The Astrology Collection: What is it?
Born from the passion, love, and support of my little art community, the Astrology Collection was a 3-4 month long project made specifically to produce merch for people who love astrology as much I do! The end goal for this project was to make unique and interesting characters to represent the symbols of the stars we've all come to know and love and make them look authentic and cool. Each one was designed, revised, and perfected to represent the symbol and personalities in question: so have a look at the entire project overview with each design!
Cancer the Crab
Cancer the Crab was one of the first initial designs I made that eventually laid the ground work and core design philosophy for this collection. I wanted the characters to have an environment they would authentically live in while having them front and center and in your face to represent the person who would wear this or represent themselves with it. Moving forward, a lot of these designs continue to follow this trend and if not followed, were revised and prepared for publishing.
Aries the Ram
Aries the Ram went through a few revisions before landing on this final version. Initially, while uploading this design I got a lot of issues regarding copyright claims but eventually that was just settled because of the color I chose for the background. I wanted to make a soft, little ram climbing up a mountain amidst a sunset to represent it's full potential at the peak.
Leo the Lion
Leo the Lion was born mainly out of that "center character" mentality, but around this time is when I really started getting creative with the overall look of the environments. I wanted the backgrounds to tell as much story as the characters themselves. Leo's are known as royalty and have major blessings in stability in their lives. For this illustration I mainly focused on the idea of the lion, as a beautiful beast that relishes in simplicity and consistency.
Pisces the Fish
Pisces went through several revisions and sketches. Honestly, I wanted to differentiate these characters from the rest considering these fish represent the balance of ying and yang in most depictions. I thought about putting them on an island sunbathing together but I thought "life is a major journey, so why not have these two on a journey together?" and the rest was history.
Aquarius the Water Bearer
Aquarius went through several changes. Initially his character profile was a walking, talking pot but I honestly didn't feel like it fit this personality, nor the sign's depictions as a whole. Originally, the idea was to focus on the environment rather than the character itself. Weird role reversal huh? I wanted to focus the character's background to tell the tale but it ended up losing it's original ideals. The idea here was that Aquarius's sign represents knowledge and creation, the water pouring out is that idea. So, I went with the environment being created by the pot, but he wasn't the focus. The final one you see here is revised idea that Aquarius should continue to be center like everyone else, but still build that environment that it initially started.
Scorpio the Scorpion
Scorpio was a bit difficult because scorpios are usually represented as something fiery or sexual and intense, but none of these cute characters are sexual or passionate in any way. So what depiction of the scorpio should I do to keep this whole "family friendly" vibe going? Scorpions live in the desert, so why not have him resting on a desert cactus amongst the stars? This allows me to show off his personality, his fierceness, and still continue to create a unique environment that tells a story.
Taurus the Bull
Taurus initially looked more like a cow when I originally did his depiction. I was really struggling with his overall look, because I wanted him to be so bold and strong but the art style just didn't fit his tone. I went back and revised the design to be more kid friendly and made the environment feel like the exact place he would live on, a beautiful ranch in the hills.
Capricorn the Sea Goat
Capricorn was honestly the first time I combined any characters honestly. A fish and a goat? How would I depict that? Initially, his character design was going to tie into Pisces to see if their could be a "same universe" feel to them considering they were both sea creatures. I ended up with focusing on the character design and leaving out this little crossover for a bit more cohesion and less filler.
Sagittarius the Archer
Sagittarius was and still is probably one of the harder characters I had to design for. I went from making cute animals and mythical creatures to humans (which is a character design I wasn't too familiar with). Most depictions of the Archer are usually with a centaur getting ready to shoot his mighty bow, but the symbol itself WAS the bow all along so you could just go nuts with this idea.
I originally wanted this archer boy to shoot different target dummies but I felt like that design just didn't fit him at all. I went back and did a full 180 on his design and made him a full blown medieval archer rescuing a princess from a goofy, googly-eyed dragon instead. This felt more accurate to the sign's personality as Sagittarius happens to have lots of confidence in the things they do.
Libra Scales
Libra is usually depicted with the scales alone and if not, a woman holds them to represent the balance they bring to the world. I thought to myself, "If libra's bring balance, then why not put them at the edge of space?" and the rest was history. The scales, color palette, and overall design was influenced by South Korean and Japanese illustration used in their marketing for mascot characters.
Virgo the Flower Maiden
Virgo went through a ton of different character revisions because initially, I wanted my human characters to have diversity in their depictions. I felt as though this colorful cast could use even more color and focused on her overall design and sunset backdrop to really compliment what it means to be a virgo: humble, self-effacing, industrious, and practical.
Gemini Twins
The last of the Astrology Collection and a personal favorite of mine, the Gemini Twins were based on South Korean and Japanese color palettes for mascot characters. I wanted them to represent an astral being, transcending into the skies and living in the clouds amongst the stars of a pastel sky (sounds like a long description). These brother's character traits were designed with Gemini's in mind. One is cheerful and the other is playful.
An Astrological Summary
Overall, this project wouldn't have gotten off the ground if it weren't for the feedback I've received from my little community over on instagram and facebook. I honestly keep designing because I'm passionate about my craft, but if no one gave me even the slightest bit of feedback could I even improve from where I started?
I'm passionate about the content I create and I try to show that with everything I make, so if you'd like, please support the project on teespring or patreon! I'll leave the link here for all my social platforms and more. Thanks for viewing my project!
