WIP Wednesday!
As there's no news on the fanfiction front (still patiently waiting for my BETA), I decided to share my other WIP early.
I do recall sharing that I was going for something crafty as an alternative to writing while I was finishing my master's thesis (currently waiting for the topic to be approved btw).
Soooo, here we go!
Allow me to introduce the first completed prototypes of Azrael and Soroush!
Emphasise on first 'completed' because the first set remained bodies only:
It took me a long time to find a fitting pattern.
Of course this meant digging deeper into the exact type of bird I was trying to imitate:
In ancient and medieval Persia, the most famous falcons used were the Saker falcon (Falco cherrug) and the Shaheen (a regional variety of the Peregrine falcon, Falco peregrinus babylonicus). Known as "black-eyed" raptors, they were prized for their intense speed and fearlessness when hunting larger birds and small mammals.
Tanaka's original (correct me if I'm wrong!) only specifies Shaheen which meant I started of with the peregrine falcon as reference:
But the pattern of the bodies just... Didn't hit the mark. That's why I started to amend the body before moving on. As you might see, I've changed the amount of white and also decided against the clean lines when doing colour changes as I feel it appears more natural to have it a bit rougher.
But before I went off to wings, feet and embroidery I thought to re-check some manga and anime references:
And compared to the peregrine I started with I felt like the Saker falcon might yet be the better reference still:
It's still a work-in-progress, though. You'll find Azrael looking quite... angry, I guess? This was my idiotic decision to add the safety eyes at the end and embroider after closing the body only, which basically made it impossible for me to get it done.
I still need to find a better solution for the yellow cross marking, though. And guess what? The pattern decided they wouldn't get a tail... So that's still on the list as well for improvising later.
But no need to worry, I've got yarn for about... at least 50 of these I guess (may have miscalculated at the beginning). So I'm sure you'll get to see a lot more of these!
