🪽 Angel Wings Reference (Patreon)

Fiiiiinalily finished Angel Wings newest reference. I’ve had this laying around for a while because I was too frustrated fiddling with the background, but I really wanted it done so I locked in and finally got the background & layout to a place where I’m pleased with it! 

I didn’t change too much about her design, just slightly tweaked her hair style (though it can be drawn like how it used to look idm), changed her magic colour from blue to black (though it was blue pre curse), changed her cutie mark and changed her piercings! I also added a super subtle gradient to her mane and tail. I just thought it looked neat.

I’ve had Angel on my mind a lot lately, I’ve felt super connected to her as a ponysona and I’ve been subconsciously brain storming some lore for her. When I made her, I didn’t have any idea for what her special talent was, so her old cutie mark was just. Random and kinda meaningless. I wanted to think of an actual talent for her, as well as giving her a reason as to how and why she can summon magic wings.

Eventually I settled on the idea to make her a graffiti artist! It fits with her rebellious personality, and since she’s a ponysona of mine, I wanted to make her talent something art related. She got her cutie mark at an early age, and it was the second version of the CM shown here, the one with the pink spray paint coming out of the can. This was also when her magic would’ve been blue, its original pure colour.

As for how her cutie mark and magic colour changed, Angel wings ended up getting cursed, which is also how she got her ‘wings’. Exploring an abandoned (and supposedly haunted) building in her youth, she planned to just graffiti the walls, throwing up some art and doing a little bit of exploring. Once she was inside the building however, she got caught up digging through the items that were left behind by whoever owned the home before it was abandoned. There was lots of rumours about how and why the house was abandoned in the first place, it had supposedly been left barren for hundreds of years deep inside the forest. She didn’t know the truth about what happened to it, and she didn’t really care much either. Rummaging through an old jewellery box, she eventually found herself drawn to a black necklace with a blue gem, almost as if it was calling out to her. 

I imagine that once she put the necklace on, the curse inside of it bonded with her, making her unable to remove it, and being the reason she can summon her wings. In return for becoming an “Alicorn”, her destiny was changed from being an artist, to being able (and obligated) to exercise curses and spirits. Hence the cutie mark change. Her magic colour changed over time from absorbing the curses, which takes a big toll on her. As well as being able to exorcise curses now, she can also see and hear spirits everywhere, the curse that resides in her necklace being permanently attached to her and being able to speak to her whenever it wants to. At first I don’t think Angel would’ve seen this as a curse, but it wouldn’t have taken long before she realised that’s what it is. Idk I’m still ironing out the specifics of this story I suppose, but this is kinda the idea I have. It’s not perfect but I like It I think, it adds a bit more ✨pizazz✨ to Angel. maybe I’m wrong tho and this is lame, who knows, I’m just being very indulgent with her. 

Outside of her lore though, she’s still her same old loud bold self. She goes to concerts a LOT, as loud music drowns out spirit voices so it’s a nice distraction for her. She tends to keep the mental strain that her curse takes on her to herself, and doesn’t really divulge how she earned her ‘wings’, covering it up by saying she’s just super good at magic. She’s still super into fashion, the outfit on her ref sheet being her main one that she wears frequently, I also like to think that on top of attending music gigs she’s also quite a good singer herself (the voice claim i have for her is Courtney Stringer, the lead singer of spiritbox, for both singing and speaking), though she keeps that as just a hobby And doesn’t plan to do anything more serious with it. 

“So Long and Thanks For All the Booze” by All time low Is still a song I associate with Angel, as well as “Spirits” by Nothing More and “Holy Roller” by Spiritbox. I should make her a playlist.

If you made it to the end of this you need a medal I think. Sorry for the massive word vomit about my silly horse oc