friendliness, charm, cuteness and innocence

Rectangles - Conformity, uniformity, balance, stability and reliablility

Triangles - Unpredictability, danger, malice, cunningness, and dynamism

These shapes help comunicate very key character features in Nazrin’s Eiki’s and Seija’s looks. I chose them for these examples because they mostly consist of one shape.

For more complex designs, using two or three shapes is recommended, though only one shape being used doesn’t mean a character is less complex, it simply highlights their main characteristics that much better. Nue here for example is overwhelmingly triangles with a few small circles to convey her largely mysterious but otherwise laid back and fun loving personality.

I noticed that most Touhou characters actually have triangles in their design, I’m assuming solely because most of them are super-powered youkai.

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Colors

When it comes to colors, ZUN is known to use very saturated colors, however that’s only a fraction of what makes Touhou designs special.

The most commonly used color palettes in art in general are

Complementary palettes - Using two colors on the opposite side of the color wheel

Analogous palettes - Using 3 or more colors that stand close to each other, creating sort of a gradient-like palette

Triadic Palette - Using three colors that are evenly spaced on the color palette

He mostly uses either complementary or analogous color palettes, and even when he uses the latter he likes to put in one extra color that complements one that’s already there.

Triadic palettes are the rarest out of the three in art, and in Touhou as well. The only examples I could say are Nue, and Okina Satono and Mai if we consider them a single entity (which fun fact in actual myth they are).

Triadic palettes generally have a chaotic, whimsical feel to them so it’s fitting that it’s these characters that got them.

Aside from color theory, ZUN doesn’t only choose colors because they look nice. In many character’s cases they have symbolic value as well.

Eiki’s palette might seem overwhelming at first with how much colors there are. It’s usually advized to use around 3 colors on one character and yet her design contradicts that by making it twice as many. This however has a reason as these colors correspond to the six colors of Buddhism. They can mean many things depending on the context, but in her case it probably references the six realms of existence.

Shou, despite being a tiger youkai has a hair color that hardly resembles a tiger’s fur that even in sunlight is distincly orange. The reason for that is that she isn’t based on actual tigers, but the idea of a tiger conveyed by people who have never seen one in their life.

Kanako is mostly red and white, both these colors being very important in Shinto; red is the color of vitality, prosperity and keeping kegare and tsumi away, while white is the sacred color of kami. Her hair is purple, which is associated with nobility in Japan.

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Details in Design

In ZUN’s designs, even if colors and silhouettes are important, I think what make or break them are the details. Even if those two are in place, the description of a girl with one red horn, long blonde hair, white t-shirt, blue skirt and a geta holding a red sakazuki can only get you so far.

I drew Yuugi in an intentionally crude fashion with a mouse in less than 3 minutes to illustrate that Touhou designs look distinct and recognizable no matter the art style specifically because of the easy to parce and distinct details they have.

Again the details are not only aesthetic in nature, but symbolic as well.

There’s a feng huang (also known as Chinese phoenix) on Junko’s tabard because these birds symbolize empresses or generally female rulers or feminine power.

Aunn has a heart symbol on her shirt not only because of the western connotations of the heart shape being cute and symbolizing affection, but because it’s the same shape as an inome. Inome, also known as boar eyes are built into shrines, and even weapons because this symbol is thought to carry with it the fierceness of a boar and thus would keep malicious entities away. This duality in the nature of the heart shape encapsulates Aunn’s identity as a komainu perfectly.

They of course don’t have to be lore inspired all the time. Satori and Koishi have little to do with actual satori youkai despite that part of their identity being important in their characters. They were mostly inspired by the painting The Two Fridas by Frida Kahlo.

More interesting details are how their designs have the opposite color palette or that both of them have one eye closed even if it’s a fact that’s only pointed out in Koishi’s case.

Thematic quirks like that just make designs interesting and memorable.

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Lore and Inspiration

What I noticed is that ZUN prefers to put a twist on his characters, even if they would stand out without said twist. They are pretty much never just some guy or “an average [youkai/kami etc]”.

Even though lore is not always mentioned, the knowledge that Keine for example is a hakutaku, just makes her that much richer as a character. I feel that ZUN’s characters too only are half original and in all honestly I see nothing wrong with that. It’s a common anxiety to have that your character is not original enough, but while he prefers to make his characters quirky, don’t feel pressured to make everyone 100% original.

Touhou games were heavily inspired by Kiki Kaikai, along with Reimu who originally was barely different from that game’s protagonist. Later of course as he made more games and developed her further, Touhou started getting its own identity, but my point is that wearing your inspiration on your sleeve is nothing to be ashamed of.

