Ponies
In the beginning Cordite was a pony in the MLP fandom. She contributed to community sites such as ponysquare and bronysquare, a roleplay and social community in the fandom. The name came from a failed project to make some games during high school, and the lightning bolt was a simple way to say energy, empowered, and driven.
Of course, cute things were desirable, and so cute cordite pictures happened too.
In roleplay Cordite is a scientist or potions master. "What would I be if in another universe without electric technology?" The answer was "Probably a chemist." This is what defines Cordite's specialties.
As university neared its end, the MLP fandom's population started drifting towards younger angsty teenagers. This wasn't desirable to Cordite and so in 2014, Cordite moved towards the furry fandom.
After university and with income, Cordite expanded into getting NSFW artwork, also moving from feral MLP to anthro pony.
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Cordite befriended Keggina the Otsky pretty early on. Back then Keggy had a different design. It changed before joining candy orca dragons.
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At some point Cordite was inspired by several others in the community to try out door knocker piercings. It felt right and so they stayed.
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Selene and Cordite found each other through Zarrock's skype group, which involved goo-transformation-corruption.
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Change is needed
But around this point, Cordite started to think that the pony form didn't really represent them or feel most relatable. Near the end of 2014, Cordite started to seek out what felt like 'cordite'.
At first, vixen was attempted, to see what being like Selene would feel.
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The result was interesting, the white belly, claw markings felt good. But the fluffy aspects just didn't feel right.
Next up shark was attempted.
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As you can see, the lightning bolt mark sticked along. It felt important and part of Cordite's identity. But what this picture revealed was the tight shiny flesh of aquatic was most desirable and relatable.
However upon contemplation and review of the fandom, it seemed there was a boom of sharks, such as Nika, and Cordite isn't one for hopping on trends.
Lastly, Dragon was decided upon as the final component, an aquatic dragon of sorts. Unlike vixen and shark, the dragon component did not get a trial in art.
So aquatic dragon it was. Others in this space like Penelope felt beautiful and relatable. However, the swimming aspects like the larger hands and forearms of several other orca-dragons in this space did not feel relatable.
Thus, the orca aspect was mostly in color patterns and the tail, while the rest was dragon in form--except for the pieces kept from the pony form: equine ears, penis, lightning bolt mark.
Design and Execution
Cordite selected Master Notorious with a sufficiently thorough gallery of ref sheets to commission, fully willing to pay for edits over time as the design was refined. The full design is entirely by Cordite, but originally fulfilled by Notorious.
In the change documents exchanged over the three months it took to make this ref sheet, included were specific design elements referencing specific bits in other images.
For example, the trim line, thick and straight through the center of the nipple and areola was derived from Keggy's design:
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A custom candy like horse cock was designed and trialed with Freckles before the ref sheet's completion
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It looked so fun Selene and I tried it one more time to be sure.
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And we were sold on the cock design.
The sheath was favored from the canine art Cordite saw and related to.. but Xpray's implementation on his own art was most delightful. Likewise separating the butt cheek color from the hip sides references Xpray's design in the original design document sent to Notorious.
However, unlike Xpray's dragon, four toes felt like too much when big claws were present, and so three were used on foot.
Design Adjustments
After the initial design document, other details like the trim line and tail design were adjusted. Several things like proportions and minor details of all sorts were too, but most important of them are those two.
The trim line, apart from the ears, separates the body color from the belly color, blue from cream white. At first it went up along the snout to the snout tip, but it felt off. And so it was moved down to end at the jaw's opening. Blue shifted down with it.
Markings on the inner thighs were retained from Selene's pony form, with the added trim line.
The tail is special. At first it was just "like orca", but soon became something else. It is horizontal like an orca tail (and not a shark tail), but it's exact shape specifically excluded the bony segment in the middle. Its edges became straighter and with tips at the end. The edges became like plane wings and the inside turned into the likeness of a curly brace.
Finally
On May 8, 2015, the first reference sheet of a candy orca dragon was completed. Below is the current one, which has had minor changes but nothing species specific.
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Once it was completed, Selene wanted to try out the species too.
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And then The Pod begun.