I was commenting on another users journal about "fursonas" and how they came to be. I thought this would be sort of interesting to show just how Mala has changed through the years.


The first image is by Va Kasi. I joined the Lion King fandom as made it my first "internet home" in 1999. At the time, I made a white lioness with silver eyes, a black tail tuft and a black moon and star marking. I named her Malaika, which meant Angel in Swahili (because you can't be in TLK without a proper Swahili name duh). She had a family and a sort of Mary Sue-ish story. This is the first proper image I have of her (there might have been earlier, but I didn't save much back in the day)


The second image is by mahrkale. Around 2002, Mala started changing into a wolf, which had been my favorite animal for a long time (plus, I was better at drawing them than big cats). This was also my "Goldenwolf" age where I was really into werewolves and tribal things and all that. Who hasn't done that? So there were more "Were" images of Mala during this time.


The third image is by Jadewolf/SageGoat. 2003 is when I started drawing her as a wolf/feline mix. At first she was wolf/caracal. Then wolf/cougar/caracal. Then I finally settled on wolf/cougar. All these images look similar, though there are some during the caracal time where she has ear tufts. And aside from a change in eye color from silver to amber in the last few years of this stage, she didn't really go through any other transformations.


And the last image is of course by me :) 2009 I finally changed Mala's design to something that I think fits me much better. Some of it came from the upheaval in my life of leaving my job of several years and moving halfway across the country. From 2004-2008 I worked at a zoo and started feeling a real connection and love for cheetahs. They seemed to fit me, as furry as that sounds. From build to personality. So Mala shifted from wolf/cougar to wolf/cheetah. I didn't want to make her overly complicated, so I added only a few spots and stripes, a big cat nose and the amber color her eyes had changed to previously was to match the eye color of cheetahs. I had actually toyed with this design while I was working at the zoo in 06/07, but never went through with changing it until I moved and missed my kitties :<


So that is how Mala has come to be. I highly doubt I'll change her again, as I have finally settled into a design I really enjoy and I think it unique c: