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Description
[Completed 12/2/20]

Back again with that full-body reference I promised back in "Asphodeline.JPG," hello; just wanted to tweak some colors on the original to something more accurate first. I'm afraid what I'm saying won't make any sense without the explanation laid out there, so here's a link:
www.deviantart.com/hatpin-unde…

I know I said I planned to work in reverse order when posting Discord art, but this one seems a good exception - it's actually the first I made, I think? Uncertainty aside, what I do know is that this was my first formal character concept! I'll usually go straight into a completed work of art when drawing new people, with thumbnail doodles at best, so researching and emulating what makes an effective character sheet was quite the challenge at the time. ^_^

Suppose while I'm here, I could discuss some Understudy trivia not already covered in my first posted piece?

[CHARACTER]
- Hesitant and cautiously polite on first meeting, she will shrink back and clam up if further intimidated. When befriended, she is quite sweet, more openly cheerful, and self-sacrificing for the subject of her affections.
- In the "investigation team" dynamic, she tends to keep to the background and let her fellow ghosts take initiative on how to best help the living Players. In the case she has questions or theories to share, however, she'll suddenly be much more vocal and proactive. Either way, she apologizes often, sometimes for things that might not be her fault, exactly.
- Entirely willing to perform equipment-limited experiments for further world knowledge - on the White Realm itself, the aspects and "rules" it seems to play by, and in some instances, herself (she has been talked out of that last one before). Would definitely halt any tests if they imperiled anyone else, though.
- While she is clearly aware of her postmortem nature, it's not something she's exactly embraced; among other subconscious tells, she never floats off the ground, has no apparent ghostly powers, only has physical strength to the extent of a human her size, and often expresses herself with movement related to breathing - most notably, she'll collapse into a coughing fit if surprised.
- She has learned some details of her past as the game has carried on: she was a former Player (number unknown) trapped in the same captive city as the main blog cast, was at least eighteen when she died, worked as a factory seamstress who took illegal side-jobs for favors (true money is outlawed, and citizens are forbidden to earn more than the scant handouts the government gives them), and was an unwitting pawn for the city's underground rebellion.
- Miscellaneous character quirks: she quietly mutters to herself when thinking through matters (think My Hero Academia's Izuku Midoriya), has the most unladylike scream when startled, blushes a literally luminescent pink, is quite awful at maintaining eye contact, and regularly fiddles with her braided hair.

[DESIGN]
- My initial idea I went in with when designing her was, "How do I take my normal internet persona and make it creepy, yet recognizable?" The idea that followed soon after was to heavily lean into the blog writer's wispy, silhouetted 'generic' shade design, having already learned the White Realm's "loss of identity = loss of physical form integrity'" gimmick by that point in the game.
- I decided to approach this shadowy state of being from an oversimplified "corrupted program" or "glitch" perspective, with some fantasy-influenced "partial transformation" thrown in. I'd imagine if she was rendered/animated with proper lighting, only her exposed face, hair, and accessories would be shaded properly; this shadowy "corruption" would look somewhere between a perspective-incorrect static texture and an untextured 3D model.
- When this detail was solidified - especially the shadow creeping up her face - I worried that detail would be both too fine to carry over into my usual chisel-tipped markers and too tricky to mesh with my usual semi realistic proportions. I'd really wanted to have this character sheet ready though, so instead I switched to pen and paper and tried to copy the blog's art style... to mixed success. At least I could actually draw her, though.
- Her ruffled collar was an early design choice made to help keep her form clean; it was switched out for the collar seen in "Asphodeline.JPG" when this first one proved too tricky to draw over and over. I'll admit to taking heavy inspiration from the mobile rhythm game Deemo for this one: its protagonist is a slender, shadowy creature with similarly minimalist white accessories.
- The tawny notebook icon next to her name is a shorthand we readers developed to identify each other when sending asks to the NumberSMP blog. Any posts signed off with this notebook were sent by me, for example.
- As a further point of the above, the leather-bound notebook Understudy herself carries is directly inspired by my chosen ask icon. We readers developed the concept of "impossible items:" a singular object or character-linked concept created by each reader with both a character and icon that could defy the usual laws of White Realm physics. In my character's case, the book has unlimited blank pages and will consistently open to any page she wants.

...If you read all the way down here, I uh, congratulate you? That was a lot, and you really didn't have to. Thank you. Ask more questions if you're curious? But really, that's up to you.

