Post by Mᴏᴏɴ - - on Feb 9, 2018 16:17:42 GMT -5
Happy birthday, » ѕнαdσω ⚔️ . You’ve come a long way, and I just want to thank you and show my appreciation and love for everything that you’ve given to the writing community. I could go on and on, but really, there's nothing that could really say to express myself. <3
This is something I’ve wanted to make ( and actually get started on ) for a while now, and I’ve made it a goal to get it at least 90% done before the 9th. And I’m happy I did: as my gift to you, I have drawn more reference art of the majority of the Curse cast, as I'd promised. I wanted this to be rather special, so even though I had a limited time to work on them, I wanted them to look good enough to show. So, I hope you like them as much as I do.
Have a fantastic day, and once more, happy birthday! <333
-- Moon
( Note - - I've tried to draw the cats as closely to their described appearances as possible, taking as many little details from the text as I could. I didn't want to stray too far from canon, although it it's easy to, with my style. But just a heads up that my personal headcanons and analyzes on the characters have also played a part in their designs, so this is just how I’ve viewed them based on our given info! )
Shadowface, our main heroine.
Believe it or not, her design was the trickiest. I debated on where her markings should be on her pelt; from my understanding, I thought she was black with a bunch of clustered orange flecks of tabby and some patches of white here and there. And now that I think about it, that just might be it... But since I have no clue as to where all of her markings really are, I decided to just make my own personal interpretation of them. The idea was to balance out the orange, black, and white. While her family has more black and white or more orange and black, I wanted to give her equal parts of all three.
The meanings of her name have played a part in my design for her, and I find it charmingly ironic with a double meaning. Canonically, it refers to her “chimera tortie” makeup, with the sole black side of her face. In more traditional naming, the “-face” suffix is used for cats with beautiful, attractive, or handsome faces. I find this rather funny, since, as I think was mentioned somewhere, Shadow isn’t necessarily the prettiest she-cat. With this in mind, I made her fur a bit more on the “spiky” side; it just sticks up naturally in some areas. It is not to make her look disheveled or anything, though, as I believe she’d actually have very well-kept, groomed fur as an adult. She probably just doesn't have the time to catch up on cleaning all the time, so the spikes are still there.
If you have a really sharp eye for detail, like me, you’ll note that I've put a little concave intent in her back; this is from her spinal cord injury, which is also a very important factor in the story in regards to the almost superhuman healing power that comes along with being a Cursed. I also added slight dark circles under her eyes; she's gone through a lot, so why not show that? :'v
I’ve always seen Eaglefrost as an… “intimidating” character? And possibly more so than Maskstar, lol! One of the largest characters, in my mind, I made him robust and broad, with stocky muscles that undulate whenever he moves; very similar to when you see the muscles of a lion or a horse ripple when they walk/run in slow motion. ( Yep — I’ve observed that before in some animals, and I find it very majestic to watch! )
I'm aware that his head is too small for his body; something that I can fix if need be. It looked a lot more proportional in sketch form. :'> I gave him fur that kind of trails off due to its length, particularly at the back of his paws, where it drags on the ground. I feel like — out of any character in the series — he has the longest claws. His lengthy, “talon-like” claws are mentioned many times in the story, so I decide to illustrate that by way of making them apparent, black, and curved, like, well — eagle talons! ( Side note: look up “eagle talons” on Google; they’re super long, curved and scary-looking claws, very fitting for those awesome birds. ) I feel like many, if not, all of the cats in the story have claws that naturally poke out just a teensy tiny bit from their sheathes, since they are so long, even in kithood. But I headcanon that Eaglefrost doesn’t tend to “file” them down in any way, which is why they are so 'long'. He probably sharpens his claws very often every day, which makes them sharp — maybe not enough to make a deep, huge gash on the first swing like a razor blade or an eagle's talon would. Or maybe so! Who knows?
If you look closely, you’ll notice that I’ve also made his tail look like a giant feather — cropped sections and all.
Rushstorm. I wanted to differentiate him from Eaglefrost, appearance-wise, so I gave him slimmer arms, curlier fur, larger eyes, and a softer, more youthful face; but nothing too boyish, as that wasn’t what I was trying to go for. He was meant to be a contrast to Eaglefrost’s more masculine, sharp features. Canonically, he is described as extremely muscular, and I really wanted to illustrate that -- again, trying to get close to canon. So I combined it with a former headcanon of mine, which regards his body type as being rather slender and sleek, underneath all of that fur, but still sturdy, muscular, and tough all in all.
