[Image ID: a digital drawing of an alternate universe version of Blaze the Cat, from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Behind her is a strange, almost angelic creature, glowing with fiery light. Despite the digital medium, the colors and shading have a blotchy, paper-y texture to them. Everything is cast in a fiery red-orange hue.
Blaze is poised in the air as if mid-jump. She has one leg extended and the other bent beneath her. Her hands are balled into fists and surrounded by fire. She looks to the side with a scowl, fangs showing. Her long tail curls around and under her like a live thing. Six red triangles underscore her eyes. On her forehead is an oval red jewel. It is cracked, like a bite has been taken out of its top right.
For her outfit, Blaze's top resembles her canon design, purple with long sleeves, white cuffs, and a gold necklace. Rather than her usual white leggings, however, she instead wears white pants with a slit down the side, allowing them to flap loosely around her ankles. A gold crown-like band ties her feathery hair back in a ponytail, and a red sash is tied around her waist. White feathers are on her ankles, and her feet are white, bird-like talons with dustings of purple scales.
Behind Blaze is Solaris, a being with a body plan similar to Blaze's but alien, statuesque features. Cracks mark her edges, as if she is made of stone. She is primarily a pale yellow-white, like sandstone, gradating to a dark red at the ends of her limbs and tip of her tail. In the center of her chest is an empty hole, shaped like an emerald. It is pale blue. Her head is smooth and bird-like. Her "eyes" are large, angular slits of pure ruby. Three slits of blue lie under each eye, like tear drops. On her forehead is a mark like a gem split in half. The left half is pale red, the right half the same color as her eyes.
Her limbs are slender and tapering. Her hands have three claws each. Her legs end in sharp points, with no feet. Her tail is long and jagged, ending in a spade-like point. Seven red shards fan out from its tip, not connected to the tail by any physical tissue. In the same fashion, six long shards fan from her arms like feathers, and ten rays arc out from the halo-like horns on her head. Between their tips floats an oval jewel, cracked the same as Blaze's. The left side is faded red; the smaller right fragment is rich ruby.
Solaris's pose mirrors Blaze's, making it appear as if her halo and wings are Blaze's. Solaris's left claws rest on Blaze's shoulder, while her right hand cups Blaze's own. /end ID]
some fresh art for my old Rush of Flame AU, a Blaze-centric AU with lots of Rush inspiration, an almost entirely original setting, overly elaborate worldbuilding, a dash of Sonaze, for flavor. Blaze's design hasn't changed much, more the way I rendered it. Solaris's design has changed quite a bit. I wanted to make her like more inhuman, and I think it turned out really well. better look at each of them below.
[Image ID: the same two characters from above, but now separated into their own individual drawings, allowing a clearer look at their designs. /end ID]
as for why I drew this now, when I haven't touched this AU in at least a year... well, I was going to do an AU August Challenge, but I immediately fell badly off schedule. very badly. and so I decided that rather than go through the same struggle I did with my extremely ill-fated OCtober last year, I wouldn't try and scramble to finish the challenge but just. draw. at my own pace. when I felt like it.
no checklist. no self-imposed challenge or time limit. just drawing what I felt like, when I felt like it, and taking the time to make something I'm actually happy with rather than rushing to make something "finished". it's a novel concept and frankly? unnerving. what is this. don't like it. take me back to planners and to-do lists where I belong. /lh
