#grimmhound

[roguesidea]

owed art for @fullbl1tz of their oupy dogy >:3

[lumilasi]

Finally, after forever I have some sorta ref post for Diojas. I needed to do this given he and Azul are my "main" couple, and the most major story of my characters happens around them.

I wondered if I should draw his full body separately for this as well, but then felt like it fits to have his full body ref image be with his BF, since that's the case for Azul's reference too. (Which, I now have to update Azul's sorcerer outfit at least given the story changes in regards to his BG)

Diojas' bio below:

Name: Diojas Sterling

Nicknames: Dio (his family/friends), Boy, Brat (his dad, affectionately), Puppy, pooch, your highness (Azul, jokingly) Prince (his dad's pack members)

Age: 29

A Grimmhound/Lightcaster sorcerer hybrid whose opposing powers cause him to struggle with controlling both, especially the former.

Family: Mother Mellina (Lightcaster sorceress), Father Alexander (Grimmhound), teen sister Mia. His dad's Grimmhound/Lycan pack

Love interest: Chester Knight/Azul Samaros, a thought-to-be-shadowcaster sorcerer whose magic turns out to be something completely different eventually.

Closest friends: Iris Avara (An astral sorceress who is also Azul's childhood friend), Angus Belmont (Formerly his BF's rival), Roman Bosco (the BF of Azul's friend/honorary younger sister figure Ava, a fellow half-blood Grimm)

Rival: none

Powers:

Astral projection: A basic skill for all magic using beings essentially, just how good you are at it depends on your skill level; on one hand Diojas should be really good at it due to being a Lightcaster, but because of his Grimmhound essence he tends to struggle with it.

Light spells: Diojas can utilize sacred light magic for exorcism, healing, protection and offensive spells, but how well they work varies

Grimmhound power: Diojas can transform into a canine beast that is very fast, strong, and durable, not easily damaged by mortal weapons or even most magical ones. Because of his father being a Golden Hound, he also can summon special claws that can damage spirits and ghosts as well.

Keen intellect: Because of his struggles with his powers, Diojas is very good at finding workarounds and using tactical thinking in solving situations when he can't rely on his magic. He's also known to be able to learn and retain a lot of random information for later like his mother.

Weaknesses

He's very self-conscious due to his struggles with his powers & having been a rather lonely child, meaning he struggles to approach people on his own in a more emotional level, which is ironic considering he's actually very good with people once he does talk to them thanks to his emotional intelligence and empathetic nature.

Diojas can't control his magic fully, and needs a protective talisman to keep his beast side at bay. He has spirit claws like his dad, but can't summon them most of the time.

NOTABLE BG STORY FACTS:

Diojas has always struggled with his hound side, and as a child had it lash out often; this is the main reason why he and Mia have such a big age-gap, its because his parents ended up waiting until his magic became stabler before even entertaining the idea of having another child.

Azul/Chester entered his life when his parents decided they wanted someone to cover his back during missions as he was starting to take reckless risks to prove himself, and given he was an adult at this point they didn't want to be constantly present and make him feel like a toddler needing to be kept an eye on.

Diojas was a very grumpy kid due to his struggles, which is also why he didn't really have friends a whole lot until he began working together with Azul, who introduced him to new people that he ended up connecting well with/generally gained confidence to make friends.

Diojas ends up becoming sort of the negotiating neutral party between Angus and Azul during the first few months of their developing new relationship, where the two were still likely to be at each other's throats.

Other Fun facts:

Diojas is gay, he was instantly attracted to Azul and VERY unhappy about it.

Unlike his dad, Diojas doesn't have as strong of a canine instinct in human form, so he doesn't act out on them at random like Alexander does - unless he's drunk. If you see Diojas staring at a bird, not wanting to take a bath, or scenting his boyfriend then you know he's wasted.

Lot of people assume his empathetic nature was inherited from his mother, but it actually comes from both; Alexander just tends to hide his behind a gruffy facade due to his past trauma. (once you actually look at what he does rather than says though, it becomes obvious he's someone who cares about people a lot)

Diojas' hair is two-colored because typically, only manifested Golden Hounds can have blond hair, but Diojas also had blond hair genetics from his mother, allowing the 'golden mane' to manifest partially. If his mum had a different haircolor, Diojas' hair would be fully brown or even black.

