12 Months of Dogs Of War - June (Myst)

This little cutie is Myst Sheppard. She probably has the most thoroughly developed personality out of all my Dogs Of War characters. She's a bit of a free spirit, she's an environmentalist, she's spiritual, a little bit feminist, has an open mind about the world, is a positive thinker, is into astrology - you get the idea.

You might be wondering then, why oh why would someone like that be brandishing an assault rifle and a willing participant in a story about war? Well, while she cares about the environment, she believes all issues stem from overpopulation and that war is a speedy resolution to the problem. She also adopts a 'survival of the fittest' mentality. She won't hesitate passing up an opportunity if it benefits her. This doesn't mean she's completely without morals - it mostly manifests itself at battlefield looting.

Not that it really matters and I'm sure you don't care anyway, I've slightly misrepresented Myst's dog breed. Regarding animal characters in my Dogs Of War world, I try to adhere to their size relations. By that I mean characters based on small and large animals remain small and large respectively. Myst is a Shetland Sheepdog. These are small dogs, roughly terrier sized. This would mean she should be as tall as Stylene (a fox), however she is reasonably taller than that. Mainly this is because she is also Sledge's girlfriend and I didn't want there to be too much of a size difference between the two. The other misrepresentation is her intelligence. Shetland Sheepdogs are actually rated in the top ten smartest dog breeds (No. 1 is the Border Collie - Peter Edgewood's breed, incidentally). Myst isn't stupid by any means, but not super intelligent as her breed would suggest.

Design-wise, I'm still on the fence about whether to have her wear a skirt or trousers. Trousers would be easier for animation, but a skirt helps to differentiate her from the other characters.