Hey, my Squids! As you know, I am redesigning some of the first characters I created for Taliah. Leira Orta’s redesign has already been shown and appears in this chapter of the comic. Micah Ido also gets a new design that shows up a few chapters from now. But what about their partner, Xolani? Well, she also gets a new design that shows up at the same time as Micah’s.
Xolani has always been a character that I’ve found most interesting in both design and writing. On one hand, she’s regale, commanding, quiet until she needs to speak and on the other hand, she’s brash, short, quick tempered. I can’t wait to explore more about her as the comic unwinds. I wanted to create a new design that reflects those aspects of her. I initially wanted to have a flowy, almost corsair feel to her ensemble but I landed on something akin to a regale detective – not quite formal but not entirely relaxed.
I also thought it would be fitting to switch her color scheme so that it still differentiated itself from the other characters but lent itself to that “not quite relaxed but still not overtly official” air about her.
Enjoy my explorations of her various ensembles before I nailed down the look I wanted and started work on the new character reference sheet.