1995, gouache on black illustration board. While Synnabar is a personal symbol of mine, rather than a "character", this Avatar is an allegorical creature and a symbol too, along the same lines. She is a Destroyer, a Sekhmet/Kali/Durga-type figure, but she is not inherently evil.

1992, Prismacolor markers, blender, and paint-pen. My old marker-style, completed in an hour as a "self-test". She is a personal symbol of mine, more than a character, and is a recurring figure in my art. She is a combination of my favorite animals, and over time (I've been drawing her for decades) she became more stylized and streamlined.

1991, pen & prismacolor markers w/ colorless blender and white & metallic paint-pens. My Avatar in my old marker-style, done as part of an "expressive self-portrait"; the rest of the pic depicted stylized representations of the Five, & symbols of earth, wind, water, and fire. The Five were represented by sentient animal forms of a griffin, wolf, unicorn, dragon, and a lion & smilodon (I split Amur-Iraklion into two aspects). The rest I filled with other favorite animals of mine, both real and imaginary (need to make a bigger scan - it's cropped here). Here my Avatar has a tiger's face, lion's mane, smilodon's fangs, bearlike foreclaws (w/opposable thumbs), fox/wolf-like ears, raptor-like wings, dragon's eyes, horns, and tail, & a shark-like tail-tip.

1993, pencil. Some idea of her body-type, though she lacks her usual dragon-like back spines.

1994, pen. Here, perhaps, her sabre-like fangs are more apparent.

Pencil. I hadn't had time to draw for "me", but I finally just HAD to, and she's what developed - my Avatar again, stylized. Check my site, www.synnabar.com under "Evolution Art" for an explanation of what she is.

Here is my Avatar/Shakti, looking very stylized (with symbolic wings, etc.). I DO like to draw and see finished art, but I don't ALWAYS want or need to do smooth, detailed pieces myself. There are times when I WANT to draw dark and rough and loose, both because it helps set a mood, and because it just feels good to move the pencil around like that - to me, this accomplishes what I intended and is "finished". The detailed center widening out to a rougher drawing was done on purpose; this isn't supposed to be a sketch (I tried to make sure this was cleaned up enough), but if it belongs instead in the sketches categories I apologize. Incidentally, I got married in 2003 (why my last name changed). :) Pencil on cardstock, Photoshop gradients and touch-up.