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Description
RFE Part 1
Part 1 (canon)
LOTG

All right, now for the characters who debut in Part Two - 'cause I'm gonna do that meme for the entire story. This is a great chance to show off the characters before the DA version of the story, which is running at a snail's pace, gets to them.

So, the Part One headshots marked the very first time there was a visual depiction of Cocoon, so for obvious reasons, this is the first time any of these characters have been seen. As such, it's only my second time drawing any of them, after my old sketches which were done, wow, well over two years ago... so by no means are these final designs, I've still got some stuff to iron out as far as the characters' looks. But this is still very exciting. So, let's begin...

Lyra Heartstrings & Bon Bon
Opening with the non-OCs, and unlike the previous time, when I hastily cobbled together the headshots of the non-OCs, I wanted to be careful with the two. I really wanted to show off the... unique interpretation I'd put together. With Lyra, I decided to draw the self-inflicted injuries she suffers during a fierce temper tantrum. And Bon Bon, well, her madness is a bit more subtle, but thankfully there already exists a scene in the show of Bon Bon with a pretty dirty look on her face, and by using that as a reference I could imply that that's her default expression, so there we go. Also, when drawing this I got the impression that Bon Bon was specifically designed to consist entirely of colors that I don't have. XD

Pierce
Pierce is an interesting story. He's kind of an OC, and kind of not. He was based on the common background stallion Royal Pin, who used to be known as Pinprick, and before that as Pokey Pierce - which I shortened to simply Pierce. Specifically, the version of him seen in "Call of the Cutie" with the super-sharp horn. Since his eyes are closed in that scene, I also threw in the detail that he has a permanent squint. From there, I combined him with another character - the aptly-named Pierce from the comic strip Zits. Since he's not really an OC, I'd actually never drawn him before, but I always figured I'd give him an exact replica of the Zits character's piercings. When the time came to actually draw him, though, I had the great idea to combine the look of the original Pierce with that of my coworker AJ - who I met only this year, long after I'd conceived the character. So, AJ inspired a few ornaments as well as the tufty little beard.

Princess Annihilara
Lara's face is based on a recurring character in my childhood nightmares - the Man Under the Bed from the opening number of The Nightmare Before Christmas. She was born when one such dream showed that character with the facial dimensions of a pony - huge eyes, tiny mouth. I'm really happy with how this drawing turned out - I've spent a long time figuring out how to get her mouth right, and I finally pulled it off here. I colored her entirely with marker to convey that she's pure shadow and light, without substance. So, no outlines on her. I figured out that the problem with marker is that it gets much darker every time you apply more than one layer. So, I had some trouble making the whole thing look solid.

Lady Kolassa
Heh, I knew the moment I applied the crayon to the page that the color was too dark for Kolassa... and then, remarkably, when I scanned the images it got even darker, despite every other color being seemingly untouched. She's supposed to be the color of desert sand. Beyond that, even though there's a little something off about her - I think it might be the size or placement of her eyes - I love how well I did her wild and shaggy mane, and I do like my idea that she's got all the features of an ordinary pony, up to and including the eye highlights, as if they're carved into her. Another notable thing: I suddenly realized when looking at the Part 1 headshots that all ponies, especially those with only one hair color, have lines and detailing in their manes, while none of my OCs did. So I sought to remedy that. With Kolassa, it was easy enough: I just drew lines where she had a streak back when she was a mortal pony.

Queen Okapiopteryx
I remember when I did my original sketches, I had absolutely no reference drawings of any kind, and I just couldn't remember exactly what kind of patterns an okapi has on its face. Having drawn her with such a reference on hand, mm! She looks gorgeous. A headshot doesn't really do her justice, so I included a bit of a wing to show that she's more than just an okapi... still not quite the real deal without her entire body, though. One issue I have is that she doesn't really look like a filly; I couldn't get her to look childish while keeping her snout and eyes the right shape. I guess her tiny size will simply have to be sufficient.

Empress Song Li
Not much to say when I've got nothing to complain about, hehe. This one looks pretty much exactly like my old sketch. It's perfect. I drew her without any eye highlights because I thought that might be a nice way to make her look otherworldly, but I've decided it doesn't work, so in the future she'll have the shiny eyes.

