Lazuri’s Lounge

[lazuriiiiii]

Cyrira posting🤤

[lazuriiiiii]

Pix/ lucky sketch dump

[odekoyma]

At their job

[lazuriiiiii]

Cyrira posting

[yokemaxxing]

might delete later because it’s uglay. …happy Mother’s Day featuring Peril and Scarlet.

[chow0w]

LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[everydaylouie]

St. Jerome

[damegotit]

photog: flexdame

Detroit Renaissance Center, closing as of Feb. 2026. Photos taken Jan 2026.

[chow0w]

oh i just LOVE your style!!!! if you wouldn't mind, could you explain how you go about designing and what your artistic process is with dragons specifically?? I love your lady jewel design the most!!!!!!

Of course, and thank you so much! @aldershadows also asked this question, and I hope I can give you a comprehensive answer, and will be taking this oppurtunity to create a one-and-done design tutorial to answer any similar questions that may come up in the future.

Bear in mind that I'm not a professional, and I'm not looking to dissuade people from following traditional techniques or other advice. This is purely a discussion of MY process, and what I consider to be good/bad design technique.

Where to Start

There are six important conceptual 'principles' I like to consider when in the initial stages of (Re)designing a character: Story, Personality, Aesthetic, Interpretation, and canon/fanon appearance. Fully understanding these principals can help you understand a character, which will make both your life and design better.

Story: What is this character's actual story? What's their lore? Where do they start, and where do they end up - and most importantly, where does your design fit into that timeline? When I design characters, I try to be clear on exactly what part of their journey they are on. (Ex: blaze and the coat -> sandwing succession war)

Personality: This one is pretty easy - what is your character like, and how do they present themselves to the outside world? When you make a character and show them to the world, everything in the canvas is interpreted by the audience: even down to simple details like posture or background. Treat it like an opportunity to show off as much of your character's personality as you can.

Aesthetic: Aesthetic plays the most important role of all: it's job is to make sure your design is cohesive. It can be a common theme, pattern, color pallet or shape - as long as it reoccurs throughout a design, it's good. Use aesthetics to amplify the other principals, and figure out how to make it *look* nice as a secondary goal.

Interpretation: This one is specific to redesigns, but could also be applied to OCs - I like to consider my personal interpretation of a character: the media I see, the opinion I have... Multi-animator projects, other fanart pieces and personal quirks make up my interpretation of most WoF characters. You don't always need to incorporate your interpretation, but it's good to have in mind.

Canon/Fanon appearances: If you want to design and OC, ignore this. If you're redesigning an existing character, it's useful to consider how your audience views them - for example, most of us collectively agree on a few key design aspects of most characters. That doesn't mean you have to follow those conventions, but keep in mind that they may make your character more or less recognizable. You can also call on the other principles of design to make up for any leap-of-faith redesign choices you make.

Narrow It Down

Now that you're thinking, it's time to narrow those ideas down! Be aware that sometimes, less is more: you might have a ton of cool concepts, but your design will look BAD if you can't stay cohesive. The number of different ideas that can co-exist in one design varies a lot by preference and similarity, so be evaluative when doing this. If you follow my blog, you might notice I tend to walk the line between detailed, cohesive design and overwhelming animator repellent. To combat this, I try to step back often and consider if I've gone too far.

At this stage, it's good to make notes or small sketches - anything to get your ideas down.

Experiment

Test your ideas out with more sketches - alter, add, subtract... whatever your heart desires. Experimentation is the best way to discover your specific design tendencies, as well as breaking new ground and stepping out of your comfort zone. The more you experiment, the quicker you'll improve. This is usually the point where I start testing out different patterns, since those are the main highlight of most of my redesigns. Pertaining to dragons, it's always a good idea to test out different shapes - especially wings, spikes, arms and tails, which are generally the most customizable features of a character. Looking to other artists for advice/inspiration is also a great tactic, but be sure to follow the 80/20 rule of originality within your designs!

Judge yourself (not literally)

Evaluating your designs as you make them is always a great idea, but sometimes you need multiple tests/sketches in order to know what you REALLY want. Compare your experiments - what do you like about them? What do you dislike? Which are more faithful to the character, and which ones confuse you? understanding the flaws in your design can help you to overcome even the biggest challenges.

I've used Kinkajou to show how important evaluation is: despite being my favorite character, she has proved exceedingly hard to redesign (to my satisfaction,) even with multiple attempts from this year and the last. She might not even be released by the time this post airs - but with the power of critical thinking and good evaluation, her design has gradually improved over my last few attempts.

