So here's the more refined design for female B, I like how she's starting to look.
I decided to go for an unstable smoke rapier as her main weapon and added some faint smoke wings so she can gracefully float towards her prey.
As for the visual effects I'm gonna go for, I'm thinking of something reminiscent of volcanic lightning and smoke.
Due to her past as a soldier, she knows not to count completely on technology or magic, thus she carries a trusty gun on her as well.
I'm still not sure, however, on the amount of horns appropriate for her and whether I want her to have a hood or not
Next up - Illustration time
To begin with - thanks for the kind words @rgdraw and @Bruck
(Insert smooth transition) Illustration sketches:
Some thoughts:
My personal favorites are 1 and 4 (which are almost the same thing anyway, so I'll combine them ;D). I like the tighter composition and feeling of grandeur in 1 and the action and wings in 4, so I'll be trying to fit the dangling guy in 1 so that he doesn't obstruct the main character.
2 feels a bit generic and lackluster (too much empty space).
3 is a backview of 4 and I don't think the back would showcase the character too much (even though it's a bit more ominous).
I tried a couple of more crouching poses (as if she's lunging or screeching at enemies), yet it didn't resonate too well with the whole elongated sillhouette I'm going for so those were completely scrapped.
Here's the rough 'victim placement' exploration. I'm also thinking about breaking the symmetry of the character a bit by removing/changing one of the pauldrons and possibly giving her a mech/shadowy arm (nothing too crazy) but that's yet to be tested.
As for the sketches at hand - I'm leaning towards 3, but opinions are welcome