Kokabiel, The Burning Light - Sketch Phase (Patreon)

Circling back on these familiar figures has been a joy. With much of the design work already established by his first portrait, I'm able to build on the themes behind Kokabiel's character.

To me, Kokabiel represents a sort of escapism. In the first piece, he's looking to the heavens while water rises around him. This time around I wanted to pull the camera in closer and show a private moment as he loses himself in a beautiful moment.

The times I feel most like this are when I'm listening to music. If I weren't trying to establish a semi-consistent fiction in these paintings I would probably be drawing headphones on him in this piece. What you can't really see here is that there were versions of this sketch that included jewelry that was clearly reminiscent of earbuds. I ended up scrapping that idea though because it ended up being a little too distracting.