Sørmur dï Mitgaeard
Appearance-wise, Mitgaeard's template was Phalanx, one of the colossi from the classic video game Shadow of the Colossus, though the similarities ended at being a 500-foot-long flying serpent with four flippers. Which, admittedly, is a lot of similarities. Anyway, when looking at my first drawing of her, I realized that, apart from the flippers and the white spikes, she was just a featureless black snake, so I decided to jazz up her design, adding two facial protrusions - inspired once again by Phalanx - some belly scales, and a few interesting patterns. I always found that dark teal goes really well with black. I don't have a problem with the fact that none of these extra features are described in the story, 'cause, what kind of lame narrator describes every detail of a snake's body? The reason her eyes are blue is because of a photograph I saw in the fourth grade of a cobra with intensely bright blue eyes; I had never seen anything so hypnotic in my life, and it stuck with me.

Earthwalker & Iron Throne
Well... first of all, I had no idea how to draw really big, bulky armor, so I'll have to work on that before giving these guys their official art. Earthwalker came out great, except that I'm not entirely sure how well I conveyed that he's missing an ear; I ought to make it look more like a deep hole instead of just an illustrator who forgot one ear. As for Iron Throne, well, like Kolassa his coat color scanned too dark, I don't get it. I was trying to draw him in 3/4 view, but when it comes to stallions with this face shape - Big Mac, for example - there's a fine line between 3/4 and side view. When I figured I had no idea how to do his facial tattoos or his helmet in 3/4, I copped to it and made it a profile shot. And I do wish I could make the border between his pupil and iris more subtle, but... meh, I'd have to go digital to pull that off. And I was briefly put off by the fact that I didn't put ear-holes in his helmet, but I figured these two guys are probably more practical than the fancy warriors seen throughout the series, and wouldn't be so foolish as to wear helmets that leave their sensitive and vulnerable ears exposed. So Earthwalker's helmet, when I draw it, will lack ear-holes as well.

Tinder
Not sure why I gave him this face shape... it's a bit weird. I might not keep it. Anyway, knowing that Zecora's coat doesn't much resemble that of a real zebra, I had some fun experimenting with creating a new zebra whose look was consistent with hers - though I'm sure that's not exactly an original thought. Also thought it would be fun if he had cornrows, even though that's like the biggest violation possible of the rule about avoiding hairstyles that you can't pull off with a horse's mane. I like the vibrancy of his high priest uniform... though I'm not sure if that's the best way to depict a popped collar from the side.

Rose Belt
Nothing really to say about this design, except that maybe I could have spent more time on it. Turned out well, coulda turned out better.

Angel O'Brien & Angel Aquamarine
Hmm. Again, just coulda spent more time. O'Brien was supposed to be a standard mare, but somehow came out looking kinda like a baby. I can't figure out how that happened. And Aquamarine... well... just need more practice with fillies. Although, heck, she's more accurate than most of my attempts at the standard mare. I am grateful that I got them way, way closer to Snowdrop-color than I did in my old sketchy stuff.

Ryu, Nyu, & Kyu
Generally satisfied. There's something a bit awkward about Ryu, but I think that's just because the show's default colt model is, itself, a bit awkward. Nyu, came out perfect, she's gorgeous. Kyu, definitely came out right in a few places - it's amazing how placing his mouth just a little bit lower on the face than normal completely changes the whole construction of his facial expression and gives him that cheesy smirk I was going for. That being said, I ought to work on making the mane detailing consistent with the overall shape of the mane... and then, the speckles. He's supposed to be black with dark gray speckles; that kind of subtlety is a bit beyond the capabilities of my utensils, sad to say.

Moonblade
I... have nothing to say, this dude came out perfect. Score!

White Quail
Also pretty much perfect, though it wouldn't have been my first choice to draw his glasses as simple black lines. Anything more detailed than that is, again, beyond the range of my rather blunt-tipped weapons of choice.

Perky Hearts
Need to work on the color palette... yeah, looking at this and at Rose Belt's mane, it seemed that the pink, like the beige/tan color, also scanned darker than it actually was... which, also like the beige/tan color, was already darker than what I had in mind. I started working on her mane too quickly, before making a real decision what it should look like. Beyond that... couldn't quite get her face and body right. I had intended that ponies of her age group have a gangly figure and a big round snout, but it's almost impossible to find a reference for that kind of body, since it's completely unique to young!Fluttershy. As for her pigtails... hey, for a long time, there was no way of knowing if that would work on a pony, but now we have ponified versions of Aria Blaze to use as reference... I might start being more faithful to those, or I might experiment to see if I can make it work the way they look now.

And... hey, if you actually read through this whole thing, do let me know so I can give you a hug. I'm becoming painfully aware of just how old my fic is, since most of these characters seem like something from long, long ago. But it's still special to me, and it's still got a lot of life left in it... So, thanks for listening to my ramblings, at the very least.

