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Stage 1
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Stage 2
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I leaned further into Ray's transmasc identity: embracing the bad moustache, which I love on her. He took more from real people I know, inheriting the bright hair of my girlfriend's fiance (though in her signiature orange). I like how the round glasses somewhat contrast her punkish nature.
I picked up his romance with Ulysses, which had become repressed and toxic. Ray became too proud and self-sufficient to admit to herself that she could want somebody's affection. I also began referring to him as Gabriel.
After taking a break from my OCs, I returned with new found inspiration. Ray got more life in him, regaining his smirk. This iteration drew some inspiration from Suletta Mercury, both in her darker skin and her round eyebrows, the latter of which became a distinctive feature.
Her personality beacme more wicked and joyful. She retained the fat and muscle from before, but dressed more feminine. Orange became his colour of choice, reflecting her loud and hot-headed personality.
Ray settled into a consistent appearance, bearing more muscles, fat, and hair than his previous iterations. She also became my first character to use multiple pronouns. His personality became more pessimistic, more bitter than scared, and distinctly distant.
At this time he was mostly an excuse to practice drawing bulkier frames, but the majority of the time I drew her inside hulking exo-suits. Halfway between power armour and mechs.
Ruby's personality stayed the same but her appearance greatly shifted. I guess I got bored of drawing white hair. I changed up a few appearances around this time.
Her romance with Camille faded away, somewhat reflecting the waning romance in my real life, and she became even more warlike and abrasive. Ruby's identity crisis continued for some time, until it settled onto a new character: Ray.
I committed to shortening Ruby's hair, and she developed into a more unstable personality; struggling with anything except violence, leading to a low self esteem. She found stability in Camille, her girlfriend in this rendition, who she could be openly flirty and affectionate with.
Her design was very consistent asound this time; a short muscular girl with fluffy hair, almost always naked or wearing power armour. I also gave her gray irises, which is common among people with albinism.
As I grew more interested in drawing powered armour, Ruby changed roles from an agile acrobat to an armoured warrior. Her design pulled a lot of cues from Destiny, and especially Overwatch. I had become very captivated by the chunky, almost soft armour found throughout Overwatch's character designs.
Around this time her personality drifted away from happy and sparky, and more towards being a prideful jerk. I think that change was tied to her increasing strength and physical protection.
The initial design of Ruby in digital form. I was learning about albinism, as it's very badly represented most of the time. Rather than being a creepy villain, Ruby was flirty and joyful, and she needed shades to protect her sensitive eyes.
I particularly enjoy her palette from here, the shades of pale aren't very true to real life, but they go nicely with the rose she always wore. This version of the character was agile and weilded a whip.
