Altana Sandsea

I took a class at 21 Draw about drawing landscapes... This is the first thing I've managed to finish as a result.

This landscape is supposed to be the Altana Sandsea, a massive desert in the continent of Altana enclosed by rocky mountain ranges in my fantasy story The Aether and Radisrol. Cloaked in sandstorms, it is nearly impossible to set foot upon its sands, let alone traverse its dunes. It is said by locals that the sandstorms are caused by the sand serpent Ahlra-Tani, who treats the entire desert as her domain.

During the Aquila-Evrae War, when the Wyrmidons--half-human and half-dragons--were being slaughtered en masse by the Ehn-Gu, some of them were said to have fled to this desert in search of refuge from their pursuers. Ahlra-Tani pitied the Wyrmidons and welcomed them into her territory. To prevent the Ehn-Gu from chasing after them, she summoned the sandstorms that ravage the desert sands to the present day, save for the sanctuary she provided to the Wyrmidons somewhere out of reach from the outside world.

I still can't believe it. I've attempted to draw like this before when I made the concept art for the Aether back in January, but it didn't bring the same kind of satisfaction I felt with this painting. This is my first time properly creating a landscape in this style*; whenever I tried to draw landscapes in the past it has always felt so aimless. I didn't really know how or where to begin, and this is the first time I've actually gone into it with a sense of direction.

If you've been following me for a long time, you know then that I rarely ever do something like this. Creating landscapes always felt so confusing and impossible for me... Until now.

I've said it before on my stream and I'll say it again: anything is possible, guys. You just need to know where to begin, and actually start and work on it. 💕

*I've mentioned in some communities that this was my first time drawing a landscape when I remembered it wasn't. If you read that and you stumbled upon this post, I'm really sorry for the confusion. 😅

Crown Chakra

Rebellious at heart while being a natural-born leader, Crown Chakra embodies a fierce lioness and the color violet. She is the leader of the Seven Chakras, and even struts that crown to prove it. She's someone you don't really wanna fuck around with and she will not hesitate to kick you to the curb if you give her bullshit.

I wanted this character to be all about sassiness, and boy does she deliver. Cue the leather fur coat and distressed purple jeans, and throw in those heels for a sense of dominance. Top it all off with a sly smirk and you got one hell of a sass-package.

She was meant to be a mixed-race kemonomimi, but I couldn't help viewing her as black, or someone with tan skin at least. Her hair was also drawn to help give the appearance of a lion; I am fully aware lionesses don't have a mane but this definitely helped give her a fierce appearance, which was what I really wanted to go for to begin with.

I also found myself drawing this character with another Twitch streamer called BlakGurlGamR in mind. I love the vibe in her streams and her personality is something I really admire, and I wanted to bring that out when I designed this character. Needless to say, I have a lot of respect for what she does. So if she's ever reading this, I want to thank her for being an inspiration to Crown Chakra's conception. 😊

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🌈 The Seven Chakras 🌈

🐘 Root Chakra 🐘
🐯 Sacral Chakra 🐯
🦋 Solar Chakra 🦋

🕊 Heart Chakra 🕊

🐺 Throat Chakra 🐺

🐵 Third Eye Chakra 🐵

🦁 Crown Chakra 🦁

Third Eye Chakra

A spiritual, elegant Latina, Third Eye Chakra represents a chimpanzee and the color indigo. She was the last character I made a draft of from the Seven Chakras. At the time, I didn't have much of anything to mold her with, and I decided to work on Crown Chakra first.

Truth be told, it was a challenge trying to figure out how to incorporate hints to chimpanzees to her design besides the ears. This kind of kemonomimi was pretty uncommon to me. I would have added a tail, but I learned chimpanzees didn't have them either.

Reina told me that she wanted to see her "convey intuition and listening to the universe". The first thing I couldn't help thinking of was a fortune teller or a psychic, and I usually associated them with robes. As a nod to her Latina heritage, I drew her in a Spanish dress with ballet shoes and gave her an earnest countenance.

This unfortunately made her strike me as being too overly serious compared to the rest of the cast. I showed the draft to the community and told them that I would be changing the outfit to make her appear more relaxed. But Reina told me if serious is how she's gonna be, then this is how she's going to be, so I kept the design as it is.

