Galajo

Shiruku (Early Concepts)

Added 2025-05-09 15:00:04 +0000 UTC

Here's another set of early concept drafts of my characters! This time, it's all about the timid shinobi Shiruku Shiraiki.

Honest confession time: Shiruku was originally created just for the sake of having an "insect" girl in my line up. This was pretty obvious in her earliest sketches (see the fourth image in this post), where her design was extremely flat and uninteresting. Just another stereotypically silent and mysterious ninja.

Then...a close friend of mine gave me the best idea.

Just give her low self-esteem. lol.

And so, Shiruku's design gradually morphed into that of a shrinking violet...with hair bangs concealing her eyes and wings drooping weakly when at rest.

These older sketches also highlight a huge pet-peeve I had with drawing bug girls: really thin arms and legs. As you can see, they do add a bit of an "ick" factor and make her look less huggable.

This is why she has poofy sleeves in her finalised design. It was a compromise to keep her insect limbs “accurate”, but also make her look WAY fluffier. I think it worked out pretty well, overall. 😉

Also pictured in these early sketches are some...sticky outfits and poses I experimented with for (prototype) Shiruku. Yow! 😅