Created with pen and colored pencil on a paper that is just slightly bigger than 8.5 by 11. Created as a series of character designs for an imagined 2D platforming game. This is the main character, Rysa, a dark fairy who was chosen by the Sword of Light to wield it. Because her race as a dark fairy will not let her use the full power of the sword, she goes on a quest to find others chosen by the sword to unlock its full power and save the land.

Completed Design Page

I wanted her to come off as innocent and cute, but then have her nature/race look creepy and evil. I wanted that to imply that she herself was a good person, while her dark fairy side was easily judged and hated by others unjustly. I wanted to human form to look more guarded and safe, where the dark fairy form to look brittle but powerful. Coming up with beetle like shells that look human until they open up to her wings was a lot of fun.

Outline

Update Sketch

This picture was done in Adobe Photoshop after creating the other. I received feedback in ways to improve the guarded look of the human form, and ways to make the dark fairy form look more creepy and brittle. Specifically, the wings of the human form are curved out more that before to look like armored shoulder and waist pads. The dark fairies inner bone/appendages are now coiled, and a main center body inside makes it look less like a figure's joins, and more like an actual connection between the head and the stomach. The shoulders on the dark fairy are also slightly spiked to look more menacing.