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Description
Hi there everybody! ^^
I'm back with a small addition to the collection of skeksis Character charts I've been drawing : my skeksis fan-character, the Illustrator, had a minor unnecessary revamp (yay? XD )

This is admittedly a minor edit- it's only the text that's been slightly altered-I think it was the fairest thing to do given how the last one didn't really reflect the recent character development on skekLa all too well. Her Bio and info are now a bit more condensed and updated to fairly fit her current development ^^
***Please keep in mind that my description for this character is absolutely personal HEADCANON- as also is the implication that there were other skeksis which had actually "mis-divided" - retaining a slight portion of "light" within their otherwise dark nature--lending their UrRu the ability to be slightly "darker" and a tad more proactive than their peers (Given some recent fan developments slightly based off some J.M Lee book ideas, I've been playing around with the idea that many other *if not all* skeksis did actually possess a sliver of lighter nature **even if it would rarely manifest** and most UrRu might have retained a tiniest spark of darkness which might have helped them take if even the minimum action required to remain alive Picture it like a ying-yang sort of thing if you will: I really like to Headcanonly explore that idea. Creatures which are made of a majorly dark / light nature and yet might have the ability to change given that hidden chink of the opposite they may have unwarily retained ...that's a thing I find really fun to explore and brainstorm about.

I'll offer up a long-due small *Not that small* insight about my fancharacter here for no specific reason other than for fun and to share what I've been doing with her and the reason why I did it
The points I address at here are heavily inspired by frequent things other fans have asked me about skekLa during these past months ^^ I hope they´ll make for a fun enough read!

** I may get pointlessly overexplicative-please bear with me-or altogether skip this part of the description if you don't care about my fancharacter, which is of course just fine ^^ **

* * *
*Is SkekLa a self-insert? Why, she certainly WAS born as one! I originally created her as a sort of self- joke; her earliest design was born of the epoque clothes I used to wear to attend to the renaissance and fantasy fairs I work at.
She also does certainly share half of my proffession (I am an artisan and Illustrator) and I don't regret having designed her that way, in the slightest, even if her character grew into something rather different of my person ever since she was created. ^^

*Is she a wish-fulfillment character? ...well, I have no idea how many times I have been asked that question and I keep finding it honestly hilarious XD WHO in their right mind would WANT to have the life of a character with the dastardly luck, the crippling obsession levels and absolutely unhealthy levels of anxiety skekLa has to deal with? Plus, being one of the lowest ranked individuals of the crew she lives with... Of course not. Noone would WANT that life, and I am no exception. XD
I am developing her in rather specific ways because I feel whatever I make her go through addresses in one of other manner to a certain thing I wanted to explore, imagine or wonder about concerning the world of the Dark Crystal.
As simple as that.

*Is she supposed to be "special?" ---Not really. The only thing that makes her "special" would be her proffession, but then again all skeksis have one, and hers is absolutely accesory, so...no.
Her state as a "misdivided" skeksis?....not really a big deal: My personal choice headcanon for the skeksis (based off the old 1982 movie lore and associated materials+ some of the amazing lore "Legends of the Dark Crystal" brought up) showed them as rather moral-grey and bizarrely sympathetic villains, and my personal treatment of them- and the headcanon I´m working with- heavily implies that many other *if not all* skeksis might have a sliver of residual "light" within them. (Again, this is just my headcanon and personal fan-interpretation of the characters, not stating it´s an official thing *
So...where does that leave skekLa? How special does the fact of being relatively less aggressive than the average skeksis make her? Not that much. She's actually more "neurotically self-aware" than actually "good-natured", and is probably just more clumsy at hiding the relatively softer side of her nature than most other skeksis are- That's about it.