Stay on your toes

Did you think you were done? Did you think it was over? NO. Life doesn't get easier just because you made it past the idea stage. When you have your final thoughts and want to get chugging with your reference page/illustration, make sure to stay alert! Keep evaluating, keep experimenting, and make sure to stay mindful of what you do! One of the more common issues I have is that I turn my brain off while I draw, and then slowly my designs drift further and further away from the idea I actually wanted to put down. Asking yourself questions along the way can help to sharpen your design, and train your mind to think more artistically.

It's always good to take a once-over of your final product: check for errors you might have made, and think about whether or not your design still looks good. Does it show personality? Is it consistent?

If you do find that your end product isn't what you really imagined, don't despair - there are plenty of lazy tricks you (And I) can pull to string things back together again. Using gradient maps is a great way to fix your colors, and simple filters like 'overlay' (procreate) can help to neutralize your pallet. My favorite trick is to use the 'curves' tool (procreate) to make certain colors darker, in the case that I feel my design doesn't use a wide enough range of light and dark shades. I also like to turn saturation down if I think there's a color problem, to see if it's actually my pallet or if I'm using too many colors with the same tone.

Keep Going

My design strategy relies on confidence. You won't be able to improve if you doubt that you can! So, my most important piece of advice is to keep going, no matter how fast or slow you seem to make progress. My second most important piece of advice is not to compare yourself to other artists - focusing on their progress is neglecting your own.

To everyone who made it this far, thank you so much! Posting here truly is an amazing experience and I adore you guys. Sorry if this got a little out of hand. I hope this was helpful to you and anyone else with the same question, as well as being a useful resource to other artists in the future! As always, my askbox is open to any and all questions + requests for redesigns!

( ´ ω ` )ノﾞ

[chow0w]

chow ily I need some help

how tf did you design ur lil persona dog thing TvT

I see so many artists with personas or representations but idk how to make one and for once reddit is no help

ok this isn’t my main thing but I’ll try. Of course, the usual disclaimer: take everything I say with a grain of salt! Unfortunately I am not a superhuman graphic designer engineered in a lab, and the advice I offer may vary depending on context + function of your ‘persona.’

For example, a persona you make for fun doesn’t need to be anything in particular, since it exists for your enjoyment… but a sona made to represent your art account/company/whatever should probably be more thought out.

now, without further ado…

before you even touch a pen or pencil, it’s important to think about what you want. There are a couple different elements of design which are important to consider when thinking of mascots or logos (which is essentially what your persona is.)

So let’s take a look at them…

reflecting your brand

when I say ‘brand,’ not talking about anything necessarily business related. Your brand is how you want to be perceived by the public. Are you a fun art account? Are you a critic? Is your vibe calm or energetic? Your persona should reflect your brand in some way, whether it be subtle or obvious. For example, a core part of my content is drawing characters with extreme beauty or extreme ugliness: which you could consider to be part of my ‘brand.’ By extension, my persona should also have the capacity for dramatic glow ups/downs.

Looking Good

this one is pretty straightforward, but you should want your persona to be visually appealing no matter what aesthetic it is. If that chosen aesthetic is ‘unapologetically hideous,’ you should make sure your persona is the best, most disgusting pile of trash in the landfill. This is best accomplished by having a strong silhouette, theme and color palette.

Unique and Recognizable

The universal artistic struggle of being ‘not like the other sonas’ is something we all deal with, but never truly escape. Unless you’ve seen something no-one ever has before, You can throw away the idea of having a completely original persona. Just try and make yours different enough. Usually, changing one thing from a widely-used concept makes you unique enough to be recognized (and that’s the end goal here!)

Make Them Easy to draw

last but not least, making your sona easy to draw is important. Mostly for your sanity… but also because they might end up in unexpected places. Think about the following while you design your sona:

If you wanted to make them a plushie, could you?

what about a sticker?

If you ever started streaming, could you use them as a vtuber/pngtuber model? How many toggles would they have? How many toggles can you AFFORD them having?

would you be able to make different emojis out of them, or are their facial features too complex/immovable?

How many times could you draw them before you go insane?

How many times would you need to refer to a reference while drawing them?

I hope this was helpful in some way, shape or form! My persona certainly isn’t without fault, so this has definitely been a reflection for both of us..

[chow0w]

first of all. your art. STUNNING. HAS MADE MY JAW DROPP SO MANY FREAKING TIMES AAAAAAAA ALSO THE REDESIGNS?? THEYRE SO COHERENT AND COLORFUL AND CLASSY AHGKCLK--

second!! i was recently watching the glory redesign speedpaint and i was curious about your coloring process-- it ALMOST looks as though it's all on one ish layer though that would be truly insane. i recently started using procreate for digital art and coloring digitally is something i really struggle with, would you mind explaining your process a bit? anyways apologies for the ramble and thank you sm for sharing your astounding art!!!

it might seem crazy what I'm bouta say...

