EA Kindled Change
MLP: FiM
Adventure
A small changeling takes her first steps towards changing her life.
Alt. Universe
Twilight
OC
Chrysalis
Darkevony · 30k words · 148 1 · 3k views

"For You, I'll Change" - Art by DamayantiArts for A Kindled Change · 12:37pm Jun 8th, 2023

"For You, I'll Change" Illustration drawn by DamayantiArts on Deviant Art, for chapter 6 of A Kindled Change. It details the moment Chrys' disguise falls apart due to a fever, and Twilight is wrought and conflicted over what to do in the face of a creature that was a clear enemy only recently. Which leads Chrys, who can see and feel those negative emotions, to cry in the face of those awful feelings directed at her. This leads Twilight to understand that Chrys, and changelings as a whole, aren't the monsters she took them for. And so she reaches out to hug the small girl to reassure both her and herself that come what may, she would protect her.

I only returned to this fandom half a year ago because of this story. Scratch that, I returned because of this chapter. You know what? Let's dwindle that down further. This very moment was what got me to want to write the rest of Chrys' saga and re-engage with the FIM community and media. And it's easy to see why! It was the best, most impactful and heartfelt thing I've written.

With that said, understand that I had to be very careful selecting the artist for this all-critical moment. I've chosen my other artists depending on their forté, and this one was particularly difficult to scout for due to the gravity and emotion that needed to be conveyed. And Dama definitely did it justice.

Lovely person to work with too! I'm always incredibly lax with my commissions, but Dama made sure to follow up with everything on it. It was quite the change of pace from my usual. And any extra time she took, she did so to put that much more effort and care into the drawing. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better person to tackle this piece.

To speak more on it, I wanted to say how much I love the general composition of the art. My directions for the commission were very simple, and almost everything about it is Dama's vision. From the angle, pose, and fine extra details. I'd say my only real influence was the candlelight, but then that'd be a diservice to all the careful work and shading Dama gave the piece.

On that note, I'm just smitten with the glows she added to the whole scene. From the moon down to the illuminated edges on the characters and objects around the candlelight. I wish I could draw glows and lighting effects half as good as Dama does. The shot is essentially split between a warm and cool temperature thanks to the lighting from the two sources, and it adds to the visual spectacle of it.

Now that I've been studying art extensively, I can notice a lot finer details that I can gush about forever, but lest this blog becomes a book of its own, I'll hold my peace here. Just know that I'm very happy with. I hope you guys are too!

This final section is to address my lingering absence as of late, for those that have noticed my disappearance. A while ago, a natural disaster in the form of a thunderstorm rivaling hurricane-strength winds ended up doing extensive damage to my community, and equally, my own home. Rebuilding took a long time, and even after everything seemed fine, hidden damages kept cropping up. I had to essentially rewire my whole house because of an electrical fire caused by internal damages to my wiring during the storm.

It took time. It took a lot of money. And it took a lot of my sanity in the process too. So practicing what I preach, I took a lesson from my own book and took time off my writing ahead of time to keep myself mentally sound. I'm not back 100% yet, but I'm getting there. Stay tuned!