He has the “-storm” suffix, but I can’t see him as being unpredictable in any way. Instead, I just made the “-storm” part of his name connote to his somewhat “wildish” fur, since I drew it as appearing to move every which way, as well as the storm-cloud shaped stripes along his body.
Here we have the Battle Mistress, Darkmoon! Truthfully, I have always imagined her like this — instead of being the typical longhair, she is actually a shorthair in my head, lol. Although short, though, her fur is not fine; it’s actually very thick, which makes up as a warm ‘coat’ for the lack of insulation.
Her claws are also slightly obvious; she hones them daily, and keeps them in tip-top condition, as they are a cat’s primary form of weaponry. Her name is Darkmoon, so instead of making her solid black, I added faint crescent moon motifs of her shoulders, just for decoration.
Miss Jadestar! I wanted to revamp that old sketch I made of her back on the original forums, so I reshaped her design after reading up about her in Curse. I pictured her as a beautiful lady with very long legs, a slender body, and a kind of ascendancy that just radiates from her being, sometimes even when she is exhausted. You don’t even need to get up close to see that she commands respect and authority; and she will get it. I thought it would be an amusing contrast, since her somewhat Amazonian/tomboyish personality wouldn’t seem to match up with such a queenly, authoritative appearance. I think of her eyes as being an actual “jade” color — like a pastel but somehow still bright green — rather than the deeper shade of evergreen.
( On the topic of eyes, I also headcanon that Cursed kittens’ — and possibly their siblings and even cousins or distant relatives — eye color changes at a much more rapid pace, since, factually, a kitten’s eye color starts off as blue before changing to their actual, natural color. This may explain how some kittens could be named after their eye color, but it’s just a minor little headcanon I’ve thought about; no need to consider it, lol. )
I also wanted to make her look much more like a “fox”, so I gave her a longer muzzle, slightly tall ears, black claws, dark legs, and a bushy, black-tipped tail.
Eaglecurse. I keep mixing him up with Eaglefrost, so I was glad to have a visual representation to distinguish the two! Nothing much to say about him, although I do like his thoughtful facial expression.
Revamped Maskstar! I gave him more of an "orange" motif, rather than the predominant white of his earlier design. I think it fits him much better. (Also, I totally forgot to put a faint "star" on his forehead, but we can just overlook that fact hhhh)
I intended to make him look a little brooding, maybe tired and grumpy, but still pretty powerful and leader-like.
Cloudspots. She’s a simple-looking molly, but I had fun with her fur. I headcanon that she has a form of vitiligo ( in cats ), which creates tons of erratic white spotting all over her black fur. There’s no real pattern for these spots, so they’re just everywhere. I imagine she has a puffy and very thick pelt, like a cloud. Everything about her is just soft and gentle.
Snow. As I've stated in some previous headcanons on my Curse Marathon page, I’ve always seen Snow as an Oriental Longhair ( a mix, most likely, since they obviously can’t be purebreds without human breeding. ), and I think it fits her exotic, and extremely queenly appearance. They’re such beautiful cat aliens, and I adore them. That's why her face may look a little disproportionate, but their body type is called "extreme", and that means large, long muzzles and big ears.
I originally headcanoned her with albinism — thin white fur with pale red eyes, purplish-red eyes, or “paler” eyes of any color. Reading over some more things and doing more research, though, I feel like my headcanon could be easily debunked. People with albinism have sensitivity to heat and the sun, so perhaps she prefers to live in caves where it’s cooler, and sun doesn’t filter too much? Sometimes their eyes are pale — which is where I got the notion that her eyes were a pale, silvery-blue. But if she were, I don’t think she’d survive very long in a colder environment.
So, actually, maybe she has leucism instead, I thought. Leucism is similar to albinism, but the while the fur remains 100% white or patchedly colored, the pigment cells in the eyes are not affected, and retain their rich natural coloration. But even this could be debunked as well, as the silvery eyes are just a part of her curse, and not her genetic makeup, which I realize now. Doing more research on the “moonstone”, instead of it being a plain silver colored stone, it’s, like, actually a pastel, sky blue color framed by silver, I think? Not sure. But that's what I tried to go for here; a shiny effect with her irises. I gave her perfectly arched eyebrows and a beauty mark... Why not? cx
Hadiya has an... interesting design. She is explicitly described as a “black-and-white tortoiseshell”, but it seemed to have accidentally ( and unfortunately ) slipped my mind while I was drawing her. ^^""Here, I took some liberties with her back, where the positive and negative space animation of her pelt merges. In the animation, we have the symbols of Yin and Yang which circle around the oval shape and teardrop-like shapes that spiral on top of them whenever they reach a second-long stop. The blob shapes at her shoulder blades warp in and out, like a lava lamp, and the flaming eye stays dormat. The tadpole in the middle of her spine slithers up and down in a "Figure 8" motion. I like to imagine that the animation moves in time with her breathing sometimes, as well.
