#knrm_avatar_creatures

RETURN TO PANDORA MONTH

DAY 1 - MOUNT DESIGN (1.12.2024)

Ikran Series - Ngulya, Kxasi's Ikran

Name meaning - 'gray air' Bonded to - Kxasi of the Kxayltirey people Age / sex - nearing an older adult's prime, female About - Ngulya's psyche has a calming, comforting effect on Kxasi. She enjoys complex tasks that require good memory, making her an ideal companion to Kxasi, who is very ambitious and energetic.

Above: Only minimally shaded, mostly flat color reference missing the glow effects on the bioluminescent markings.

Above: Ngulya's bioluminescence in dim lighting

Above: Ngulya's bioluminescense in night lighting

History of Ngulya's design

Above: February 18th in 2023 - Here you also see Kxasi's old design. The purplish-gray look and orangeish/reddish bioluminescense have been a part of my vision for Ngulya from the very beginning.

Above: March 9nth in 2023 - Here is my first take for a full reference for Ngulya. This is the point where the pale head and neck became iconic traits to the otherwise dark purple design.

I've always been torn between oranges/browns and actual purples for many of the color areas in this design, as you see from that earlier color draft.

Above: This year, I wanted to finally make proper ikran templates for the sake of more comfortable designing of all my ikran characters.

This is an early version of the final template set I created, and two different drafts of Ngulya.

Sadly I never saved these drafts, so these are just badly compressed screenshots from my Bluesky and Twitter accounts.

The one on the right is my last draft before beginning work on the final one, as I started to be happy with the markings.

The orange one on the left of the 2nd image is not Ngulya, but a draft for another ikran entirely.

Above: For a very long time, I could not make the bioluminescent highlight markings fit anywhere into this design, so I almost called it 'done' in this stage.

The color pallette was more brown than purple. It was a really hard decision to tweak the pallette once more, so I could make it all good-looking with the highlight color.

About my thought process...

I create my ikran OC designs entirely via body/emotional/visual synesthesia. This intuitive process doesn't contain conscious thought, but rather letting an 'inner eye' show me things.

This method lets me get ideas I couldn't otherwise get, unlike when combining my old clichés in a calculated manner etc. Instead of such calculated process, instead I succumb to a more dreamlike intuition where my brain can just fire whatever.

For these ikran, I must feel like I am them, to create their appearances. For the same character, like Kxasi, even for a long period of time, I've been getting the same results with this process...

I imagine the na'vi during their 'Iknimaya' (or equivalent), the type of feeling I would have about them as a person, as if they stood in front of me.

Then, I imagine I'm indeed an ikran looking at them, - what kind of a mental and emotional being would I be, to feel particularly drawn to this na'vi? I imagine the feelings.

These feelings inform me of the ikran's whole design, as well as personality.

Kxasi's ikran Ngulya is a character I can understand, put myself into, imagine her feelings and personality/temperament from the inside, and how she'd feel even when connected with Kxasi's consciousness via tsaheylu.

I can also imagine how Kxasi feels connected to her.

Their personalities contrast each other. Kxasi is hot-headed and energetic, while Ngulya is a calming presence. Usually, Ngulya even discourages Kxasi's antagonistic impulses when they're connected.

However, if overwhelmed by the need to protect, Ngulya's mind will be drunken on quite the berserker's adrenaline, - also affecting Kxasi that same way. Their minds will melt into one demonic entity with the sole goal of turning someone into minced meat. This can be triggered by putting their loved ones or personal home etc. in danger.

Ngulya resembles my favorite, now-deceased dog Lola a lot by her personality. Her 'feel' is very much like what Lola was, even though I did not intentionally create her in Lola's image.

Admit it... Your na'vi/recom/avatar characters flying some ikran is like. One of the most peak things to see in art but also one of the most painstaking tasks to draw... Especially with multiple characters!

Still.... Sketching me up some Commander and Kxasi flying scenarios....

