Wow! Good to hear from ya again, Pangy! *hugs!!!* I hope things are going better for you the past few days!
Anywho, I understand exactly what your saying; the first two were my preferences from the start and I still feel torn about it! Currently, the two are neck-to-neck on the over-all voting and just when I thought one would 'go for the win', the other catches up!
I planned to keep the voting open for a week and hope one of these pictures will have the lead. I have a tie-breaker on stand-by, just in case though!
I'm certainly glad you were able to make the vote (however tentative it is) before the dead-line!
The one thing that I feel is missing from this pattern is the yellow nose leaf that is so distinctive of the Honduran white bat (which, I admit, might be difficult to incorporate into the character design and still look good), unless you were thinking of waiting to add that characteristic until after you had received opinions on which overall color scheme looked best.
I do plan to add the nose-leaf to the character if the while bat color won out. This was basically a general outline for the color-scheme, and I was planning to add the more distinctive features later (like nose-leafs). I'm not exactly sure if it'll look odd on her or not, but I'll find a way to make it work!
(WARNING: I'm about to get philosophical and probably read way too much into this. 
: I apologize in advance.) In a way it seems sort of symbolic of her transformation: the brown hair is a remnant of her former life as a human, but from the looks of things, that color is eventually going to grow out and disappear, just as she has changed irreversibly, and it is inevitable that she must live a completely different life. (Did any of that NOT sound completely insane? 
) But like I said, that symbolism of the hair could go for any of these patterns.
No need to apologize as your deep-ness is completely warranted!
I have no doubt that your symbolism was running through my subconscious when I thought of coloring her hair like this. My logic-brain (I like that word, logic-brain; I'mma use it a lot now!
) was basically thinking: "Hair is always growing. Probably make sense that her new growth will take the natural coloration of the bat." It's pretty sad, actually. Like ya said, Pangy, her brown 'human' hair is going to fade away eventually, and with it, her last physical reminder of her humanity...
The other pattern that I really liked was the one based on the hoary bat. The brown coat with the silver-tipped hairs looks awesome, as does the rest of the coloration, although that light brown spot on top of her head kind of makes her look like she has a bald patch. Hoary bats, as far as I know, are rather variable in their coloration (due to there being several subspecies across a very wide range), so if you wanted to remedy this issue, you could easily change that patch of hair to a different color, such as the "frosted" brown of her main body.
That patch of color bothers me, certainly, and I'm thinking of ways to remedy it; I'm thinking making it the dark-grey color of the main coat whilst adding the light-brown-ness in individual strands. Once my fingers stop hurting (I'm coloring on photoshop again and it kills my fingers), I'mma try to make the change and see how it goes, perhaps substitute the pic above with it if it goes well.
The facial colors also look a bit different from most hoary bat pictures I've seen, but the gradient from light to dark brown is very well done.
I was using this particular pic for the color-inspiration, including the face
Isn't it adorable!!! I apologize if I screwed up!
I, for one, would love to hear more about the character. Not only am I curious, but I'm wondering if it may help my decision. I can imagine some reasons for why the hoary bat design might be preferable (since the character lives in New York City, would it make more sense for her to become a North American bat?), but at the same time I keep leaning toward the Honduran white bat pattern… All things being equal, I guess I'd tentatively vote for the Honduran white bat, with the hoary bat a close second.
I've added your vote to the list, though your always free to change it if you wish (that goes for everyone else, who might be having second-thoughts)! I got this character's full character and history down-packed, and I'll be more than happy to share!!
Her name was once Cameron (nick-name Camie!) and like I stated in another post, she was a very social person with a promising future, being one of the top students in the class. She lived with her parents and her little sister, getting ready to attend college and study up in zoology.
One day, she spotted an ad on the internet for a scientific study concerning bats. She was always interested in the little flying mammals and signed up to volunteer, not knowing what she was really going to get herself into...
When the day of the studies arrived, she went happily and willingly, bringing along her little sister (whom she was baby-sitting at the time) as she was certain the scientists wouldn't mind. That also proved to be a big mistake. Seperated from each other and from the other volunteers, Camie was injected with several strange serums, all the while wondering what this had to do with bats. She assumed the injections were vaccinations to keep her from contracting some weird sickness due to batty contact or something.
