Zenescope – Sweater Edition Part 2
Nataliya the Witch (I think)
“I think” because she looks completely different every time she’s drawn. Doing a quick Google search, I found the following:
Cue the confused Funky Kong noises.
Based on the crown and sometimes the nose ring, let’s assume this is her. So, her backstory is that she’s a Romani witch, I guess. The comic synopsis blurb on the Zenescope website uses a different word, ~ guess which one it is. ~ ? I did not know about this “backstory” when I was doing the redesign, which means it doesn’t exist anymore. Yay!
My version is a smarmy doesn’t-talk-much-unless-it’s-to-insult-you gal.
She’s got like 18 accents she switches between depending on who she’s talking to. Whenever someone asks her where she’s from (probably cause of an accent), she gives a different answer. Her motivation is to get out from her service to the Tarot, and her relationship with them has this undercurrent of bare minimum tolerance. She doesn’t even like the main character dude, but she helps him undermine the Tarot for her own reasons. She’s probably a lesbian, and her character arc involves her learning to work together with others and maybe warming to the idea of coffee dates.
Now for the actual design. I did try to fix her body as much as I could in the time we had. I decided to give her a more edgy sweater to match the face changes I did, because I just couldn’t stand that makeup and TEENY NOSE. What is this, a nose for ants?? I ended up giving her some whiskers, cause sometimes a girl has a ‘stache (I personally remove mine), and it just looked nice with her face shape.
I also included the bra straps since the sweater wouldn’t be able to cover them, and you don’t want to chafe your nips. If this fantasy universe can have whatever the hell is the original version, it can have bras.
I really do like this bad girl look I ended up giving her, considering I have not even an iota of a clue, of what the original design was supposed to convey (besides maybe an Elektra ripoff, in the comic itself). I think Ozzie suggested the final touch of the middle finger, aimed squarely at Zenescope. ?
-Icy
Zenescope – Sweater Edition Part 1
Right around Halloween last year we decided to fix up some poor Zenescope comic heroines with Autumn-appropriate sweaters, similarly as we did with Applibot ladies before.
Wicked Witch of the West
In case this wasn’t clear from this old bingo, we hate what Zenescope’s Grimm Fairy Tales franchise did to Oz characters, especially the Wicked Witch of the West. Attempts at reinventing this villainess since the 1939 movie were hit and miss (mostly miss), but this one is easily the laziest and most insulting one.
What the hell was the thought process behind the outfit is beyond human or Munchkin comprehension. I refuse to believe that evil magic is what keeps this thing on her body. It’s just too nonsensical.
Thankfully, with the sweater theme I didn’t have to reinvent the costume from scratch, just throw something comfy on top. I went with a loose turtleneck tunic, matching in color the inside of her cape and her hat’s detailing. I didn’t fix anything about her pose, but she did get pants/tights that match her gloves.
Thing I noticed rather soon was that after covering all the gratuitous flesh she became a blob in various shapes of purple, especially since her hair blended with the hat and cape. I figured that if her skin isn’t supposed to be green, then at least her hair can be, both for contrast and to match the overall image’s composition better.
I didn’t remember it while editing, but other images of the Witch we had on the blog actually did sport very dark green hair, along with sickly pale greyish skin. Whoever changed the color scheme for that particular cover made a mistake and stripped the character of the last bit of distinctness.
Very casual redesign overall, and while much less detailed than the rest of the image, I’m rather happy with the improved color scheme and the shading I did to match the cape. Hope you like it too.
~Ozzie
Mortal Kombat Post-11 Sexy Fix, Part 2
Sub-Zero, the Blue PecNinja
As my name might imply (it’s subtle, I know), I love me some icy bois. And who better to give an empowered cold-weather outfit than Sub-Zero himself!
Basically, I just used what he already had on, except I took away…. most of it. He looks so much more comfortable now though. I did take some inspiration from MK9, for that corset look. Of course, Sub-Zero is a bit more conservative in his dress than Scorpion, so he covers his nips.
I also changed his mask, face, and hair. The mask I made more sensual, so that people he’s fighting are distracted no matter if they look at his Hot Bod, or his face. I also removed his face wrinkles, because we can’t have men be wrinkly. Gross. And I let his hair down to give him that mysterious look. I can just see his entrance being like, flipping his bangs and flexing his pecs, with little snowflakes popping out from the cleavage. ???
At the time we streamed this, I couldn’t find a good full-body picture of him, so I had to do with this hips-up one. I did take his pants away, and gave him a bubble butt, but feel free to add your ideas for what he’d wear on his leggies.
-Icy
Mortal Kombat Post-11 Sexy Fix, Part 1
Since “real fans” demanded for Mortal Kombat 11 to bring back the sexyness, we decided to succumb to the demands and fix some disappointingly unsexy characters.
