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Nerfuffle — Sonic Redesign- Maria

Published: 2012-09-20 03:20:43 +0000 UTC; Views: 35085; Favourites: 700; Downloads: 145
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Description I really wanted to learn more about character design. The idea of re-imagining the Sonic cast intrigued me because it seemed to present a lot of fun and interesting challenges.
Not only did I find that the franchise had a lot of cool, weird concepts to work with, like “ purple kitty pyro queen” or “evil shape shifter”, but there was the issue of creating a sense balance and diversity between the characters as a whole.

For reasons unknown to my self I kept adding to the project. Earlier drawings were more zany, illustrative and experimental and later versions were softer and three dimensional.
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Maria Robotnik- Eggman's terminally ill cousin.

While she was alive I'd imagine that she'd be somewhat depressed. Near death, cooped up in a laboratory in space, and she seemed to have been surrounded by martyrs trying to extend her life expectancy at the cost of their own morals.

At the time I recall I was criticizing Anime’s tendency to make ill characters look as photogenic and aesthetic as possible to invoke sympathy. I don’t think this would always be necessary since the fact they are sick should be enough to feel sorry for them.

The big challenge for me was to make her look deathly ill yet still appear to be a 12 year old girl and not a poorly drawn old woman.
Her hair is thinned out, suggesting that she hasn’t been healthy for a long time and to make it so she looks malnourished as opposed to “cartoony skinny” her wrists and ankles are very bony. She also drags a blanket everywhere like a girl with a cold does.
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Comments: 49

JGist [2023-01-16 15:27:26 +0000 UTC]

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superuk In reply to JGist [2023-01-17 06:57:59 +0000 UTC]

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Austin7613 In reply to superuk [2023-04-26 03:18:18 +0000 UTC]

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superuk In reply to Austin7613 [2023-04-27 06:48:50 +0000 UTC]

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Austin7613 In reply to superuk [2023-04-27 16:21:14 +0000 UTC]

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superuk In reply to Austin7613 [2023-04-27 16:26:34 +0000 UTC]

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Austin7613 [2022-11-27 05:09:31 +0000 UTC]

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bananamarioslamma234 [2020-01-07 02:32:43 +0000 UTC]

Poor Maria, I wish she would be okay. ㅠㅠ
Good art though.

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Nanyalan [2019-03-07 23:06:02 +0000 UTC]

this redesign looks amazing. I'm totally in love with it. You totally nailed it!!

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Burksaurus [2019-01-22 13:37:06 +0000 UTC]

Hidden by Commenter

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Cervain In reply to Burksaurus [2022-05-03 18:02:45 +0000 UTC]

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Burksaurus In reply to Cervain [2022-05-03 18:06:53 +0000 UTC]

Hidden by Commenter

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Cervain In reply to Burksaurus [2022-05-03 22:11:44 +0000 UTC]

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warahi In reply to Burksaurus [2020-12-01 19:20:39 +0000 UTC]

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Grimbunny1 [2019-01-06 21:35:13 +0000 UTC]

THANK YOU FOR DOING THIS! This has bothered me so much as of late! Working on my own redesign of Maria atm, but yours already exceeds my own! Great work!

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rosemarysketchbook [2018-03-15 23:17:01 +0000 UTC]

amazing! very thoughtful design. i like your style and designs more than most of the original stuff to be honest. it's less odd.

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Lisanerd [2018-02-04 11:53:56 +0000 UTC]

i crei

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SMDKFan [2017-12-05 12:47:29 +0000 UTC]

i guess the only light in her life where her family and friends, especially Shadow.

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SonicGirlDreamer [2017-11-01 03:07:02 +0000 UTC]

This is super well-done! I love your style!!! 

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I-am-Evil-Tree [2016-03-01 10:07:34 +0000 UTC]

I've seen a lot of cool Sonic redesigns out there but this is the first depressing one I've seen, and it is amazing.
Great work on balancing her looks, she looks exactly like a sickly girl should look without becoming too old looking or painful to look at. This would have gotten so much more sympathy than canon Maria, and she already had a lot going for her.
I can totally see her dragging her pillow around in her pyjamas on the Arc after waking from a nightmare and Shadow feeling good for every smile he can get out of her.
Makes me think that that smiling healthy girl seen in Shadow's flashbacks is only how he chooses to remember her, full of life and colour when she was around him but quickly fading when he wasn't.

Thanks for making me 9000% more sad knowing she died.
Have to check out your other redesigns soon

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GalacticJewels [2015-05-07 00:21:13 +0000 UTC]

Aww, she looks so sickly :C

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RoyalKnightV [2015-01-22 21:12:07 +0000 UTC]

Very good, less Auschwitz-y. 

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DoTheDinosaur24 [2014-12-19 10:23:11 +0000 UTC]

I like how u actually made her look ill

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Thelovablecynic [2014-12-16 17:52:24 +0000 UTC]

I love your designs, especially this one. The original Maria design was ok, but she looked way to photogenic to be terminally ill. Your version of Maria is fantastic she looks like such a sweet sad girl I just want to hug her. I also like the little touches like the drooping bow in her hair and the star and moon on her nightgown.

