Rykela's original design, believe it or not, was inspired by this image by an incredibly popular furry artist I saw back in the day - which, given the artist vanished shortly afterwards, really dates her creation. With her headfin and those cheek danglies, you can kind of see it still, can't you? That was because at the time I drew that initial picture, I didn't intend her to be my fursona, but I took one look at her design and it just kind of clicked. After toning down some of the excess fins that first picture had (which at the time I knew I wanted to be rid of since they'd be a HUGE pain to draw over and over), I ended up with her design that's largely been pretty unchanged up until today.

Anyway, a few years back I got to thinking about how her design had drifted a little over time - mostly in the shape of her snout, which I kept making rounder and rounder until it became downright Yoshi-like. I went back to that original image above and thought, "hey... what if I'd leaned more into the serpentine aspects over time?"

The result, seen here, is so nice I decided that I would make it her elder form - that is, if she lives for a few thousand years as dragons are wont to do, she'll end up maturing into something very lovely. You can see elements of this design in the commissions I got from Carmessi, and... okay, I haven't done MUCH with her, but the elder dragon version of Rykela has some LORE attached.

I'm still very fond of this headshot though. I think it turned out really well.