This week, I found more reference images, most of which are related to the character.
I designed my character—or rather, the monster—as a pair of twins. I drew inspiration from elements that evoke psychological fear, such as preserved corpses, freak shows, and unethical experiments from centuries ago, including prefrontal lobotomy.
I designed the character as a pair of conjoined twins, a brother and a sister. The brother’s body is withered and decaying, on the verge of death. They work as taxidermists. In an attempt to save her brother, the sister conducts a series of dark and forbidden experiments.
The taxidermy room is filled with specimens stitched together from human and animal corpses, and at its center may stand an electrotherapy chair resembling an instrument of torture. The sister believes she can extract her brother’s soul from his dying body and transfer it into these reconstructed corpses, unaware that her actions are only causing him greater suffering. Through this character, I aim to portray the sister’s nearly obsessive, pathological love and her overwhelming desire for control.
Below are the sketches I drew while exploring the character.
Visually, they have asymmetrical and disjointed limbs. The brother’s body is withered, twisted, and close to death, with one arm drawn into his chest and bound by bandages, leaving him no choice but to endure the sister’s various experiments inflicted upon him.