Very well drawn! Good job!

The little MKvsDC/MK2011 references seem particularly at home, given that these are starting to look a little less like departing character-driven designs, and more like embellishments on the pixels. I'm not really a fan of the progress of wardrobe changes from one game to the next, so the ideal of it isn't thrilling. Especially when, to me, a lot of this evolution peaked with MKDA (pending iterative improvements).

The Raiden has a good sense of layers that embellish the classic MKII look, but at the same time, I think that logic reaches an apex with MKDA.
On the flipside, Liu Kang's belt still doesn't ring true to me in terms of the character or the practicality of his design. It communicates that he's the champion of Mortal Kombat, but he strikes me as a humble character who would be better reflected by his not reflecting those things. That, and it's just a bit tacky. As opposed to Cage's tattoo, which is tacky, but a little under done. If you're going to commit to tattooing his name on his chest, I think it at least needs to have a better sense of design. "Johnny" alone is far too stupid, even for the dumbest comedy relief version of Cage.

Kitana's topical given what we've just seen of MK2011 in Germany.
I would think much the same of your version as theirs -- that, if we're going to see something new, it would be great to finally get her in some kind of elaborate, regal robe ensemble. Something with flourish and style like some of the more elaborate Soul Calibur characters -- as opposed to the skinemax end of the spectrum.
Given the MKII time period, there's obviously a nostalgic precedent to keep the character both similar to Mileena and in that swimsuit inspired get-up. With that grace in mind, I think what you've done with it is nice enough, even if I'm a bit reluctant about the nature of some of the detailing (like mesh).

Baraka's probably my favourite in terms of what I think works for the character and isn't just pandering to $2 costume budgets and 1993's tech. There's been a lot of tweaking and adding to Baraka that usually seems to hinge around the idea of scavenging materials and there's certainly a sense that this might be accoutrement for the Tarkatan horde as representatives of Shao Kahn, or that it might be scavanged from other defeated warriors. Somewhere in the back of my mind I feel like there were references to something like this in design sketches, too, which is never a bad place to draw from.

Ironically, one of the things I liked about MKII Baraka's sprites was the curious look of his jumping dropkick. I don't think even those simplistic sprites gave the mistaken impression of grace, but there was just a very interesting way the character moved. With all that samurai style armor tied to him, he'd probably lost a lot of that movement. For the sake of developing the design of the character -- a character whose primary weapons are part of his forearm, and used in a brutal fashion -- I think you've got the highground. Just an interesting observation of what I suspect will be a steady stream of mirrored opposing opinions.

EDIT: Any thought given toward actually drawing a comic strip?

Fantastic work. All of these look great.

I will comment more later when i have more time. perhaps a slightly too purple colour for Kitana but depending on what you give Mileena that will work.

Yes, you've mentioned before that you'd like the characters to find a single iconic pair of clothes and wear it every game Street Fighter-style.

That doesn't work for me personally because I come up with a storyline behind every wardrobe. The fact that there are characters who already HAVE a logical reason to change their clothes every single game like Sub-Zero sets the precedent for me.

That said, Raiden's definitely going to be wearing the same thing when I do MK3 and possibly MK4 too. My MK1 design was him in disguise as a human like in the movie, but now the secret's out so he's wearing his standard God of Thunder duds which I imagine he hasn't changed in thousands of years, so why start now? (My explanation for his MKDA look being so much more ornate is he's wearing that costume after he's been an Elder God. His status has changed, thus, he finally modifies the costume)

Also, I actually believe there's such a thing as "too much detail", which is why I often try to preserve the looks of the earlier games rather than going Deadly Alliance/Deception-style with every single costume. There's a strength in simplicity. Look at most superheroes with their single color spandex bodysuits broken up only by belts, capes, trunks, and chest logos. Granted, that's too simple for most MK characters, and adding detail is the whole point of the project...but I'm just saying, there's a line and it stops right about at MKDA. Soul Calibur 3 and 4, for instance? WAY over the "too much detail" line.

But I digress...



Not much to say about Raiden, I pretty much directly lifted his design from MK9 concept art. Except for the little kanji on his hand, that's from MKSM.



Here's my logic on why he'd actually have the belt on, character-wise: MK2 is a Mortal Kombat Tournament and he is the reigning champ defending his title. He almost HAS to be wearing it from that point of view. He won't be wearing it when I do MK3 or 4 because those aren't tournaments.