Description
RFE Part 1
Part 1 (canon)
LOTG

All right, now for the characters who debut in Part Two - 'cause I'm gonna do that meme for the entire story. This is a great chance to show off the characters before the DA version of the story, which is running at a snail's pace, gets to them.

So, the Part One headshots marked the very first time there was a visual depiction of Cocoon, so for obvious reasons, this is the first time any of these characters have been seen. As such, it's only my second time drawing any of them, after my old sketches which were done, wow, well over two years ago... so by no means are these final designs, I've still got some stuff to iron out as far as the characters' looks. But this is still very exciting. So, let's begin...

Lyra Heartstrings & Bon Bon
Opening with the non-OCs, and unlike the previous time, when I hastily cobbled together the headshots of the non-OCs, I wanted to be careful with the two. I really wanted to show off the... unique interpretation I'd put together. With Lyra, I decided to draw the self-inflicted injuries she suffers during a fierce temper tantrum. And Bon Bon, well, her madness is a bit more subtle, but thankfully there already exists a scene in the show of Bon Bon with a pretty dirty look on her face, and by using that as a reference I could imply that that's her default expression, so there we go. Also, when drawing this I got the impression that Bon Bon was specifically designed to consist entirely of colors that I don't have. XD

Pierce
Pierce is an interesting story. He's kind of an OC, and kind of not. He was based on the common background stallion Royal Pin, who used to be known as Pinprick, and before that as Pokey Pierce - which I shortened to simply Pierce. Specifically, the version of him seen in "Call of the Cutie" with the super-sharp horn. Since his eyes are closed in that scene, I also threw in the detail that he has a permanent squint. From there, I combined him with another character - the aptly-named Pierce from the comic strip Zits. Since he's not really an OC, I'd actually never drawn him before, but I always figured I'd give him an exact replica of the Zits character's piercings. When the time came to actually draw him, though, I had the great idea to combine the look of the original Pierce with that of my coworker AJ - who I met only this year, long after I'd conceived the character. So, AJ inspired a few ornaments as well as the tufty little beard.

Princess Annihilara
Lara's face is based on a recurring character in my childhood nightmares - the Man Under the Bed from the opening number of The Nightmare Before Christmas. She was born when one such dream showed that character with the facial dimensions of a pony - huge eyes, tiny mouth. I'm really happy with how this drawing turned out - I've spent a long time figuring out how to get her mouth right, and I finally pulled it off here. I colored her entirely with marker to convey that she's pure shadow and light, without substance. So, no outlines on her. I figured out that the problem with marker is that it gets much darker every time you apply more than one layer. So, I had some trouble making the whole thing look solid.

Lady Kolassa
Heh, I knew the moment I applied the crayon to the page that the color was too dark for Kolassa... and then, remarkably, when I scanned the images it got even darker, despite every other color being seemingly untouched. She's supposed to be the color of desert sand. Beyond that, even though there's a little something off about her - I think it might be the size or placement of her eyes - I love how well I did her wild and shaggy mane, and I do like my idea that she's got all the features of an ordinary pony, up to and including the eye highlights, as if they're carved into her. Another notable thing: I suddenly realized when looking at the Part 1 headshots that all ponies, especially those with only one hair color, have lines and detailing in their manes, while none of my OCs did. So I sought to remedy that. With Kolassa, it was easy enough: I just drew lines where she had a streak back when she was a mortal pony.

Queen Okapiopteryx
I remember when I did my original sketches, I had absolutely no reference drawings of any kind, and I just couldn't remember exactly what kind of patterns an okapi has on its face. Having drawn her with such a reference on hand, mm! She looks gorgeous. A headshot doesn't really do her justice, so I included a bit of a wing to show that she's more than just an okapi... still not quite the real deal without her entire body, though. One issue I have is that she doesn't really look like a filly; I couldn't get her to look childish while keeping her snout and eyes the right shape. I guess her tiny size will simply have to be sufficient.

Empress Song Li
Not much to say when I've got nothing to complain about, hehe. This one looks pretty much exactly like my old sketch. It's perfect. I drew her without any eye highlights because I thought that might be a nice way to make her look otherworldly, but I've decided it doesn't work, so in the future she'll have the shiny eyes.

