Merry Christmas! Here's a horrifying bug man!

It's my design interpretation of Cell from Dragon Ball Z, as part of this month's Character Design Challenge. www.facebook.com/groups/Charac…

This was a fun one. It was my first challenge where I had to redesign an existing character (or just draw fan art of one, but that's less challenging). And I was lucky they picked a franchise I was familiar with too. XD

Picking a character from DB to redesign was tough though. I knew I legitimately hated the character designs of the Saiyans (Trunks notwithstanding) because of how samey they looked - I remember mistaking Gohan, Goku and Vegeta as the same person, which is never a good sign - but because their design traits were so integrally woven into the lore of the race, I decided to leave them. I wanted to redesign a character, but also remain as authentic to the tone and style of the original show as much as possible.

My two choices were Krillin and Cell. Krillin I wanted to turn into a Super Human, but that's been done before. Cell on the other hand, I felt personally motivated to redesign because of how he looked. I never liked how his badass bug look got more and more human with each form towards perfection. it just looked less interesting, like "Awww, but he looked cool though..."

So I went with redesigning Cell in all his forms, with the task being to make him retain his bug-like appearance while still making him humanoid. Here's some points to each design.

Cell
He's the same as he looks in the show. No differences. It's worth noting though that the later two forms retain the exact same colour scheme as this counterpart. No new colours were added, though some might have been removed. The reason for this is because both Frieza and Buu (and even Zamasu) retain the same exact colour scheme throughout all their transformations. They may lose colours, but they still keep the same colours they always have. For example, Frieza's colour scheme of his first form has white, purple, pink and very light pink. His final form loses the pinks, but he keeps the purple and white.

Imperfect Cell
- His 2nd form is still as tall as he is in the show, and also retains the same muscle mass and the tail (though I took out the orange of the tail.)
- Notice how the structure and shape of his muscles is similar to the 1st form. Except the orange parts have been upgraded to lime green parts. The lime green parts have been upgraded to dark green parts. And the dark green parts have been upgraded to black marble parts. The reason for this is because I'm trying to imply the weaker parts of his 1st form have now grown an extra layer of thickness; providing extra durability and toughness.
- There are less spots on his dark green hides - less blemishes - he is becoming more perfect.
- His face is longer - resembling that of a grasshopper. Choosing a bug to resemble for Cell's 2nd form was tricky, since cicadas and roaches don't have a stronger counterpart that looks radically different from them. Grasshoppers come the closest to them though, so I went with that. So I made the face longer, his forelegs bulkier than his shins, and he has grown an extra set of wings. He also has more hide armour on his neck that has a smooth curvature, similar to the sleek look of a grasshopper.
- His bug hands with two fingers each have now turned into full-human hands. Just to imply a growth in his humanoid part as well. However his feet are still bug-like, to retain his monster-like quality.
- Head casing has covered his entire face, for extra durability. Like a helmet. In fact, think of his muscles changing colour and orientation like his armour has upgraded.
- Blue mesh under his eyes for added creepy factor.

Perfect Cell
- A butterfly was the first choice for a Perfect form. It might seem a bit gay, but hey, his perfect form is already kinda foppish and eccentric in the show. And I'm not talking about his DBZ Abridged version.
- The orange beak mouth from his previous 2 forms has now been upgraded to a visor, like a robot. In fact, his entire design is emblematic of that of an action figure (in other words, he would still look cool. XD)
- His frame is much smaller than his 2nd form, however he's still just as tall, and even more powerful. Just like Frieza and Buu in their final forms; shrimpy yet more agile and powerful.
- The colour of his muscles still retains the same scheme from the 2nd form, with some alterations for that little bit of extra durability. Also some parts are spikier for added sinisterness.
- No spots at all - no blemishes - he is completely perfect. I'm surprised they made his spots more complex to draw in the show. Must have been torture for the animators.
- His eyes are the same, yet a blue edge runs underneath them and outlines his head casing. Made for a stylish look and adds to his eccentricity.
- His hands are still human, and his feet are still bug-like.
- His stinger tail is gone. There is no need for it now that Android 17 & 18 have been absorbed. Thus, its main function has been served, and as part of his evolution, it is removed.
- His most notable feature are his wings (which actually look like they can fly in contrast to the show!) Made to look sharp and sleek for style and sinisterness. Would also make for good angle shots in the show. The pattern on his wings resemble that of a butterfly, with the eccentric colours and the large circles in the middle that symbolise eyes. However, the pattern also looks insect-like, with the orientation of the lines; and furthermore the lines have been designed in such a way that they also look like circuitboards. Because remember, he is a cyborg. Biomechanical, yet he is still part mechanical.

Well that's it. Hope you like!
(Also shoutouts to Team Four Star for their DBZ Abridged series which made good background noise whilst I drew this. XD)