So I have started a project where I put all my Original Characters that I've ever had Ever on strips of paper in one jar. From there, occasionally I will draw out a slip and draw the characgter, reflecting on their history, their design, their story. Kind of just deciding if I can reincorperate some of the ideas I had going, maybe where I'm at if they're a current OC, what went through my mind as I was creating them, etc. I also think it's a lovely gift to my younger self to be drawing art of my old ocs, because MANY of these were created before I could even draw! I put abridged versions of these stories up on cohost, and will put longer more thoughtful reflections here! Without further ado, here's the first one!
Matty was named Mattias originally and was a cis man, but I changed her gender to bigender sometime when I was adapting their characters to be part of The Essembly, a comic I started writing with a friend (Hi Casper!). During that transition time, Matty got more of a presence in terms of the story. In the vigilante Assassin story, he was just Ryder's partner who went on missions with her and was kind of inconsequential to any storytelling. He originally had slicked back hair and was lanky and kind of just a quiet nerd. Matty in Essembly was given a role that I don't think I ever talked about publicly. She was an end-of-story bad guy, however more of a very unfortunate pawn that was manipulated.
I wanted to keep the same unassuming nerdy design cue that I had when I originally came up with Mattias when redesigning Matty. I gave him a very plain color scheme that contrasted with some of the other characters that had bold contrasts and fun colors (Ryder with bright red hair, or Atlas with a white mohawk and dark skin, etc). Matty has tan skin, and tan hair, and wears all black frumpy clothes. He has his hair pulled back with a headband, which is kind of another bit of frump detail, as if he doesn't know how to style it, or doesn't care to. It's utilitarian, and not decorative.
There's not a lot I would probably change about the design of this character if I brought her back for anything. I think I would maybe spend a lot more time on actual character development, personality and backstory. I never really got into depth of where she came from, or why she's bigender, or why she has a panic disorder, etc. I think I'd like to explore a lot of that a lot more.
Here's one of my original reference images for when I rebooted Matty for the Essembly. This is kind of based off a drawing Casper did for me:
