Robin, why did you change your design? I loved the simplicity of your old design.

A lot of people have told me they really like my original, older design. And for the most part, I did too. When I commissioned Ifus back in November I just wanted to switch up his body shape and maybe clean up his design slightly.

But as the months wore on and I thought about it more, I realized something as I looked at other people's refs:

Robin's original design was a product of my own lack of self-esteem.

I had designed Robin to rather plain, primarily because I didn't want him to be attractive. Mostly because I felt like I didn't really deserve to present myself as attractive to people. It felt like I'd be overstepping some sort of boundary into territory I didn't belong. If that makes sense.

So with that in mind I gave it a lot of thought and sent out an email to Ifus before she got to my ref. I made several changes to make Robin what I personally find attractive on other furs.

Firstly, I changed his fur color to a more saturated color that more clearly is brown. A lot of people thought Robin was gray. He has always looked brown to me, always, so this was a big surprise. Especially when you consider that his main fur color was originally the middle one in this swatch. I was getting tired of explaining that he was brown.

Second, I added the lighter color around Robin's eyes. I have always adored color patterns around eyes and thought they looked really attractive. Whether it's a mask or individual spots. However, as a result I had to remove the darker stripe from Robin's snout and face so his face wouldn't look too cluttered. I compensated by bringing the light color higher up on his face so he'd still have a stripe of fur on his snout.

Third, I cleaned up the tail colors. They've always kind of been inconsistent in both character sheets. Especially the first one where they just end abruptly.

Fourth, I added patterns to his arms and feet. I absolutely love clever patterns on arms and legs, so I went with very simplistic ones that didn't look too unnatural. I'll be honest. I stole them from Clint. x3

Fifth, I made sure the heart-shape on his butt was more clear. ♥ You're welcome.

Finally I changed his body shape. "But Robin." I hear you start. "It's the same as his last ref." Not really. I honestly was never happy with Robin's second ref. Mikey did a great job, but the body shape was never exactly what I wanted it to be. It looked too slender with the belly too blobby and soft, when what I was really going for was a firm, compact belly and stalky, wide body. Because of this, I still mentally thought of him as thin and asked artists to draw him thin.

All in all, I'm actually really happy with his new design. I hope you guys like it too.