An old character I've thought up years ago, Iris. The idea of her was inspired loosely by Kirby many years ago. (https://www.furaffinity.net/view/17400766/).

Although I never did do anything else with her, I didn't completely forget about her. On and off I've thought more critically about how her powers work. Actually, the past year I've put my brain into high gear. I've even thought about making a video-game of her.

But anyway, one thing that I struggled with is how she changes forms. I wanted a limitation of what forms she could take based on the environment. My initial idea was that her forms were color-based, in that she could absorb the colors of light bouncing from objects in the present area.

But over time I found that I didn't really like the idea, especially from a game-play perspective. Another issue was her "Neutral form." There really was no reason for it. Granted her other forms had quirks in her personality, so her "Neutral form" was meant to be her, well, normal form, one that made her more...normal. But otherwise, it felt redundant and unneeded. Especially since, again looking at it from a game-play perspective, there really was no reason to be neutral. It also didn't help that I had planned most, if not possibly all, of her other forms also caused her to change into different animals, being a real shapeshifter. Not really a chameleon girl per se if she's only a chameleon possibly 1% of the time.

So after thinking and a smidgen of confidence about what I wanted for her, I've gotten rid of her "Neutral form", and instead regard her Earth Form as her "default" form. And rather her changing forms based on the colors of the environment she instead gets her powers by placing her hand on an object or person, and copying the form or whatnot.

I'm mildly (which isn't saying much) comfortable with this decision about her and I hope to draw more of her in the future. And perhaps even make that game with her.

Edit: When I first got the piece done I did try my hand at inking, but I found it unsatisfactory. So I kept it as a rough sketch, but at least did some coloring. But after a day, I was still bothered that it wasn't inked. So I gave it another chance, actually experimenting a little as I went along. Frankly, I still wasn't happy with the outcome, but I was satisfied enough to bother uploading. I also experimented a little with smoothing out the shading, mostly for the hell of it.

The old image can still be seen here: https://sta.sh/0jp4lket2f4