#vandagyre

couple of neopets christmas requests i did for the negg server (: i feel so jolly

Pastel, at least originally, sort of functioned similarly to colors like white, brown, or pink—a basic color swap that didn't change much about the pet itself. It did, however, have two things that made it more interesting: one, the pets were given light-colored lineart to go with the pastel look, and two, multiple accent colors were used instead of leaving the pets monotone, with palettes varying from pet to pet.

Probably the biggest problem pastel has suffered from as a color is that a lot of pastel pets... aren't really pastel. For example, the pastel Hissi is a good, light set of soft colors, while the pastel Lenny is Not That. When they actually nail the concept, it looks good—but when they don't, it's pretty underwhelming. It can also lead to problems like the pets looking too similar to other colors, such as the pastel Grarrl and Gelert just looking like fairly normal blue basic colors with only a few minor differences.

However, there has been a bit of a shift in the color in recent years. First, we've seen variations that add a lot of colors and even additional or different markings to accomidate for colors. Examples include the pastel Kyrii and Bori (highlighted below) and the always-popular pastel Kau. This is a nice way to make the color a bit more distinct while staying with the theme.

Another shift has been to add gradients to the color, which is done on pets like the Flotsam and the Usul. These pets often look gorgeous, though they do start to feel like their own thing sometimes and a little less overly pastel-y. Still, once again, it's a nice way to make the color just a bit more unique.

Pastel didn't exist pre-customization, so there's nothing to compare there.

Favorite Species:

Bori: Outside of looking pretty pastel-ish, with light tints and soft colored lineart, the pastel Bori shorts an entire back plate of rainbow pastel colors, with those colors being used for the claws, eyes, and ears as well. It's kind of rainbow-ish but not in a way that could ever be confused for the actual rainbow colour, and it's super cute all around.

Poogle: The pastel Poogle is one of the "gradient"-type pastels, and it looks very good. It sticks to a simple two-tone palette, but uses the gradient to flip-flop where the colors are on the body to define the markings. The lineart and colors chosen are also fairly light and soft.

Kyrii: The pastel Kyrii goes the extra mile by adding two additional streaks of color to its mane. It would've been super easy to just make the mane one color and move on, so I appreciate the extra effort here. The colors also look very nice together. The blue lineart could've stood to be a smidge lighter, but aside from that, I really like this one.

BONUS: The pastel Vandagyre is another "rainbow"-ish pastel pet, this time with a gradient as well. I really like the soft colors chosen, and the palette flows in a really pleasant way that still keeps the light colors in the forefront.

Least Favorite Species:

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Sand the Teak to a Treasonous Texture