WELL it was a really hard work. And really BIG one. At a certain point, when the previous Yoridan designs stopped making my soul tremble (like this one and this one), for some reason I decided that I needed to create other sonas, in the hopes of quenching some thirst for a new response from the soul. I probably really need several sonas, I don’t deny it, that’s why they turned out so different. The idea that Yoridan needed a redesign had been in my head for a long time and firmly, but I didn’t understand in which direction I needed to go, and... I was just waiting for something to give me a spark
I've been thinking for a long time about the fact that something in her entire design... Well, it was familiar to me, but it stopped being special, causing that spark and connection that was there before. That somewhere that "I" that I reflected through her got lost and I started trying to look for it in other images, creating other, fresher sonas for myself. But Yoridan is already like my face in a sense, my image, and it was necessary to refresh this face. But since I didn't have any special thoughts on how exactly, I just noted it in my head, and passively looked for inspiration day after day
And then, in WoW, The War Within prepatch happened, which reminded me of one dragoness that I REALLY loved literally since my childhood. Onyxia (I mean, there were many other dragon models similar to hers, but she had a special vibe) ((and I still couldn't get the mount on the official servers, although I did manage to do it on a pirated version once...))
Just think about it. Evil BIG thicc dragoness. And it coincided with one of my thoughts that I had before - Yoridan needs to have her physique completely reworked. I mean, if we remember her very first version, then basically the only changes in her feral version were a little in the coloring, but not in the anatomy. It's surprising that I decided to make her so graceful and smooth, although if this was supposed to be my embodiment of some real image, then she should have been plump. At the same time, neither before nor after her creation did I have any dislike for my figure, on the contrary, I really like what soft parts I have! It just somehow turned out that she is very thin, both in the feral and anthro versions. And so I thought "since I am growing, then you grow with me, and become more like me". And Onyxia's figure sounded like just what I needed >:)
Lots of new fins, a more massive body, protruding teeth and generally changed proportions, well, literally EVERYTHING - I already fell in love with the way I depicted her in a new way. But there was still one scary step - developing a new coloring, that is, patterns and palette. My original goal for the new patterns sounded like "good design does not have to be complicated". The previous version had well... Unnecessary complexity. Lots of "swirls" that added weight to the design, but not beauty as such, at least over the years of drawing them I really got tired of them. Plus, I always had trouble with heavy designs, so I wanted something simple and convenient, but at the same time retaining some of the past design elements, and also something that looks harmonious in general. And you know... I think I did it. At least for now I think so xd Her patterns are not complicated, but they are good because of the colors. And speaking of them, I got it done pretty quickly. Another massive problem that the previous design had was a poor palette. Technically, just black and shades of purple. And I have understood for a VERY long time how boring designs with such a palette squeezed into one color can look (you can still make a very beautiful design with this, I just didn’t quite succeed). That’s why I have long wanted to use at least one second main color in the design, but I couldn’t choose it correctly. Until I began to remember which combination of colors, including purple, does go with me side by side, almost my whole life - purple and yellow (probably the first such example in my life was Spyro). And I realized how well I can dilute this design. Plus get rid of the minor issue that most of the body in the previous design was almost completely black, this created a big problem when it came to dark atmosphere art, where most of the body ended up practically evaporating. Aaaah, not that the darkest color in the current palette wouldn't cause the same problems now, but hey, it's much lighter!
The clothes were one of my biggest pains here. I have problems with drawing and designing them in general, and here I wasn't even sure what exactly I wanted. In the end, after trying 3 other outfits, I went back to what Yoridan had before, BUT redesigned it. Aaaand well, I really like the result. It involuntarily captured both sides that I wanted to capture - a modern vibe (since most often her anthro version is drawn within the framework of the modern world) and something like a dnd vibe. Because I really like the dnd setting and such old fantasy in general, and having pictures with her in such a setting too, and in general, these clothes still fit! I've already discussed this with a friend, that she reminds me of some astrologer, and it could well be that she would sit in her room like some kind of witch with tarot cards, predicting your fate from the stars (of course, whether you will be eaten by her or not (the answer is yes)). So it turns out interesting
PLUS!! The new design meant a new "signature", basically a small logo that I put in its place, and that has already changed in my life before, and now there is a new version. I hope it looks good... But the main thing about it is that it inspired me to give Yoridan the ability to exhale mist. Mist that will calm the one she is about to swallow ;)
This reference actually took me a long time to work on, mainly because at each stage I needed to "meditate" for a day or two to understand whether I liked what I had done so far or whether I wanted to change something. So technically I could have done this reference in a day, but I stretched it out over a week, savoring each stage before moving on
Am I happy with the current design? Of course. Do I want more art with it now, like in the good old days? OF COURSE

Oh, she has completely different vibes, while remaining recognizable, and I really like it. Who knows if she's evil, maybe just tired... and hungry. Oh, I also thought it would be interesting to give her a "canonical size". It's normal for me to draw characters in different sizes in some works for convenience, essentially never having a solid idea of ​​​​their "canon" sizes, just like I draw how I want and it's cool. But here I thought I wanted to give her a base size, even if I change it in some art for some purposes. I really wanted her to be big and could potentially fit a lot of preys >:3 Well, and besides, you know, dragons, they need their own cave with lots of treasures, and also steal princesses from nearby villages. Of course, she does that too. And not necessarily for the sake of food, maybe the princess will appreciate the company of a dragoness even more than a crowd of annoying suitors in her native land?