I desperately wanted to make her an Oriental Longhair, but muscular all the same. So, even though you can't see it here, I do imagine her with large muscles on her limbs. I also wanted to create a supernatural approach, so I drew her drawing rune symbols with a claw. Where or why is she writing them? Who knows.
Spottedmoon's design is my personal favorite. She's one of the prettiest cats I've ever drawn, lol. I made her look more like an Oriental as well, to match up with Snow. I gave her an upside-down crescent moon motif below her eyes, and spotted stripes all over, like a mackerel tabby. I've also thought of the possibility of her being a lynx-point white tabby, as well. Snow gets her gorgeousness from her momma, haha.
Finally, Lionshadow, the big bad himself. “Lion” made me think of a golden cat, initially. But since he isn’t golden, I decided to build his appearance via the build of a lion. I gave him pointy but round ears, a thin tail with a fluffy tuft at the tip, a large build, and a huge “mane” of fur around his neck. He is a cat with an attractive face, described as “sharp and angular” in the story; I drew prominent cheekbones here. Since he is no longer a “living body”, I made him look more shadowy here. Mintfeather describes him as a “dark, twisted presence in the form of a tom”, which I thought was pretty spooky.The wisps on his paws move with him, and his claws are absurdly long in an eldritch way. I also have a version without his shadows.
Some additional bonuses; I'll be adding the ones I've forgotten to upload later on today!
Shadowface's Active Curse
Darkmoon's Active Curse
Snow's Active Curse
Spottedmoon's Active Curse
Hadiya's Active Curse
Lionshadow's Active Curse
Shadowhunter, Wolfheart, and Nighthawk
Shadowface's Siblings
Darkestday & Owlstar
Tempestkit
This is something I’ve wanted to make ( and actually get started on ) for a while now, and I’ve made it a goal to get it at least 90% done before the 9th. And I’m happy I did: as my gift to you, I have drawn more reference art of the majority of the Curse cast, as I'd promised. I wanted this to be rather special, so even though I had a limited time to work on them, I wanted them to look good enough to show. So, I hope you like them as much as I do.
Have a fantastic day, and once more, happy birthday! <333
-- Moon
( Note - - I've tried to draw the cats as closely to their described appearances as possible, taking as many little details from the text as I could. I didn't want to stray too far from canon, although it it's easy to, with my style. But just a heads up that my personal headcanons and analyzes on the characters have also played a part in their designs, so this is just how I’ve viewed them based on our given info! )
Shadowface, our main heroine.
Believe it or not, her design was the trickiest. I debated on where her markings should be on her pelt; from my understanding, I thought she was black with a bunch of clustered orange flecks of tabby and some patches of white here and there. And now that I think about it, that just might be it... But since I have no clue as to where all of her markings really are, I decided to just make my own personal interpretation of them. The idea was to balance out the orange, black, and white. While her family has more black and white or more orange and black, I wanted to give her equal parts of all three.
The meanings of her name have played a part in my design for her, and I find it charmingly ironic with a double meaning. Canonically, it refers to her “chimera tortie” makeup, with the sole black side of her face. In more traditional naming, the “-face” suffix is used for cats with beautiful, attractive, or handsome faces. I find this rather funny, since, as I think was mentioned somewhere, Shadow isn’t necessarily the prettiest she-cat. With this in mind, I made her fur a bit more on the “spiky” side; it just sticks up naturally in some areas. It is not to make her look disheveled or anything, though, as I believe she’d actually have very well-kept, groomed fur as an adult. She probably just doesn't have the time to catch up on cleaning all the time, so the spikes are still there.
