I just wanted to add, now that I have noticed and can't unsee it, the beards look.. so strange. XD I'd definitely prefer them with more owlish heads and no beard.

Mmmmmm.

*cough*

Well these revamp sketches are...not what I expected. My goodness those wings are huge. Do they really need to be that big?

Also I think it's loosing the raptor look a lot and moreso leaning towards a weird combination of owl + snake + huge feathers.

This is just my two cents...personally I thought the nytes like this:

raptorbirds with small wings
just a suggestion...
even if anyone thinks the idea is terrible at least with pose and size wise you can see a lot more of the body.

Omg they do, tiny fuzzy gremlins xD

They look great! The babies are so floofy!

*nyooms in*

I think I figured out one major problem! The heads! They're too tall with those crests, especially the male. They look more akin to cockatoos than the fierce owls they're supposed to be. Using the updated male base, the red is most of my edits, but I did adjust some of the original lining.

The basic one is a simple change. Add brows to the longer tendrils on the crest and instead of making the feathers go down, perhaps make them look like they go up? Not the greatest idea for anatomy now that I'm thinking about it, but a nice aesthetic choice. For supposedly fearsome birds they are.... not... So this plays more into the barn owl's heart shaped face. Lends the cuteness you're going for while still keeping a sleek look.



My next edit is faaaaarrrr more in-depth. Please note that this is me just trying to give a visual to my thoughts, not in any way tracing/etc. etc. I wanted to be able to problem solve for my comments. The biggest problem I have with the adult nytes is that they are far too fluffy. Yes, owls and birds have tons of feathers, but you don't see them so obviously. They're very sleek. Slim the fluff. X-nay the fluff-ay. Second, larger back legs. More muscles. These are strong prey birds!! Make them look like it lol. Again with the brows and neck changes with slight tweaks. Slim the fluff on the back of the head, puff the chest just a tiny bit more. Blend it with the heart shaped face and you get a more dragon-fierce look befitting of them! As well as making the crest smaller. I get the idea behind it, again, but the opportunity is wasted. It's much big so fluff. With the slimmed crest we now have more room for the tail. Tilt it to the left and there you go. Lastly, yes, yikes on those wings. I understand the reasoning, but reasoning and logic must have a harmony here. I'm probably forgetting something but oh well. This is by no means a complete list of critiques. This is just my opinion on some changes that could help it, for me! Also, the claws. What's up with the number of claws I am con fusion



I truly think these are adorable, but they do not fit my personal vision of nytes. I truly do not mean to be rude. I just intended to give the best feedback possible. And since I am a visual person, I decided to play with the sketch myself to tweak and by no means mean ANY disrespect! Thanks!

My bad! Xavion also posted eyebrow tendrils! >->'

Love the wings, especially on the female. Love the head feathers and the tail. I do think the neck could have some positive changes. The male especially has this long thick neck. You might consider making it narrower and more tapered-- more of a cone shape rather than a rectangle. And shorter, more like the drawings of the babies. The male's posture is also a little bit awkward. It looks like his back is arched more towards the back of the body. He doesn't appear to have a butt the way the female does, and I would think it would be more natural for the tail to be up in that position, rather than curled down. I guess I would either give him bigger haunches/butt. Big improvement over the old design. I'm excited!

you are completely right and there are some truly great examples of the way it can change and look better on this thread now

Oh meh goodness those babies look like cotton

Such cute floofballs!

After reading through about the Tail position on the Male, perhaps if you made his "antennae" feathers on his head stand up more, like the female's, it would separate the tail more from the head feathers? And moving the tail end just a smidge to the left should help with the separation.

The female adult has a bit of a flat face to me, like she is scrunching backwards at the neck. Some neck definition should help.

The female babs is a little too floofy, I agree she looks a little chunky ^.^

While the tiny feet on the male baby are super adorable, I agree they probably should be a little bigger to be anatomically correct.

And the 2 toes on the adult male front is distracting, all feet should have 3 talons/toes, yeah?

So this is super rough but i was just thinking maybe we could give the nyte more toes, more of a spine, the crest i like as is but this was just an idea.

When bird crests raise up they start all tall and slowly lay down toward the back.
Im not the best at anatomy but i think he looks less noodley this way. With the arch more toward the front and curving down to form his hind legs in the back.
And what if instead of fluff, we could have more of a layered feather look? Beens nytes arent necessarily hairy? How was that going to be textured i wonder? I imagined nytes with a similar texture to aurs or the vene feather traits.
I think the wings look more natural with the feathers in this placement, Im not an expert..
If we curl the tail to the left a bit more we can draw it away from the head tendrils and actually see that its a tail
I also edited around the face to make it look more defined and less fluffy, we still get the chest puff but it doesn't look like a beard