Long story short: ..I can't feel my brain.

Okay, so, at the minute, I'm trying to redesign Bowser in the style of old cartoons from the 1930s as part of my 30s styled Mario series which is much easier said than done. What made the idea of Mario in the style of old rubberhose animation is how the characters can be easily translated to any art style and still be recognisable, including the rubberhose style... except for Bowser.

I don't want to do just an art style change, I also want to change his design so he'd fit more with the setting (which involves a lot more research, even if I have to search every nook and cranny of 30s cartoons). That alone can be challenging but there are also three principles in total of how I want to redesign the characters.

1) The designs must be as true to the era as possible, which means a lot of research and inspiration.

2) The characters should still be easily recognisable, keeping (or substituting) their distinguishing traits.

3) The designs should also have an identity of their own (kinda like how cartoon reboots redesign their characters).

Bowser was obviously designed to have a fashion trend and traits far from the more old-fashioned fairy-tale-like traits a majority of the classic Mario characters have which make them much easier to translate.

Firstly, I had to substitute the spiked armbands for broken shackles, taken from "Popeye meets Sinbad" from 1936. Secondly, for the hair, I was worried about if he should have hair or not, and when I shown a bald version of him to my friends, they thought it looked too weird, so I gave him hair similar to messy hair on certain villains from the 30s (like Mr. Hyde for example) which made him look a lot better. Those are the substitutions I like because it keeps the design more era-appropriate while still keeping the familiarity of Bowser.

At the minute, I'm kinda worried about the spiked shell he has, so I've been doing as much research as I can on either 30s cartoons or the inspiration behind having spikes on shells, hopefully, being purely fictional. I have seen spikes on mushrooms from "Koko the clown's: the runaway", surreal monsters from various Fleischer Studios cartoons as well as spikes on medieval armoury so hopefully, with a smidge of luck, I can get away with keeping the spiked shell on his back.

As for his personality, I have been imagining this version of Bowser with the mannerisms of characters like Peg Leg Pete and the Big Bad Wolf (I was even imagine what'd be like if he was voiced by Billy Bletcher) as well as some inspiration from King Koopa of the super show, to be more comically exxagerated.

I'm honestly not sure if I should do the series with Bowser but then again, the Mario series can't be without him so I tried my best to make him fit with the style as closely as possible. Some people may not be fond with this design and I don't blame them why, but I tried my best with it and hopefully, it's good for what it's trying to be.

I don't think I'm ready to be making any art featuring him yet ('cause I still need to be sure if I can use the current design) and I already made one with dark themes so I'm gonna do some more light-hearted art and save him for later.

Thanks for reading.