Since he is a Grimmhound, he does tend to prefer red meat/game based foods, but doesn't sometimes eat it raw like Alexander, as again, Diojas' isn't as strongly of a Stinky Forest Man like his dad.

He's a bit closer with his mum, mainly because he really looks up to his dad and thinks he's kind of a disappointment for struggling with his beast side so much. (of course Alexander doesn't think so at all and keeps reminding him of that, but it is difficult for Diojas to internalize the message)

His first time was with Azul, given he never dated before either on top of growing up with no proper friends. (Azul had slept with Iris before but no one else so he wasn't that much more experienced despite the confidence he seems to ooze)

He tends to enjoy snatching Azul's colorful cardigans a lot, to the point he no longer even really thinks about it when he does so.

Roman becomes one of his good friends almost accidentally while he and Ava help him and Azul out in their quest, and Roman can relate with his struggles and fears of his own powers, BUT is also older so he has some life-experience to share with Diojas.

If Diojas would let his hair grow out fully, it would still be brown from the underside and blond on top; the brown color isn't just in his roots, but rather his hair genuinely has a split in pigmentation.

[dcoolettes]

Prim! Grimmhound I made any pronouns. the silly

[krenbotvt]

O'grius appreciates a person with a crown, but he prefers knowing how they earned it in the first place. The second lovely character belongs to GildedAshes :]

[lumilasi]

Spooktober Day 7.5: Candle (part 2)

In the end, for today I decided to make Mihail version of the previous piece. This does mean Its a repeat prompt, but my brain couldn't come up with anything else rn, until I got this out of my system.

[lumilasi]

Spooktober day 1: Swing

"Oh him? He's mine. Don't worry, he won't bite."

Time for spooktober! This year I'm trying to primarily focus on this lady and the adjacent characters, though I'll probably do some other ones as well.

Now, I wasn't entirely sure how to pick the theme for each day; my friend sent me a bunch of prompt lists, but I didn't really like any of them fully? I think I might just look at all of them each day (that I have time to draw) and pick whatever prompt I find the most interesting between the three.

[lumilasi]

Spooktober day 12: Under the sheet

Making this I concluded a few things: 1. its SO useful to have some sort of setting reference, now that I made their apartment layout. 2. Speaking of the said layout, I FORGOT THE BEDSIDE LAMPS from it....

Anyway, Ava's good boi BF has some trauma, which means he occasionally has pretty bad nightmares, and tends to be extra cuddly after he wakes up.

I didn't know what to put on the shelf, so there's only photos of Ava's parents and a random crystal lamp for now. Also, next time I should just stop being lazy and put down a perspective grid; the shelves on the BG have a bit bizarre angles, but I'm too done with this piece to fix it lol

[lumilasi]

So I really liked the more dynamic pose I did for the Alexander piece (this one), and decided to make a separate piece with it, including making it full body. (the sketch phase of drawing out his full legs looked funny, wish I'd realized to screenshot it lol)

Since I did not plan it to have a specific BG in the og version however, I found it too hard to blend him into an actual scene, so I ended up taking more poster-like approach with the background.

[lumilasi]

Today I managed to finish two of my W.i.ps, the new main outfit for Hayden, and this. I was trying to decide between "accurate colors" and "Having fun with it" and ended up going with the latter. (His actual color palette for this form is a bit warmer/less green)

While I was drawing this, I kind of realized that "ah yeah, Alexander clearly has some Logan/Wolverine in his DNA lol" which makes sense; Logan is likely one of my several inspo sources/reasons for preferring certain type of dad characters.

Since this is the only nonhuman form he has that doesn't include the dog skull mask, I decided that his skintone bleaches out to reference the whole bone thing.

(His full ref here)

[lumilasi]

Spooktober day 2: Scarecrow

Whew, I honestly didn't expect to finish this today as well, but here we are (To be fair this is supposed to be today's piece, I just didn't finish the previous one on time lol). I went for a more digital painting-y look for this one.

