yippee

to be fair, the acara is a weird point of comparison because i was referencing more complicated designs like the draik and elephante, and they also have more shading than the acara.

...but even compared to the draik, it feels off.

so I'm gonna do a second pass- I'm going to try messing with the colors, since i think the darkness of the shell is one of the things throwing it off, and a lot of pets species had a pastel phase in the early days of the site. might also try cutting back on how many shading layers there are- i was trying to keep things simple, but the end result is just too polished looking, haha.

there's also the chance that the lines and pose are just too modern looking. so if i can't get the effect i want by tweaking the colors and shading, i'll probably redo it entirely.