On a serious note, thank you so much! I DO use one layer: it started as a habit of extreme laziness, but eventually I realized using one layer would force me to become a more well-rounded artist with (semi) traditional painting skills - and now almost every redesign I have has been done on one or two layers! (My more detailed pieces can be anywhere from 5-7, mostly because of filters. I render on one layer for the same reasons.)

I'll be using Squid's redesign to explain how I accomplish this! Ignore his ugly WIP mouth. I changed it later.

Usually I start by using the 'fill' tool to color in the basic underscales - With this design I did the pattern first instead, but it really doesn't matter what order you go in! I like to draw right on the lineart layer because it makes it easier to use fill, and I want to do as little work as physically possible.

Magical!

Now I do the same thing, blocking off anything I want to fill and dropping it straight in. You can see the sketch interrupting it here, and all I do to fix that is go back over it later by hand.

Now that I have all the base colors down, I go back in by hand and spice things up a little bit with some patterns. When trying to create textures/fluidity, I usually just smudge the two base colors together until I get a transitional shade and use that around the areas of highest contrast. In this case, that area was Squid's shoulder padding.

dots everywhere! This is easier with a round brush, but I'm stubborn.

I added more dots, and used the lasso tool to select the area around Squid's foot. From there, I used a moderately sized soft airbrush to create the gradient. Just throw it straight on if you don't care about the little details, or go back in and redraw your patterns as needed!

Here, I redrew the lineart as needed and added a few small details to the talon.

Finally, I keep repeating this process with each limb! There's no rhyme or reason to why I don't just do the whole body step-by-step, and honestly it's more about habit than logic. This technique might seem kind of insane at a glance (time-elapse,) but I promise it DOES work! Personally I think its most helpful to artists migrating from traditional painting to digital art, or (alternatively) artists who use too many layers out of nervousness/fear of failure. Sometimes you just have to throw yourself in the pool.

[shiftywing]

[iniro]

my color tips pdf is now available ! i had a lot of fun with this, i hope you enjoy ^^

BUY HERE or HERE

[lazuriiiiii]

Darkstalker doing planks~

[chow0w]

Currently doing an art study of your artstyle because it’s so yummy. Could you do a brief break down of how you start a headshot sketch? Thank youuuu!

Thank you so much omg!! I like to get the bare bones (head and neck) down first - usually I’ll just start with a silhouette so I can change the face angle as needed, and add detail from there. I managed to find + slow down this Timelapse from one of my recent posts - my process is a little out-of-order since I forgot to draw Moon’s neck, but I hope it helps!

[rotten-m3]

Redoing my clearsight design because I love her sm and the old one was kinda ass

(Old one under the cut)

[chow0w]

oh i just LOVE your style!!!! if you wouldn't mind, could you explain how you go about designing and what your artistic process is with dragons specifically?? I love your lady jewel design the most!!!!!!

Of course, and thank you so much! @aldershadows also asked this question, and I hope I can give you a comprehensive answer, and will be taking this oppurtunity to create a one-and-done design tutorial to answer any similar questions that may come up in the future.

Bear in mind that I'm not a professional, and I'm not looking to dissuade people from following traditional techniques or other advice. This is purely a discussion of MY process, and what I consider to be good/bad design technique.

Where to Start

There are six important conceptual 'principles' I like to consider when in the initial stages of (Re)designing a character: Story, Personality, Aesthetic, Interpretation, and canon/fanon appearance. Fully understanding these principals can help you understand a character, which will make both your life and design better.

Story: What is this character's actual story? What's their lore? Where do they start, and where do they end up - and most importantly, where does your design fit into that timeline? When I design characters, I try to be clear on exactly what part of their journey they are on. (Ex: blaze and the coat -> sandwing succession war)

Personality: This one is pretty easy - what is your character like, and how do they present themselves to the outside world? When you make a character and show them to the world, everything in the canvas is interpreted by the audience: even down to simple details like posture or background. Treat it like an opportunity to show off as much of your character's personality as you can.

Aesthetic: Aesthetic plays the most important role of all: it's job is to make sure your design is cohesive. It can be a common theme, pattern, color pallet or shape - as long as it reoccurs throughout a design, it's good. Use aesthetics to amplify the other principals, and figure out how to make it *look* nice as a secondary goal.

Interpretation: This one is specific to redesigns, but could also be applied to OCs - I like to consider my personal interpretation of a character: the media I see, the opinion I have... Multi-animator projects, other fanart pieces and personal quirks make up my interpretation of most WoF characters. You don't always need to incorporate your interpretation, but it's good to have in mind.

