In the setting Sylvo is from (both of which are from an on-hold project of mine), Darkborn are creatures born from the mysterious, shadowy force known as The Dark. The typical "birth" of a Darkborn comes from The Dark killing an unsuspecting victim and taking over their body, converting it into a relentless beast that serves only to aid The Dark. Not all victims of The Dark become Darkborn, the event is somewhat random and unpredictable, but it is still a very real threat whenever it is present.

Sylvo was almost doomed to the same fate on the night he fell afoul of The Dark, though by chance he was spared death and the end result is a very... unique situation.

This picture is the result of me trying to figure out Sylvo's Darkborn form, a monstrous version of him initially fuelled by his long-held anger and seizing control often in moments of extreme duress. It's taken me a while to get a feel for what I wanted from this side of him, but merging his tailfeathers and coat into a unified part of him was one of the ideas I most wanted to use. The glowy golden accents to the tail tips, spine-like parts at his back and tailfeather/coat-tail hybrid parts are all edged like blades, so the talons and the horns aren't even the only dangerous parts of him.

I warred internally for a bit as to whether or not to make all the golden accents glowy or not, considering that a being meant to lurk in the darkness probably wouldn't be luminescent... but to hell with logic, I think it looks cooler like this and that's usually gonna win out for me.

I didn't really plan to pretty this up as much as I did, though honestly I'm glad I got slightly carried away with it. It's one of my favourite things I did in 2020.

[This is art from 2020]