Weekend Sketches #9 - Halloweenies

Hello everyone! It's been a bit of a stretch between weekend sketches, eh? If you've read my previous blog post you'll know I've been on a bit of a journey with my relationship to art. This does extend a bit into my feelings about sharing it, but I will need some more time to ferment my thoughts on that.

Otherwise, I've gotten back into thinking about Sol, Nyx, and their story that currently only plays to the exclusive screen in my head. Though that might change by next year.

I wanted to share some art I had been hoarding of them. Well, not necessarily hoarding since most of these can be found on my Pillowfort account. But if you're someone like my mom and don't go there then this is for you! I figure, since it's the spooky month why not share what I had that fits the season, like cool wereforms and glimpses into some more of Sol and Nyx's demon hunting?

I'm definitely trying to keep the indulgence levels stable with these two, even though I'm on the edge of turning their story into something I will be sharing outside of myself and a handful of close friends, and Sol's Divine Beast Form is the threshold. I love designing super-powered forms (or their "Final Forms" if you like) of my characters. This is definitely a holdover from playing a bunch of JRPGs in my teens; stuff like Final Fantasy 10-X and 12 and Tales of Symphonia. But it's always, or at least very often, the villains in those games that get that cool final form. And not that villains aren't cool in and of themselves, I just like the idea of my protagonist getting a rad burst mode, a beast form, or a divine/ascended self.

Usually in JRPGs the villain's Final Form represents a full corruption of the self, a point of no return where they become truly monstrous and lose all their humanity, which often makes it easier for the player to put the villain down. And I wonder, what does it mean when the protagonist has this form and at some point fully embraces  and enjoys it? Because usually (and I know there are exceptions to this) a protagonist's embrace of their inhuman half is a tentative one filled with doubt. It's a constant struggle for them to keep their humanity despite this other side of themselves.

Anyways, I hope y'all have a nice Halloween. I'll likely be having a good time offline and I hope you can too!

Happy Halloween <3