#doin stylized wc designs

[kirwell]

the sunbeam girl ☀️

I never posted this oof,, but with Thunder out now, seemed fitting to finally get it finished. I actually really liked how this design turned out too! floofy curly fur <3

Sunbeam has grown on me even more and i loved her chapters in Thunder. I'm satisfied with the direction they're going right now in the story and the characters. Sunbeam learning to break free from her mother's toxicity, finding herself in Thunderclan and making friends with the in-laws. Her and Finchlight are so sweet

The theme of family issues and trauma in this arc has me really invested fr,,

[kirwell]

best father in warriors, our man Gray Wing I,,, I love him so much <3 him and River Ripple,, my heart just cannot Dotc is my second favorite arc, mostly for the characters, but also it was just refreshing to read, seeing the clans from their roots and getting to enjoy some good old fashion conflict without a dominating mystical presence. We see spirits for the first time, but they don't take the reigns of the whole story. Don't get me wrong. I love our superpower havin' cats and the mystical worldbuilding of warriors, but I live for Into the Wild vibes where things just felt more...down to earth? Cats just tryin' to survive and make their homes, and dealing with the hardships of the wilderness and building (or losing) relationships. honestly, Gray dying from asthma, which he suffered from during most of the story when things were just going well for him, is so tragic yet so real. It was devastating. Dotc was made different idek

[kirwell]

the trouble child Nightheart OKAY my headcanon voice for him is a TIE between Smokescreen from Transformers Prime and Shade from the Silverwings tv show. They both fit too good!! Personalities fit too tbh Every time I've drawn Nightheart, it was as a moody lil angst boi, and I haven't vibed with any of the designs I've done for him either. But after reading Shadow, I like that we got to see a bit more personality from him- his confident, cocky, and a lil charismatic when it suits him, and it totally inspired me I really like this final design I settled with too. Not-quite-black with hints of Firestar orange, the black stripe beard and swoopy Protagonist Hair™ lmao. I've really been trying to stylize more, as I've always taken designs way to literally and realistically and it's been kinda boring. Frostpaw and Sunbeam are up next, but I also really wanna do Berryheart too! Got any other suggestions for asc characters?

[kirwell]

the floof baby Frostpaw I'm really happy with her design ! All the wintery snowflake vibes for the frost baby ❄️❄️ design aside,, I'm not sure how I feel about Frostpaw. I sympathize for her havin' to deal with so much absolute shit every literal second, but besides that,, I'm not super attached yet. Sad bean is sad I like that she's gaining some confidence in her warrior training. Might be farfetched, but I would be so down for her becoming a badass medicine cat toward the end of the series, whose super sweet n caring but not afraid to throw down either,, cause she's done feeling helpless "I'm a healer, but..."

[kirwell]

our queen leafstar i actually dont know how old she's supposed to be now, but given all the shit she's been through, she can have her Old™ card ,, i did a design of her years ago,, and its not good. I really like this tho! leaf ears