Kai's Design has been around for quite a few years, so I felt that it was time for him to undergo a slight redesign. The idea was to incorporate some of his personality and likes to make him more unique, but in the end, he still needed to be Kai.
With how often Kai was in pirate themed pictures, I decided to double down on it a bit and show it in his design. This can be seen by the skull-like pattern on his left ear tip, as well as the treasure map-like design going up his left leg to his back.
The changes didn't end there though. I wanted to add a bit more complexity to his design without getting too out of hand. This involved a few steps- -The first step was to create less uniformity in where the white and blue meet. I also changed both feet from being blue to only one. The reverse is also true for his paws. -The next step was to take a look at his overall colors and pattern. wanting to do something really unique, I didn't want to do just stripes or spots. With this in mind Xen helped come up with the idea that if we think of the white as land, we could slowly increase the shades of blue so that it looks like a beach transitioning to deeper water. -Finally, to add just a bit more complexity, a handful of white spots were placed throughout the blue areas to look like islands.
And that about sums up his changes! I'm really happy with the way he turned out and looking forward to getting some new pieces with Kai now that this is done. For those wondering about how this will affect New Bonds, I will continue using Kais old reference for the remainder of the comic, but any new projects will use Kai's new design.
