Continuing from my "Face Exploration" project, this is the final result of 2 and a half weeks of development for these two characters. It's interesting seeing how far they've come. They're supposed to be representations of two different social classes and living environments, one more urban and survivalist, the other quite lavish and frivolous. 

Lastly, I did a lineup that shows them both as they age, with their final designs being in the present, when the story takes place. Kahla was an outcast as a child, an orphan who became adept at climbing for her own safely, who then became resourceful and militant as a young woman, dreaming to climb up to a higher place in life (literally, the upper class lives on the higher ground in this world, while the poor and those unable to climb up are forced to struggle below). She starts a revolution for the oppressed lower class to rise up and climb to the lofty world above, but is captured and imprisoned. She becomes a martyr to those believing her dead, and a living legend who could still lead them to freedom to those believing she is still alive. She is locked away for 25 years. Unknown to her followers below, during those 25 years the people of the upper levels coax her into their lifestyle and their belief system She eventually assimiliates into the society she once revolted against, secretly giving in to her childhood dreams of living in the clouds. 

When the boy who idolized her as a child, Crow, finally succeeds in his lifelong mission to rescue her, what he finds is not the fearless warrior he expected, but a woman who has succumbed to temptation and manipulation, and who wants nothing more than to forget her past and stop the revolution.