Two quick sketches of my character Kaynair. In the upper sketch, Kaynair is protecting his vampire husband, Kaise, and in the lower he's confronting his father, Reynard. Kaynair is a Kyrian, an alien species of my own invention.
The average Kyrian is around six feet at the shoulder and, as their build might suggest they are incredibly fast predators. Kyrians have secondary arms used mainly in mating and caring for young and rarely extended otherwise, these arms can fit into the armpits of their primary arms and be completely hidden when stowed. Kyrian's skin is extremely stretchy and has no pigment of its own. Their skin draws back to ventilate their body and can extend to sheathe their claws and stinger. The claws and stinger of a kyrian are a dark obsidian-like material that is extremely fragile and sharp. Glands at the base of the claws and stinger secrete a potent paralytic which runs along grooves in the material between the razor-sharp ridges of the claws and stinger. Like snakes, kyrians can dislocate their jaws to swallow large prey, they can breathe through holes in their body and their gills, so their esophagus can expand to accommodate prey as large as themselves. Kyrians are amphibious and must submerge in water many times a day. They also cannot survive in low humidity environments as their skin will dry out and crack. Kyrian skin becomes thicker as they grow older, making them appear to pale with age when in truth the thicker skin is simply concealing their brightly green blood more effectively. Young adult kyrians are six feet at the shoulder, but as they age, they continue to grow and the largest kyrians stand over twenty feet tall. Kyrians are adapted for an incredibly hot climate and can adjust the thickness of their skin to regulate how much heat they retain or give off. They are capable of detecting temperature variations to track prey. Adult kyrians develop hollow bone spikes which can be used to "sing" and are also sharp enough to serve as weapons, though they rarely use them in combat. These spikes grow longer with age and are placed differently on females. Female kyrians have more spikes on their shoulders and none on their lower backs or hips. Female kyrians are significantly larger and stronger than males of the same age, and were dominant in kyrian society.