Villian Mikey - Tumblr Posts

MichelAngelo from @greatlyblessed Swapverse

(aka Swap!Mikey, aka Evil Mikey, aka DJ Pain)

Full page of my desing for him!

I've been studying character design for a while, and the ones I struggle with the most are the villains.

Because, plain and simple, I don't understand what characteristics create that prejudice in the public, that they see them and instantly say "okay, that's the bad guy".

So I thought: I need less pressure, make drawing fun again!... Let's practice with our favorite franchise! The ninja turtles.

And that's where I found A Mixed Bag and the Swap Turtles

"The Alignment-Swap Universe (or, Swapverse) is an original turtle 'verse in which pretty much all character's alignment is swapped. So the TMNT of this universe are evil, whereas Shredder and Krang are good guys out to stop them from menacing the citizens of New York."

I just LOVE Mikey's characterization in this universe. He is so unintimidating and so dangerous.

Mikey was my first choice because, truth be told, I was intrigued by the kind of villain he is. The kid is an entity of chaos trapped in the body of a turtle, I don't know what the hell he's capable of and that terrifies me to no end but he's so charismatic. I just love every dialogue of him.

And the appearance of someone like that was a challenge…

Shit, fuck, damn… I love a good challenge

I took Halloween pumpkins, Harley Quinn's classic look and put them in a blender with a teenage skater whose brain plays music 24/7. AND BAM! Swap Mikey's look.

Some details:

The forked tongue is in honor of the Dark Turtles from 2003, the first evil turtles I met, Mikey's counterpart had this long chameleon tongue and I wanted to give something similar to my boy.

The stop sign and danger tape are to represent hes nature as the team's "wild card" and along with the triangles throughout the design express danger.

The few circles are to give an illusion of tenderness and softness. Yk, because he's the heart

(What else?)

He has a pendant that was going to be two M's but in the end I reduced it to just one

The smile scar was originally going to be one side only

Those colored balls are actually bombs

He has star stickers