@idkfitememate you know that question I asked a while ago about the number of creators? totally didn’t mean anything lol
The canvas is pretty crowded but I’m happy with it. I had to miniaturize some creators though, cuz some were too large
I love those rough pencils, man
Also I didn’t realize the tiger creator was probably supposed to be a normal tiger until I finished
Wolflord had to go mini and pop up from a portal to fit lol, and the hydra was sentenced to a bucket. I’m so creative :) melusine was hardest to draw because of ELBOWS wait I take that back, the weasel was hardest-I could never get it right
Overall I’m confident about this drawing 😊
Plus there’s a special appearance in the drawing, can you find it? ;)
Posting from my iPad again, hope it works like last time
An absolutely MASSIVE batch of adoprables ive worked super hard on! They are currently available on my other socials. Im trying to help myself with moving fees like the first months deposit when we hopefully find a place soon 💖🥰
With Saberbeak being written, I wanted to touch on more Brenda Lyons interior art, and this time we have Hatzel, a smilodon (saber-toothed tiger) plus Haast's eagle gryphon.
@toadalled was very useful here in helping me to imagine how the sabers on the beaks would look. When it comes to saber cats, the sabers are an iconic feature that I never saw translated into gryphons. We tend to associate gryphons more with birds, and I wanted to really bring the cat out. Kieran was amazing with that.
We looked at colors, too, even though they wouldn't be in the interior art. (You know, juuuust in case Hatzel ever ended up on a cover some day.) That brought in the influences of the black-billed magpies and Cooper's hawks that the character was closely associated with. Sister prides, if you will.
I love Hatzel, and many of you have, too. There's a stereotype in gryphonic literature where there's a massive gryphon who is very full of themselves, just a brawler and a love whose arrogance and vanity are unmatched. Hatzel subverts that trope by being extremely level-headed. Whereas characters like Xavi, the denfather, are protective of the gryphlets, Hatzel protects everyone under her care. Of course, when she gets to let loose, there's no more ferocious gryphon in Belamuria.
Though she gets PoV time in Eyrie and Ashen Weald, part of having such a stable character is that you're not presented with many opportunities to spotlight her, as she doesn't need to change and grow the way other characters do. It took the entire world changing around her before she earned her time back in the spotlight.
With a character like this, the last of her kind (and based on extinct cats and birds), in a pride that's made up of several smaller prides, you're left wondering how she got that way. How her values were shaped by the loss of the saberbeak pride.
Or, as the last ruler of Poisonmaw might say... "Family isn't who looks like you. It isn't even a feeling in your heart. It's in your beak and claws, and who you're willing to bloody them to protect."
I'm about 17k words into Saberbeak now, Hatzel's book, and I think we know who her family are.