*WHY is she emotionally bound to the Chamberlain if he´s a cold hearted psychopath and cares for noone? : Because the headcanon I manage for the Chamberlain at my fanart and stories corresponds to the vastly moral-grey character he was at the old, original film back then in the 80´s, and according to that old lore he was not necessarily a cold-hearted psychopath XD
I like to interpret skekSil as the type of character he used to be within that OLD Dark Crystal lore :1982's Movie, Whatever scarce info of him there is at the World of the Dark Crystal book, Jim Henson notes, and the Legends of the Dark Crystal manga- which even if much more recent than the lore I usually would pick, has been a HUGE source of inspiration for me: I seriously love how the skeksis were characterised at that 2-issue manga series, and wish some of those characterisations had been kept by the Netflix show. No offense to the new thing, but it really (completely) retconned rather many things within the lore and some characters´ traits, and while changes were expectable and are absolutely reasonable, I personally preffer the OLD timey lore for the Dark Crystal universe along with the old characterisations for the skeksis , hence why I stick with it for the development of my fancreations- and why they might seem "off" for those fans who have not watched the old movie ^^.
So: given the characterisation I chose to pick for the Chamberlain (original 1982 lore from the movie+ associated side-materials+”Legends” manga) I thought it would be fun to have my character "imprint" on him (the first creature she'd see after being split) much like a bird would.
I had this idea of having the Illustrator stumble into the Chamberlain during the day of Division and have her register him as "a non-aggressive thing" , then simply developed both headcanon character arcs (for the Illustrator and Chamberlain and what their dynamics could be like) from there. That did eventually lead to a form of "us against the world" sort of bond between these characters.
Theirs was not originally intended to be a romantic bond- albeit, with the passing of time and fan-development, I actually thought it would be amusing to explore *both in humoristic and serious ways* the possibility of a skeksis bearing romantic feels for another and really not knowing how to manage it. It has been actually fun to brainstorm about that: how does someone who's NOT meant to feel any form of love deal with exactly that?
Even if their bond is not a central theme at my stories * but more of an in-built component of it, to add up some court-intrigue and a danger element the characters may have to manage* it's really fun to develop and explore the type of (often hilariously mishap) bond my character shares with the weasely Chamberlain.
* * *

So--- Nowadays, my fan-character has developed in ways which have not that much to do with my own personality, beliefs, and/or behaviour, and I am personally more than okay with that. Her physical looks are still roughly the same as when she was thought up (she still looks like a skeksis caricature of myself) and even though her character development set her apart from actually resembling me in most any sense other than her *goofy* sense of aesthetics and her proffesion, I felt no need to revamp her into looking different. If that makes her look like she's still a self-insert, I think I can live with it.

So, summarising this pointlessly convoluted exposition: skekLa is just a fan- character I came up with for fun, and she's there because it's really amusing for me to explore the more moral-grey side of skeksis *which was- in my honest opinion- much more present within the old 1982 movie and its associated lore than at any recent official development-* with the exception of the Age of Resistance raimagination of skekGra, who pretty much addresses my point about how FUN it can be to explore a "what if" about skeksis and wonder "what if they were not "absolutely evil" but more medieval-minded and absolutely egocentric?" " What if they were way too self-centered and terrified of death to stop themselves from becoming terribly destructive and pernicious over the passing of ages?"
THAT, now, is the type of material I like to use for my headcanon.
I'm stressing HEADCANON here: my personal insight, the  the kind of idea I LOVE to explore and have fun with, concerning skeksis.

I hope you´ll enjoy this small silly upload, soon there will be more canon skeksis coming up, +I'm not leaving skekTek or Zok out of these!
Expect more of these until all 9 are here *** the Emperor may be tricky tho: I have absolutely "adopted" his former looks (as-seen-at Legends of the Dark Crystal) and really refuse to let go of THAT one design for my headcanon of him. I know everyone is in love with his current design from Age of Resistance *and that is of course great* but my personal headcanon (as an old fan that's WAY too attached to the old Dark Crystal lore from back in the 80's-to-early 2000's has absolutely NOTHING to do with the series   ...Please bear with me while I figure out what to do about skekSo

Albeit, I hope you´ll all enjoy these character charts featuring our "dear villains", the skeksis! ^^
More art will be coming up, soon! stay tuned! ^^

*DISCLAIMER*
This is fanart, unofficial work, created solely to show fan-support and love to the amazing world of The Dark Crystal!.
Artwork may not be used or redistributed without written consent.
Artwork © SkekLa
All publically recognizeable canon The Dark Crystal characters, settings and situations © Jim Henson / Brian Froud/Universal studios
(No commercial use or copyright infringement are intended)

