マスコットの Kiki
Kiki the Cyber Squirel, often just called Kiki, is Krita's mascot. We chose a squirrel because “krita” means “squirrel” in Albanian. Kiki debuted in 2013 on the Krita 2.6 tour booklet cover and has appeared in Krita’s splash screen since version 2.8.
Kiki's Design
Kiki's Reference Sheet (2016)
The above isn't an “official” reference sheet -- we encourage artists to come up with their own versions of Kiki! That said, it captures her core design concepts and can serve as a starting point.
Core concepts:
- Anthropomorphic squirrel robot
- Cute, organic look -- tech with heart
- Flower-shaped pupils -- eyes for beauty
- Bud-shaped ears -- budding artist
Color scheme:
- White -- paper and Krita’s empty canvas
- Black -- Krita's default UI color and Kiki's robotic nature
- Pink -- curiosity and passion of a budding artist
- Sky blue -- creative freedom
Note: Blue is often omitted in recent splashes for sleeker mech design and better background integration.
Personality:
- Playful, independent, confident, and carefree
- Left-handed by default, ambidextrous when needed
Remember: You don’t need to follow any of these -- exercise your creative freedom and come up with your unique interpretation of Kiki!
Kiki's Lore
Kiki is a budding artist robot created by the dragons of KDE Valley. She travels across time, space, and universes to study masterworks and gain life experience -- meeting real people, fictional characters, and even other versions of herself along the way.
Kiki's Designer
Kiki was designed by Tyson Tan, who has also created Krita's splash arts since version 2.8. He provides mascot design for free and open source software projects, free of charge, under free licenses.
Kiki's Licenses
Kiki and Tyson Tan's artworks on this page are dual-licensed under GNU GPL and Creative Commons BY-SA.
Kiki スプラッシュ・アートギャラリー
Every major Krita release since 2.8 has featured a new splash image with a refreshed Kiki design. This section showcases them, with Tyson Tan’s commentary on each image’s conception.
Krita 5.3.0/6.0.0 - Kiki Paints Over the Waves (2026)
Download: Fullsize, Source File
Artist comment: This splash aims to depict a refreshing summer coastal scene. It also revisited the shortcomings of the past splashes -- 1) 2024's messy mech details; 2) 2021's ambiguous lighting and distractive background; 3) 2019's artificial color choices and unclear theming. For the 2026 one, I tried to convey Kiki's robotic nature with cleaner details, finer lines and stronger perspective to enhance shape clarity. The color palette is more natural, with an emphasis on water to reinforce the seaside theme.
Download: Splash Crop Fullsize, Complete Fullsize, Complete Crop Indicators, Fullbody Transparent, Source File
Krita 5.2.3 to Krita 5.2.16 - Kiki's Unplanned Canvas Expansion (2024)
Artist comment: This splash was originally created for Krita's 25th Anniversary Steam Sale promotion, but the team also adopt it as Krita's next splash. With a tight deadline, I opted for a safe, theme-agnostic composition and rushed to finish. Later, we learned Steam required multiple assets in unusual ratios, so I expanded over the core splash area multiple times. The full picture has rough edges due to its rushed, unplanned creation -- though they were largely hidden in the splash crop.
Krita 5.0 to 5.2.2 - Kiki with a Parasol (2021)
Artist comment: This splash began as a color study of Monet's Woman with a Parasol. Since version 4.3, Krita shows a larger splash screen on Hi-DPI displays. Previously, I used a minimalist approach to focus on the fundamentals. For the new Hi-DPI splash art, I employed more advanced techniques for a richer design. To reflect her "Cyber Squirrel" name, I added exposed mechanical frames and joints to enhance her robotic look. Her hair, ears and tail use translucent material, and her costume blends traditional maid attire with futuristic, flashy fabrics.
Krita 4.3 to 4.4 - Kiki and the Waterlilies (2020)
Artist comment: This splash draws inspiration from Monet’s Water Lilies. In Chinese tradition, the water lily (lotus) symbolizes incorruptibility -- here reflecting Krita's GPL free-software license. The rainbow ripples represnt the hue ring of Krita's color selector. I gave Kiki a new hairstyle and a techwear-inspired outfit. I was left-handed like Kiki but switched to right-handed writing at the age of six. For this picture, I painted with my left hand using Krita's Basic-5 brush. It was challenging yet insightful experience that strengthened my artistic awareness.
Krita 4.2 - Kiki at the Seaside Hills (2019)
Artist comment: Since version 4.2, Krita has a new, wider splash size. Krita's official website also uses the splash as its header picture. To make a picture for this new format, I choose the safest route -- using a horizontal camera angle, pointing deadly to the horizon. I also intentionally used bright colors dominated by skylight to make everything look more refreshing.
Krita 4.0 to 4.1 - Kiki and the Winter Plum Tree (2018)
Artist comment: This splash was done at the end of a particularly difficult year for Krita project and its maintainer. I based the concept on a Chinese idiom -- just like the plum trees blossom at the coldest time of winter, Krita has a similar quality of resilience, surviving through years of tribulation and grew stronger each time.