Needless to say, she found out that that wasn't the case as she was turned into this creature through a very painful transformation. Understandably, she was horrified by this; the trauma adding onto itself when she learned that she was the only one to have survived the change. The final blow was dealt when she learned her little sister was one of those lost, despite not even being intended as a volunteer in the first place.
After going through enough of her grief, guilt, and trauma, she managed to make an escape, making her way back to home. Along the way, she had a few encounters with other people, all of which reacted to her quite negatively, from running away to trying to flat-out shoot her. That only added more to her distress. Returning home, she wanted comfort from her parents, only to have her heart broken once more when they treated her like a monster and drove her off.
Now cold and alone and frightened beyond all reason, Camie found herself with nowhere to go. Deciding reluctantly that she'll have to make a new life for herself, she gives herself the new name of Chira (inspired by the bat Order name of Chiroptera) and taught herself how to fly. Eventually she wound up in NYC, fleeing from the scientists who were now after her, from the police frequently being called out against her, and from her own painful history. She tried finding a place to live, trying anywhere from the sewers (in the Spider-Man version of her history, the mammal-hating Lizard will make it clear that he doesn't want her anywhere near his 'territory') to the piers (which proved too cold and uncomfortable) to atop the Statue of Liberty (which she thought was too risky). She managed to find refuge in an abandoned building among a small colony of 'fellow' bats (who in turn are understandably frightened of the 'giant' freakish mutant
). For food, she tries to make do with what she can get: insects, fruit, even rats and birds if she grew hungry enough. In fact, she often stated to herself how she wouldn't be surprised if she adapted the appetite of a vampire bat as well (little does she know that that's the truth; the scientist made her to have the diet of all bats).
Although she's developed a phobia of humans, she still has her human nature to want to have
some resemblance of a human life. She eventually scrapped together a disguise in the form of an over-sized hooded cloak and sunglasses to hide her inhuman (and sensitive) eyes. She also has a crudely-made (you try writing with only thumbs!
) note on the front of the cloak stating "I'M A MUTE", so she won't have to talk to anyone and answer their no-doubt suspecious questions. Not because she couldn't talk; she could still talk just fine, granted her voice has gained a bit of a high-pitched squeak. She just doesn't want to risk people seeing her bizarre set of chompers!
Sometimes, this disguise works long enough for her to get safely to where she wants to go, but most of the time, someone starts figuring out that something's wrong with this girl and she's forced to run off.
But she only does this when she's in desperate need of 'interaction' (however minimal and frightening it is) or has an urgent day-time errand. Most of the time, she flies carefully by night, resting and keeping look-out of danger atop the Empire State Building. Plenty of people have seen her on her nightly ventures and developed a peculiar theory that even makes Chira tilt her head in confusion: with her winged form crouched atop the giant sky-scraper, hidden in the shadows, and her bright-red eyeshine, many of the witnesses claim her to be the Mothman and that she's bringing a prophesy of great disaster. Doesn't help that it's the infamous year of 2012, does it?
That's what I can think of to share. I hope you found it interesting, Pangy!
P.S. If anyone wanted to know what an actual Honduran white bat looks like, I posted a couple of photos of them here a while back. I second FlipperBoidSkua's opinion that they are among the most freaking adorable bats out there.
AWWWWWW!!! I die of cuteness every time!! That second pic of that post was the one I used as color reference for Chira's white bat color!!
Oooo!! You even put the vampire bat pic I love so much; it's always the big eyes and the 'smile' that gets me (or is it just me, seeing a smile on that batty's face?)!! Initially, the 'bland brown' color of Chira was gonna be represented with the vampire bat (specifically, the Common species), but the tent-making bat won out in the end!
And look at the little flying fox being groomed with a toothbrush!! AWWWWW!!!
Anyway, it was great hearing from ya again, Pangy. I almost forgot what it felt like to type out a long, satisfying reply!
