First week of drawing Keffra and Rue is finished, and it's been very fun and fulfilling for me! I want to use this opportunity to explain what this series is and where I want it to eventually go.

Concept

The initial idea behind making this series is to go back to my GIF-making roots of Ask Frigid Drift. I've been trying different mediums over the years in order to see where I fit, but nothing's filled me with as much joy as developing the characters in that blog. I've been using some of the techniques I learned since then to improve my quality and speed, as well as using this as a new opportunity to continue growing. The themes are also much more mature than Ask Frigid Drift, and allow for more diverse characters and themes that I felt were restricted before.

Characters

Keffra and Rue are my original designs with inspiration from many of my favorite things. Keffra is inspired by another dark-skinned muscle girl: Avatar Korra. She also takes on more of a mature role as Rue's mentor in survival situations. Rue was inspired by Frigid Drift, another of my characters, who is eager to experience the world around her and willing to listen to her superiors. The idea of learning new skills each update was inspired by my watch of Dr. Stone, in which Senku teaches survival and science to all of his peers. I wanted people reading to feel the same way Rue does when they learn new skills, so she often reacts with a lot of energy.

World

The world these characters live in is very primitive and fantastical. All people of this world can learn magic just like any other skill that would need to be trained through mentoring and practice. Other characters take up residence in smaller economies, either of their own families or a small group of 3-5 families.

Story

Keffra and Rue are travelling through this world to survive and meet new people along the way. One of the things I liked about Ask Frigid Drift's format was that it didn't have an end goal and could be anything I wanted for it that day. I want the same feeling for this series, and that's why this first set of updates are in the form of Lessons. They can be anything as long as they teach Rue something along the way. They also provide a good way to introduce the world's magic and the characters. Later on, I intend to have more structure.

Future

As the story develops through the Lessons, I'll begin adding new characters and concepts that I want and that the community shows interest in. I don't have a clear vision for the project beyond the next few posts, and that's what keeps it exciting for me. Everyone invested in these characters will learn more about them as I do, so I want this to be as much of a community project as Ask Frigid Drift was when I started it nearly 10 years ago. Leaving comments and reviews really helps me in which direction to take the series, and I want to see where we'll be a week from now!