I can kinda see where you're coming from, the tattoo is a little plain...but I thought if anything, that might be something to do for the future games, add more flourish to it and whatnot, like in between games he keeps going back to the tattoo parlor and getting more work done. We'll see. I'm just as likely to leave it the way it is though to be honest, because while I'm great at drawing people, I suck at "graphic design"...logos, tattoos, that sort of thing...so if someone else hasn't done it first for me to copy off of, I'm at a loss.



I'm glad I finished my Kitana well before the con pics started rolling in, because I'm not seeing much I like in her MK9 design and I'm glad it didn't have a chance to influence me. Though Mileena obviously did...but MK9 Mileena actually has a strong design IMO, not that my version will be identical.

As for the idea of a robe or dress...Kahn doesn't treat his daughters as princesses, he trains them to be ninja assassins. "Princess" doesn't enter into her character concept until there's an Edenia again. Though, maybe something to consider for the alt costume, maybe not.

With the mesh, I wanted to sort of conjure the image of the way ninjas sometimes dress in anime, with fishnet on under their gis or whatever. Though I colored it so those parts of her are actually covered up by fabric too, to separate her from how Mileena, and to a lesser extent Jade, are the type to show a lot more skin and Kitana's the most modest of the three.



Well the pants he wears in MK2, with the white pocket-things and the red stripes at the shin look...manufactured, not like the kind of clothes a Tarkatan would find in Outworld. So I looked at all the other Baraka designs and the armor he's got in MKvsDC actually seemed to me like it was already a modified version of his MK2 look in some ways. Especially the plates at the knee, which when turned red, make a perfect stand-in for the stripes.



I know what you mean, actually. I thought about that for a bit and considered making him look leaner, but yeah, I prefer the thicker armored look in the end. It fits his personality better. Besides, you can't actually see "skinny" so well when a dude is hunched over like that.



Oh lord no. I can't really draw backgrounds at all...or anything that isn't a humanoid (that dragon behind Liu coming out so well was a minor miracle and if my future Motaros don't look like shit, be assured, I traced the hell out of someone else's drawing of a horse or centaur) and it takes me a whole day just to draw and color one character, even when I'm re-using poses and copypasting lineart for guys like Liu and Johnny, so I shudder to think how I'd handle trying to put out three or more panels of actual action and such on any kind of regular basis. Besides, I'm not so great at writing dialogue either. (I'm a spectacular plotter, outline-writer, proofreader and fact-checker though, if any spriters out there are interested in being told what to do...)

The possibility of differing monitor settings notwithstanding, the goal was somewhere between royal blue and indigo, which I consider to be Kitana colors. I don't like that she's sky blue in most games. Wearing a pastel is only adding to that "too soft" image she's got lately. At any rate, I assure you that Mileena will be much more obviously purple. Though I would like to get their colors a little closer to one another in this game than in the others, since story-wise, it is supposed to be difficult to tell them apart.

Sorry i did not mean to come accross critical, just thinking out loud I guess. I do associate Kitana with the indigo type colour too, her MKDA alt and MKA primary were more purple, and it is slightly more royal than blue is too. But I personally am a fan of the deep blue colour. I dont mind the light blue of recent games to be honest. For me the colour of the alternate Player 2 version of MKDA als/MKA primary, is a great colour for Kitana.

Im liking Barak's look too, he looks very demonic. I like the waist armour details and hw that adds on to his original look.

Your Dragon behind Liu Kang is aweseom looking, and Im liking how you ahve given Liu/Johnny/Raiden looks similar to the MK1 main you had for them, yet different enough to be new for MK2. Shang Tsung im liking too, but my favourite of his looks you gave him is the MK1 alt.

Cant wait for more.

I didn't take it the wrong way or anything, I was just expecting someone to bring up the shade of blue I used on Kitana anyway because indigo's a hard shade to get right. It's one of those ones that looks different on different monitors.

The shade of red on Liu's pants is another. It looks a little purple on my PSP screen but fine on my PC.

Great stuff, as always.

My only suggestion would be (maybe for Cage's alt?) have the letters "CAGE" appear vertically down the side of his pants as they were shown in a BETA version of MKII, instead of horizontally on his belt buckle ala MK2011.

I noticed you took the most liberties with Kitana. Always nice to see something new, even more so when it's not too drastic. Nice stuff!

Well I had the Everlast boxing trunks-style idea for his name on the belt way before MK9 was even announced. I was inspired by the Shaolin Monks in-game model I think. I did the name down the side on the MK1 version anyway. MK3/4 Johnny will probably have the dashes down the side like he usually does. I'm not sure what I'm doing for the pants on his alt yet, though...