Description
[Completed 12/2/20]

Back again with that full-body reference I promised back in "Asphodeline.JPG," hello; just wanted to tweak some colors on the original to something more accurate first. I'm afraid what I'm saying won't make any sense without the explanation laid out there, so here's a link:
www.deviantart.com/hatpin-unde…

I know I said I planned to work in reverse order when posting Discord art, but this one seems a good exception - it's actually the first I made, I think? Uncertainty aside, what I do know is that this was my first formal character concept! I'll usually go straight into a completed work of art when drawing new people, with thumbnail doodles at best, so researching and emulating what makes an effective character sheet was quite the challenge at the time. ^_^

Suppose while I'm here, I could discuss some Understudy trivia not already covered in my first posted piece?

[CHARACTER]
- Hesitant and cautiously polite on first meeting, she will shrink back and clam up if further intimidated. When befriended, she is quite sweet, more openly cheerful, and self-sacrificing for the subject of her affections.
- In the "investigation team" dynamic, she tends to keep to the background and let her fellow ghosts take initiative on how to best help the living Players. In the case she has questions or theories to share, however, she'll suddenly be much more vocal and proactive. Either way, she apologizes often, sometimes for things that might not be her fault, exactly.
- Entirely willing to perform equipment-limited experiments for further world knowledge - on the White Realm itself, the aspects and "rules" it seems to play by, and in some instances, herself (she has been talked out of that last one before). Would definitely halt any tests if they imperiled anyone else, though.
- While she is clearly aware of her postmortem nature, it's not something she's exactly embraced; among other subconscious tells, she never floats off the ground, has no apparent ghostly powers, only has physical strength to the extent of a human her size, and often expresses herself with movement related to breathing - most notably, she'll collapse into a coughing fit if surprised.
- She has learned some details of her past as the game has carried on: she was a former Player (number unknown) trapped in the same captive city as the main blog cast, was at least eighteen when she died, worked as a factory seamstress who took illegal side-jobs for favors (true money is outlawed, and citizens are forbidden to earn more than the scant handouts the government gives them), and was an unwitting pawn for the city's underground rebellion.
- Miscellaneous character quirks: she quietly mutters to herself when thinking through matters (think My Hero Academia's Izuku Midoriya), has the most unladylike scream when startled, blushes a literally luminescent pink, is quite awful at maintaining eye contact, and regularly fiddles with her braided hair.

[DESIGN]
- My initial idea I went in with when designing her was, "How do I take my normal internet persona and make it creepy, yet recognizable?" The idea that followed soon after was to heavily lean into the blog writer's wispy, silhouetted 'generic' shade design, having already learned the White Realm's "loss of identity = loss of physical form integrity'" gimmick by that point in the game.
- I decided to approach this shadowy state of being from an oversimplified "corrupted program" or "glitch" perspective, with some fantasy-influenced "partial transformation" thrown in. I'd imagine if she was rendered/animated with proper lighting, only her exposed face, hair, and accessories would be shaded properly; this shadowy "corruption" would look somewhere between a perspective-incorrect static texture and an untextured 3D model.
- When this detail was solidified - especially the shadow creeping up her face - I worried that detail would be both too fine to carry over into my usual chisel-tipped markers and too tricky to mesh with my usual semi realistic proportions. I'd really wanted to have this character sheet ready though, so instead I switched to pen and paper and tried to copy the blog's art style... to mixed success. At least I could actually draw her, though.
- Her ruffled collar was an early design choice made to help keep her form clean; it was switched out for the collar seen in "Asphodeline.JPG" when this first one proved too tricky to draw over and over. I'll admit to taking heavy inspiration from the mobile rhythm game Deemo for this one: its protagonist is a slender, shadowy creature with similarly minimalist white accessories.
- The tawny notebook icon next to her name is a shorthand we readers developed to identify each other when sending asks to the NumberSMP blog. Any posts signed off with this notebook were sent by me, for example.
- As a further point of the above, the leather-bound notebook Understudy herself carries is directly inspired by my chosen ask icon. We readers developed the concept of "impossible items:" a singular object or character-linked concept created by each reader with both a character and icon that could defy the usual laws of White Realm physics. In my character's case, the book has unlimited blank pages and will consistently open to any page she wants.

...If you read all the way down here, I uh, congratulate you? That was a lot, and you really didn't have to. Thank you. Ask more questions if you're curious? But really, that's up to you.