I wanted to start a new challenge of mine, which is to draw every single WOF book protagonists headshot in their cover style versus my personal design! (of which have been heavily affected by my own headcannons of the tribes LMAO!)
And of course, for every design I make, I'll be describing all the stylistic choices I ended up making. If you have any other questions about these design choices, don't be shy to put an ask in my inbox!!
So, starting off strong, we have the best boy, Clay of the Mudwings!
Most of Clay's design changes stem from my own personal interpretation of the Mudwing species. The most obvious being the antlers.
I believe that male Mudwings would have antlers as a type of sexual dimorphism; the bigger and 'prettier' they are, the more desired the Mudwing is by the populace! Of course, this comes with the drawback of being pretty visible whilst submerged in mud, so Mudwings usually drape long strands of moss and vines to cover up their antlers whilst hiding.
(Plus, they look cool)
The tusks are just cool af, and I've seen too many Mudwing designs with them that they're impossible to not include lmao! But if you're looking for a more practical reason, I can envision that Mudwing tusks are just extra weapons that they use for gorging prey and enemies alike. As the tanks of the dragon world, I feel like these are deserved!
I changed Clay's pallete to a darker brown, accentuated with greens and flecked with the amber that he's most known for. I've always believed that Clay had less amber in his design than his cover counterpart suggested; 'undertones' of amber means a lot less than 'his main scale colour'.
The beads around his horns are a gift from the rest of the DOD, most likely for some reason along the lines of 'So we can be with you wherever you go,' which was probably more or less Sunny's idea.
And of course, I added little gold freckles because he's a softie.
Hope you enjoyed my interpretation (and ramblings, whoops)!
