Smorgasbord of sketchdoodles featuring Kel and Aubrey (and sometimes other people) at various stages of a noncanonical story.
“AU color-thing”
Artist Commentary
Fullsize (clickthrough) is upscaled x2 since that’s how I was working on it 90% of the time.
Maaaay have spent like four days, on and off, writing about Aubrey talking to a rock for >15k words. (And then four more days, albeit in much shorter sessions, drawing all this!) The ending where Basil and Sunny die is gut-wrenching on many levels but I am extremely tired of every other comment being like “oh, well, it’s only a matter of time before the others kill themselves too :(” like. no!! Boring answer!!! It’s going to suck absolute shit but life is not (always) a depression-fest and I believe in them!!!!
…Also, it’s a good excuse to focus largely on these two without getting caught up in the rest of the group dynamics, since, y’know. I like that true-end postgame mess in its own right, don’t get me wrong… but I think this version of the tragedy is good for dragging out a particular, erm, side of Kel that refuses to come up as easily otherwise. It’s inevitable no matter what, but ~stuff can exacerbate it, y’know? I even made him a new friend :)
Ahem. I make zero promises or guarantees of anything, but the idea has been living in my head rent-free ever since I learned this ending existed, so~ Also, I adore Omori’s use of color symbolism (visual media where hues and relationships between thereof have strong thematic resonance, my beloved…) so I wanted to try my hand at some design-based storytelling (albeit more in the side squares and general environments than the characters, despite the latter taking up more canvas real estate). And thus, here we are ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
Anyway, outfit design is an eternal struggle, send tweet. While I would like to say I put in as much thought to the palette choices (and specific details) as the little color-squares, it was 100% winged lmao; all I really had was “uhh [X] looks similar to [Y] sometimes maybe here I guess.” Normally I would do a few concepts before “final” drawings but it’s not like I’m comicking this or anything, twas just for fun~
bonus general thoughts re:clothing choices:
- Timelines are a menace and along with them seasons. For the most part summer’s over, though—even if Kel giving me big “teenage boy wearing shorts in the winter” vibes and my general struggling with fashion has them both dressed for warmer days.
- Kel in general is hellbent on not changing; lots of (yellow-)orange, white, and some hints of gray. Stay away from blues/blacks/darks and reds. Very much feels like he never takes off the basketball jersey, but not necessarily the same exact getup. Shaves his legs later?
- Longer hair with ponytail is just because I’ve seen other people draw him with it and I think it’s fun.
- Aubrey has a dark phase but reintroduces color with time. Some sort of jacket+skirt combo seems to have been a mainstay for a while; the ribbon and red gloves are nearly always obligatory. Unsure if blue, especially dark blue, before the end?
- After a re-dye, hair is more purple-tinted? Also, it stays long here for recognizability but a trim wouldn’t not work.
- Hero isn’t “onscreen” too much, but when he does he’s 1) still looking familiar and 2) in the scene shown in the lineup, should visually “match” Aubrey a lot more than Kel. That particular outfit is ripped shamelessly from the November calendar art.
Overall I intentionally avoided describing appearances because it’s not super important, the thing is written and people can imagine whatever for immersion, but hey! Wanted to scribble stuff anyway.
bonus 2:
