Olive Branch Witch

eridians are really varied, just like humans, so keep this in mind when designing your own!! everything is up to you, from body shape to color, size, legs, details etc etc!!

first i'll demonstrate the basics of how i draw them by drawing my baby, quartz! :) she's based more off of book eridians than movie eridians, and you can kind of see that in the body shape, leg placement, and the clothing and accessories she's given!

start off by drawing a shape for the body!! i usually start off with a pentagon/oval similar to this one but anything goes! it's all up to you :)

then i like to draw a circle/oval beneath it where i want the legs to be! this just helps me to get the leg placement to look better! also keep in mind, the further back the leg is, the smaller it and the foot will be!

then you can go ahead and add the legs!! i start off with basic lines and then sketch out the feet! i draw them more akin to paws than say, the claws of a bird but it's all up to you! i also like to add little raised bits on the carapace where the knee joint will be like a crab or armor! plus i just think it looks cute lol

then you can add clothes!! quartz gets a cute lil shirt <333

one clothing/accessory idea I think could be fun but i haven't played around much with is arm bands with pockets for holding tools/random stuff!! so there's also a little doodle of that on this page lol

i only draw the markings if i plan it to be an uncolored sketch, i kind of just place them randomly the first time i draw an eridian and then base the markings in all other future drawings on the first one! though i didn't look back at my reference for this one soooooo it's inaccurate lol

this would also be the time to add and tattoos or scars as well!! quartz doesn't have any tattoos at the moment (she's too scared lol) though she'll have a wedding band once i give her a mate :)

then you can start adding accessories!!! have fun messing around!! she loves her friendship bracelets :)

bow!!!

bag C:

and then adding texture and details to the clothes!! again, i only really do the line art for these parts if I'm not planning on coloring but i decided to do it anyways lol

then you can go on to adding flat colors!!! i color in the full drawing with the base color and then from there I build my way up one color at a time until.....

boom!! you got yourself a little eridian!! :)))

now let's get into designing your own eridian!!! there are many things you can take into account:

what color would you like them to be?

is there a specific stone you want?

what vibe do you have in mind?

if you have a color in mind, head to pinterest or google and search up what color you'd like! say you want a pink eridian, i'd look up "pink rock/crystal/gem/stone" and then a bunch of things come up :))

if you have a specific stone in mind, look up images of that stone!!

if you have a personality/vibe in mind, different crystals each have their own specific meanings! for example, a white quartz can mean purity and support, and rose quartz can mean compassion, peace, and love :)

if you have a stone in mind but don't know the personality yet, consider looking up the meaning of that stone and see if that gives you any ideas pertaining to their personality!!

now that we've got some basic ideas, let's make a more movie-style eridian based off this blue phantom quartz!

movie eridians tend to have less rounded body shapes, instead being taller and thinner! you can play around with adding bits that stick out or chips to add little quirks and a bit of personality to your design!! :))

my piece of blue phantom quartz is flatter at the bottom and sticks out more at the top so i'll try and incorperate that into my design!

then add the circle to help with leg placement!!

with the help of the circle, you can sketch in the legs now!! note how the feet all land on the circle :))

leg placement can be tricky, it can be hard to get it to look right!! feel free to play around and try new things!! you can always erase/restart if you don't like how it turned out!

since this one is more movie style, i'll skip clothes and accessories and go straight to coloring the base layer!!

then you can go in with a second color and start adding patterns! i like to draw them on a different layer that is clipped to the first (via clipping mask) and then that will keep you from coloring outside the lines!! using a clipping mask instead of alpha lock lets me go back and change the base color if needed! (i actually did in this case lol)

since i'm referencing an existing crystal, i use that to help with color placement!!

then you can go in with your second color!!

in the movie, rocky has green showing through where his legs are attached to his body, and i took this to mean that the inner layers of his carapace are green, and as the brown gets worn away it shows through!! so i added blue in the joints for this lil fellow :)

then i went in with some highlights and sparkles to make them feel more alive!!

going back into the lineart to add more texture in some places, along with carvings/tattoos!!

and then you're done!!!! there are so many different ways to have fun with creating your own lil guys and i hope this little helps you get the creative juices going!!! it's important to keep in mind that this is just a guide though, there are no rules!! play around and have fun making your own lil guy!!!

oh! one thing i'm trying to get better at with eridians is showing emotion with body motions! it's a lot harder with these guys since you can't just slap on a cutie lil smiley face to show content/happiness so i've been referencing flour sack drawings lol

flour sack drawings are an excercise used when learning the basics of animation and how to convey emotion through exaggerated poses/body language! here's an example i found on google that shows it pretty well :))

note how expressive it's movement is, and how it shows so much emotion despite having no face! i'm still trying to get better at this myself but these have been great to reference when trying to draw different emotions in eridians :)

this is just a little wip i'm working on but you can (hopefully) tell that quartz is really happy by how she's standing tall and leaning into ryland!

though it's hard to show without adding a face 😭 i could probably benifit by exaggerating everything further!

Tagging even more lovely people!

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