Ever since I revamped this website, I've wanted to have some kind of "mascot" for this site. I know many websites don't have one, and I have sat on this decision for quite a while. I didn't want this website to fall into the trap of turning into a very cluttered site full of this mascot, where there were containers/buttons everywhere and ultimately take over the very "minimalist" look that I made for it. Some long-term people who check this site will know at some point, this wesbite WAS a very cluttered blinkie-fest before I rebooted it completely. I found that the state of it before discouraged me from working on it. I would make such a high standard, and felt like everything from then on had to be at that standard, with special formatting, new custom buttons and more graphics I would need to rip from other sites. It was much harder for me to sit down and "write" anything because half my time could have been occupied collecting graphics. On top of that, I was constantly browsing other people's personal sites for inspiration, and it became almost a rat race for me to keep trying to make my website stand out and look as unique as possible, to have my own "identity." Eventually, this all crashed and burned for me and led to me being unmotivated to work on any part of that website for almost a year. Very bad.
When I rebooted this site, I set a personal guideline for myself to "have it exist first, make it good later." This was set up so I didn't end up making the same mistakes. I purposely kept the site barren so I could make sure all my thoughts were written out, since that's more valuable than any blinkie I can slap on. I also wanted newcomers to view this website because they wanted to hear what I said compared to just observing it, going "wow that's so aesthetic" (or whatever people say), bookmarking it, and moving on. This was a trap I found myself falling into when I saw very stylized but cluttered websites.
However, I still wanted a mascot. Back then, the very bottom of my website had a little haruhi gif that would dance, and some pages had KAngel. I found it very cute, and since my website has anime/otaku culture as such a core aspect of it, it's only natural for there to be a cute anime girl that greeted you! I wanted to have my very own mascot this time so my website didn't feel too much like a fanpage or like I'm piggybacking on someone else's art.
This all led up to this doodle being made. I'm pretty satisfied with my design, it has everything I like in my anime girls from vent-bangs to snaggleteeth and small angel wings that remind me of magical girls. It's my ultimate 2D girl!
My main concept for her was that she is an angel that shapeshifts her body to be the viewer's "ideal lover." However, since she's a TRUE RORI, she isn't quite good at it and is only able to alter her breast size right now. She's sweet and confident but also clumsy and easy to humiliate. I don't quite think she's a mesugaki, she can be smug and snarky, but never at the expense of the person she's "blessing." (I also don't really like mesugakis. You may stone me to death with the sob emoji.)
I only have her base design down right now. I have't decided on a name or main colors but I have a few ideas in mind. I initially wanted her name to be "Tenshi" like the website, but since several people address me as that, I've become more turned off regarding that idea. This mascot and I are seperate entities, and she isn't supposed to be a "persona" or "alter ego" that I self-insert as. If I wanted to be a cute anime girl, I'd just start taking estrogen and browsing reddit :D She's just a mascot. Color pallete wise, I'm going to have her colors align with the website (and my personal tastes.) Dark hair, pale skin, hints of purple. Her uniform will be light (maybe blue?) to properly contrast against her hair and the website. She should still reasonably stand out! My hardest decision will probably be what color to make her thigh-highs and garter. Black is a classic, sleek color that contrasts with her skin, but white also isn't a bad choice. Descisions, decisions.
(Her pantsu will be a traditional blue-white horizontal stripe pattern with a small white bow on top. You can't go wrong with the classics on that. Maybe she occasionally switches to bloomers if she's feeling very pure. When designing a character, you must think down to the smallest details.)
The first doodles I ever made for a website mascot. Not much changed. I know what I like.
Overall, I had a lot of fun designing her! It's fun to make something that appeals to you as much as possible. For now, I will probably be drawing a few graphics for her. Mostly a few headers, one for the index page, and some smaller graphics such as her being in the corner of pages to say hi. She shouldn't be that much of a nuisance. I want to get this done quickly as I feel like the more pages I make, the harder it will be to get done in the future. I will already have to go to every page to add in changes and don't want to do that when I have so many pages, I feel discouraged and don't want to do it. I found updating the resources page to no longer link to "404.html" a pain. I'll get it out of the way now.
As I work, I'll find a good name for her. I take naming suggestions (email me haruhi AT disroot DOT org). You are welcome to also do whatever you want with her, she's public domain. You can draw porn of her. You don't even need to ask. SHE CONSENTS! I just ask you send me anything you do make of her, I'd love to see. Even if you don't like it, I probably will.