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RainbowCure [2014-11-13 09:56:22 +0000 UTC]

This is how I feel most days: Death warmed over.

I'm currently suffering from a neurological disorder, so her diagnosis as being affected by the (fictional) NIDS (Neuro-Immune Deficiency Syndrome), her brain essentially is messing with her health. So you're spot on.

My health has not be the best and I'm on the well-overfed end of sick but not to the point of ridicule (I describe myself as "stacked" and "cuddleworthy" to my prospective gentleman callers. Everyone need loves, even those who are sick on either extreme).

However, your interpretation is just one example of how you can re-imagine a human with illness without going too grim.

Art is meant to be an expression of your true ideas and emotions in that you have your say without persecution that people are saying you're no good. Art is meant to be subjective, but having a definitive style does help.

I gauge you as semi-caricaturistic. It is a good thing I see you work within a guideline. Me? I flout guidelines when possible.

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Void-Wolf [2014-11-12 01:40:47 +0000 UTC]

Well, alot of people with threatening people could look normal. Take for instance people with HIV. Also, Maria's disease was neurological so while she wouldn't look like a pale little girl, she could be seen as compound to a wheelchair or something. Then again, Neuro-Immune Deficiency Syndrome had something to do with the immune system.

Interesting concwpt though

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vovan1 In reply to Void-Wolf [2016-10-20 11:01:24 +0000 UTC]

I think NIDS is much like AIDS, except it also slowly deteriorates neural system. At the final stages of this illness, patient is basically in a vegetable state, because it's neural system became just a bunch of a disorganised neural clusters, not counting that immune system ceased to be long ago. Death will some from either external illnesses or from the basic live functions (breathing, heart's beating) cessation, because there are no operating neurons to "order" these organs to work.

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Void-Wolf In reply to vovan1 [2016-10-20 16:46:25 +0000 UTC]

Yeah though that doesn't mean you'd like sickly and falling to pieces. Furthermore, Maria is on the ARK to be cared for and to search for a cure for her condition.

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vovan1 In reply to Void-Wolf [2016-10-20 19:04:25 +0000 UTC]

I agree with you, I've just wrote down my thoughts about what NIDS is. It is possible that the "Neuro" part of Neuro-Immune Deficiency Syndrome was somehow temporarily suppressed in the Maria's case, however, it was only a half-measure, which would've not lasted forever, so, Gerald was trying to find a full cure for it.

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BUGHS-22 [2014-09-19 11:13:29 +0000 UTC]

XDD LOL

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zigaudrey [2014-08-16 18:01:33 +0000 UTC]

Aaw...Maybe Shadow will cheer her up...

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InkBottleInc [2014-02-08 22:53:22 +0000 UTC]

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. See, when you design characters like THIS you do feel bad when they die. Okay, not saying that it wasn't bad when Maria died but honestly, her design was kind of generic to me, mostly because mixing too realistic looking humans in Sonic's world does not work at all for me. I'm a person who is behind 100% when humans are exagerated and cartoony as well in Sonic's world because then it makes sense.

Creepy, sickly but all around sympathetic Maria makes you feel for her more, even in the short time we see her. We see that she is sick and that she is suffering but in that time, we HOPE that she gets that one bit of happiness she wanted before she dies. And it makes her relationship with Shadow all the more painful. The two form a bound, Shadow may or MAY NOT know what's wrong with Maria but when he sees her die in front of her, its just too much. He already knows that she is suffering from something and then to be taken out in such a heartless way makes sense as to why he's so pissed off all the time.

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HeroOfHeartJill [2013-12-12 17:51:38 +0000 UTC]

I really like the design you did for Maria, and again, I REALLY like how much you considered when designing her. I mean, I kinda felt sympathy...sorta...maybe...toward SEGA's version, but here, it just tugs at my heart strings. And she LOOKS LIKE SHE'S 12. I keep thinking that the Maria in the games is somehow much older, or, at least that's how people seem to draw her.


There's lots of different 'fragile' out there that can be explored, and I think this is the kind of 'fragile' Maria should have been.


Heck, the flashbacks for Shadow should've been seeing this poor child in a bed, talking to her to keep her company, and eventually helping her out of bed to look through that window at the world. THAT would've been a tear jerker for me as young as I was when I first experienced the game.

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Team-Friction In reply to HeroOfHeartJill [2014-11-11 22:18:02 +0000 UTC]

Oh god. I'd have reason to sympathise with Shadow in that case. He had no character at all before she died; it was never explored or built upon. To have him be such a caring, compassionate creature before his closest and probably only friend was taken away from him...

That would have been (done before, but) righteously tragic.

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Hexidextrous [2013-12-02 21:03:03 +0000 UTC]

This does look good for Maria, though if she were on Space Colony ARK, being worked on to extend her life expectancy, I'd expect her to be wearing a hospital gown instead of pajamas, and perhaps her having wearing a Vitals Monitoring System to make sure she's not on the verge of death or anything. Perhaps she could be using a crutch or a wheelchair too.

