These pieces explore one of the main characters of my upcoming webtoon, Taci of , 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.
Taci of Midiri, the sheltered only daughter and crown princess who was rarely seen before her debut. Following her goddess' virtue of independence, her mother raised her with little outside contact to try to build that up in her, often leaving her in the palace with only the staff and her tutors so she could grow. This has made her much more reserved and quiet than the other princesses, only ever talking when she needs to. She was gifted with the Earthly Emerald, the gem that gives her abilities of her goddess Une, goddess of the earth, gems, and harvest. It allows her to manipulate the ground and create crystals and gemstones, given she has access to their raw components. Despite being the most wealthy, she is the most humble.
Her outfits became properly opulent, with her wearing more jewelry and crystal or emerald ear cuffs to mirror her goddess. Her formal coat has gotten longer and the pattern now mimics her gem and has a simpler, more easy-to-draw design. She also feels a lot softer around the edges and more of the soft, spoiled and reserved girl she is. Since she rarely went out, she also has a very simple outfit for her night gown with a simple low ponytail to show she doesn't put much effort into her rest wear. She is also adorned with much more freckles than before, more realistically all over her body rather than just across her nose.
Taci when her character really began to get nailed down. I had always loved her crown and natural hair but I wanted to give her a different look for her formal wear. She is based on ancient Ethiopian and Egyptian cultures so she wears lots of drapery and patterns. Since her gem grants the power over the earth, her kingdom the wealthiest of them all so she is constantly adorned with jewels, gold, and crystals. She also is one of the only ones who gets alternate pieces of jewelry to keep her gem in, changing to a necklace and a formal crown in her royal garb and a simple golden herringbone necklace when she sleeps. The style experiment was interesting in nailing her body type and, funnily, her eye color, as she is the only on with dual color eyes (brown and green).
The first colored version of Taci. She still had her original name of Ani here and is much thinner with the same generic body type all of the girls had at first. Her original personality also had her be more weak and scared easily which didn;t make sense for someone who was raised specifically to rule and fight for her kingdom. Her personality is what changed most about her, with her looking relatively the same from here on, but the most different from her original look. Her and Chantico, the other on the page, are close so they both needed an overhaul to make their personalities actually match with each other.
The very first designs of Taci 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. Originally, she looked very different and stereotypical. Her design changed very fast as she evolved from what was a plant-based princess to one who controls the earth and crystals instead.