Most people like to create reference sheets after they get a feel for their characters’ designs with multiple sketches, paintings, etc. It was a foreign notion to me in 2016 when I was thinking about how my character should look. How could I buy artwork and keep changing elements from piece to piece? That’s why I immediately set out to do my reference sheet first, and with a stroke of luck, Aaros (Twitter) took on the task during the fall of 2016. Since I was adamant about getting this right, I sent superfluous documentation and emails that were a confusing mess of requests and details. His patience with my awkward, unsure self is amazing in retrospect since he gently pushed me to be as succinct as possible.
I remain thankful to Aaros for helping me conceptually refine the core design for my character in his anthropomorphic form, and bringing him to life.