For clue's challenge, "Where Are They Now?" I chose option #2: a before and after of a character that you love and have watched grow over the years. Even though he's only aged two years between his "Then" (14 years old) and "Now" (16 years old), I've been writing and drawing Reka for more than ten years, and he's certainly grown.

As far as art style, Reka started out about as shonen as you could get, with spiky hair, big eyes and all. XD My oldest drawings of him are in Crayola markers, so I even went back and tried to find the marker sets that I originally used to color the "Then" Reka. As I switched over to Prismacolor pencils and markers and, eventually, digital, I had a wider range of colors available and gradually adjusted his color palette to match what I saw in my head. (For instance, his hair was always the darkest red I had on hand at the time, and now, in digital, it's gotten an even darker shade of red.)

Reka's changed not only in looks but also in his personality. When I initially conceived him, he was a villain. Then, when I recreated him for "Eternal Rain", he became the loner type who almost never smiled. A bit of his evil side resurfaced His temper showed up when I wrote the sequel, "Underground". And then, he mellowed out a bit and grew a sense of humor by the time I started working on "Revisited" and the prequel, "Rebellion". Now, he's stand-offish toward people he doesn't know, he lets down his guard and cracks jokes with friends, but he's still scary when angered. (He also gets flustered fairly easily. XD)

Anyway, I've rambled long enough. Hope you enjoy!