Kilah Chiaro

## Physical Appearance

*"Kilah hopped down from the bed on giant, saucer-like paws, each one tipped with gleaming claws, sharp and honed like a warrior’s blade. Kilah was a beautiful animal. Clare had seen paintings of tigers in books before and they never had a whisker on Kilah. Her coat was like satin and would put the hair of any fine maiden to shame. It was snowy white, crossed with bold black stripes. She had bright, intelligent eyes the colour of arctic ice and a little pink nose. She was smaller than the tigers in the books, but that didn’t stop her from being powerful, fast, and fierce when she wanted to be."*

- Kilah's tiger form description in Secrets of Dragonia: Dawn of Monochrome.

*"She was short and tanned with a curvaceous figure. She had a beautiful pear-shaped body and wore a skirt and a tube top made from white tiger skin, leaving her toned stomach exposed. She had silver armlets, leglets and necklace encrusted with sapphires, similar to Tajo’s chokers. She wore black leather bands around her feet that extended up to her calves. She also wore the same spiked knuckle-dusters as Tajo did. Her long snow-white hair was streaked with black and tangled like hell. She had a bouncy side-fringe that extended past her jaw, swept out of her beautiful face. She had a button nose and bold, daring arctic blue eyes that Clare recognised instantly."*

- Kilah's description in Secrets of Dragonia: Dawn of Monochrome when she first transforms into a human.

## Design Development

Concept art for Kilah's early (then theoretical) human form depicted her with hip-length middle-parted white curly hair with black streaks. She wore a strapless white tigerskin dress with a metal belt featuring a gemstone pawprint. She wore simple white pumps, a forehead diamanté, and what appears to be a transparent sleeve on her right arm. It's unknown if she was depicted here with wide hips, or whether this was simply the shape of her dress. Daye was 8 at the time of drawing this, and the artwork was never coloured, so it is unknown what her colour scheme was at this point, though it is assumed to be white, black, and blue.

Kilah's human form concept art at the author's age of 9 depicted her very similarly to her modern design, with a princess necklace, armlets and necklace bejewelled with Sapphires which matched her eyes. She also has a strapless crop top and asymmetrical skirt made from white tiger print. Differences include her her fringe covering her right eye, similarly to Arwin. Her jewellery seems to be made from some kind of white metal as opposed to silver. Her hair is less voluminous here, appearing flat against her head and seeming to stop just past her shoulders. Her black hair streaks are more numerous, she has a flat chest and stomach, and slightly wider hips than Clare. She was depicted as Caucasian here, and this art was the first appearance of her facial marking. This design, particularly the costume and precise stripe placement in the clothing and hair, was carried forward for around eight years.

A series of Figure Concepts were created at the author's age of 11-13. The first of these depicted Kilah with a slightly larger chest, bound by bandages as well as bandage-bound shorts. She is more muscular here, having prominent arm muscles and six pack abs. The author's anatomy skills within art were limited at this time, and so all of the characters in the Figure Concept line appear to be very underweight, however Kilah was depicted with wider hips and larger thighs in comparison to other characters. She had thin brows and full, lush lashes. She also has black clawed finger and toenails here. Her face claim at this time was Taylor Momsen.

The second of the Figure Concepts line depicted her far more realistically, with wider hips and bigger thighs. She retains her muscular arms and stomach, and her hair is more voluminous again, coming down to her lower back. She has clawed finger and toenails, now clear. Her face claim at this time was Chloë Grace Moretz.

A more polished piece of concept art at the author's age of 14 depicted Kilah with more tanned skin. Her design all-in-all remained much the same, aside making her more spherical and bottom-heavy, again with wider hips and larger thighs, now swapping out her abs for a soft tummy. Her hair came to the bottom of her buttocks and became more wavy. Chris Sanders' artwork was a very heavy influence when it came to Kilah's design at this point. She was depicted as half Latina, half Polynesian here, and her face claim was Auli'i Cravalho. This is the design described in the first novel, Secrets of Dragonia: Dawn of Monochrome.

At the age of 18, the author attempted a slight stylistic redesign, aiming for a more cartoony art-style that would perhaps be more appropriate for animation. Her hairstreaks were swapped out here for a balayage-style fade from dark to light. Daye also experimented here with putting faint tiger stripes on Kilah's body.

At age 19, the author redesigned the characters completely for a college project. Her sapphire jewellery was replaced with Rose Quartz, inspired by the notion that the healing properties of Rose Quartz align with Kilah's loving personality. The pink Rose Quartz colour was carried over to Kilah's hair to make the colour palette cohesive. Her top and skirt became a Hawaiian pa'u skirt. The pink aspects of the design shortly returned to the prior variant in subsequent art, but the Hawaiian inspirations have been carried over to this day.