Azure Paragon

Azure Paragon, formerly CommanderNilut on Youtube and Xbox Live (real name Ryan Cook; born on January 2, 1993 at the United States Fleet Activities Yokosuka, Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan), is a freelance artist, aspiring musician and photographer who has lived in Charlotte, North Carolina since September 2011 and the state itself since February 2003. He is part of the Carolina Furs group. He now lives back in Fayetteville, North Carolina again as of June 2019 since. Azure is also a fursuiter as of 2019, and enjoys honing in his video and photography hobbies, which he has been doing since 2008.

Biography
Azure Paragon is a professional visual artist that favors his skills in illustration and mixed media, preferring analog over digital art unless asked otherwise. He was a university student and graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in concentration of Illustration in May 2019. Azure Paragon treats music and photography with his own camera as a hobby while pursuing a career as a game artist or other forms of visual art in general, including but not limited to films, animation shows, comics, or fine arts, and also hopes to also make contributions as a gameplay innovator/supervisor, story writer, and story director someday. Storywriting is also an activity he values. He could also consider voice acting as a side-job someday. His favorite forms of visual art are drawing, painting, printmaking, and ceramics, but enjoys branching off further on both a technical and conceptual level upon experimentation, practice, and honing his skills.

He has also taken a recent interest and careful consideration in wanting to learn some foreign languages for the benefit of his career possibilities as well as personal interest in their respective culture and the languages themselves. Currently, he is learning Polish, due to his hypnotic fascination of Slavic culture, history, & fiction/films, especially from contents relating to Russia and Ukraine. He has also been networking more with Euro furries than before.

Azure may also consider any other foreign languages to learn from but wishes to take his time mastering at least one while having an admiration for the Uralic languages such as Finnish and Hungarian for both creative and literary reasons. His interests are however still mainly in art itself.

Fandom involvement
Azure has been around the edge of furry fandom since 1994, joining actively since August 13, 2001, mostly as an artist, drawing original characters, starting with a crimson-red anthropomorphic pentaceratopss character named Almodar Quetzaloctomon (Simplified naming), which was later changed to a beige-colored Protoceratops. He rarely ever plays second life, which he has from his very first account since August 2006.

He discovered internet furry art sometime in 2004, and even deliberately found adult dragon art sometime in March 2005 (including YiffStar), joined an American Dragon: Jake Long fan forum in June of that year, and associated with more scalies in deviantART starting from April 2006. Between June/July 2007, Azure had discovered FurAffinity through Halo fan-art and OC images. He has also been playing video games with animal characters since the mid-to-late 1990s, mostly with NES and Nintendo 64 games, both with his local sibling and friends at the time, and alone. Some also came from other consoles.

Azure had completely come out socializing directly in the furry fandom within their sites in 2009 as a scalie fursona named Azure Paragon, as being his first, officially drawn, fursona character. In June 30, 2012, Azure attended his first organized furmeet, CaroWinds, with Megaplex XIII being his first proper furry convention experience in Orlando, Florida from July 24 - 28, 2014. However before those events (respectively), he met with furries in real life in personal meetings back in 2011 and 2012 before the CaroWinds meet. He also attended Megaplex X from July 28 - 31, 2011 but knew virtually no one, and the experience was only sparingly enjoyable due to how differently it was handled. As a result of the lackluster satisfaction, this is what he would call furry convention #0 in his counts, further punctuated by the fact that there was a 3-year gap before attending Megaplex again, let alone any furry convention for that matter. Megaplex XIII was a much improved experience for him, meeting closer to his true intentions and further helped thanks to knowing more friends there over the years, mostly from online, to meet them as well as his best friend attending with Azure that time.

Azure joined FurAffinity in December 21, 2007. He is part of the Carolina Furs group. Azure Paragon has a fascination with dinosaurs, containing his first character, Almodar, being a protoceratops, with his first anthropomorphic character version being a blood-red, crimson pentaceratops, reptiles, and fantasy dragons in 2001 (apricot-beige Final being in very early of 2002.) His inspiration for scalies, reptiles, dinosaurs, and dragons has sparked progressively since The Land Before Time back around roughly 1994-1995 when watching films, which technically marks passively being involved in the fandom. This shows his admiration for the famous animator and director, Don Bluth, which has decidedly influenced his analysis for character design style and change, as well as tropes in visual storytelling.

Azure has now made use again of the "CommanderNilut" pseudonym from one of his Youtube accounts as intended to be a fursuit entertainment account. His other main YouTube account, "AzureParagon" (or "OctazurePrometheon", which lands on the same profile page), continues to be used for uploading modified music and video game music uploads.

