This is a character created by my sister for a novel being written. She tasked me with designing them based off of descriptions she gave and subsequent discussions we had to flesh this character out based on the story direction. The idea of her story is to subvert some problematic current YA "Booktok" trends while following other of those same trends. So Malum serves as a personification of Death.

Knowing we both agreed on the general idea of Malum as an attractive nonbinary recluse who works as a janitor and has their own agenda, I focused on designing Malum in a specific kind of way. I focused on longer eyelashes, skinny but not lanky build, and a serene but confident expression.

We agreed onto a black person design with tied back hair because of how most fairly mainstream stories that involve a human looking personification of death often use a Caucasian or East Asian design to ensure "peak attractiveness." So we agreed to go a different direction.

Design is still in progress. I want to streamline the design more since I know Malum will be drawn a lot.