Associated headcanon:

Because Kxasi makes Commander's life slightly more interesting than usual, and has some learning difficulty issues in group training... Commander who has taken an interest and liking in this n00b gives him personal lessons which is a really unusually soft gesture of him to do with anyone...

Kxasi does not know it's special, but when he learns of that, he feels very smug and important about it.... Babygirl.. Imagine getting so personally tailored special attention from someone whose in-person time with anyone is like... Incredibly restricted due to how completely closed-off from other people they are.

Like bro you are the Chosen One.

Commander just kind of hovers over him as he watches Kxasi practice some air acrobatics in the more challenging notches within the Kxaylian floating mountains, feeling protective, and really bizarrely also sort of affectionate.

A fellow Kxaylian outskirts dweller, trying to make it here in the centre where most people got their spots via nepotism instead of real skill... Yes, Commander roots for Kxasi deeply, and respects his efforts.

(and yes characters are nonbinary transmasculine butch lesbians and I mostly use he/him pronouns for both)

RETURN TO PANDORA MONTH

DAY 6 - MOUNT DESIGN (6.12.2024)

Ikran Series - Flawng, Nantangven's Ikran

Name meaning - 'leathermoron' Bonded to - Nantangven of the Kxayltirey people Age / sex - mature prime, male About - Flawng is loud and boastful. He likes to display his strength, like an obnoxious hormonal stallion. Prone to fights. Very emotionally simple, as Nantangven's thoughts calling him "soup meat" don't hurt him at all, these mind images just won't touch a single brain cell in his head. Is a massive jerk to basically anyone who isn't Nantangven, - in which's company he is completely quiet and well-behaved. Yeah, exactly like an unpredictable ill-tempered stallion that can't be left unsupervised with anyone, ever, other than the one and only person who can handle him. Nantangven has had to pull a small child out of his jaws once. Flawng is like a pelican trying to gobble up anything that can't get away, and somehow he's the ikran who chose Nantangven... Who is one of the most level-headed dependable people ever. Nantangven feels like their whole life is a bad joke as it is, and this ikran adds up to said impression.

Above: only minimally shaded flat colors without the glow effects

Above: the bioluminescence in dim lighting

Above: night lighting

Concept art & design evolution

Above: This is the first-ever concept I made of Flawng, early in 2024.

Above: In November 2024, I made two new experimental drafts of Flawng's design. The intuition that I wanted him to be orange, persisted.

Above: I figured I needed to try coloring Flawng in more spontaneous sketches and poses to be more comfortable experimenting with colors and markings. With this revisit on the concept, I got very close to what it'd end up being like.

There are also small sketches of young Nantangven during the day he bonded to Flawng.

Above: One more try before getting to the template, this is when I considered myself ready!

Day 15 - MEMORY

My memory has indeed improved on all the ikran detail, so here is an ikran sketch page from memory...

Huge ref dump of my main Avatar OCs, Commander and Kxasi from the Kxayltirey tribe. I have a fuckton of lore and worldbuilding going for it all but haven't posted much...

The orange ikran is Commander's (the tall one).

The purplish is Kxasi's (the shorter one).

Kxasi is a subspecies of na'vi that specializes to life in heights. His kind is short and has muscular prehensile tails for grabbing onto things. The darker skin protects from higher exposure to sunlight at the heights they live in.

The Kxayltirey tribe lives on top of a massive plateau highland, separared from the jungle below by immense cliffs. In the skies of the Kxayl plateau, local floating mountains spread everywhere. Kxayl society utilizes both the plateau and the floating mountains for their resources. More illustrations later...

VIPERWOLF ADOPTABLE AUCTION (lineart and colors by myself) (buyers get a watermarkless, unfiltered transparent version with a color pallette reference of the design)

Starting bid - 17 USD Buyout - 28 USD (Payment taken via PayPal)

BIDS IN RBs!