Mystic Square 25th Anniversary

Hello everyone, happy 25th anniversary of Mystic Square!!

Whew... This was one hell of an experience to draw. I never sat down and drew this much for so many days in a row ever before in my life. Usually from morning to night as well. I'm really exhausted for now, but I've also had a ton of fun drawing.

In this post I'd like to share my thoughts and similar I had while drawing. I hope you're at least a little interested! 🤏

At first, I only wanted to make a size comparison chart, and finish the one I had started back in June (See: https://www.patreon.com/posts/wip-mystic-dong-85100348?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link )

However, I was really worried I would even be able to do it, because I have been really depressed for various reasons. A huge part of my self doubt was also that whenever I tried to draw Shinki for the past few months, I could never finish her or draw anything satisfactory. I always felt guilt and dread when I was trying to draw her, for a lot of various reasons that I cannot talk about publicly. Which made me think it was better to just quit and run away from being an artist.

But this time I wanted to push through. There was something I really wanted to see through this time and I had a clear goal and deadline in mind: The 25th anniversary of Mystic.

Back in June I've only drawn half bodies of the characters, and I didn't think I was going to change anything about that either. However, when I saw @gumigumi_guumin always manage to draw pretty full bodies of all the characters and getting to Mystic Square soon, I didn't want to be outdone. I started to change my plan and drew full bodies one by one. It helped me learn a lot about anatomy in the end too, so I'm really glad I went with this decision.

Sara

She was the first one I started to draw. Her design is fairly simple, and straightforward. I went with this pose since she does something similar in her little portrait. I have mentioned it a lot before, but me drawing Sara without shoes is not because I have a foot fetish or anything of the sort, she really has none!

You can see that in her little dancing animation. Since she was this early in the works, she didn't receive any fancy background either. At first I wanted to make a background of this caliber for everyone, but then things happened (Alice) and it got a little out of hand... Anyway. I went with a few rocks around her, since it seems like Stage 1 takes mostly place inside a cave. She's even got a few rocks around her in the boss battle.

I think she ended up really cute, I wish more people would appreciate her. I like her dialogue and dance in the game.

Louise

Louise is a similar case to Sara. She's usually got her eyes closed, but she's also got a really cool wink expression. So I went with that one! I also associate her with this 'single raised arm' pose, probably because of TPDP...

Also just like Sara she got no shoes. It's right there, see?

I added the little comets from her stage since I really like the idea of having those be thrown as stage enemies. The Windows-era games are lacking a little bit in enemy variety compared to the old games.. It's incredible how many different types of enemies used to be present. All of them seem to have vanished now!

In addition to the little comets I added a few starts behind her, since they appear in the background for her boss battle. That's all really... I also drew her quite a lot taller than Sara, but there isn't any specific reason for it.

Alice

Ahhh here we are... You little brat... All of these backgrounds are entirely your fault...💢💢

As I mentioned earlier, I only wanted to draw very simple backgrounds at first. The reason for that was so I could spend the leftover time to draw a second artwork for Shinki, which wouldn't just be a full body artwork with a background, but instead a fully fledged illustration.  (At this point Shinki's drawing had not been finalized yet)

But be it as it may, I got way too much into drawing the background. Who knew that drawing architecture (when it's not on an absurdly large canvas) could be this much fun? I'm glad I took lessons on architecture history before, it made it a little easier to get a feeling for the buildings.

You've probably noticed the little sign to her side, it says "Romantic Children" there. That's actually something you can see in the second stage! (It's split between 2 signs though in there) I like to imagine that "Romantic Children" is actually the city's name. It's also the reason why I went with romantic-esque buildings for the background. There are a ton of romantic elements in the game, so we might as well add even more spice to it!

I was listening to a bunch of arranges of the the theme too and I really wanted to replicate that feeling I had from listening to the songs. I'm quite proud of the result. It really gave me a feeling that I'd love to play a game where you could explore Makai's landscapes and cities. It's a bit unfortunate I couldn't draw the landscape that appears during her boss battle, but it's quite pretty too. Maybe next time?

Alice herself is really tiny. It's my first time drawing a girl this small. She looks adorable doesn't she? I wanna pinch her cheeks...

I know it's not the extra stage, but I still drew her with her book. I feel like it's too much of an important part for her character to have the book, so I couldn't leave it out.

Also I know she seems to be only wearing socks and no shoes in her sprite, but that's something that has bothered me with a lot of Touhou character designs. I think only wearing socks is really weird (but barefoot isn't?), so I tend to either remove them or turn them into boots. In her case, she's got white boots now. It's cuter that way, isn't it?