If women in martial arts games are titninjas, it only stands to reason that male equivalent is a pecninja, right?
Scorpion the Yellow Pecninja
This design was surprisingly generous in showing us his oblique muscles and a tasteful sideboob sidepeck, so I had something to work of off! I reduced the top only to two strips of cloth forming a V and definitely-not-useless pauldrons that don’t even reach his lovingly rendered biceps now. And, of course, the male-presenting nipples clearly on display!
Since I went for the aesthetic that female characters sported for the last couple MK games, he ended up with long, laced stockings and arm warmers. Also obligatory zero pants.
The shoes are stolen from this edgelordy Mileena concept art from MKX, which we bingo’d before.
The last fix was, of course, giving Scorpion an attractive face. Since the hood concealed most of his head, the look had to be redone from scratch. I went with Icy’s suggestion of stylish wolf’s tail as a hairstyle and paired it up with bold eye makeup, to give him a striking gaze.
I’m quite happy with the result and how much of his original costume’s silhouette and color scheme I managed to preserve.
Let’s hope this satisfies the boner culture ?
~Ozzie
See also: Havik, the Pink Pecninja by @judgmentfist
Mortal Kombat Pre-11 Fix, Part 2
Mileena, the Pink Titninja
Welp, I struggled with this one. This is Mileena, an evil (?) clone of Kitana, a princess of some place, which was then conquered and absorbed into another place, and thus adopted by the warmonger who conquered her initial homeland, becoming the princess of the imperialist land. Was that confusing? Don’t worry about it, it doesn’t play into either of the ladies’ designs in MK9.
The main takeaway is that, because of the cloning thing, she has monster teeth, hence the mask. That’s about all the “personality” we get out of this particular design.
Step 0 for this stream was to fix her poor spine, which is why her legs are shorter in the redraw.
For the actual redesign, I decided to take inspiration from MK11′s male designs, and use references of samurai and, later, ninja. I also thought it would be cool to give her an oni mask, as an act of rebellion. Like, she hides her scary teeth because “she has to,” but it’s with a mask that has the same teeth on it. (I also changed her face a bit, and took her eyeshadow away.)
I tried to give her slightly more variation in her (awful) color scheme, too. I made black the main color, with pink and white as accents. I gave her a combination samurai/ninja outfit, cause she seems like the “strike from the shadows” type, from what I read about her backstory. I initially had different ideas, but we all know by now how well those work out.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with it. I inserted the white shirt to break up the black shaped, but I’m still not a huge fan of how it looks. And yet, I feel like I put more thought and effort into my concept than the original artist.
-Icy
PS – The lack of shading in the black of the outfit is on purpose.
Mortal Kombat Pre-11 Fix, Part 1
This particular stream was inspired by the fact that Mortal Kombat waited until game 11 to take even a step back from portraying its women as progressively draftier titninjas.
We concluded that while we generally enjoy the official fixes many female characters got in MK11, we could look into the worst designs from earlier games and put our own spin on them.
Skarlet, the Red Titninja
content warning: blood mention
Since all MK ninja ladies are color-coded, of course the red one turned out to be a vampire master of blood magic. And, of course, when you mention anything about her original outfit design, the furious fappers Capital G Gamers would insist that her skin needs to be exposed, so that she can absorb blood of her defeated enemies through her skin, for power. Very valid, totally not contrived reason for oversexualized costume! Poor MK11!Skarlet, she will starve!
[sidenote: googling for image comparison of the two designs without coming across anti-SJW whining and islamophobic memes is downright impossible]
So, on to my own fix of MK9!Skarlet. Her original aesthetic was basically just “tiddy and ass out, with random ninja bits”, so I tried committing better to the ninja aesthetic. Plus much poofier pants, to stay on brand ?
Extending her top made it blend in with facial covering and with her red hair, so I had to reverse the mask’s colors for proper contrast. It looks so much better in dark gray.
Pro tip: bare skin shouldn’t substitute for color and shape breaks in costume design.
I don’t even know why someone thought that wearing arm guards straight on bare skin was a good look. Adding long fingerless gloves under them makes both for practical padding and matches the shoes, especially after I converted them from knee-reaching high heels into toeless stockings.
Other minor fixes: short hair, so that ponytail doesn’t get in the way, torso girth that would fit internal organs inside, a hint of red tint in her eye.
Also, while you can’t see her kunai arsenal anymore, I assure you she’s no longer storing unsheathed sharp knives in a way that stabs her leg. That would be dangerous even if ninjas didn’t dip their blades in poison and/or excrement! ?
I am really proud of the color- and shape-breaking in this design. I think it’s as decent job as could be done without completely rehashing her look, like MK11 did. One of my rougher fixes, painting technique-wise, but it has some aesthetic appeal. Hope you enjoy it too!
~Ozzie