Characters
Octazûrè Hypệrïon Prȍmetheǫ̈n , also known as Azure Enigma Paragon, AzureParagon or Azure for short, humorously nicknamed Draggybutt or Wildberry, is a gay Western Skydragon (full description: an amethyst-scaled Armathian electrolunar skydragon). His scale/fur ratio is 78%/22%. This would mean that he is a draconic creature from planet Armathia that is a direct biological offspring to the lunar dragon and skydragon species. By default, Azure appears to portray at age 22 by default, but can vary between late-20s and mid-30s in other artworks. He's also seen as his thicker 41/19-year old self in most images nowadays. As of 2019, a redesign has encroached in arts.

Formerly, he was 6'11" (2.1 meters) and weighing 288 pounds (131.5 kilograms), his body's scales are blue-violet with a periwinkle underbelly, indigo eyes and Ivory horns. His hair is Platinum, sporting a sky blue head gem. His male genitalia is onyx black. His main element power is Nuclear Lightning, with some abilities of Wind. Wind abilities are expected of a skydragon, but in his case, it's not the primary element. Canonically, he was born from planet Armathia and visits Earth on occasion. Various artworks, whether pornographic or not, do not often follow this in-universe tie-in.

He likes to exercise, stripteasing, dance/rave, composing (both digital and real instruments), painting, animate, 3D modeling, body modeling, refine his weaponry, hang out with other beings (preferably scalies and other dragons), take interesting and visually appealing photos, use computers for both prioritized importance and fun activities, attend conventions of his interests, watch animation shows, listen to trance music and video game/orchestrated and synthesized musical soundtracks, writing poetry, stories, dream logs, event logs (journal and Diary), and play video games. His favorite fruit is strawberry. Azure's sex drive is exceptionally frequent/virile and enjoys being with guys.

His personality is distinctively kind, loving, humorous, energetic, ingratiating, obsequious, worrisome, determined, vigilant, intense, bold, eccentric, and earnest. Despite his aggressive and assertive sense of ambition, Azure is a mentally/emotionally scarred living being. Some has rumored him to later be called the "Lonely Legend," in his canonical science-fantasy adventure novel fiction, Anthroventures: Cryoclock Chronicles (2012) as a supporting character. His Battle Archetype is WARRIOR, when put into an RPG combat role context / fight-data type, but can also serve as a HUNTER. Most of his offense types are short-ranged combat by his main preference of weapons: Shock sabers, bazookas, and thunder boomerangs with the occasional long-range such as his energy gun pistol and red laser rifle.

Azure's real-life personality type is ENTJ-A; He has an aggressive attitude and his sheer sense of distrust towards other beings can get in the way of his happiness sometimes. He can also be occasionally bitter and ultra-sadistic in humor. Despite his violently brutal and exceptionally twisted sense of cynicism, he is open to his best friend in real life, whom he trusts fondly and extremely intimately.

Azure also planned on a redesign with a new ref sheet on August 2019, as celebration of his own character's 15th anniversary since conception in 2004. V1 was before he was thick, muscular & mature (V2). V3 = fully scaled w/Kaiju traits. Before his character was a purple anthropomorphic skydragon, Azure was an unnamed blue feral dragon with silver components on it. This was inspired by a t-shirt he used to own as a kid, from the company TopHeavy, that had two same dragons facing each other and breathing fire. The same principle could be said with his dinosaur character, Almodar, whom he conceived as a red (crimson) Pentaceratops in 2000-2001 before changing his design to a beige Protoceratops in Spring 2002.

Moreover, while Azure Paragon has drawn various characters of his own over the years, either as general stand-alone or characters meant to be in one of his stories, he plans on creating a canine side of himself. Since his skydragon is going through a revision, which includes becoming 100% "scalie," his "furry" fursonas can either be a Siberian Husky, a German Shepherd, or a Spotted Hyena, which he believes best represents his all aspects of his overall personality together more than any other species, especially if they're not reptilian, dinosaurs, or mythological creatures. This is also further convinced thanks to owning a husky onesie suit (Kirugumi, or an animal pajama), which was purchased and worn in his attendance on FWA 2019. He may also consider some of his other characters to be in an IP/story eventually. If Azure had to choose only one out of the literal fursonas, his hyena character would be his best fit. In reality, Azure (and in-character, Maxx) is very silly and laughs a lot when he is in a positive mood upon hanging out with his friends online and offline.

