Ecchi019 - Priscylla Prizzell - Design Sheet

Hey everyone,

This update to Priscylla's appearance has been dwelling in my mind and my To-Finish Images folder for the last several years. As happens with all pictures that sit half-finished, she's acquired a certain patina that's made completing her evermore exponentially difficult for no particular reason. Perhaps as time is sunk, expectations rise to the point where nothing can ever satisfy the inflation. How can I justify the time thus spent? She'll have to be the "best design ever," etc., etc. I think we call this, perfectionism.

Well, It's been a long battle, but I've resolved the conflict between our hopes and our realities by cutting our perfect gordian expectations short. Chop Chop  

This is what spilled out. Priscylla is here.

As you can see, she's largely the same Priscylla she's always been, but with some stylistic refinement, as you'd expect after all these years.

Features: 

• I've reverted her back to cel shading to keep with that lively anime feel I've always wanted for her. This doesn't mean I won't do her in a rendered style, but this'll serve as an underpinning for her design.

• Clothes - Long time Cutepet-heads know Priscylla's trademark crop top and striped panties look. We've seen her like that, we've seen her naked, and we've seen her in a bunch of different fanciful outfits or transformed states, but I've always wondered how Priscylla dressed and kept herself in the real world. Since designs were always contingent on whatever dirty image I was cooking up, I never had the chance to develop or explore her actual college-girl appearance, but now we can see this side of her. Nice, right?

• Hair streaks - For whatever reason, I've been drawn to putting color streaks in Priscylla's hair. My justification for this lazy-but-satisfying design addition: The hairstreaks are a concession to her new college-girl self. Now that she's away from home, and all the imposed expectations, she's finally able to have some fun… but not too much fun. She doesn't want people to get the wrong impression.

• More splashes of color here and there - Generally increases the fun factor. Adds a bit more brilliance to her eyes.

• Choker and thigh band - There are reasons for both. Let's just say, "They're symbolic."

• Title and Logo - For years I've been referring to the Priscylla series of images as Priscylla in Sexland or Cutepetland. It's fine as a basic container, but it never felt right as an actual title. As I auditioned potential titles, somehow this tired cliché lodged itself in my brain, and the more I thought about it, the more it felt like it perfectly encapsulated Priscylla's predicament and worked as a punchy title. The World is F*cked, folks. It feels right, so that's what we're going with. Think the logo looks pretty snazzy too.

 So where are we now?

Mina and I are working through Priscylla's backstory in more detail and cooking up scenarios for where things should go for our heroine. For the moment though, I'm just going to have fun, do some art with her, and see what happens.

More Thoughts on Character Designs

Priscylla: "Remember when you created me, back in 2012 or whenever. Remember? I was just a dumb character who was supposed to be a blonde bimbo with pigtails. I was a visual fetish… big hair, big… these, you know?"

Ecchi: "That's why I'm searching for you, Priscylla."

Priscylla: "............?"

Ecchi: "Because I want to meet you."

Priscylla: "???" "But I'm right here."

Ecchi: "(I know, I know... what I mean is...)" "I want to meet..... you."

A character design is a means to an end, and that end is a consistent visual output for animation, illustrations, game assets, or as a basis for other products. Character designs alone have no real justification to exist. They're here to communicate a common asset appearance throughout multiple pictures, by potentially multiple artists, across a media property. So why do I care so much about designing these sometimes one-off characters. After all, I'm just a guy making pictures in my dungeon, with no particular grand scheme in mind. What reason would I have for a series of fully finished character turnarounds?

For one, Ecchis be ambitious. Who's to say Priscylla won't someday find a greater place in this world. Yes, who's to say…

When it comes down to it though, this is really just an artistic exercise with fringe benefits. Drawing is enforced concentration, and as we concentrate, create, and interrogate our girl's body laid bare on the design board dissection sheet, questions arise that require answers. Who is she? How should she dress? Why does she style her hair like that? It goes on and on, and it's our job to figure out our best possible answers.

While it's true that designs don't need justification, they benefit from introspection. Mulling over a design sheet lets the artist communicate with the character and figure them out. So even if it doesn't serve any great productive purpose in a manufacturing chain, it's of creative benefit to the artist, the character, and hopefully the viewer as well. Done right, I think designs sheets can be pretty fun to look at too, even if you have no idea who the character is or what they're from. A cool design is a cool design, desu ne?

Ultimately, a character design is a blueprint. We make it to understand our task, our subject, what we're doing, and how we're going to do it.

Ecchi: "Priscylla, I may never fully understand you, but I think I've met you more after all of this. I hope as time goes on, I get to meet even more of you.

Priscylla: "!!"

Alright everyone, thank your for your patience as we travel down this long road to paradise.

Take care,

Ecchi