Human Mikey - Blog Posts

I said I would post the boys' casual clothing later, and, well, it's later! Sometimes they keep little elements of their gis on them (makes it easier to change anyways), like all four typically wear their tabi instead of like, sneakers, or whatever. Or they may use their elbow and knee pads when skateboarding instead of getting other ones from the store, because they still serve the same purpose and it saves money. (Raph in particular will often wear his bandanna outside of the gi, though all four have done so for separate reasons) Aside from that though, they usually just look like average teens XD

It occurred to me that aside from Miwa herself I haven't posted what any of the main characters from the Miwa AU look like. SO here are our human boys in their gis. They do not wear these 24/7 since they're actually human and can go out and do stuff but if they were walking around like this everyone would either think they're constantly cosplaying some obscure thing for some reason, or they'd just keep ending up in jail, because Leo carries around Very Sharp Swords.

I will post their casual clothing later but in the meantime, you guys get this! :D

I feel like I sometimes overdo it with my digital art, so I did an experiment with a sketch of human!Mikey. I made a detailed color piece, a simplified color piece, and a black and white piece from the same sketch and compared them. I ended up using a new brush that I like way better for the lineart for all 3 of them, too. That worked out very well.

All in all, I think I prefer the black and white drawing the best. I love color and I’m so attached to his orange tips, but at the end of the day, black and white is a more striking look for my artstyle and is WAY easier to produce. 

I think moving forward I’ll stick with black and white for the most part, but I’d love to hear from you guys what you like best!

(ETA: it occurred to me that I can have orange tips and still do a mostly black and white drawing. Doy. So I went back and gave him some.)

Finished human!Mikey.

Michelangelo "Mikey" Hamato. 14. Japanese/Black American. This project was the very definition of "trust the process." From the beginning I struggled with this piece and I almost gave up and started over many times, but I'm so glad I stuck with it. I love this piece! His orange tips, the jewelry, the jacket. I'm in love with all the little details. For example, Mikey's customized his amulet (of course) with color tributes to each of his brothers. And I see Mikey as a face sticker-wearer, yeah?