6, 7, and 10 for Talia (and an additional character of your choosing)!
Oooh, these will be fun to answer for! :D For my additional character, I think I will go with Hestia, since she was the first character that I did a concept sketch of^^
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6. What was the though process behind their appearance? Did you go mostly for the aesthetic or are there other reasons they look the way they do?
Honestly, for all of the firstborn princesses from my story, their very first designs were made in this elementals design/dress-up game back in 2019 lol. I can't remember if they were made after I had started getting ideas for the story or not, but they were used as the starting points for when I eventually started working on and developing their characters more.
Because of that, my very first intentions were probably for aesthetic reasons, but I have made a lot of intentional choices as I have updated all my characters throughout the years! For Talia, the first major design choice was for her hair. Her hair is a natural silvery-white color, to almost resemble clouds in a way and be a good base for her to then dye her hair all sorts of colors. The current hair color she has is an all-over salmony-pink color(as I found it to be a pretty color on her), but she has experimented with a ton of different hair colors and color styles over the years! I changed her birthmarks to be only on her hips(they were originally along the full-length of both sides of her body), to help declutter her design a little bit. Her updated outfit is mainly from me just working on the fashion aesthetics for all my characters more, but shorts or pants are a must because she hates wearing skirts or dresses(part of me wanting her to be a feminine/fancy tomboy), and sleeveless tops to show a little skin and be confident in how she looks!
One thing that has remained a constant with her design throughout the years is her giant gold hoop earrings and armbands! I don't remember why exactly, but the big hoop earrings have always been a staple for her design, that I can't see her without! I think it could have been because I hadn't drawn too many characters with such big earrings before, but it works for her character as she is someone who is confident with how she looks and doesn't care about appearing "extra", as she knows what she's capable of! Same reason as to why she tends to wear and layer a lot of jewelry with her day-to-day looks.
Speaking on her earrings, but the rest of her piercings were chosen sometime a few years ago when I was working on piercing canons for all of the royal kids, chosen mostly on vibes at the time. I already saw her as a big fan of hoops, so I thought multiple kinds of hoop piercings would suit her. I generally see piercings as more popular in Arian, so her having multiple piercings fits both that and what I thought of her style(and my own biased taste in piercings lol). Her septum, philtrum/medusa, and navel piercings were all also chosen purely as I thought they suited her vibes and energy. Her one tattoo was also eventually chosen because I thought it would fit her vibe and bring another fun visual element to her design. The sun + moon combo was chosen because I always liked seeing those types of tattoos(as common/cliche they might be), but also fits with the air element and them being celestial bodies found in the sky(as I see celestial motifs like that also being pretty popular in Arian). The dangling cancer constellation is because that is her zodiac sign, but is also slightly based off of this one art piece I did in high school! It was drawing on coffee-spilled paper, with my drawing being of a crescent moon, multi-colored rose, and my mom, sister, and youngest half-brother's zodiac constellations dangly from the moon(with glue-on gems in place of the stars).
(This is the most current full-body bio-reference picture of her, from 2022. The art may be a bit old at this point and could use some small tweaks to her design, but otherwise this is still a good representation of how she looks!)
7. What is an aspect of their appearance that you like the most?
Oooh, this is a really good question lol. Honestly, I think I would say either her piercings or her layered jewelry looks! Her piercings were among my favorites to have figured out back in the day, especially as I could play around with her love of hoops and gold jewelry~ Her other jewelry has always just been fun to draw too, especially as it brings me out of my comfort zone a little bit by getting to accessorize my characters more.
10. What is their main character arc in the story? Where do they start and how do they develop? Do they get a happy ending or is their story a tragic one?
This is quite the interesting question because her character concept is a bit complicated. She is the titular "lost rainbow", as it is her capture early-on in the story that inspires the other main characters to work together to find her(while working on their own issues on the side). As such, she is MIA for the majority of the story and doesn't really get a "seen" character arc, so her story has always been intended to be a tragic one. I can't say much yet on what she will be like if/when she gets found, but she starts out as this character who, despite knowing her life is very much in danger, is still trying to live hers to the fullest and mask her fears as indignation at not being allowed outside of the city limits.
