#ham rambles

Lloyd: From the start I knew I wanted Lloyd to be some sort of domesticated animal in contrast to everyone else being wild animals. I thought a dog, specifically a Shiba was a really good choice for him because of their golden fur and the breed being known for having some attitude, yet also being loyal and intelligent. My friends suggested to go further with him being just a Shiba and making him a wolfdog to represent his oni side. (Garmadon/Wu are Akita Inu + wolf, Misako is a Shiba) For my design I only wanted him to appear as a Shiba Akita mix, which he then has werewolf-like powers that turn him into the golden wolf. Also, you'll notice he shares some similarities with Kai and Nya with their patterns (face masks, undereye spots) which was 100% intentional being the RGB siblings!

Kai: I felt that Kai had to be a Canidae or at least a canine looking animal as it felt he couldn't be anything else really (I know Hyaenidae aren't but they look similar) I thought of multiple animals such as a wild dog, fox or coyote until my partner suggested an aardwolf which I firmly locked in on. I mean first of all come on.. the hair. I thought it fit really well as it's shown in Monstrosity that his hair is naturally flat and he likely adjusts his hair to be spiker/bigger as aardwolves do to appear more menacing. I gave his hair dark tips to both resemble aardwolf manes and his hair looking like its burnt or flames. Also, these animals prefer dry heat and never really go near water. I originally designed him to be much more tan but I really didn't like how it contrasted, so his final design is instead a shade of brown.

Nya: To match with her brother, Nya is also a Hyaenidae being a spotted hyena. I thought a canine/canine looking animal was also a really fitting choice for her, I didn't want her to be an aquatic animal as it felt too obvious and didn't go along with the arc she has in possession. I originally thought of her being an African wild dog but I just wasn't feeling it since I wanted her to be in the same animal family as Kai. I didn't even know this until further research but spotted hyenas LOVE water and swimming. It felt really fitting to Nya finding out she can work with water as its not an obvious animal you'd expect to be associated with water, but makes sense when you realize they can. Also the hyenas spots remind me of bubbles! For her design, I wanted to give her that blue-silver tint these types of hyenas have with blue tips around her body after she merges with the sea.

Jay: I knew right from the start I wanted Jay to be a hare. Their lightning fast speed, legs that pack a kick to them (Jay using his legs quite a bit in battle) and also being (in my opinion) the physically weakest member of the team yet most certainly having a lot of fight in him just as these little guys do. I just felt it was too fitting. Since he gets upset quite easily I love to imagine he does the thing that rabbits and hares do where they stomp their feet in frustration LMAO. The fact that hares typically have spots on their bodies too also works really well with his freckles. For his design I really like the heterochomia headcannon for him which I decided to implement into his design, which I really like the outcome of in the result! My favorite part about him being a hare however, the ear-ponytail for his Dragons Rising design I could NOT pass up the opportunity to do that.

Cole: Cole is another character where I just knew he had to be one specific animal, and for him the black bear fit him so well to me. They're big strong animals who can absolutely fight when nessesary, yet are one of the most docile bears who like to eat sweet things such as berries. Cole is my favorite of the main six and one of my favorite traits is that he's often a pacifist who doesn't wanna argue such as with Jay in season 3 until he felt he had no other choice. That to me just reminds me of the black bear a lot, they don't want to hurt :( I think that the black bear also fits him with his main power being his super strength as these animals climb a lot and live in mountains (Master of the Mountain, get it!). For his design I wanted him to have a lot of hair that also connects to his neck, and of course his awesome green DOTD scar. (Also, I forgot why I put Jay in the concept sketches I think it was to avoid using similar browns LMAO)

Zane: Zane was the character I was most conflicted about to where I wasn't even sure what to make him at first at all. I thought a falcon was too easy because of the pet falcon he has, but then I thought about it a bit more..the flat head reminds me of his hair, the bridge between the eyes that connects to the beak also reminds me of his hair and them being strong, swift focused animals. Then to top it all of, I didn't just want him to be a falcon but specifically a gyrfalcon, which reside in colder climates, it just felt right with his powers. Since one of his weapons is (or was) a bow, I like to imagine he uses his feathers as the arrows. He's the one I took the most creative liberties on for the design, specifically with the feather patterns transferring over to his titanium design that glow. I don't draw avians at all so this was a really fun step out of my comfort zone!

I'm trying to match feels/aesthetics wise this Kid I got off chinese secondhand and I think I did ok!

I'll probably thin the lines out more, but I will also make his mask. :9