Azure's character has gone through a redesign with a whole new reference sheet. His three fursonas mark together as his third major "persona" character as each third of the whole equation (after Azure & far after Almodar, respectively), but intends to keep both Azure & his husky, hyena, and G-shep simultaneously for different purposes instead of dropping Octazure himself like he did with Almodar. New art of Almodar hismelf has also recently been made as of 2019, by other artists, & hopes to get around to making a reference sheet to that character as well. Azure also will design a frilled lizard & a hyena as minor "persona" OCs in the meanwhile. Eventually a list of all of his original characters, and his main fursonas (including Octazure & Rynø despite being a scalie).

He also has other Original Characters of various species, some representing an alternative representation of Octazûrè, such as his Siberian Husky, Zak, his hyena named Maxx, and a German shepherd named Evin. For literally an alternative version of Octazûrè, it would just be him in another species but purple. This means he would retain the same color scheme and other subtle features if he were ever depicted as anything other than a skydragon for the fun of it. Other characters such as Domnall, the Sirenian Ocean Dragon, or his newly owned bull character, Wallace Moussavvy are entirely their own entity and not part of his main fursonas. The name " 'Nilut" once came from a Halo character he owned named "Anze 'Nilut(ee)" but has now used the surname for his upcoming T-Rex character, Rynø Nilut, or colloquially, "Rynø the Dino." The term "Nilut" is also referred to his military codename to his rex, similiar to the codename "Azure Paragon," which instead can be coined as a team name rather than an individual. This also coincides with his accumulation of his OCs created by him.

Like the previous 2 major OCs betas, Azure conceptualized Zakyratta originally as a coyote-wolf character mixture, but realized a husky would fit his overall personality far more accurately, and decided to embrace & finalize it in-touch. However the possibility of owning a separate coyote character is acceptable in his grasp too, especially upon conception.

Furry Convention attendance

 * Megaplex – 2011, 2014
 * Biggest Little Fur Con - 2015
 * Anthrocon - 2016, 2017, 2018
 * Furry Weekend Atlanta - 2019
 * Midwest Furfest - 2019 (With fursuit)

Other Conventions attendance

 * Fayetteville Arts Convention - May 2006
 * ConCarolinas - 2012, 2016, 2018
 * HeroesCon @ Charlotte - 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
 * Dragon*Con - 2019

Fursuit
The first fursuit made for Azure Paragon is a partial suit by Lemonbrat Studios. According to the client himself, the operation went very smoothly thanks to his strict supervision of making sure the suit was progressively and consistently made within the timeframe of 2019 from January to November 1st as the final deadline. The suit was completed half a month early, during October, and turned out solid in terms of appearance. The structure was made with fairly standard and somewhat basic materials, so the durability is only decent but not incredibly sturdy, especially during intensive usage. This is evident with the tail, as while it is large and heavy, it drags on the floor when walking with it in use.

The parts featured include but are not limited to: The head, internal fan with components, head gem permanently attached on the head inside the "crown spikes" on the forehead, outdoor-oriented feet, paws, sleeves, the tail, and Azure's very own custom modified leather jacket, painted in purple with dark blue scale markings to help represent the rest of his body as well as "thicken" the appearance to help equalize the overall whole body proportions when looking at him.'

Azure also plans on eventually purchasing a full fursuit of his main skydragon character, but has yet to determine who or which studio will manufacture one. Meanwhile, he might also consider practicing on making fursuits recreationally.

Art
Azure has been drawing actively since 1993, trying to make a career from it. Azure has a great interest in dragons, and enjoys drawing them in his spare time. His favorite forms of creating artwork are Drawing/Illustration, followed by Painting and a more recent enjoyment for Print Media, with Ceramics as a former third.

His art styles are best described as surreal-impressionist, containing dream-like lighting effects, textured colors that are appealing, and a somewhat Van Gogh-quality to the overall composition, giving it a semi-realistic look on his major works. Hyper-detailed w/complex textures & iridescence is his ideal style, especially if it involves digital art in Ultra HD display (4096ppi or higher). Oil pastels and acrylic paints are his forte in traditional art.

Azure also would love to try other art styles to fit the variety of his techniques and gallery, despite not being his primary preference in art style. His most common subject matters are dragons, fantasy worlds, dreams, macabre, and comfort/friendship. More concepts and objects are also welcomed. He is best with painted backgrounds/scenery being his greatest asset, while anatomy is his main weak point.

Azure used to draw fanart frequently from 1997-2009 starting from Zelda and Nintendo fan art offline, and Halo fan art in deviantART from 2006-2011. He does not draw fanart as often anymore, but still welcomes the possibility of doing so during his spare time for fun. Azure also has a habit of making many logos. He will also continue to hone in his professional art life including graphic design, but also wants to revisit printmaking & ceramics.