Krita 3.0.1 to 3.3 - Kiki is Directing the Paint (2017)
Artist comment: This splash was done during a period when I was studying composition and color contrast. As a result, those aspects were the focus here. I contrasted Kiki's cleanly defined, reflective white shapes against the vague dark background; I also contrasted the vivid paint colors against the monochromatic character and the background, in attempt to produce a strong visual impact.
Krita 3.0 - Kiki's Running Cycle (2016)
Artist comment: One of the main feature to be added in Krita 3.0 was animation, so the splash was designed to reflect that. At the time, I realized that as a self-taught artist, the lack of basic training really began to limit what I can draw. So I went back to study the basics, and tried to limit the complicated details and flashy effects so that I could focus on the basic shapes and color relationships. The study of anatomy helped me to come up with the "different frames" in Kiki's running cycle, although in reality I had zero experience in animation, so those frames might not work.
Krita 2.9 - Kiki at the Lakeside (2015)
Artist comment: In this splash, I attempted to draw a proper background for Kiki to sit in. I was unsatisfied with the 2.8 design being too generic, which did not live up to Kiki's "cyber" name sake, so I decided to bring some mech detail back to her design. Although at a glance her design did not change that much, you can observe the base of her ears where they connect her head, her hair locks, her sleeves all look more mech-like in this version.
Krita 2.8 - 流れを作る Kiki (2014)
Artist comment: Kiki's first appearance in Krita's splash. Her design was drastically modified to look cuter, more casual with less mech. The chibi proportion was an attempt to make her look more "mascot-like". Her color scheme was changed to loosely reflect Krita's new icon's Cyan-Magenta-Yellow colors, although yellow was left out to make the visual elements look more organized. Cyan and Magenta were shifted to Sky-Blue and Pink for a more girly impression. This version of Kiki has the most generic anime look of all, and my intention back then was to make this her final design (which from hindsight, did not last for very long).
Krita 2.6 ブックレット - Kiki の初期デザイン
Artist comment: Kiki's debut. Not yet featured in a splash, this Kiki was on the cover of Krita 2.6's feature tour booklet. Her design was inspired by KDE 4's Oxygen application style, resulted in a white/black/blue color scheme. The squirrel concept came from a thread on KDE's forum, and the design was based on a mock icon from the discussion.
Kiki's Alternative Designs
Outside the splashes, Tyson Tan also explored alternative Kiki designs -- some later adopted in official Krita slashes. They may inspire your own Kiki creations!
テックウェア Kiki (2019)
Artist comment: In this design I attempted to give Kiki a more fashionable design that follows the techwear trend which was popular among the artist circle between 2018 and 2019. There were hints of a more striking costume design direction, more pronounced mech details, a more teen-like proportion, and a new twisty fore-hair style. These ideas were later used in the 2020 splash.
チビ Kiki II (2019)
Artist comment: I tried to convert the Techwear Kiki above into a more mascot-like proportion, while still keeping her mech details.
Old Kiki Revisited (2019)
Artist comment: I noticed that the previous version of Kiki was still popular among other artists, perhaps due to her design being easy to understand and execute. This was an attempt to revamp her old design to emphasize Kiki's robotic body details in a subtle way, while as the same time giving her a casual costume, so she is easier for other artists to handle.
Kiki プラスチックモデルデザイン (2017)
Artist comment: I designed this version of Kiki for the Japanese modeler Ito Ryou-Ichi to make into a Kiki plastic model kit. More mech detail was added to give the model a proper level of visual density. Since Ryou needed more comprehensive reference when making the model, thus the reference sheet in the beginning of this article was created.
ボーイ Kiki (2017)
Artist comment: Kiki doesn't have to be a girl! This was an early attempt to design a gender-swapped version of Kiki from another dimension. Compared to the girl version, the boy version of Kiki is right-handed, wear glasses, slightly nerdy, easily distracted, not as good as an artist (yet), more easy-going and less assertive and less confident about himself. Unlike her girl counterpart who has a linear growing curve, he has a slow, exponential growing curve. Basically, this boy Kiki is your typical shonen manga protagonist.
冬衣装の Kiki (2017)
Artist comment: This was an attempt to design a winter costume for Kiki, as so far (2017) she has been using the same summer costume. This concept was later used in the 2018 splash.
PSG スタイルのあとの Kiki (2016)
Artist comment: This was an attempt to mimic Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt's style.
チビ Kiki (2015)
Artist comment: This is the most "mascot-oriented" design I ever attempted for Kiki. The art style also followed a generic art book style for children. However, I don't think she looks very inspiring in this form. As a result, I took a more teen cartoon oriented direction ever since.
Cover for Digital Painting with KRITA 2.9 (2015)
Artist comment: This is the cover I created for Scott Petrovic's book: Digital Painting with KRITA 2.9. After the major design change in 2014, I tried to introduce some mech details back to Kiki's then over-simplified character design. Still not very "cyber" though. The focus of this picture was the attempt to draw the background.
Kiki with more mech (2014)
Artist comment: This picture was created for a quick Krita tutorial. I attempted to introduce some mech details to the 2014 Kiki's design.
ファンアート
Feel free to draw and share fan art of Kiki on social media! There’s no “definitive” version of her design -- just interpret her however you like.
The Four Seasons of Leon and Kiki art contest sponsored by Huion also features many lovely Kiki artworks.