Say hello to Blackthorne Mansion Chef/grounds guardian Mihail. Some thieves snuck in the Blackthorne manor and snatched some things. All fine and good (Harrow - the owner - doesn't really care about coupla silverware being taken) BUT they also grabbed a liquor bottle that happened to belong to the mansion's grimmhound chef. Needless to say, the thieves had a Very Not Fun Very Bad Time Actually for the rest of the night, being terrorized by a Big Angy Dogman.

....I'm honestly quite proud how this came out, figuring out how to do the field was hard. In general I think I tend to be at my best drawing spooky things. IDK why I tend to wait till October before drawing them more?

[lumilasi]

I meant to make these tidier, but since my mental health tanked pretty bad, I just don't have the energy for that currently. Just some Roman doodles to try and learn to draw him more consistent looking, as I am still struggling with it. I like some, others are a bit ehhhhhh.....

Also added some info blurbs as I did with the Cornel/Camilla doodles roughly week ago.

Some extra context below:

Roman's mum was a human who got bitten by a Lycan while pregnant, but due to having a mythical baby in her womb, Roman essentially protected her from transforming. In fact, the infection didn't take effect until Roman was around 4-5. Roman has Lycan heritage as a result as well, which mainly means fluffier dog forms, and strength boost during full moon & being affected by silver somewhat, unlike Grimmhounds normally would be.

Roman's mum had no idea the guy she'd briefly dated was a Grimmhound, as her family were Lycan hunters and probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the two, so he hid his true identity from her. (He never really cared about her that much, just found it thrilling to hide RIGHT under the hunter's nose, then fled when he got her pregnant accidentally)

His GF's dad not liking him is not Roman's fault at all, and more Lawrence being stuck with a bias towards Lycans and Grimmhounds due to a traumatic event in the past that happened and kind of messed up the Faydream family. Part of the story is them addressing this said bias and snapping Lawrence out of his current, unhealthy state of mind, which has been damaging to his relationship with his loved ones.

Roman's full Grimmhound form is very powerful, given it gets an extra boost from his Lycan heritage, but he is uncomfortable using it most of the time because it makes him think of his late sperm donor.

Because he's lived a lot of his life not being accepted/being forced to be someone he's not, his friends and GF make extra effort to affirm that he's loved, and that he's fine the way he is, knowing he's struggling with that internally.

[lumilasi]

I meant to make more doodles about his pre-dad phase, but didn't have ANY ideas left, so I just colored the ones I did have. I also realized that Alexander HAS to have gray eyes at some point, despite his OG ref having red ones, because their son has gray eyes and Mellina doesn't. I came up with a lore-explanation for it too that kinda works, given he's a dog beast spirit.

He and Mellina worked together as demon hunters/corrupted spirit exorcists for over a decade, before actually becoming a couple and giving him his surname, as his kind don't really have ones by default. His kind "manifest" rather than are born biologically to a family.

(Mellina is a sorceress and my friend's character btw, I initially meant to draw her for this too, but she kept failing so I gave up lol)

[lumilasi]

Next up is Diojas' dad Alexander. For his humanoid Grimmhound form, since I figured they'd all look somewhat similar, I just used the one I drew for Mihail, and then changed around some details.

More info below:

Name: Alexander Sterling

Nicknames: Dear/Darling (Mellina), Boss (His Grimmhound/werewolf pack), Golden hound (Nickname among Grimmhounds in general due to his unique coloring) Papa (Mia) dad, old man (Diojas)

Age: Unknown, but he's fairly sure he was born before both world wars in human world.

Height: 187 cm

Friends: His pack of young grimmhounds and Lycans he sort of ended up as the boss off, more tba

Family: Wife Mellina Sterling (A powerful Lightcaster sorceress), Diojas (His eldest child/son) Mia (His daughter)

Powers:

Regeneration: His kind regenerate most injuries insanely fast, and are generally among the most durable land-dwelling beast types outside non-flying drakes.

Transformation: He has two forms; The humanoid skull-hound form, and a full black dog form the size of which he can change at will.

Shadows: He can merge with shadows to hide himself very well even in human form, and can attack you through them.

Bite force/claws: He has very strong bite force and can actually tear people's throats open even in human form. His claws can also be used to easily cut limbs off and damage metal.