Yuki

Yuki is where I started taking big liberties. The design I went with is not like her actual design. I think her original design just resembles a certain ordinary magician way too much, so I wanted her to be a little bit more extraordinary. I gave her fiery eyes and hair ends to emphasize a little more of her fiery nature. The torn clothes are another attempt at this. I also think she's really cool, so I had to give her a cooler look! 🔥

Also I forgot to mention it with Louise, but Yuki, Mai and Louise are the only characters in Mystic Square to be blushing in their portraits, so I drew them with a little blush too.

For her background I wanted to do something special that would only look finished when put next to Mai's, but it looked off and awkward with a magic circle being split in 2 halves. Not only that, but I'd also not get to draw the stage background... And we can't have that, can we?

Anyway, it took me quite some time to find a way to make her flames look hot and preserve the feeling of the original magic circle. The result ended up being very strongly saturated! I think it's fine though. It makes her look really explosive!

As she should be!

Mai

That mischievous little smirk.. I just had to draw it!

Mai's a little bastard and we all know it. She's actually one of my least favorite characters. How dare you be such a prick towards Yuki, who views you in such high regard?!

Ahem. This one was tricky. All of this is mostly just experimental. I was surprised to see she didn't do badly on Twitter/X. For this one, I actually had my mom pose for me lol. It was funny since she really struggled to do it 🫠 In the end she still pulled it off.

Thanks mom!

I drew her with the smaller wings since this scene is from before the battle. Her wings grow in size once she gets serious and Yuki gets beaten. Her dress is also really puffy so I tried to replicate that too. The shoes she's wearing are white (Yuki's are black) so I gave her high heels. The reason I gave her high heels instead of loafers like I did for Yuki, is because I drew her smaller than Yuki and I believe she's the kind of person who'd have a superiority complex. She wants to be taller than Yuki at all costs.

She's also facing away from the viewer since she's not the type of person to be straight with you, she's the type to hide her true self. At least that's what I believe..

She's the polar opposite to Yuki.

The stage background is the result of me googling images of crystals and drawing them all over and over and over again. They looked like my first pixel art drawings when I was 8 at first lol. I also tried to apply an icy screen effect, I wonder if anyone really noticed or registered it as such... I haven't looked up any sort of guide or whatever for this, I just saw crystallized snow and thought "oh hey, if I just draw this and slapped some filters on it, it will surely look like an ice effect, right?"

It does have that effect on me, but maybe I'm also just biased since I made it...?

The portal was a little tricky too. I didn't know if I wanted it to float or be inside the frozen sea. In the games the frozen sea distorts into the portal, but I thought it looked cooler and helped put the focus on Mai if it floated.

Yumeko

She's awesome. I love her. Yumeko DA BEST. She's really cool, isn't she?

I really love cool women, and ZUN said that he wanted to depict Yumeko and Shinki with great impression. I can only agree with that sentiment, the two of them HAVE to be drawn in an imposing and impressive way.

Yumeko is the only character who doesn't smile at all in her portraits, so I wanted to depict her in a serious way too.

A while ago I drew a similar pose for a commission, however from a different angle. I think the pose really fits Yumeko's character a lot, so I went with it here too. I've put some infinity signs on her sword to reference Shinki a little. Speaking of referncing Shinki, the murals in the background are based on the wall (or floor) in the fifth stage. People tell me they see wings in those, but to me they look like faces. I like to think that Shinki would put murals of herself all over Pandemonium, so I went with that idea heh.

While drawing Yumeko was really fun (I didn't take many artistic liberties with her), the background sure as hell wasn't. Honestly, I'm still not satisfied. But I ended up getting really stressed over it, especially after drawing it over and over and over without any results. In the end, I went for something 'safe'. (I was really crunching for time at that point too)

Something else about Yumeko.... I really like how most people portray her like a ruthless and coldhearted killer, or a maid that listens to all of her master's wills. While I really like all those portrayals too, Yumeko is actually really hot-headed. She seems like a very eager woman and does put Shinki above all else, but if she were an obedient girl she would have backed off when Shinki told her that she wouldn't need to do anything. Instead, Yumeko had a desire and pushed for it. Shinki ultimately granted it. Which would also mean that Shinki created people with their own free will... (It's also seen in Reimu's ending when you see the demons still swarming the human world)

But then why is her theme called "Doll of Misery"? Maybe she just believes her will to be free, and Shinki uses her more as a plaything... Maybe she even saw it coming that Yumeko would try to intervene?

I love to think about all the possibilities. If you have any headcanons, I'd love to hear about them. I like to know more about what people think of these characters.

Shinki

(Did you notice how her artwork is the only one not magnified into 2x2? It's just that freaking massive at 1x1 pixels already)

There is a lot to unpack here. First of all, thank you for already reading this far. It means a lot to me.

