These pieces explore one of the main characters of my upcoming webtoon, Chantico of Xochalix, with her design changes over time and as I explored her character more thoroughly. It goes in reverse chronological order, starting with her most recent look and design.
Chantico of Xochalix is the only daughter and heiress to the Xochalix throne. She was given the Magma Ruby, a mythical gem that gives her the powers and strength of the goddess that had ruled over her land and people, Xochala, goddess of fire, heat, and the hearth. Her kingdom is a prosperous place but shows of strength and bravery are it's biggest virtues, often leading to people mistakenly jumping into something without thought or needlessly sacrificing themselves. She is the oldest of the blessed princesses and serves as their leader originally before giving her spot to Allat.
After the change in style, I wanted to make her taller and more of a triangle or stronger build to depict the strength she has and represents and how, of all the other princesses, she is the pillar that holds them up. This also helps sell the idea of her as the oldest and most practiced of the girls. Her design had to command respect and authority as the leader. I ended up refining her color palette as well, getting rid of the random blue she had in her royal garb and making sure to really solidify the sun motifs as she controls the element of fire.
I began to try to get more comfortable with drawing her and started to mess with her colors and shape more, giving her more muscle definition and personality in her poses. This is also where I began to research more into the clothing of ancient Aztec and Mayan cultures and the patterns and shapes they uses. This can especially be seen in her royal garb where she is covered in gold beads and coins and wearing more armor like clothing. Her armband appeared here, giving her a more rough feeling and accentuation her strength.
The first colored version of Chantico, with the other princess/teammate closest to her, Taci. While looking similar, she had a much more reserved and stoic personality and she was much thinner and scraggly. The struggle with deciding the style can be seen here directly with the two versions side by side. While she does have her most iconic pieces (the gem shape, the shoes, earrings, and her high pony and face paint), she also had many difference like much more dramatic paint and most notably, her gem is now on a bead necklace. This was later scrapped for her armband.
The very first designs of Chantico and the rest of the team. Old, rough drawings hastily done during an art history class that evolved into a whole story. At this point, they were simply referred to as historical magical girls, inspired by the art of ancient societies that I learned about in the class I had drawn them in. Chantico has always had her name, unlike the middle two girls, Taci and Nari. She had also always had a multi-spoke spear that is heavily inspired by Aztec depictions of fire.