Golden Hound Special power: Because he is a rare, more powerful type of his kind, Alexander has special form/extra claws that can also cut through magic essence and ghosts, meaning he is one of those rare type beings like Soul Eaters, who can affect a soul directly.

Keen senses: Being a predator type of beast, his sense of smell is about as accurate as you'd expect from a trained bloodhound, he also has excellent night vision, and can pick up the faintest of sounds from hundreds of meters away. Also he's generally just very aware of his surroundings.

human weaponry: He's an excellent shot and even a sniper, pretty much never missing his target. He also knows how to use blades if necessary.'

Leadership: He is the current leader of a large werewolf/ Grimmhound joined pack that mostly stays with his wife and daughter, but will immediately respond to his call if he asks them to come and help.

Weaknesses:

Light magic spells are naturally effective towards his kind, as they tend to dispel the skull-dog humanoid form and force them to turn back to full humans, which is their weakest form. It does specifically need to be some sort of sacred type of light, you can't just whip out a flashlight to force them to transform. (Unless it has somehow blessed light-bulb I suppose...)

He's very impulsive and doesn't always think things through, he's also kind of messy and tends to often leave kind of a disaster first impression with people.

Personality:

Alexander is pretty relaxed and almost lazy at first glance, which is why he tends to catch people by surprise when he decks them without warning. He is fairly good with children despite appearing scary at first glance to many, which is not too surprising given he's a loving father.

That being said, his kinder, gentler side is not to be mistaken for weakness (even if certain types of fools try); he is very good at his job of being the muscle for his wife, and absolutely ruthless in a fight if needed to be, largely due to his bg of having survived 2 world wars.

He used to be much more crouchy and antisocial (Which, tbf he still somewhat is) before meeting his wife, who gave him more of a purpose in life - by first just becoming her work partner. Them falling in love later was more of a result of their years of history working together before that.

FUN FACTS

He used to mostly live wandering life in hound form, so his wife had to teach him a lot of basic things about living as more human, such as how to take baths regularly.

While Mellina comes from the Ether, she and Alexander did meet in the human world.

Alexander is especially strong among his kin, which is why he ended up with golden bits in his hound form. He's considered kind of a royalty among them, although he doesn't give a shit about it.

You can tell Alexander is a special type because of his hair; Grimmhounds typically ALWAYS have black/very dark colored hair, no exceptions. The same way, his type of Grimmhounds are always blonde.

The pack he leads consists of the leftovers of another Grimmhound Mihail's group, and some werewolves they used to fight and defend a village against. (for a price)

he didn't really intend on gathering a pack, he just sorta stumbled into it, though it is typical for the Golden hounds like him to gather up a following, even if by accident.

His name was given to him by an older hunter he lived his dog years with, it was a reference to the old man's late son whose name was also Alexander. (Though the old man mostly called him "Alex" or "Buddy" or "Damn dog!")

He keeps getting told to tidy up and shave by Diojas - or anyone really - almost every other day, and his answer is always "No."

[lumilasi]

Spooktober day 2: Grimmhound

It's kind of funny that the second thing I draw is the love interest of the previous piece's character. Anyway, here's Roman's half-Grimmhound form. Yes, he's a grimmhound, NOT a werewolf, I gave him some slight bone bits to kinda separate him from werewolves. Coulda done more, but this design was kinda thought up on the spot and not that planned out (he does get mistaken for a werewolf a lot in-story lol)

I decided that the vitiligo spots in his human form would end up being furless bits in this form. Also I initially wanted to have his head be sort of a human-hound hybrid, buuuut I'm not skilled enough for that, so had to go full furry lmaoo

[lumilasi]

Doodled this shortly after designing Roman, finally finished coloring it. Just a nice moment between Ava and her former mobster Grimmhound BF

[lumilasi]

Taking a break from cyberpunk theme to doodle stuff about another 10+ years OG character I recently upgraded, minorly. This is Alexander pre-Dadness period, he used to be a lot more asocial and serious.

He softened up slowly once he started working with his future wife on demon hunting/exorcism jobs. (It still took roughly a year for him to actually develop that kinda feelings for her)