Love the hatchlings! They're super cute!

The adults on the other hand don't quite have the same appeal to me. Especially the male. I appreciate that you're trying to keep the poses true to the originals but it just isn't working with the male. I'd almost rather see a completely new pose. The current males pose has legs that are almost too straight...making him look kinda like a table. I agree about the facial expressions. I'd like to see more fierceness on the male, would totally love to see some teeth in a snarly grin sort of thing. I like the females sassy vibe but feel like it could be exaggerated a little more. Also agree that the legs could be longer. Love the fluffyness gives them more of a personality! In general, I think they look so much better and can't wait to see the finished product!

I love this! This is one of my favorite sylesti types and I'm so happy to see it getting a revamp now too.

As far as the sketches though...
I do like them! The art crew here is very talented. I love the expressions on the pups. The female's expression is especially heart-meltingly sweet. The adults I'm a little more mixed. One of the things i like about the current adult designs is that the tails don't obscure the body too much, while still being big enough to sport patterns on their own quite well. The current sketches' tails cover a little too much of the body in my opinion, especially on the legs- markings like doberman would only be visible on the front half of the sylesti.

I also agree with others that the legs should be a little thicker on the adults(Thin legs make me think more like a fox or a sighthound, and less of a wolf, coyote, or stockier dog), and the male's pose could be a little less stiff.

The adult male's face looks like it's grimacing a little? Not a bad expression for an art piece, but maybe not the best for a sitewide look. The female's smile is nice, but her eyes seem too placid somehow...

Edit: Reexamined the pups a little now that I'm over the initial excitement of seeing this first thing after I come back from hiatus, I can see what some say about the male pup's pose being a little stiff and strange. Most of that comes from the tail position I think, though. I might lower the front half of the body a little into more of a playful pose, but I'm worried that may make it look too much like one of the Zolnixi hatchlings. I don't mind that the female pup has a softer expression now, but I do kind of hope the adult will regain some of that sassy look the current one has.

...and that's about it for what I have to say on these. I'm very excited to see them updated! I trust the artists to make them even better than they were before.

Not to be mean or any thing but to me it looks like flames(the fur) instead of fur so in was thinking I would make he turns little neater... if you don't think so that's fine but it's just an option...

(Have to reiterate my disagreement with everybody who thinks the hatchlings are cute >.<)

(The boy looks way off balance, like he's very stiffly about to fall over. it's okay if he ends up with more of an angled howl than the current boy, but this sketch just takes it too far heh. Also I'd like to see a smaller nose on him)

(And the girl... well, the current female lup child is one of my favorite hatchlings, so maybe I'm a little biased when I talk about it. But the beauty of the current one is the earnest/casual/confident expression + the angle of the ears + the natural position she's sitting in. The sketch... I will say the paws look very nice. I do like the addition of the claws. But the head seems a bit too big, the ear is either too big or too droopy (or both)... and I'd like to see more of the fur coming over from her back, it just kind of abruptly moves behind her after the neck.)

(I love the adults, though. I had to laugh at the comment somebody made about the male looking like a table - that's kind of true. And the legs do indeed look a bit short, and I personally would make the female's body a little less long horizontally. But otherwise the positioning is good, the expressions are acceptable (I think, anyways), and I love the fluffy manes and tails <3 And the paws. Lots of very nice paws.)

(Just wanted to expand on my concerns about the hatchlings, since nobody else seems to be pointing out the problems I'm seeing.)

edit: how I'd envision the ears is more like so

Just a quick update.

First of all, thank you to everyone for the feedback so far. We always greatly appreciate it and deeply take all feedback into consideration for changes.

I also want to just say that this revamp will probably be a bit slow. We have A LOT going on atm, both just content wise, but also artwork demands. So just bear with us through this process - it will definitely be slower than previous revamps. =P


Now, as for specific things so far.

The feedback on the adult's legs has been loud and clear. We will rework that and try again.

We will also look into redoing the baby's ears - they are too big.

We will also be making changes to the adult male's face - he did end up looking a bit more pouty than was intended.

We will also look at adjusting the ends of the adult's tails. However, I don't feel like the female really has much of an issue. Pretty much just the tiny part of the hind leg is covered... which really wouldn't account for very many gene details that you'd be missing out on. The male though, his tail does cover a bit too much.

Changes we will make are not limited to the above. I am sure we will make additional changes too.


Lastly, I just want to say a few things because we've read a lot of feedback against things that we either have no choice in doing - or have purposely chosen to do.

Firstly, keep in mind that we are restricted to a square canvas. We also want to use the entire canvas. If we sized our species appropriately - they would all end up midgets on the canvas and you'd see no details at all. So always try to keep that in mind if you think body proportions are slightly off.

This also applies to those who have suggested having the tail be in different locations of the canvas. As it is now, the tails go to the very edge of the canvas. They have to go downward, there just isn't any other realistic option. Personally, we feel that the tails being in front instead of behind the body is also the better choice as their manes will be full of genes. I'd rather the tails be visible than 50% of their hind legs.

Secondly, I've seen a lot of comparisons to Puffadores and/or Zolnixis. Keep in mind, they are all canine-ish of sorts. So they are bound to share some characteristics. The main identifying features of the Lupora is their thick back mane and that they are more akin to wolves than toy domesticated dogs and foxes.

Thirdly, we intentionally made them with thick pelts. Not only are they temperate/arctic creatures, but we personally view them as very feral, rugged creatures. I mean, that is why they had a very thick back mane as their original creation. =P They are not meant to be shorthaired. Artists will be spending a great deal on their shading for their fur and manes.

Lastly, keep in mind that a Lupora is a fantasy creature of the world of Sylestia. Is it not a literal wolf. So it is not going to have all of the exact mimicking features of a wolf. Some basic differences that we have requested are: longer muzzles, slightly larger ears (sort of elf-like), obviously the very thick fur/mane, and slightly longer/majestic bodies. However, that said, the bulk of their anatomy is based on wolves and we will try to maintain that.


All in all, we will make the listed changes above and probably some others and post updated sketches as soon as we can. =)

Feel free to keep providing feedback in the meantime!

You guys are doing great <3 Thank you for keeping us updated!

Long ears and wild mane are the Lupora's defining features in my experience so I am happy to hear those aspects will be emphasized.

Thanks for updating us!

I think after all you've mentioned, there's a little bit more that I think could be fixed: The expressions of all the adults and hatchlings look really... not normal. We can't really see the male hatchling's expression, but he looks really disoriented and about to fall backwards. The others, I can't really say exactly what the female hatchling is feeling/thinking, the male adult's expression looks pretty pained, and the female adult's expression looks kind of dopey. I kind of like the current lupora expressions, especially the adults' looking cool and a bit naughty, as if they're thinking "We're the best, don't mess with the rest", and I hope that even after the revamp the luporas will retain their cool expressions.

The fur and tail's fluffiness is really good, really defining the lupora's traits as the species.

All in all, us players are looking forwards to the revamp! Awesome work :)

To me I think that the fur on the back should be sharper on the males, and that the males heads should either be prouder (standing up taller) or ducking a bit more with a wider stance, the facial expression on the males to me should be more defined I think as in he looks more concerned than anything so perhaps more ferocious or calm or cautious would be good ways to go off it.

The female looks great though, I like it.