hey!!! while on my mass reblogging spree of your old art I noticed that there was a lot of other ocs and storylines dedicated to stuff other than SGZ! and the vast majority of it seems really thought out and planned,,,and so I was wondering if you could tell me more about them? (especially the moth guys and the bird knights and your tiger girl)
(if you lore infodump then I'll also lore infodump....stories for stories :D)
OOOHHH!!!! :D I'm delighted to hear my other stuff has piqued your interest as well, thank you so much! ^_^ Naturally I'll give you a bunch of info here, but there is a lot to talk about between multiple stories, so if you ever want me to elaborate on something else of mine or you have more questions about these ones, feel free to ask any time (but no pressure of course!) My OCs are one of my all-time favourite things to talk about in general, so I really appreciate your interest <333
(I'm definitely taking you up on that offer to exchange loredumps though, I wanna know what you've got cooking :D)
Since I'm primarily a character designer, creating characters that have stories that go with them is pretty much inevitable for me, as creating informed designs is basically my whole job, even for more "one-shot" concepts. That translates well to my personal work, as I've always loved creating stories and worlds too! Whether or not I turn each character/story idea into a full project depends on a lot of things, but either way I've always got one story or another tumbling around in my head at any given time xD
Starglass Zodiac is the only project I consider "active" right now in the sense that I'm not only telling the story via the comic, but I've also been focusing the most on its lore/world/characters leading up to now as well. SGZ is currently my most well-developed project as a result, but I'm glad that my other stuff still feels well informed too! :D The ones you've mentioned here have varying levels of development, and also varying sizes in their overall scope as well. I tend to switch between them from time to time to avoid burnout on one project. I often get carried away with all sorts of different story/lore things like these, but at least it's always fun!
I'll start with my tiger girl Nahra, as the story she's a part of is more of what I'd call a "story seedling" right now. I have a lot of individual scenes and character dynamics that I like so far, but I currently haven't settled on the larger narrative concept to tie it all together yet. That said, I do at least have a solid idea of Nahra's character :)
Her story is called Id Pariah, which focuses on characters who are shapeshifters. Everyone in this world has an id (rhymes with kid), a manifestation of their soul/identity that develops over time, much like their hosts. Though not in every case, ids tend to take an animal form with an elemental power, and Nahra's id is a white tiger with blue fire. Regardless of her level of transformation though, her right arm is always a tiger's paw, so she is classified as a "hybrid".
Nahra is spunky, outgoing, and can light up a room with her fire power and explosive attitude alike, but has a kind heart throughout. Though she can put her aggression into full swing when necessary, Nahra isn't as short-tempered or angry as she might seem. She's very stubborn, but is a generally laid-back and friendly person to be around. Casual, yet confident.
She doesn't go around picking fights, but definitely won't say no to one either! She's always itching for a good fight with a worthy opponent, so she spends a lot of time sparring with her fellow vagabonds or helping others train against her considerable power level. She gets injured often, but takes pride in her scars like little mementos, remembering the story behind each one.
Thanks to her tiger form and her father's line of work as a gryphon breeder, Nahra often finds more kinship with animals than she does people, believing they have more loyal hearts than most of humanity. That said, the few people she does connect with have a bond for life, and she will go to extreme lengths to protect them. Be they animal or human, Nahra will guard her friends and family with the ferocity one would expect from a tiger, though with a tendency to overextend herself in this regard. If she stays fully transformed for too long, she is more likely to lose control of herself, especially when angry or scared.
I like to think that she embodies the element of fire in both its negative and positive connotations; she does have the capacity to burn, blind, and destroy, but also has the intense passion, warmth and guiding light of fire as well.
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Now for the bird knights :D Appropriately, they belong to a story called Feather Knights! Though that is just one of several stories I have planned for a series called The Wing Knight Saga, which is basically my big "medieval fantasy worldbuilding" project (though most of my stories have a medieval fantasy slant anyway haha).
Discussing the entirety of Feather Knights/TWKS's concept here would take a really long time, but I'll at least clarify why some of the knights are themed after birds! They belong to one of the Three Great Kingdoms of this story's world: Eldrigar, Irivell, and Sundari
As you can see here, Irivell is the bird-themed kingdom, but they're each based on a wing type (bat/dragon wings, bird/feathered wings, and insect wings) hence the overall series name. I have and will continue to design knights for all of these and more! Truth be told, this series exists primarily because I have a lot of animal themed knight ideas and wanted a place to put them xD
The protagonist of Feather Knights is Milo Avaleigh, though most call him Snowy for his white hair and (later) his wings! Here's my most recent design for him :D
In this world, only those of royal status are given wings, thought to be a symbol of their power granted by the fallen gods. But when Snowy, someone with no royal connection at all, is given wings through a life-or-death situation, he is suddenly thrust into the kingdom's politics and tried for treason, forced to fight for his life almost immediately. However, through the Prince of Irivell, who is also the leader of the royal guard (the titular Feather Knights), it is later framed as an opportunity for Snowy to serve his kingdom as repayment for his "transgressions" against the crown. A lot of global unrest ensues as other non-royal wingbearers also come to light (including one of the main antagonists), the monarchy is challenged, and Snowy discovers more of his family's largely mysterious past to find answers about his own wings.
