character design
for the last say… 5 or 6 years i have had my OC “the witch hazel.” she’s a tall, hazel eyed and purple haired witch. if you couldn’t tell, her name is a play on witch hazel that is used for first aid. i’ve had her in my head for ages, with many ideas as to what to do with her. i’m the first to admit my failures over my long art career, and hazel has been with me through a lot of them! i’ve thought of many different stories for her, in comics, mangas, or even video games. originally i had planned to make her the main character for spellbound, but we’ve gone another direction so far as a main character.
to the left you can see one of my first digital paintings of hazel! unfortunately i didn’t sign the year, but this one is from 2019. she was still a concept at the time, and i was still getting to know her. not that much of her image has changed. however, i go back and forth on whether she should be missing an eye. that’s more to do with one of her original stories, hence why she isn’t always drawn missing one of her eyes!
hazel’s look continued to change over the years when i had the idea to make her the main character of spellbound. it’s more of a soft, cozy and cute vibe. this is still roughly the style i’ll be going for when it comes to game art, marketing, and all that. but she even has her own pixel sprite! i’ve decided to make her my sprite. our players will be able to have custom sprites when they play, so she’s mine!
pixel art evolution
2021
2022
2023
for a few years there, i was on and off working on the video game. it wasn’t until last year when i restarted from the ground up i began to really get serious. you can see hazel has been through some rough patches, but she’s looking better than ever with the 2023 update! the game was always intended to be an isometric point and click, but as you can see in 2021, the art didn’t quite get that memo. the 2021 sprite would work better in a 2D platformer.
hazel is my ride or die OC though. love her, and can’t wait to see what adventures we have together in the future! maybe one day she will find her place in one of my creations.