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Frankyding90 [2013-11-04 19:38:31 +0000 UTC]

Beautiful work... Just beautiful!

 

I love the way you analyzed this character, all of the characters in general! You really have some incredible redesigns of the Sonic verse, they look so great and thorough! Very original design if I may say so myself. Your artwork is really inspiring in general. : )

 

I think you're completely right about what you're saying in the description: Deadly ill characters always look like beautiful super models in animes... I don't get deadly ill out of Maria's original design at all, I might get that the character is fragile and helpless, but if the intention was to get the audience to sympathize with her as a deadly ill little girl, then Maria should be portrayed with a design more like this... THIS girl is a deadly ill 12 year-old, and to me this design reads a lot clearer and stronger than her original design and expresses much more emotion. You feel strongly for this girl and want to help her regain happiness.

 

Beautifully done! I love it :')

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Nerfuffle In reply to Frankyding90 [2013-11-10 03:02:59 +0000 UTC]

Thank you so much for such a wonderful response,

such generous comments like these make my ocd project worthwhile

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Frankyding90 In reply to Nerfuffle [2013-11-11 17:55:00 +0000 UTC]

Anytime! I can only hope and look forward to see more of your redesigns ^__^

Good luck on your project and please keep up the great work ; )

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AmrasFelagund [2013-10-31 14:18:48 +0000 UTC]

Such a melancholy redesign. Considering her backstory, and the reason she was quarantined on the ARK, I'm shocked that Sega didn't go this route with her look. I mean, that was in Sonic's darker days, wasn't it?

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Team-Friction In reply to AmrasFelagund [2014-11-11 22:14:11 +0000 UTC]

Given they went ahead and blew the poor girl away, I'd say so.

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todpole [2013-10-02 14:18:43 +0000 UTC]

This is a really good design of Maria. I can just picture her and Shadow looking out into space together. Just looking at this picture is a sad sight

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thesoniczone11 [2013-03-05 22:20:18 +0000 UTC]

Maria's disease was something called "NIDS", I think it stood for Nuero-Immu-something-Deficiency Syndrome or something.

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Nerfuffle In reply to thesoniczone11 [2013-03-06 00:38:04 +0000 UTC]

Yep, it’s the same as AIDS except “acquired” is replaced with “neuro”. Probably the reason why a relatively large plot point was kept mum.

As if the name could be any less awkward, supposedly there is a “real” NIDS that “appeared” some time after SA2 came out. Though that NIDS is based off of a theory about a virus attacking the brains of infants and causing various mental disabilities like autism and the D stands for dysfunction instead of deficiency.

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thesoniczone11 In reply to Nerfuffle [2013-03-06 00:58:30 +0000 UTC]

And I think the fact she has NIDS is also the reason she doesn't LOOK like super ill.

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Nerfuffle In reply to thesoniczone11 [2013-03-06 01:55:21 +0000 UTC]

If you want to go with a straight transition of “Maria should look like how someone with AIDS does.”

I still took this direction for this interpretation as she’s still in an environment that has little to no treatment for a fictional illness and presumably doesn’t have a lot of time left.

She’s supposed to be a character you feel sympathy for and most writers seem to have little to no interest in explaining why she’s stuck in a space station outside of manuals, or why Shadow or her grandfather seem to have this illogical desire to grant her last wish.

I don’t believe a character has to look cute for a viewer to feel sorry for them.

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TitraArts [2012-12-08 20:32:10 +0000 UTC]

You should make designs of Cosmo, the Metarex, Marine, and Eggman himself.

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NatariSaru [2012-09-21 21:53:55 +0000 UTC]

This redesign makes so much sense! Nice job!

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aarn [2012-09-20 23:42:15 +0000 UTC]

Yea, the grean is a little much...making her that this is a teporare sickness. Without the green we get the picture that something is wrong. I suppose you added the green to show she was sick and not destitute.

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Nerfuffle In reply to aarn [2012-09-21 00:17:02 +0000 UTC]

In retrospect I think it was one of those cartoony exaggerations that breaks the suspension of disbelief. I think I had pre flesh tone mastery medieval paintings or Madame X on the mind or something.

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14-Spades [2012-09-20 03:53:30 +0000 UTC]

I'm a bit new to the Sonic series, so what I know about Maria is a little sketchy. However, I think I know enough to give this a critique.

Maria seems to fit in with the series's aesthetic a lot better then the anime one. From what I hear, Sonic's design is a descendant of Felix the cat. A more westernish style fits a lot better next to a fuzzy blue hedgehog and a big egg shaped dude. That

Se does look a lot more sickly then the old one, but I think it just needs something. The green hue makes her looks like a tummy ache in my opinion; but the wrinkles, loose clothes, and scraggy hair fit very well. I think it needs something more to make her look like she is actually twelve. Maybe a teddy bear or a heart shape on her pajamas or something. Think about something a charity would give her for make a wish. This might go into nit picking, but she might look good with a machine or IV next to her to demonstrate what all these scientists have done to her.

Sorry if I'm a bit pushy, but I think this is still a very fabulous design.

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