If you have a really sharp eye for detail, like me, you’ll note that I've put a little concave intent in her back; this is from her spinal cord injury, which is also a very important factor in the story in regards to the almost superhuman healing power that comes along with being a Cursed. I also added slight dark circles under her eyes; she's gone through a lot, so why not show that? :'v
I’ve always seen Eaglefrost as an… “intimidating” character? And possibly more so than Maskstar, lol! One of the largest characters, in my mind, I made him robust and broad, with stocky muscles that undulate whenever he moves; very similar to when you see the muscles of a lion or a horse ripple when they walk/run in slow motion. ( Yep — I’ve observed that before in some animals, and I find it very majestic to watch! )
I'm aware that his head is too small for his body; something that I can fix if need be. It looked a lot more proportional in sketch form. :'> I gave him fur that kind of trails off due to its length, particularly at the back of his paws, where it drags on the ground. I feel like — out of any character in the series — he has the longest claws. His lengthy, “talon-like” claws are mentioned many times in the story, so I decide to illustrate that by way of making them apparent, black, and curved, like, well — eagle talons! ( Side note: look up “eagle talons” on Google; they’re super long, curved and scary-looking claws, very fitting for those awesome birds. ) I feel like many, if not, all of the cats in the story have claws that naturally poke out just a teensy tiny bit from their sheathes, since they are so long, even in kithood. But I headcanon that Eaglefrost doesn’t tend to “file” them down in any way, which is why they are so 'long'. He probably sharpens his claws very often every day, which makes them sharp — maybe not enough to make a deep, huge gash on the first swing like a razor blade or an eagle's talon would. Or maybe so! Who knows?
If you look closely, you’ll notice that I’ve also made his tail look like a giant feather — cropped sections and all.
He has the “-storm” suffix, but I can’t see him as being unpredictable in any way. Instead, I just made the “-storm” part of his name connote to his somewhat “wildish” fur, since I drew it as appearing to move every which way, as well as the storm-cloud shaped stripes along his body.
Her claws are also slightly obvious; she hones them daily, and keeps them in tip-top condition, as they are a cat’s primary form of weaponry. Her name is Darkmoon, so instead of making her solid black, I added faint crescent moon motifs of her shoulders, just for decoration.
Miss Jadestar! I wanted to revamp that old sketch I made of her back on the original forums, so I reshaped her design after reading up about her in Curse. I pictured her as a beautiful lady with very long legs, a slender body, and a kind of ascendancy that just radiates from her being, sometimes even when she is exhausted. You don’t even need to get up close to see that she commands respect and authority; and she will get it. I thought it would be an amusing contrast, since her somewhat Amazonian/tomboyish personality wouldn’t seem to match up with such a queenly, authoritative appearance. I think of her eyes as being an actual “jade” color — like a pastel but somehow still bright green — rather than the deeper shade of evergreen.
( On the topic of eyes, I also headcanon that Cursed kittens’ — and possibly their siblings and even cousins or distant relatives — eye color changes at a much more rapid pace, since, factually, a kitten’s eye color starts off as blue before changing to their actual, natural color. This may explain how some kittens could be named after their eye color, but it’s just a minor little headcanon I’ve thought about; no need to consider it, lol. )
I also wanted to make her look much more like a “fox”, so I gave her a longer muzzle, slightly tall ears, black claws, dark legs, and a bushy, black-tipped tail.
I intended to make him look a little brooding, maybe tired and grumpy, but still pretty powerful and leader-like.
I originally headcanoned her with albinism — thin white fur with pale red eyes, purplish-red eyes, or “paler” eyes of any color. Reading over some more things and doing more research, though, I feel like my headcanon could be easily debunked. People with albinism have sensitivity to heat and the sun, so perhaps she prefers to live in caves where it’s cooler, and sun doesn’t filter too much? Sometimes their eyes are pale — which is where I got the notion that her eyes were a pale, silvery-blue. But if she were, I don’t think she’d survive very long in a colder environment.
So, actually, maybe she has leucism instead, I thought. Leucism is similar to albinism, but the while the fur remains 100% white or patchedly colored, the pigment cells in the eyes are not affected, and retain their rich natural coloration. But even this could be debunked as well, as the silvery eyes are just a part of her curse, and not her genetic makeup, which I realize now. Doing more research on the “moonstone”, instead of it being a plain silver colored stone, it’s, like, actually a pastel, sky blue color framed by silver, I think? Not sure. But that's what I tried to go for here; a shiny effect with her irises. I gave her perfectly arched eyebrows and a beauty mark... Why not? cx
I desperately wanted to make her an Oriental Longhair, but muscular all the same. So, even though you can't see it here, I do imagine her with large muscles on her limbs. I also wanted to create a supernatural approach, so I drew her drawing rune symbols with a claw. Where or why is she writing them? Who knows.
Some additional bonuses; I'll be adding the ones I've forgotten to upload later on today!
Shadowface's Active Curse
Snow's Active Curse
to be added!
Shadowface's Siblings
to be added!
Darkestday & Owlstar
to be added!
Tempestkit
to be added!