The rest of the charts will be nested here: www.deviantart.com/skekla/gall…

Description
Hi there everybody! ^^
I'm back with a small addition to the collection of skeksis Character charts I've been drawing : my skeksis fan-character, the Illustrator, had a minor unnecessary revamp (yay? XD )

This is admittedly a minor edit- it's only the text that's been slightly altered-I think it was the fairest thing to do given how the last one didn't really reflect the recent character development on skekLa all too well. Her Bio and info are now a bit more condensed and updated to fairly fit her current development ^^
***Please keep in mind that my description for this character is absolutely personal HEADCANON- as also is the implication that there were other skeksis which had actually "mis-divided" - retaining a slight portion of "light" within their otherwise dark nature--lending their UrRu the ability to be slightly "darker" and a tad more proactive than their peers (Given some recent fan developments slightly based off some J.M Lee book ideas, I've been playing around with the idea that many other *if not all* skeksis did actually possess a sliver of lighter nature **even if it would rarely manifest** and most UrRu might have retained a tiniest spark of darkness which might have helped them take if even the minimum action required to remain alive Picture it like a ying-yang sort of thing if you will: I really like to Headcanonly explore that idea. Creatures which are made of a majorly dark / light nature and yet might have the ability to change given that hidden chink of the opposite they may have unwarily retained ...that's a thing I find really fun to explore and brainstorm about.

I'll offer up a long-due small *Not that small* insight about my fancharacter here for no specific reason other than for fun and to share what I've been doing with her and the reason why I did it
The points I address at here are heavily inspired by frequent things other fans have asked me about skekLa during these past months ^^ I hope they´ll make for a fun enough read!

** I may get pointlessly overexplicative-please bear with me-or altogether skip this part of the description if you don't care about my fancharacter, which is of course just fine ^^ **

* * *
*Is SkekLa a self-insert? Why, she certainly WAS born as one! I originally created her as a sort of self- joke; her earliest design was born of the epoque clothes I used to wear to attend to the renaissance and fantasy fairs I work at.
She also does certainly share half of my proffession (I am an artisan and Illustrator) and I don't regret having designed her that way, in the slightest, even if her character grew into something rather different of my person ever since she was created. ^^

*Is she a wish-fulfillment character? ...well, I have no idea how many times I have been asked that question and I keep finding it honestly hilarious XD WHO in their right mind would WANT to have the life of a character with the dastardly luck, the crippling obsession levels and absolutely unhealthy levels of anxiety skekLa has to deal with? Plus, being one of the lowest ranked individuals of the crew she lives with... Of course not. Noone would WANT that life, and I am no exception. XD
I am developing her in rather specific ways because I feel whatever I make her go through addresses in one of other manner to a certain thing I wanted to explore, imagine or wonder about concerning the world of the Dark Crystal.
As simple as that.

*Is she supposed to be "special?" ---Not really. The only thing that makes her "special" would be her proffession, but then again all skeksis have one, and hers is absolutely accesory, so...no.
Her state as a "misdivided" skeksis?....not really a big deal: My personal choice headcanon for the skeksis (based off the old 1982 movie lore and associated materials+ some of the amazing lore "Legends of the Dark Crystal" brought up) showed them as rather moral-grey and bizarrely sympathetic villains, and my personal treatment of them- and the headcanon I´m working with- heavily implies that many other *if not all* skeksis might have a sliver of residual "light" within them. (Again, this is just my headcanon and personal fan-interpretation of the characters, not stating it´s an official thing *
So...where does that leave skekLa? How special does the fact of being relatively less aggressive than the average skeksis make her? Not that much. She's actually more "neurotically self-aware" than actually "good-natured", and is probably just more clumsy at hiding the relatively softer side of her nature than most other skeksis are- That's about it.

