unsounded

Lady Ilganyag concepts

Added 2015-07-25 23:27:01 +0000 UTC

Though Lady Ilganyag is a very old character of mine, I almost never drew her before Unsounded and never really had more than a vague idea of her looks. Part of the reason for this was she largely existed only inside the minds of characters and could look however she pleased. This is too confusing in a visual medium like comics though, so I needed to hammer out a consistent design.

Here are a few very rough sketches that happened along the way. The first attempts (up top) looked way too human; like a tall lady in a doofy Halloween costume. All the bodyfeathers were neat but were too busy and wouldn't read well all in black anyway. This was also before I had the idea she would transform by erupting out of her bird form's beak, so that wasn't accounted for.

The second little drawing makes me laugh 'cause again, it just looks like a human in a mask. A toucan mask! She's just too precious and silly. I needed something fierce!

The third is much closer. The features get sharper, the beak is less literal and incorporates backwards into a very fitting sort of tiara/crown. And her hair gets huge and fabulous. Also getting closer to the inhuman proportions, with the lengthening neck, but I did end up ditching the busy scarring on her face.

The fourth is more or less there. She looks way less human, less sexy, more alien and yet also distantly vulnerable, with her powerless bony arms and her awkward anatomy. The fifth is a close-up and a bonus Sette.

Lady Ilganyag is reeeally difficult to pose. She's intentionally awkward in her "human" form. Her arms are too long and there are few ways for her to naturally rest them. She's tall, with her elongated neck, and can't look others in the eye well, so fitting her in a panel with a normal sized human is trickytricky. Good thing she very much prefers her bird form.