Aria Aloft

Ikadi's new design! She still is sort of a dreki, but more of the knucker type :heart:

Before I started redesigning her, I was actually still content with how her design looked, but I was very unsatisfied with how it meshed into her genetic heritage... or more accurately, how it didn't at all. I spent months (I think it was February actually) trying to thoughtfully explore how her design, so it would work with the dragon lineage I have established for her, incorporate aspects of said lineage that were not thought out at the time I made her previous look, and continue to improve on the design in general. Along the way, a lot of features were dropped, like those air drag ears, and new ones that I hadn't anticipated came to be, like that fun facial spike/horn, as I worked out what I wanted her strengths to be, as well as weaknesses, because she's steadily moving out of the realm of s00per c00l good-at-everything Mary Sue- because characters are boring AF without weaknesses and she was lacking in the field, let none say that there is no benefit to sitting on a character for a few years haha.

Another thing I did was simplify her design- instead of having 2 sets of stripes, she has one that has 2 colors, which makes a big difference, as well as things like making them symmetrical in several spots, implementing patterns... I'm still a glutton for punishment when it comes to designs, but I am improving haha. In this piece specifically, I was having fun with that long noodle of a body she has. It came to my attention that my gallery is almost devoid of anyone in flight (it happens when 1/2 of your kids are too young to fly, and 1/3 of the other half is wingless, woops), so this is part of my effort to combat that~ Also, morning lighting is fun too.

Art and Ikadi (formerly Khat) belong to me