Canon/Fanon appearances: If you want to design and OC, ignore this. If you're redesigning an existing character, it's useful to consider how your audience views them - for example, most of us collectively agree on a few key design aspects of most characters. That doesn't mean you have to follow those conventions, but keep in mind that they may make your character more or less recognizable. You can also call on the other principles of design to make up for any leap-of-faith redesign choices you make.

Narrow It Down

Now that you're thinking, it's time to narrow those ideas down! Be aware that sometimes, less is more: you might have a ton of cool concepts, but your design will look BAD if you can't stay cohesive. The number of different ideas that can co-exist in one design varies a lot by preference and similarity, so be evaluative when doing this. If you follow my blog, you might notice I tend to walk the line between detailed, cohesive design and overwhelming animator repellent. To combat this, I try to step back often and consider if I've gone too far.

At this stage, it's good to make notes or small sketches - anything to get your ideas down.

Experiment

Test your ideas out with more sketches - alter, add, subtract... whatever your heart desires. Experimentation is the best way to discover your specific design tendencies, as well as breaking new ground and stepping out of your comfort zone. The more you experiment, the quicker you'll improve. This is usually the point where I start testing out different patterns, since those are the main highlight of most of my redesigns. Pertaining to dragons, it's always a good idea to test out different shapes - especially wings, spikes, arms and tails, which are generally the most customizable features of a character. Looking to other artists for advice/inspiration is also a great tactic, but be sure to follow the 80/20 rule of originality within your designs!

Judge yourself (not literally)

Evaluating your designs as you make them is always a great idea, but sometimes you need multiple tests/sketches in order to know what you REALLY want. Compare your experiments - what do you like about them? What do you dislike? Which are more faithful to the character, and which ones confuse you? understanding the flaws in your design can help you to overcome even the biggest challenges.

I've used Kinkajou to show how important evaluation is: despite being my favorite character, she has proved exceedingly hard to redesign (to my satisfaction,) even with multiple attempts from this year and the last. She might not even be released by the time this post airs - but with the power of critical thinking and good evaluation, her design has gradually improved over my last few attempts.

Stay on your toes

Did you think you were done? Did you think it was over? NO. Life doesn't get easier just because you made it past the idea stage. When you have your final thoughts and want to get chugging with your reference page/illustration, make sure to stay alert! Keep evaluating, keep experimenting, and make sure to stay mindful of what you do! One of the more common issues I have is that I turn my brain off while I draw, and then slowly my designs drift further and further away from the idea I actually wanted to put down. Asking yourself questions along the way can help to sharpen your design, and train your mind to think more artistically.

It's always good to take a once-over of your final product: check for errors you might have made, and think about whether or not your design still looks good. Does it show personality? Is it consistent?

If you do find that your end product isn't what you really imagined, don't despair - there are plenty of lazy tricks you (And I) can pull to string things back together again. Using gradient maps is a great way to fix your colors, and simple filters like 'overlay' (procreate) can help to neutralize your pallet. My favorite trick is to use the 'curves' tool (procreate) to make certain colors darker, in the case that I feel my design doesn't use a wide enough range of light and dark shades. I also like to turn saturation down if I think there's a color problem, to see if it's actually my pallet or if I'm using too many colors with the same tone.

Keep Going

My design strategy relies on confidence. You won't be able to improve if you doubt that you can! So, my most important piece of advice is to keep going, no matter how fast or slow you seem to make progress. My second most important piece of advice is not to compare yourself to other artists - focusing on their progress is neglecting your own.

To everyone who made it this far, thank you so much! Posting here truly is an amazing experience and I adore you guys. Sorry if this got a little out of hand. I hope this was helpful to you and anyone else with the same question, as well as being a useful resource to other artists in the future! As always, my askbox is open to any and all questions + requests for redesigns!

( ´ ω ` )ノﾞ

[chow0w]

my heart yearns to make long posts on irrelevant side characters and dragon fashion.

^^ Shaded sketch commission I did last(?) week. not wof.

Doooon't worry guys I'm not dead and I still love making those headcanons, comics and redesigns you guys (probably. hopefully?) know me for. I live by a strict 'if you can't do it with effort, don't do it at all' rule: which unfortunately tends to clash with my academic/college life schedule. I pride myself on the research and reading that go into those illustrations (especially the fashion ones!) and literally Will Not post unless I think I can do them justice.

MAYBE I deserve to be locked up but I feel like it's genuinely been easier to just learn animation and post on tiktok while I have to be an academic weapon. It's been really fun learning animation. I digress.

Either way, I miss dissecting these books and hope to get back into it when I have the time again! For now, you'll probably see a lot more doodles/oc stuff out of this blog, which will function a little bit like the cool kid club where I show you guys my exclusive WIPS and answer questions. Thank you for bearing with me!