Bottom line is, just have fun! Don’t stress much about it, be open and receptive of the unconventional and things will fall into place by themselves!

more ghostlings

🎶 I’m like a bird 🎶

john price as a dad (part two) [ price ]

part one | part three

- Loves carrying his little boy around, only on rare occasions will you get to hold your son

- John just loves him so much and doesn’t want to let go

- Doesn’t cry when away, he’s more determined to return

- Looks like a fisherman, so your sat there beside John in matching camping chairs under a tent at the side of a lake or river holding your baby boy.

- As he gets older John buys him a little toy fishing rod

- Your son copies everything John does

- The way he starts to walk, a strut almost and also wants a hat like his dad’s

- So they’re on the street with matching hats… literally a mini genetic clone of the man

- Would have been content with his little boy but you do a test on a whim of a missed period

- It was negative so you shrugged it off, John was away and you couldn’t be pregnant.

- Then the labour pains started… later told you had what was called a ‘cryptic pregnancy’. You hadn’t had time to prepare, no names picked out or a nursery decorated.

- Your son with your close family, and John Price walks into the room, he’d returned that day and got the call from the hospital that you had been admitted

- He didn’t expect to see the sweet smile of another baby boy

- But the man didn’t think about the problems and unexpected, he just held another bundle of joy in his arms

- He has no intention of his sons going into the military. He doesn’t want that for them, no matter how talent they may be- they could always come back in a bodybag

- And he doesn’t know how he would react or cope to the news of one of his boys being KIA

- John doesn’t even want to think about it

- However, your eldest loves to tinker around… always dismantling his toys and trying to put them back together

- John is the one that breaks up their fights, “Oi, knuckleheads! Pack it in… before I get involved and you really don’t want that…”

- Your eldest was 4 and the youngest was 2 at the time of that incident- speaking to them like actual adults

- Reading to the boys calms him down, just adores being close to them both and making the most of his

- The youngest loves to mimic his older brother and so you have three John Prices in your house

- When the kids get tired, he’ll happily sling them on his shoulders

- A literal climbing frame, play wrestles the kids and hurts himself instead of them

- The team still doesn’t know he’s a dad, other than Ghost who sussed it out

- You will always find John Price asleep on the sofa with his either son leaning on his shoulders.

- Whether they’re watching the rugby on tv or a movie, you ALWAYS find them in that exact position

- Your now husband rarely ever cried but when it comes to your kids- it’s a weak spot

- If they’ve been in hospital or something, he’s a calmly put together wreck

————

cod m. list | request guidelines | price m.list

Autism check

i just made sth silly 💗

@goatgoesmbe 😭

John Prices wife coming to pick him up at the airport after he returns from a mission, but the car is now full of military men.

One look at the three boys, completely exhausted and pulling their phones out to book a taxi had your heart crying. Without thinking, you offered them all a lift to yours and Johns home for them to stay overnight.

So now there’s three men cramped onto your three backseats, John having the luxury of sitting in the front. Simon is on the end (still in his balaclava but luckily not the skull mask because you’d be a little creeped out seeing that every time in the rear view mirror), Johnny in the middle and then Kyle on the other end. Johnny complains for about 10 minutes that he’s squished in and has no room to move but after that he’s completely zonked out on Simons shoulder.

Your music plays quietly through the speakers and they’re happy to listen to anything that isn’t gun shots or explosions.

Once you arrive home, they all climb out the car, grabbing their bags from the boot and dumping them down in the living room.

“Place looks less lifeless than last time I was here,” comments Johnny.

“Finally got a woman’s touch to it,” adds Kyle.

You smile a little at the non-direct compliment. Price also looks around, noticing the little details that have changed or the things that have been added around his house, keeping a hand on your back. He leans down and kisses you gently, mumbling “I missed you” against your lips.

“I missed you too. But it looks like you’ve lost weight.” You glance down at his body. “I’ll fatten you up again,” you tease with a little giggle as he chuckles.

It’s around 9pm by the time you’ve cooked dinner for four people who have appetites of bears. They all look at you as if you’re an angel sent from heaven when they see the food, sitting down at the dining table silently and scoffing down the meal.

By 10pm, you go into the living room thinking they’re all watching TV but instead they’re all asleep. You grab some spare blankets from beside the sofa and cover them up except for John. You shake him awake and make him move upstairs into bed with you. There’s no way you’re letting him sleep on the sofa and not with you after weeks apart.

moros!!!!!!!!!!!

Did anyone even question when hank one day just randomly looked completelly diferent