The Making of The Moon's Cherished Flower 02 - The Art

Hi, Liisu here. As a member of Sabitah Studio, I had the opportunity to work on The Moon's Cherished Flower by providing its visual art. 

The game being an epistolary visual novel, no sprites were needed and it saved quite a lot of time. Instead we aimed for diary entries, written by a child slowly growing up from 6 to 12 years old throughout the entries.

After the diary template was done, my main focus was on being able to mimic as best as possible a child’s handwriting that would slowly get more and more mature as the story unravels. I already had quite the development in mind; first, she would have shaky handwriting with block letters, using very colorful pencils, then gradually learning cursive, switching to grey pencil, ballpen, and finally black ink.

Being isolated in her room her whole childhood, it made sense to me that Selene would also become a particularly creative child. That’s why I also had to pay attention to her artistic growth. 

Quick comments about some entries:In this one, Selene is supposedly 8 years old. Her cursive handwriting has already gotten smoother and she’s writing with a grey pencil.

Concerning the drawings, the diary both illustrates Selene being locked up alone in her room due to the rain (current situation) and her being able to play outside with friends under the rain (dream). The imaginary situation illustrates key points: the well-known children’s habits to add smiley faces to everything (clouds, the sun, …) and supposedly Selene surrounded by both boy and girl friends. 

It’s interesting to notice how Selene is in the middle and bigger than her friends because children tend to unconsciously be self-centered, thus her standing out a bit more than her friends. Honorable mentions for the “flowery” hands and the boy’s stick hair (that’s personally how I used to draw people in my childhood).

Here, Selene is around 10 years old. Her handwriting is finally more ‘personal’ (also quite similar to mine…. ah to be compared to a 10-year-old child) and she’s comfortable enough to write with black ink. 

Finally having her first friend, I thought she would specifically insist on this word so dear to her, by making it very colorful and with the typical ‘3D-effect’ children are so proud of once they learn it. The drawing on the right pictures her new friend and herself, with already improved proportions and a timid attempt to a manga art style. I used references from old drawings I made when I was around her age.

Lastly, this entry could look like a very regular one, it doesn’t feature any drawing yet I find this one quite interesting. 

Selene is close to her 12th birthday and has already matured a lot. She is there recounting the riot that just happened and if paying attention, you would notice her handwriting is more messy and shaky than the previous entry, due to the stress she felt just some moments ago. The ink is also smudged in her haste to write and express the distress she just went through. Towards the end are some drops… Perhaps she cried?

N.B. : this handwriting is just how I write when I’m in a rush….

That’s all I had to comment for this jam! I had fun impersonating our dear Selene and really enjoyed drawing the main menu art. I hope you also enjoy going through Selene’s journey in The Moon’s Cherished Flower and thank you for reading!

Have a nice day ~