F&F: Evangeline "Witch Form" concept

I debated pretty hard on showing this off, what with the worry of spoiling stuff for the story of Feathers and Flowers. But I've gotten to a point where I think sharing any of my ideas is better than holding them close to my chest, especially because recently I've been very burnt out (hence the lack of art posts and headcanons as of late). I'll talk a bit at length on that in a dedicated text post but for now, some lorebits!

Part of my past gripes with the F&F story is that I didn't really have anything tangible to grasp on for the Witches in their world and how they're treated. Specifically, I didn't really feel like I pushed their outward appearance nearly as much as their magic traits, so this is my answer to that.

The idea plays a part in a lore bit I never shared as far as I'm aware: Witches are believed to have been brought into the world from unions between Spirits and humans. In the original iteration of the story, that was more legend than truth, but in the updated version of the story it is true. All legends have an element of truth, right? :)

At any rate: "Witches" were originally the result of Spirit and human pairings, and given their past proximity they popped up relatively often. Eventually there was enough of em to just reproduce with each other after the disappearance of Spirits, which resulted in a stabilization of traits and a new (albeit relatively small) species/race to form. Not fully human, not fully Spirit, and something new entirely.

I'll go more into depth on that idea later. For now, Evangeline notes on the design:

I'm as predictable as the rising sun with designs, so of course I gave Eva (and in proxy all Witches) two separate forms. Their "human" form, and their "half" form. I really need actual names for all this, but Witches only have 2 (human/half) whereas Spirits have 3 (human/spirit/monster), so this is the extent of Eva's designs. I wanted her to have some sharp edges to even out the roundness of her features, but I didn't want her to have elaborate traits like Mal does (partially because it wouldn't fit her, partially because a Spirit's form is more extreme than a Witch's), so I went with simple forward-facing horns and shoulder ridges.

Not too sure if I'm keeping the tail, but I'm almost certainly getting rid of the digitgrade feet and keeping them human. I might give her a more bird-like tail instead; the initial idea was to have her basically be dragon-esque, but given her new nickname and keeping with the theme of... well. Birds/feathers, a birdie tail now feels like it'd make more sense.

But ye! I'll be chipping away at this as I go so hopefully it'll be done soon. I'll talk ya'lls ears off about my ideas for it and all that nonsense in the future but for now, I hope you like the art! ;w;