Breathing new life into an old project

Sometimes I hate looking at old work. I'm beginning to think there are reasons why certain artists don't like to revisit it. One tweak leads to another and another, and before you even realize it you've changed almost everything about it.

Well, that's kind of where I'm at currently.

I came across a project that I had really wanted to do while at school, but ended up having to pitch it because I wouldn't finish it on time. At least, not at the level I wanted (senior year and all that). Initially I thought that since I had all my preliminaries done I could just jump right in and start running some tests, but after not seeing for almost 2 years, I noticed lots of things that could (or needed) to be altered.

So I'm revisiting every aspect about this project. Because of this, I need your guys' help.

I need some serious critiquing on several aspects of this project. Are these characters convincing? Does their appearance resemble the personality I'm trying to achieve based on the description? I don't expect many really to know where the origins of the story came from, but I would like to have some thing to tie in to their corresponding gods besides their personalities, so I'm playing with color as well. Any kind of observations you can provide me would be awesome. I think this has a lot of potential to be something really fantastic and I want to have the best finished product achievable. But I won't draw a single frame until everything about this, the story, the characters, all the stuff that may never see the light of day, is convincing and as great as it can be.

The story itself is set to be a high school drama loosely based on a Japanese creation myth.
here's a shortened version of the original and here's a prettier, longer version. Unfortunately, neither of these match the original story I got it from (all my books about it are in storage) but these are a close fit, at least to get the gist of the story about.

So I guess I should bring out some of these sketches right?

This is Ukemochi:

In most of these, she's seen with glasses, but that's because her original character design has her with
them.

First attempt at face and body shapes to make sure all of them look different.

Initial gestures, trying to get a feel for her outward character.

Here though, she's shown without them, to see her expressions clearly and to kind of see what she looks like without them in the first place, lol!

concepts for her school outfit. More muted earthy tones (save for one or two on there)

This girl is an amazing chef. That's where she really shines, what she's totally passionate about. She loves how it brings people together. To try new things, for comfort, to relax and let their guard down and have a great meal. For her, food is the best weapon for bad days, first impressions, thank-you's, awkward silences...pretty much everything.

Thing is no one really knows about it. She's super shy, hides behind her hair and her glasses (although I'm quite torn with them; she looks nice with or w/o them) doesn't say much if anything at all to anyone. Most people don't like her, but we're really not quite sure why. It's one of those clique things I guess; she's not made of money, not fru-fru about everything in life, not superficial or vain like many in the school can be. There is however, one person that she confides in and opens up to.

That person is Amaterasu:

Hair ideas. Trying for something simple, but still fashionable. Is that even possible? LOL!

Concepts for her school outfit. Not sure which one I like the best.

In the who's who of rank and status, she's the first on everyone's list. She's very much involved with different student activities and events, often taking the lead of many at once. A stickler for academia, her record's damn near stellar, the epitome of a model student. Add to that her ridiculous wealth and connections through her father and you've got one hell of an elite, making her admired and sought after from anyone and everyone on and off school grounds.

Despite all the fawning though, she's never been one to flaunt her status in anyone's face. In fact, she's super humble about it. She friendly with everyone she's come across, always willing to help however she can. She is quite reserved though. While she downplays her position, she's not blind to the reality of it, or that many don't want to befriend her so much as wanting to use her status to help their own.

There's also the issue of keeping appearances, making sure no one is aware of her own burdens, like her crumbling family, her father that's never around, leaving her to raise her brothers Susano-wo and Tsukuyomi (for this story though, it's only the latter) that are bloated with entitlement. Because of this, she keeps many of her peers at arms length. The only person she's ever been able to let her guard down with, completely and totally has been Ukemochi. This bothers Tsukuyomi immensely.


This is what I've got so far. Once I've got a decision on the hairstyle I can work on an expression sheet for her. I'm working on Tsukuyomi as we speak and can't wait to get him done up. I think he's gonna be my most challenging. I can't wait!

To all that have already put in your two cents, thank you so very much for the thoughtful input. You have no idea how much this is helping me right now and I cannot thank you enough for taking time out of your day to help me out!