Magical Sky Rabbits
*Insert joke about magical girls here*
I looked over my pieces this year, and I was surprised that I drew the sky rabbits twice outside of celebratory pieces, and only one of them was part of the trio (it was Kumo). I wanted to change that, so with less than three weeks left in 2021, I finished this piece. I’m surprised I finished this so soon, since I worked on this during study breaks.
I previously drew the trio last July (which can be viewed here,) but aside from the obvious, not much has changed; Kumo’s design hasn’t changed since January, and while Kōri hasn’t changed much either, but her design is a lot cleaner and I tried to emphasize the “middle evolution” aspect of her more. The main changes I made involved her fur and eyes, making her ears and arms cloudier while giving her eyes similar to Kesshō in addition to similar fur designs on her legs. I made her distinct from the others by giving her darker fur as well, but I’ll be surprised if anyone comments on that considering how minor of a change it is.
As for Kesshō? Her design is nearly identical to when I drew her as part of the “one year” quartet, but I redesigned the fur on her legs since I only drew her from the waist-up and I knew it would look out of place to have her new, curlier fur on her upper half but straighter, stiffer fur on her legs. I retooled her leg fur to match her curls and added crystals similar to Mayonaka, but I took a different approach and used smaller curls instead of larger ones. Not to mention, she has more crystals that are smaller instead of a few crystals that are larger.
The biggest changes to her design, however, are her eyes and cape. I’ve previously drawn her with white pupils and a smaller cape, but now she has darker pupils and a flowing cape. Her pupils limited her expressions, not to mention how the other two have darker eyes and her concepts had darker pupils. The white pupils felt unnecessary after a while, and part of it was an attempt to make her stand out, but if my way of making her stand out is through her eyes, then it would make the rest of her design pointless. Her cape is longer and flows more because I wanted to convey a sense of power, but it’s also because I’ve only drawn her from the waist-up and I wanted to add more to it.
My final notes are about how their powers relate to their names. Kumo is Japanese for “cloud,” and while she cannot summon clouds and manipulate them, she cannot change the weather. Kōri, by contrast, translates to “ice” and her powers vary from summoning ice crystals to causing snowstorms, but she’s vulnerable in hot weather. Kesshō has the strengths of her predecessors and fewer drawbacks, using light to form energy crystals and can float in the air. Her name translates to “crystal,” and it shows through her power gem-like attack. Kōri has glowing snowflakes around her, and Kumo is floating with the surplus of clouds being a reference to her.
With this finished, I’m hoping I can start some drawings for the holidays or something for New Year’s. I don’t know if I’ll get them done in time, but it’s worth a shot.