Modern Ne Zha - Character Design

Original Character Design
Inspired by one of my favourite Chinese myths, Ne Zha.
A defining feature of the mythical figure is its golden flaming wheels, and I focused on them for the direction of the design. To differentiate from the myth, their design had a modern setting in mind that would allow skills like rollerblading to match the aesthetic. I developed the character to be very agile with the intent of making interesting choreography focusing on the wheels, this would combine kicks with skills like acrobatics, gymnastics, and even breakdancing. With rollerblading and breakdancing as key characteristics, I referenced street clothing while designing their outfit, but wanted to keep some features that tie back to the inspiration. To this extent, I wanted to incorporate the red sash seen on Ne Zha as this would also give the design a lot of interesting motion when they're moving fast. After exploring several ways to reinterpret the sash, I decided that combining it with the hood, while simple, would be the cleanest and clearest way. In older works, Ne Zha is often portrayed with red and gold in their clothing, however, more recent depictions of the character use pink in place of red, drawing on the lotus associated with Ne Zha. Following this trend, I wanted to use pink and black as the main colours with gold highlights. Even though I wanted a condensed analogous colour palette, when it came to the sash, I was hesitant to replace the red with a soft pink and instead applied a magenta that I would use throughout the design.