The heavy themeing surrounding wings is intended to have multiple purposes for these stories, one of which being the idea of flight representing both fear and freedom depending on how you define it.
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And now, the moths! I actually have two story concepts for these so I'm not sure which one you wanted me to talk about, but they're interconnected so I might as well discuss both! The first one is called Moth to the Flame and centres around Kiida, my archer moth character I've had since mid-2015. Here's her current design:
A cantankerous moth with a tongue as sharp as her arrows, and a perpetual scowl to match. Skilled in archery via her past military training, Kiida's aim is unmatched, but her skill does not come with a sense of camaraderie. Her ruthless speed and accuracy in combat make her quite intimidating, though her glare on its own is already the definition of "if looks could kill".
After a forest fire destroyed her home and separated her from her family, Kiida has been on a solo journey to find her way back, viewing any accompaniment as a hindrance to this goal. She uses her harsh attitude to ward off predators and companions alike, but eventually finds herself growing attached to the Z-Squadron (a group of aviator siblings she meets along the way) after repeated encounters and their leader's persistence with befriending her. Eventually they become her surrogate family, the siblings Kiida never had.
I haven't finished all of the updated designs for the Z-Squadron yet but here's Zander, Zeke and Zeria at least :) They're all loosely based on the lime hawk moth, with Zander resembling it the most (and yes they all have Z names haha, the others I have left to update are Zereth, Zeta and Zanth!)
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As for the second moth themed story, well, that one happened sort of by accident! I was thinking about Kiida's backstory a bit more and what may have influenced her specifically to become an archer, and I thought about making an in-universe magical girl parody called Captain Artemis (basically Sailor Moon but with moths, hence the name similarity). Even for a small part of Kiida's story, I would have needed to design Captain Artemis to some degree anyway, so I did!
But then I ended up loving her so much that I essentially "haha just kidding... unless?"ed myself into making her story its own thing x'D This happens sometimes (okay, all the time) where I'll create a logo for something just for fun, and that ends up turning it into something more! It'll still exist as fiction in MttF, but now exists independent of it too :)
I don't have a ton developed for the details of the story yet, but of course it will take heavy inspiration from the magical girl genre as a whole (I'm a big Cardcaptor Sakura fan myself :D) and so far I have designed her non-transformed self, her little magical companion, and her rival!
I have ideas for the main antagonists and some other important characters, but they don't have finished designs yet. I do have Apollo's companion in the rough colour phase right now though (her name is Soleil!) so maybe I'll finish that up soon now that I'm thinking about her again :D I want there to be a rivalry between Artemis and Apollo as an extension of the rivalry between the magical Moon/Sun councils that are trying to fight the main antagonists, but are too busy bickering to do it well. They'll have to put aside their differences if they want to succeed!
Starting the 2023 art train with a BANG! ❄️💥🔥
(one month into it lol) This was purely by coincidence, but I find it funny that I was working on a piece featuring my tiger and bunny themed characters right around the Lunar New Year switch between those two animals 😂 Happy accidents!
After a strong start with the line art, the devil was really in the details on this one. I kept going back and revising so many tiny aspects of it until it felt done, but it shaped up to be one of my favourite pieces to date! 🤩
I always seem to forget that I can do (and really enjoy doing!) angular art styles like this, but this series’s characters in particular seem to really take to it, so maybe I’ll incorporate it into the style for the series as a whole. Either way, I love thick and sharp line art. :D I really wanted to push the poses to keep the energy going too! I also took a bit of inspiration from the style I used for my Huevember Contrast pieces back in 2019, but upgraded it a bit here. Hope you like! <3
Available on my Redbubble!
This was the original concept of Nahra by @rileyomalley. This would have been her at the very beginning of our campaign, age 23. Posted with permission.
Probably the one and only time my art has ever been "topical" (as in I actually redrew the meme while it was still relevant lmao) but the opportunity to draw some funny expressions was too good to pass up xD
Thought about putting this one my sketch blog @sweet-star-sketches because that’s also where I put meme stuff, but I spent too long on this and I like it a lot so it’s going on the main blog lol
It’s the year of the tiger, so I had to draw my girl Nahra at least once this year! :D Coincidentally I was updating her reference sheet over the past while so I thought I’d finish it up now for the occasion. I’ve doodled her human form a few times recently, but an update to her tiger form was a long time coming. I’ve always liked the design, it’s a bit more stylized than what I usually do for animal forms anatomy wise, so I wanted to preserve that here. Hope you like! :)
