#WeeklyEvent52

For the weekly event challenge, I chose #WeeklyEvent35 aka talking about character evolution!

I'm a Multimedia Arts major irl, so I'm very ionate about improving my artworks. I'm also a fan of making OCs and stories, so I take a lot of things into consideration when deg a character (personality, backstory, setting, etc.).

It's gonna be a looooooong post. Feel free ignore my art ramblings if you're not into it, and scroll down to see the artworks  :ok_hand:

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So when I was recruited by my friend for our D&D group, I already had a design ready. It was an AU for my OC, so I decided to use the design since I was pretty proud of it and it'll suit the world much better.

I didn't really have a solid backstory nor personality in mind when I pitched her in. Hell, I didn't even have a name for her. But I did have a few ideas I wanted for her that I stick by even now. And those are:

1. I want her to have a questionable sense of morality

2. That she can punch people when she heals them

Obviously, I wasn't taking things too seriously lmao. I just wanted to have a LOT of fun causing chaos. My friends and I were all pitching in on our ideas for our characters a few days before our first session.

To sum it up: DM suggested Stella should be the older sister + partner-in-crime of an NPC from another campaign of his. They're in the corpse trading business in a desperate attempt to get cash. Stella was the supplier while her brother Fanta delivered them to their client. I thought it was a pretty cool idea if she's a cleric of a cult/church that reveres and worships Death, and that's where she gets plenty of corpses from.

So I decided to add Gothic elements to her, but I still kept her colorful because:

A) I love her color scheme

2) It's an homage to Aposematism aka when animals are brightly colored to signal predators that they're dangerous.

I changed up her hairstyle, face, and body type so she doesn't look like my OC.

Then taking into consideration that I want her fighting style to have a lot of punching and kicking, so I decided to give her weapons and slight armor made out of bones. After that, we finalized the concept of her domain. So we settled with Grave, and her goddess presided over Beauty, the Moon, and Death.

That's why I added designed a moon as her holy symbol, and gold accessories to her. Then I did a really quick doodle on MS Paint to show my friends lmao. I also wanted her spiritual weapon to be channeled through the bones she carries, so I had her be decorated with bones hanging out from gold chains.

This was mostly her in-battle outfit though.

So, I also made a really simple cleric uniform for her whenever she needs to do cleric duties. Which didn't happen... because her Church blew up in session 0 :pensive: :punch:

This was my first portrait of Stella when the session started.

As sessions went on, Stella's design changed and got a lot more simplified as I got used to drawing her.

Her horns became darker. The sorta transparent thingies hanging on her back disappeared, and her gold scales became more like gold freckles that glows.I also made her skin and hair darker. And when we determined her tiefling variant (which is pretty important lore-wise), I gave her longer ears to give her a more impish/devilish look.

The sessions went on a span of several months in-game, so Stella's hair got longer as it went on. All the colorful parts of her design got darker (lipstick, nails, etc.) as the sessions started to become darker for her. I also simplified drawing her eyes, so drawing expressions can be easier!!

I also redesigned her cleric uniform as time went on.

Currently, we had a season finale of sorts. Now, before this happened, I already had an outfit for Stella months ahead when we go to a certain location. With how the sessions were going, I thought Stella would become a lot more darker, so I made a design accordingly.

I still based it highly on her Church's aspect. Now after the season finale, I had to change revise it to hell and back. Long story short: Stella became the champion of a trapped celestial with time-bending powers, as well word started going around of her acts of heroism throughout the sessions.

With that in mind, I gave Stella's season 2 design a lot more gold to showcase her newfound alliance with the time celestial, as well as to show she's become a lot more heroic vs Session 1. She still kept certain aspects of her planned design (bone armor, darker coloration, etc.) to show she's still attached to her Church. I also changed the style of the coat so she'd look more regal/playful vs edgy.

WIP/Proof: