Howdy howdy! Love your art, and ignore this if youβve been asked before. But I was curious how did you come up with your designs for warrior cat characters? Like Cinderpelt and Ivypool? Those two are honestly my favorite character designs that and dovewing
most of the time it's just thinking about either 1) what looks the coolest or 2) how can i relate their design to their character
my dovewing and ivypool designs specifically are referencing my designs of them from last year. last year i wanted to contrast dovewing and ivypool against each other mostly by referencing their childhoods/early adulthoods; dovewing being the prophecized child, confined in her beliefs & duty within thunderclan, with ivypool being the rebellious troublesome child who taps into the dark forest, scarred from training. and obviously they have angel vs devil motifs
this year i wanted to reference how they are in the modern books with dovewing leaving thunderclan (i've posted about this recently with talk of dovewing, but specifically her finding solace in shadowclan, leaving thunderclan and lionblaze/jayfeather/firestar behind) and ivypool becoming deputy. i wanted dovewing to have more personality and a face (see: becoming her own person) and also giving her a more natural hairstyle. i wanted it to feel like she'd let go of her restrictive lifestyle to become more open and happy. with ivypool i wanted to reference her larger character arc of rebellious -> loyal/upright and deputy of thunderclan. partially to reference both the position and general clan culture i gave molded her into having a military uniform and got rid of her earring; also tried to put her in a pose that makes it look like a miliatary portrait. with this interpretation i used the troubled teen -> cop pipeline trope.
i did have a few other ideas for both of them; like halfway though drawing dovewing i thought of the idea to give her motifs of rastafari beliefs but i felt i was too far into the drawing and didn't end up adding any. i'm quite sad about this as i think it would've been interesting (and later on i did end up completely redoing a character; moth flight) so i will probs end up revisiting it later on/next years pride icons. with ivypool i juggled a bunch of different interpretations of her with the most prominent other one was trailer park-residing ex-military/ex-cop junkie. specifically i like her (fanon) relationship with fernsong and her kids and thought about referencing her life going more unsuccessful in comparison to dovewings. i kinda just 50/50ed not going that route :p
my cinderpelt is a bit more simple as it doesn't reference last years at all. i like the idea of despite her disability her becoming more daring and really "not letting it get in her way". i gave her a motorcycle helmet to symbolize her "taking back the road" post-injury by learning motorcycling, which i find has a bit of a "rebel/punk" social perception around it. and also it looks cool :3
a lot of my designs this year are based off my ones from last year; usually ones that i like or me wanting to revisit previous ideas in a new way, or more simply me just wanting to redraw the art if i still like the idea.
^ here's sol, firestar and cloudtail
there are some cats who either i didn't like last years design/i didn't draw them last year/or i just had a new vision for them.
here's bristlefrost. i dislike my last years bristlefrost; it was in reference to my hawkfrost design as i do find it interesting they have the same suffix, especially since (if my memory isn't evading me/correct me if im wrong) it was imposter bramblestar who gave bristle her warrior name, IE ashfur AKA guy who knew and teamed up with hawkfrost in life. i also think it's interesting to think about how ivypool possibly wouldve reacted to the name due to her relationship with hawkfrost. i like this idea in concept but i just don't think the art and design for both years hawkfrost and bristle were that good and i felt i wasted the idea.
this years bristlefrost i decided not to reference that and draw her as her own character. i knew it advance i wanted to give her horns in reference to a few other peoples designs that in turn are a reference to the deer (?) ivypool compared to bristle at the end of her book. she's goopy cause she leaped into the dark forest water and the rest of her design is sort of just how i see her in my head.
lastly i thought i'd show off some designs that i don't like both years versions of. (hawkfrost is also an example of this). i know what my vision was for last years shadowsight but i absolutely hate the execution. i gave him solid black hair so the flowers would constrast against it, and then tried to make it seem like the flowers were ashfur's eyes looking at him. similar to bristlefrost i love this idea but i think it fell really flat in last years drawing. with this years shadowsight he does share some similarities (i've generally adopted the dark grey with solid black hair/fur bits shadowsight as my general design for him) but i feel i didn't do anything interesting with him + am not really a fan of the art overall. shrug :p
it's a bit difficult for me to explain my design process as a lot of it is just "instinctual" to me just know that: 95% of the time it's either me going "this would be really cute/cool" (ex. half moon, cloudtail, snowbird, monkeystar, sol)/ "this design is referencing something else" (ex. jester, scourge, hollytuft, pink eyes) and "this is just the first thing that came to me/im just bullshitting" (ex. blossomfall, feathertail, micah, jayfeather). me putting as much thought i put into my ivy/dove designs is Rare
