How I Design MXTX’s Characters for My Illustrations

I've been creating and sharing fanart online for many years, but none of my previous fandom interests resulted in making as much art as I do for the Mo Xiang Tong Xiu novels. Her characters are brilliantly crafted to capture your attention and hold on to it. As an illustrative and digital artist, I've been moved and inspired by these stories and have embarked on a creative journey that holds a lot of my focus: to imagine these characters within my style, merging my favorite elements from their existing adaptations with my art style.

A solid understanding of these characters, their stories, their various depictions, and their iconography is intrinsic to designing how these characters should look and creating thoughtful, impactful Tarot illustrations. For me, this meant revisiting MXTX's novels and immersing myself in the various visual adaptations that have come from these texts – the animated series, the live-action series, the webcomics, the official illustrations, the audio dramas, and even fan creations. This deep-dive look at these characters allows me to identify nuances in these characters that make them resonate with me and other fans.

After identifying specific characters that I wanted to include in my illustrations, I began to identify particular elements I found particularly striking or symbolic of each character's essence and specific elements of their character that I wanted to be most apparent in the various illustrations in which I would include them. Those elements may be their weapon(s), accessories, fans, hairstyle, wardrobe colors, etc. These became the non-negotiables, ensuring each character remained identifiable within my style. From there, I had fun designing characteristics that emphasize the character's tone and personality.

With a clear understanding of each character's distinctive traits, the next phase was to incorporate these elements with my artistic style. This process involved playing with color palettes and hues, texture, and form in a way that was harmonious with my overall aesthetic. My goal was not to replicate the existing character designs verbatim but to interpret them harmoniously with my artistic style.

This project of reimagining MXTX's characters has been an incredibly fun challenge. It pushed me to explore the limits of my creativity and refine my artistic skills as I work to create the most impactful versions of these characters and illustrations for this Tarot Deck.