Kitana is damned hard to design for. Every costume she ever gets, in the games or in fan art, is based on her UMK3 look it seems. I wanted to save that for MK3 and do something that updated her MK2 outfit...which was where the hard part comes in, because it's so damn plain. I guess MK9 Mileena inspired me a lot. My favorite touch though is the thigh belts that holster her fans. I got that from one of Jax007's sketches a few years back.

It might be a little early to be thinking about alts, but I would love to see Johnny's "Team Victory" jacket (from the vs. pose pic)... and Jax's full MK: Special Forces outfit (shown in the MKII comic)

As it happens, the Vs. pose jacket was already exactly what I was planning on for Johnny's alt, lol. I'm just not sure about the pants yet is all.

I actually have a list of notes written out already for every character's primary and alt all the way up to MK4, and while there are some blank spaces and these are just rough notes subject to change, the point is, yeah, I'm thinking ahead all the time. I almost have to because some costumes gradually evolve rather than being completely different each game.
As for Jax though...don't expect to see the spandex.

Now THAT is how Kitana should have looked like in the upcoming MK. Though, I noticed you gave her little bows around the ankles... How come?
I love the fact you gave her a place to have her fans when not using them, instead of the typical "back-pocket" which is just a bit too cartoony for me. Like in MKDA-MKA where they just go POOF and then they have a weapon in their hands. Nice touch.

Liu Kang and Johnny Cage looks nice and simple, and Raiden looks just like Raiden should look like, so that's just excellent. That you simplified Shang Tsung's outfit from your MK1 alt. and redyed it, well... it seems a bit lazy to me, though you did mention that the MK1 alt. was inspired by his MK2 outfit...

Baraka looks good and I see your point with him scavenging armour to him from other warriors fallen on the battlefield, but it looks a bit off that he has some big armour from his hips and down, and then just a simple shirt on his torso... It looks a bit unbalanced to me.

Overall, a fantastic job. Can't wait to see the rest.

Well, her gloves and boots looked a little plain so I wanted something around her wrists and ankles and with the bows, I guess I wanted some small part of her to convey a little femininity because even at the hardass assassin point of her life, I still see her as a little softer and more girly than Mileena and Jade.

Plus I was looking at a lot of art of female ninjas for inspiration, and trying to go less "Elektra/Psylocke" and more Japanese or at least Fictional Japanese/Anime with the feel of her design. Hence the belt being a kimono obi and the mesh underclothing. Ribbons and bows is another element I'm sure I picked up from one of those designs I was using for inspiration.

Just out of curiosity, Will you be including Ermac and Skarlett/Scarlet (however you want to spell her name) in this lot?

Ermac no, but Skarlett yes. And Blaze and Hornbuckle too.

They're great man!

My favorites of this six are Kitana and Shang Tsung. The way Kitana have a Spot to put his weapon is great!.

Awsome job man.

cool, the dragon is pretty good. Raiden and Shang got some biiiiig feet!

10/10!!! I've been waiting to see these! Liu Kang and Baraka are the best IMO.

I like Kitana's color!!! I remember in the arcade I used to play MK2 Kitana looked that color, and mileena was like a deep reddish magenta (like in the comics)

I wasn't expecting you to recycle the stances from other drawings but it works. Also still need some ideas for Alts or anything?

Keeping the stances establishes a sort of standard that says "same character, only the clothes have changed". Sort of like a model sheet.

And that way, when a character isn't the same one anymore, I can change the pose. i.e. MK2 Sub-Zero isn't going to be using MK1 Sub's pose, but Noob Saibot will.

As for characters who I don't have alt ideas for yet...none until MK3. I've got everything pretty well planned out this time.

Cool. I wonder what Hornbuckle will look like... Don't tell us though. It could look cool

100% WIN

Hmm...apparently the link to the pic broke and it needed to be re-uploaded...and the only copy I have on my harddrive has 7 characters, not 6...so it looks like you guys are inadvertently getting a little bonus.

So here's Scorpion. (See the first post)

Scorpion looks great. A good mix between his many appearances. I like the gloves especially.
Keep up the good work ^^

Wow man these are truly stunning. I can't believe I haven't seen any of these before. I especially love your Mk1 designs - perfect for a full fledged remake. Nice touch including Ermac and Nimbus Terrafaux.