Sørmur dï Mitgaeard
Appearance-wise, Mitgaeard's template was Phalanx, one of the colossi from the classic video game Shadow of the Colossus, though the similarities ended at being a 500-foot-long flying serpent with four flippers. Which, admittedly, is a lot of similarities. Anyway, when looking at my first drawing of her, I realized that, apart from the flippers and the white spikes, she was just a featureless black snake, so I decided to jazz up her design, adding two facial protrusions - inspired once again by Phalanx - some belly scales, and a few interesting patterns. I always found that dark teal goes really well with black. I don't have a problem with the fact that none of these extra features are described in the story, 'cause, what kind of lame narrator describes every detail of a snake's body? The reason her eyes are blue is because of a photograph I saw in the fourth grade of a cobra with intensely bright blue eyes; I had never seen anything so hypnotic in my life, and it stuck with me.

Earthwalker & Iron Throne
Well... first of all, I had no idea how to draw really big, bulky armor, so I'll have to work on that before giving these guys their official art. Earthwalker came out great, except that I'm not entirely sure how well I conveyed that he's missing an ear; I ought to make it look more like a deep hole instead of just an illustrator who forgot one ear. As for Iron Throne, well, like Kolassa his coat color scanned too dark, I don't get it. I was trying to draw him in 3/4 view, but when it comes to stallions with this face shape - Big Mac, for example - there's a fine line between 3/4 and side view. When I figured I had no idea how to do his facial tattoos or his helmet in 3/4, I copped to it and made it a profile shot. And I do wish I could make the border between his pupil and iris more subtle, but... meh, I'd have to go digital to pull that off. And I was briefly put off by the fact that I didn't put ear-holes in his helmet, but I figured these two guys are probably more practical than the fancy warriors seen throughout the series, and wouldn't be so foolish as to wear helmets that leave their sensitive and vulnerable ears exposed. So Earthwalker's helmet, when I draw it, will lack ear-holes as well.

Tinder
Not sure why I gave him this face shape... it's a bit weird. I might not keep it. Anyway, knowing that Zecora's coat doesn't much resemble that of a real zebra, I had some fun experimenting with creating a new zebra whose look was consistent with hers - though I'm sure that's not exactly an original thought. Also thought it would be fun if he had cornrows, even though that's like the biggest violation possible of the rule about avoiding hairstyles that you can't pull off with a horse's mane. I like the vibrancy of his high priest uniform... though I'm not sure if that's the best way to depict a popped collar from the side.

Rose Belt
Nothing really to say about this design, except that maybe I could have spent more time on it. Turned out well, coulda turned out better.

Angel O'Brien & Angel Aquamarine
Hmm. Again, just coulda spent more time. O'Brien was supposed to be a standard mare, but somehow came out looking kinda like a baby. I can't figure out how that happened. And Aquamarine... well... just need more practice with fillies. Although, heck, she's more accurate than most of my attempts at the standard mare. I am grateful that I got them way, way closer to Snowdrop-color than I did in my old sketchy stuff.

Ryu, Nyu, & Kyu
Generally satisfied. There's something a bit awkward about Ryu, but I think that's just because the show's default colt model is, itself, a bit awkward. Nyu, came out perfect, she's gorgeous. Kyu, definitely came out right in a few places - it's amazing how placing his mouth just a little bit lower on the face than normal completely changes the whole construction of his facial expression and gives him that cheesy smirk I was going for. That being said, I ought to work on making the mane detailing consistent with the overall shape of the mane... and then, the speckles. He's supposed to be black with dark gray speckles; that kind of subtlety is a bit beyond the capabilities of my utensils, sad to say.

Moonblade
I... have nothing to say, this dude came out perfect. Score!

White Quail
Also pretty much perfect, though it wouldn't have been my first choice to draw his glasses as simple black lines. Anything more detailed than that is, again, beyond the range of my rather blunt-tipped weapons of choice.

Perky Hearts
Need to work on the color palette... yeah, looking at this and at Rose Belt's mane, it seemed that the pink, like the beige/tan color, also scanned darker than it actually was... which, also like the beige/tan color, was already darker than what I had in mind. I started working on her mane too quickly, before making a real decision what it should look like. Beyond that... couldn't quite get her face and body right. I had intended that ponies of her age group have a gangly figure and a big round snout, but it's almost impossible to find a reference for that kind of body, since it's completely unique to young!Fluttershy. As for her pigtails... hey, for a long time, there was no way of knowing if that would work on a pony, but now we have ponified versions of Aria Blaze to use as reference... I might start being more faithful to those, or I might experiment to see if I can make it work the way they look now.

And... hey, if you actually read through this whole thing, do let me know so I can give you a hug. I'm becoming painfully aware of just how old my fic is, since most of these characters seem like something from long, long ago. But it's still special to me, and it's still got a lot of life left in it... So, thanks for listening to my ramblings, at the very least.