So as I mentioned at the start, I was in a serious depression when it came to drawing Shinki. Whenever I tried to draw her, it just ended up feeling wrong. Like I wasn't drawing Shinki. My feelings for her are really strong, and so is my impression of her. If I can't meet these expectations I have for myself, then I can't draw her.

That said, while I was drawing all these characters, Shinki was always in the back of my mind. Thoughts like "Will I really be able to draw her now?", "I will just upload all of them and run away on the last day, it will be fine to be pathetic, right?" and many worse ones kept running through my mind.

In the end, all of the drawings were just training for once I'd get to her.

Once the time came, I wasn't afraid anymore though, on the contrary, I was really excited. It also helps that it was around this time that Stack uploaded a new video. (I've had the new songs on repeat for days lol) And so I started moving my mouse to slowly draw the lines...

And I've had so much fun drawing again. I've had completely forgotten how much fun this hobby could be. The people aong you who've been following my private twitter account know very well from my tweets there 😂😂

That said, this time I was going to draw a full body artwork of her, with the background not as a central piece, but as an addon later on. So this time I wasn't going to draw her looking imposing in a dominant mistress way, but instead I just wanted to depict her as "impressive".

Shinki is often portrayed as a dorky mom by fans. Compared to that, I'm the polar opposite.. Whenever I read her lines, hear her theme, and see the (for the time at least) amazing choreography of her battle I can't help but think of a divine being beyond mortal comprehension. I see her less "human-like" than I see her "god-like", if that makes any sense. I really want to get that point across with my drawings. She gets enough cute and joke drawings, so I want to contribute to show off her cool aspects.

I don't want to say that I dislike or disapprove of those portrayals though, I like to see what people come up with!

That said, because of that I like to draw her very tall. In here, I've drawn her to be around 188cm tall. 8 is the number that infinity is associated with, so that's why I'm going for that. Normally I draw her with a serious expression, but that's moreso because I really, really, like that sort of thing.. I think a smile suits her perfectly too, as a benevolent goddess. (Remember, she grants her creations freedom and respects their wishes.) I wonder if she would create a castle for you if you did a great job...

I'm getting sidetracked. You might have noticed, but I've been drawing Shinki with white eyelashed for quite some time now. I think it has a more ethereal air to it, to fit her divine self.

Another thing I really like to do when drawing her, is to put a cosmos in her wings and a bunch of infinity signs on them. She IS the Infinite Being, so I would like it if it gets more representation! (That said, I think the hair bobbles are another nod to it. Her final attack also has the 2 orbs staying perfectly parallel next to each other forming an infinity sign as well. Another one of her attacks seems to have the bullets fly in an infinity shaped pattern too.)

I also like to give the wings rainbow effects, to symbolize all of creation. All light is stored in those wings and light is the source of all life.... alongside water. (We'll get to this later!)

It's also more difficult to draw the wings like this, compared to the angel wings that I also draw sometimes. I like both, but the black cosmic wings are my favorite. I also think they're more Shinki-esque than the angelic ones! In the end, it depends on the occasion I'm drawing them for.

One more thing is that I usually draw her barefooted. I didn't do it here this time for a few reasons, the most relevant one being that I simply felt like the heels were a better fit for this kind of setting. Also the reason why I draw her barefoot usually is not because of a fetish (again), but because I think her being completely covered in clothes except from her hands, feet and face has a sense of "All Beginnings and Ends are bare, but while living we are veiled.".

In the end, I just love to think about her and discover new things about her. I wonder what kind of discoveries I'll make in the future?

Now onwards to the background...

Honestly, the entire time until today I've seen her background just "as is". Meaning, I just took it as a really big floor with a few pillars and a horizon. However, as I was drawing and listening to Stack's "My Own World", the last line came into my mind again. It goes as follow:

"For now, I’ll drift asleep in these amniotic waters reflecting the moon"

I've never understood what this line was supposed to represent, but now I finally understand. The blue "floor" in the background are the amniotic waters, from which things she creates are born. The "moon" is the horizon in the background.

The entire room is her throne of creation.

Once that realization dawned on me I was struck with awe and I wanted to draw it like that. The moon is not very visible because of Shinki being in front of it, but it should still be visible on its sides. The water reflects the moon and the pillars (somewhat) on its surface.

I still need to learn how to draw nice reflections...

But in short, Shinki being the light and the throne room being the water are the source of all life within Makai. This is just speculation though 🫠

I could go on forever about what I believe and see within Mystic Square, since there's just a ton to unpack. Like did you ever realize how many different origins the names of the characters have? They probably all come from different countries within Makai!

But I'll cut it off at this point, this is getting a little long.

I'll still get around to drawing that second Shinki illustration. How soon I don't know though. For the time being, I'm completely spent and knocked out 😂

I would really love to do it soon though... Perhaps as a birthday present for me like I did last time?