*WHY is she emotionally bound to the Chamberlain if he´s a cold hearted psychopath and cares for noone? : Because the headcanon I manage for the Chamberlain at my fanart and stories corresponds to the vastly moral-grey character he was at the old, original film back then in the 80´s, and according to that old lore he was not necessarily a cold-hearted psychopath XD
I like to interpret skekSil as the type of character he used to be within that OLD Dark Crystal lore :1982's Movie, Whatever scarce info of him there is at the World of the Dark Crystal book, Jim Henson notes, and the Legends of the Dark Crystal manga- which even if much more recent than the lore I usually would pick, has been a HUGE source of inspiration for me: I seriously love how the skeksis were characterised at that 2-issue manga series, and wish some of those characterisations had been kept by the Netflix show. No offense to the new thing, but it really (completely) retconned rather many things within the lore and some characters´ traits, and while changes were expectable and are absolutely reasonable, I personally preffer the OLD timey lore for the Dark Crystal universe along with the old characterisations for the skeksis , hence why I stick with it for the development of my fancreations- and why they might seem "off" for those fans who have not watched the old movie ^^.
So: given the characterisation I chose to pick for the Chamberlain (original 1982 lore from the movie+ associated side-materials+”Legends” manga) I thought it would be fun to have my character "imprint" on him (the first creature she'd see after being split) much like a bird would.
I had this idea of having the Illustrator stumble into the Chamberlain during the day of Division and have her register him as "a non-aggressive thing" , then simply developed both headcanon character arcs (for the Illustrator and Chamberlain and what their dynamics could be like) from there. That did eventually lead to a form of "us against the world" sort of bond between these characters.
Theirs was not originally intended to be a romantic bond- albeit, with the passing of time and fan-development, I actually thought it would be amusing to explore *both in humoristic and serious ways* the possibility of a skeksis bearing romantic feels for another and really not knowing how to manage it. It has been actually fun to brainstorm about that: how does someone who's NOT meant to feel any form of love deal with exactly that?
Even if their bond is not a central theme at my stories * but more of an in-built component of it, to add up some court-intrigue and a danger element the characters may have to manage* it's really fun to develop and explore the type of (often hilariously mishap) bond my character shares with the weasely Chamberlain.
* * *

So--- Nowadays, my fan-character has developed in ways which have not that much to do with my own personality, beliefs, and/or behaviour, and I am personally more than okay with that. Her physical looks are still roughly the same as when she was thought up (she still looks like a skeksis caricature of myself) and even though her character development set her apart from actually resembling me in most any sense other than her *goofy* sense of aesthetics and her proffesion, I felt no need to revamp her into looking different. If that makes her look like she's still a self-insert, I think I can live with it.

So, summarising this pointlessly convoluted exposition: skekLa is just a fan- character I came up with for fun, and she's there because it's really amusing for me to explore the more moral-grey side of skeksis *which was- in my honest opinion- much more present within the old 1982 movie and its associated lore than at any recent official development-* with the exception of the Age of Resistance raimagination of skekGra, who pretty much addresses my point about how FUN it can be to explore a "what if" about skeksis and wonder "what if they were not "absolutely evil" but more medieval-minded and absolutely egocentric?" " What if they were way too self-centered and terrified of death to stop themselves from becoming terribly destructive and pernicious over the passing of ages?"
THAT, now, is the type of material I like to use for my headcanon.
I'm stressing HEADCANON here: my personal insight, the  the kind of idea I LOVE to explore and have fun with, concerning skeksis.

I hope you´ll enjoy this small silly upload, soon there will be more canon skeksis coming up, +I'm not leaving skekTek or Zok out of these!
Expect more of these until all 9 are here *** the Emperor may be tricky tho: I have absolutely "adopted" his former looks (as-seen-at Legends of the Dark Crystal) and really refuse to let go of THAT one design for my headcanon of him. I know everyone is in love with his current design from Age of Resistance *and that is of course great* but my personal headcanon (as an old fan that's WAY too attached to the old Dark Crystal lore from back in the 80's-to-early 2000's has absolutely NOTHING to do with the series   ...Please bear with me while I figure out what to do about skekSo

Albeit, I hope you´ll all enjoy these character charts featuring our "dear villains", the skeksis! ^^
More art will be coming up, soon! stay tuned! ^^

*DISCLAIMER*
This is fanart, unofficial work, created solely to show fan-support and love to the amazing world of The Dark Crystal!.
Artwork may not be used or redistributed without written consent.
Artwork © SkekLa
All publically recognizeable canon The Dark Crystal characters, settings and situations © Jim Henson / Brian Froud/Universal studios
(No commercial use or copyright infringement are intended)

The rest of the charts will be nested here: www.deviantart.com/skekla/gall…