Character Design Evolution

Captain Sylis Gearborne

I first started getting into steampunk as an aesthetic about eight or nine years ago, and I've loved it ever since!  My longest running OC is Captain Sylis Gearborne, who I made as my steamsona relatively immediately after discovering steampunk.  They have grown with me over the years, and transitioned at the same time I did (I'm nonbinary and came out in 8th grade)!  Sylis has really grown with me, and their design really reflects that!  They started out very lolita, and then moved into more of a masc androgynous look that I'm absolutely in love with.  

At one point (2021 or earlier) I started writing out a backstory for them, but I never finished it!  The gist of it though was that Sylis is an airship captain who travels the world in search of beautiful things, and hasn't really settled down since they started flying.

Sylis Gilmere

Sylis Gilmere is the most recent evolution of Sylis Gearborne!  I started working on the concept for a graphic novel recently, with a more fantasy setting, and I really wanted to adapt Sylis to that world.  I ended up bringing their color palette closer to indigo and purple than the warmer tones of Gearborne, to reflect this Sylis's more down-to-earth (literally) perspective on the world.

In the graphic novel, they were born in our world, and then got isekai'd into a fantasy one around their sophomore year of high school.  They made a life for themself in this new world, as a librarian and bookbinder, and eventually stopped trying to return to our world.  Eventually they become a mentor for other teens displaced from our world, so I needed to make them a little older than their Gearborne incarnation.  I'm not entirely sure how old Sylis Gilmere is, but probably closer to their late twenties or early thirties.

I also made Gilmere with the intent of playing them in D&D at some point!  Probably as an Artificer, but Sorcerer and Warlock would also fit their character really well.

Dusk

Dusk is my longest running Dungeons & Dragons character!  He started life as a homebrew race that I found for Fourth Edition, then moved into Fifth Edition when I finished running my 4e campaign.  I first made Dusk as a player character (I was not running the campaign at the time), but after I took over the group I thought my players could use a little extra help, so I kept Dusk around as a DMPC!  That means he generally functions as another character in the party, but I control him.  That helps me remind them of plot points they forgot, so I can keep them on track better.

He is a Fey Corgi Paladin, and his general design hasn't evolved much since the first time I drew him in 2022!  I normally draw him in a more simplified chibi style, as seen below.  I've toyed around with cosplay designs for him for a while, but I hadn't taken the leap of comitting to one until now!  I'm planning on creating a full suit of leather armor as a Dusk cosplay for my AP Art portfolio this year!