She’s joined by a goblin friend in these sketches– I really like the idea of an “Oops! All Monsters” kind of story or campaign, with a cast of characters from traditionally “evil” or mistrusted races having an adventure together.
thank you very much!! I’m so glad my art has helped you see how cute hyenas are! I honestly think that every animal can be cute in its own way, even ones with complicated insect faces or even no faces at all, but I feel like hyenas are very conventionally cute if you open your heart to them. I did this sketch (from photo reference) highlighting just some of the cute things about spotted hyenas:
The most well-known stylized hyena designs, the ones from The Lion King (which I’ve loved my whole life, don’t get me wrong), work really hard to make them look villainous and threatening through choices like giving them broad, sly grins full of sharp teeth and desaturating their fur from tawny yellow and ginger to gray and black. That look is iconic and all, and I’ve seen plenty of other hyena character designs lean that way, but I think a design could easily go just as far in the other direction and be almost teddy-bear cute– it’s all about the personality the design is meant to convey and what features are exaggerated to do it. In real life, spotted hyenas just look like fuzzy normal guys, just as cute as any other large carnivorous mammal:
On a related note, that’s also part of why I like drawing animals from photo reference rather than from stylized artwork. I love looking at other people’s art for inspiration, but I also like being able to ultimately pick for myself how to stylize an animal character’s looks, rather than copying someone else’s choices. Plus, using references means getting to look at cute animal pictures while drawing, and who wouldn’t want that?
Also, as one last thing, I think it’s really important when considering hyenas’ inherent cuteness to know that they can tuck in all their limbs and loaf like cats:
after @soleminisanctiontold me about little Anchor Root, an NPC from the Pathfinder 2e adventure “Strength of Thousands”, I maybe got a little bit immediately attached. Have I played that adventure path, or anything Pathfinder at all? No. Do I still love this chronically-anxious magical schoolgirl with all my heart? Absolutely.
Anchor Root is what’s called an “ant gnoll”, which are halfling-sized gnolls based on aardwolves– perfect for her, since you look at a picture of a real-life aardwolf and go, “yeah that thing has anxiety.” (see below)
“Kaynemaile has worked tirelessly to perfect the material science behind beautiful architectural mesh, collaborating with architects and designers on projects that embolden urban environments with positive buildings. The company’s patented polycarbonate mesh, inspired by 2,000-year-old medieval chainmail, was initially created for the armor and weapons seen in the The Lord of The Rings movie trilogy and is now used on major architectural projects around the world.
“The film’s art director and Kaynemaile’s founder Kayne Horsham worked with his team to construct each garment from plastic plumbing tubes, coating them in pure silver. Once filming wrapped, Horsham dedicated himself to creating a change to the liquid state assembly process to mass produce the polycarbonate chainmail for architectural applications — products that were light, but strong enough to protect the interior or exterior of a building. Now an industry-leading manufacturer, Kaynemaile produces mesh for everything from small interior screens to large scale exterior façades. Their mesh is easy to install and can be custom created for specialized applications.”
‘Are these magic cloaks?’ asked Pippin, looking at them. with wonder.
‘I do not know what you mean by that,’ answered the leader of the Elves. ‘They are fair garments, and the web is good, for it was made in this land. They are Elvish robes certainly, if that is what you mean. Leaf and branch, water and stone: they have the hue and beauty of all these things under the twilight of Lorien that we love; for we put the thought of all that we love into all that we make.”
- Fellowship of the Ring, Chapter 8: Farewell to Lorien
This is how I think of Jackson’s movies. Yes, there are serious flaws - Gandalf’s de-powering, Gimli as comic relief, and Faramir, namely - but come on.
Remember when the guys making their chain mail invented a new method for quickly producing large amounts of it by hand? Remember Miranda Otto walking down the street, practicing sword positions? The guys who forged all of the swords - for leads and for extras? The men and women riders who volunteered to be riders of Rohan? The costume designers who designed the inside of Theoden’s armor (which no one would ever see) so beautifully that Bernard Hill said he felt like a king? The friendships between the cast, and their size doubles, and the stuntmen?
they took forced perspective and scaled sets to a new level by adding moving set pieces to create the illusion that the hobbits and dwarves were much smaller than everyone else even when the camera moved.
every scene you see in the 11+ hours of glory that is the LOTR masterpiece is most like ridiculously elaborate or expensive–from model towers to the all-new motion capture technology used for gollum to the costumes and sets to the aerial on location shots of mother-fracking new zealand and the big impressive battle scenes and horse charges.
but then the story and the screenplay too–there is just SO much lore that is there
in the background lurking
if you want to look for it, yet it still remains simplified for the average viewer. Crazy impressive feat.
And the acting is heartfelt and real and makes you love the characters.
ALSO DON’T GET ME STARTED ON FREAKING HOWARD SHORE AND HIS 100+ HEARTSHATTERINGLY BEAUTIFUL LIETMOTIFS AND BRILLIANT SUBTLE VARIATIONS IN THE FLIPPING 13 HOUR SOUNDTRACK. AND ENYA SINGING IN REAL ELVISH.
I loved the books long before the movies came out and… yes, this.
I disagree with a few choices here and there but they’re really, really good.
