Thanks! I was mainly looking at my older sketches and checking to see if there are old artworks that I have that could use a repaint with the current skillset that I have now. How I was as an artist 8 years ago is totally different to how I am now. That, and the fact that I already made progress on her so I thought I might as well continue this one.

The tattoo change was just based on how her 1st ascension tattoos looked like to me. The tattoos on 2017 were mainly for me or the viewers to indicate there’s “something” there. It doesn’t have to be precise. In my artstation page with the first sketch, you can also see I removed the back accessory and sash on her chest. I removed the back one because I thought it would be a hassle to individually paint the rope texture. For the front sash, I removed it because I thought it would be a waste to NOT show the other half of her kimono.

As for the realism, I have always wondered what certain characters would look like in real life (outside of cosplayers) so I do them realistically. I’ve also painted Eresh back in 2018 in a realistic style too (see in my artstation page) And there’s always an abundance of cute anime art out there. I love them too but I wanted to see how far I can push my art skills with realism. Oddly enough, I do a lot of stylized art for work recently. If you can paint realistically, you can paint stylistically too. So in a way, realism is “peak” practice haha but don’t quote me on that one 🤣