6. What was the though process behind their appearance? Did you go mostly for the aesthetic or are there other reasons they look the way they do?
Her answer starts out the same way as Talia's above, in that I originally first made her in the elements dress-up game lol. Her design was actually the first one I made in it, and at the time she was the main character, before I eventually worked on the rest of the characters and story.
In her initial few full-color drawings her hair was in a bun, I think to have her hair further up and away when she is in her armor. Eventually I brought back the long fluffy ponytail, and settled on giving her fluffy, straight-across/classic bangs, as I went back-and-forth on it the first few times I drew her. Her nose shape wasn't intentional at first, but eventually I started noticing it was slightly different than the main two nose shapes I would draw, so I kept it as an aspect of her design to help her stand out subtly. She still has a lot of warm tones/shades, but she has brown hair and eyes to kind of "break away" from the typical orange-colors who usually see with fire-themed characters. I made her eyes be more of a goldish shade of light brown, to bring a little more of that warmness to her eyes. Same with the tips of her hair being lighter shades of brown, to also subtly represent flames with how they have different shades/colors.
One update I gave to her design back in 2022(when I remade the main characters' refs) was some freckles across her nose! I always tended to give some to both her and her older brother whenever I made them in picrews, but I decided to make it a permanent feature of their designs! I just thought it would be natural if they had some, due to the hot and sunny climate of Feor. I also just realized this as I looked back on the dress-up game designs, but it looks like she had freckles back then too? So it was always meant to be lol.
Her generally wearing mostly black was(and still kind of is) for the aesthetic, but I also think it serves both as a nice contrast against the warm colors of fire, and serves a function! While wearing black and other dark colors have mostly been known to make a person feel more warm with the heat, when there is a breeze it can actually help you feel more cool. I also made black and silver the main royal colors for Feor, but while she will also wear some other colors, she still generally prefers black for her own aesthetic.
I think one last main thing to touch on with her appearance is her piercings and tattoo! She only has piercings in her ears, but she does have several of them! Kind of like with Talia, I just thought they would suit her vibes, but I also thought they really suited her character in general with some of the other things I have going on for her! Her tattoo doesn't get shown much because it is on her back(in-between her shoulder-blades), but it is of a fancy sword done in traditional black-and-gray with full-color flames surrounding/swirling around it. The sword is because swords are so important to her and a big motif for her character(as she is one of the top swordswomen/people in general in Feor), and the flames represent her Feorian heritage.
(This is only her half of the original drawing, but this one from the beginning of last year is the best representation I have for how she currently looks!)
7. What is an aspect of their appearance that you like the most?
Her hair~! Her hair has always been super fun for me to draw, not only with the shape of it(and her being one of my few characters with these kind of bangs), but with the color of it too! Although the color gradient is only on the tips of her hair, it is always fun for me to color and blend in, and I think it is a key feature of her design that helps her stand out!
10. What is their main character arc in the story? Where do they start and how do they develop? Do they get a happy ending or is their story a tragic one?
Hestia's main character arc has her join her older brother after his biggest secrets get revealed not on his own terms. She knew as soon as she heard about the incident that there would be a lot of backlash and people looking for him, and not knowing what would happen after he flees their kingdom for a brief bit, she joins him. Even though it would be for her own benefit to stay behind, she tags along with him in leaving because, she wants to take the turn in being the protective sibling for once. Her character development throughout the story has her learn to loosen up and come out of her shell more, and become more open-minded as she learns more about her brother than she thought she knew. She starts out as someone not good with people or showing her true emotions, to someone who embraces new dynamics, slowly lets her walls down, and takes a more proactive and protective stance when it comes to those closest to her.
