Reading your post I noticed that I made some terrible mistakes, one of them is that I forgot that I know Bleach series, but some people do not, and now I know why I did not get answers, I also forgot to explain my point of view of the project in a clear way, so I’ll try it now.
My goal is to come up with something near a cosplay, but I’m not using a specific reference for her and others, I followed a first idea of how I imagine them, and how they would be based on what I know of the series and its characters, history, lifestyle, and the like, but I do not have much experience in the composition of characters, so I took a step bigger than my leg in this project X.X
I decided to ignore the specific references, such as copying a face or body to finish the projects, she is my Frankenstein, with hundreds of different references, so I made a body based on my initial design, so slightly thick arms and more robust appearance, rough hands and some muscle definition on the shoulders and upper back (sword fights with strange creatures, spells, and a lot of movement with arms) or even a trace of life as menial jobs, as even women who work with kitchen has this tendency to have chubby arms.
About her:
She was a street child on Soul Society, she has been used in some laboratory experiments because of it. She is a broken inside woman, insecure, fearful, who lies to himself trying to be someone else, someone who has learned to live with its ‘advantages’ (beauty for example), she’s the kind of girl who can seduce a man and stab him in the back to finish a job, betray or lie to get something while she is loyal to its objectives and friends.
She is also a stereotype inside the series, she’s the hot blonde who likes to get drunk, it’s funny and sexy, the change you talked about:
Actually it seems as though they did some edits to her character design to make her less sexy and more “cuter.”
It was a change in history when the first season’s main story ended and she lost her first beloved and only boyfriend in her arms (can shed a tear if you want T.T [lol]), they changed her to fit it the new story (at least I assume so), the series also had a strong shift of art after the end of the first season (season 1 = long hair, season 2 = short hair), if you watch old episodes (prior to 315 if memory serves me correctly) the characters has a heavier look and things are very limited, they did now drawn more stylized and free.
I really like her within the series because she is so complex and full of human nature and human dilemmas, such as fear, love, lies, desires and more, unlike others that look like Captain America with the classic phrase: “Let’s save the day” she enchants me because it is difficult to find this kind of deep emotions within art projects, but is also very difficult to express it in his face with inert expression.
About my vision of the project:
One of my desires is simply to ignore the overall look that people would have with the characters, do something that ‘might’ be instead of something that ‘should’ be (if that makes sense to anyone but myself), that’s why I decided to use a more ‘filled’ face with big cheeks instead of a leaner and sexy face, as Hollywood actresses like Milla Jovovich and use a different style, a more broad and bulky face like Amy Lee for example.
I understand the weight compensation of human body, the bone structure, muscles, fat layers, 5 layers of skin, and aesthetic interference (veins, vessels, arteries, scars, deformations) and how our body naturally tries creates a distribution to the rest of the body and also adapts to deformations such as those caused by the pants down the waistband, which generate a belly on both sides of the front belly, a larger chest to giant breasts, for example, or “gradient” that exit the top to the hips until they are better relocated, but as you said:
however that may start clashing with the aesthetic you’re looking for.
with the first thought I have in the original body, I leaned in some genetic exceptions girls with American style with huge breasts with a more lean and thin body, so I ended up following this comic book character stereotype.
I was thinking of leaving that facial expressions to show of emotions, but it was so childish, I ended up even forgetting the natural appearance of people when they are inert, and it really has a sadder traced considering childhood, current life, personality and other elements that build her, but before your comment I really had forgotten about that, I will try to change it a bit, working on his chin to make him slightly thinner and also examine the overall structure of her body again, and her butt offcourse >=P
Thank you for your answer, realy helped me a lot, I hope to have your contribution again when I made some retouches (maybe next week).
And I’m sorry the long answer and Google translator English.