Looking at her final design, I'm glad I nailed her colors, but I also can't help viewing her as a crow rather than a chimpanzee. The frills of her dress appear feathery and she uses a similar color I give to the crow from my gator comics. 😅

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🌈 The Seven Chakras 🌈

🐘 Root Chakra 🐘
🐯 Sacral Chakra 🐯
🦋 Solar Chakra 🦋

🕊 Heart Chakra 🕊

🐺 Throat Chakra 🐺

🐵 Third Eye Chakra 🐵

🦁 Crown Chakra 🦁

Throat Chakra

The seemingly cool-headed and laid-back Throat Chakra from the Polynesian Isles represents a wolf and the color blue. I wanted to show him as a tall lifeguard looming over six feet with a fit build. You know, the kind of person ladies like being rescued by when they're out swimming. Or is that just me? 👀

Although his overall design was simple enough, the real challenge was trying to make his Samoan tattoo. I didn't want to cheese through the tattoo so I decided to do my research and make one from scratch:

This wolf tattoo was made so that the head would cover his left chest and the rest wrapped his entire left arm like a sleeve. I honestly had my doubts despite how awesome the result was; I was worried about disrespecting their culture and if I didn't use the symbols right. Thankfully, Reina showed the design to her Polynesian friends and they approved of it, much to my relief.

The next problem with the tattoo though was the resizing. The tattoo became gritty when I stretched it, and it was to the point where I had to clean up the tattoo so its lines would be as smooth as the rest of his body. Even if one told me that it was fine because it wasn't obvious from a glance, when you zoomed in close enough I can guarantee that the difference really showed.

Throat Chakra was also meant to be holding a pair of shades in his original design. But I realized at the end of all the line art that there was no logical way he was going to wear them because he had no ears on the side of his head. So I drew a red hibiscus in his hand instead. It works. 🌺

I am only disappointed that this version of Throat Chakra actually doesn't show the tattoo in its entirety. That said, given that there is an interest in seeing a shirtless version of him, I may end up creating just that at some point soon. 👀

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🌈 The Seven Chakras 🌈

🐘 Root Chakra 🐘
🐯 Sacral Chakra 🐯
🦋 Solar Chakra 🦋

🕊 Heart Chakra 🕊

🐺 Throat Chakra 🐺

🐵 Third Eye Chakra 🐵

🦁 Crown Chakra 🦁

Heart Chakra

Heart Chakra represents a green dove and hails from the lands of Asia. Where specifically in Asia, Reina couldn't say, instead leaving that decision to me. So naturally I decided from then on that she's Filipino. 😆

I would say Heart Chakra feels similar to Root Chakra in terms of their youthful appearances, but Heart Chakra is a notch more free-spirited. She can be innocent and noble, albeit naïve... Though I've been told that she seems to come off as somewhat psycho for some reason. 🤣

Her dress is basically inspired by Filipino school uniforms, with a shawl draped over her shoulders, and a pair of crocs clogs. Since all she had to show that she represented a dove was her tail, I had to drop more hints like the windswept tuft of hair on the top of her head, the obvious green dove design on her skirt, and the fan of feathers (which look more like leaves thanks to the color).

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🌈 The Seven Chakras 🌈

🐘 Root Chakra 🐘
🐯 Sacral Chakra 🐯
🦋 Solar Chakra 🦋

🕊 Heart Chakra 🕊

🐺 Throat Chakra 🐺

🐵 Third Eye Chakra 🐵

🦁 Crown Chakra 🦁

Solar Chakra

The alluring yet mysterious Solar Chakra represents yellow butterflies and has Native American blood coursing through her veins. I wanted to portray her as a modest, well-read, and knowledgeable individual, particularly a librarian. Her design has her wearing a yellow one piece (with patterns inspired by the ones you'd see on butterflies), an ornamental Native American necklace featuring the Grundie logo, a stone bracelet, and a pair of flats.

The original draft of this character had her wearing a jacket. I liked both versions of her with the jacket and without, but I decided it was best to make the line art of both versions first and then leave it up to the community to choose what they pleased. After a poll was held at Reina's stream, it was ultimately decided her official design would be her without the jacket. I told them I didn't mind creating two versions of her, though. 😅

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🌈 The Seven Chakras 🌈

🐘 Root Chakra 🐘
🐯 Sacral Chakra 🐯
🦋 Solar Chakra 🦋

🕊 Heart Chakra 🕊

🐺 Throat Chakra 🐺

🐵 Third Eye Chakra 🐵

🦁 Crown Chakra 🦁

Sacral Chakra

Aggressive, masculine, and fierce are a few notable words to describe Sacral Chakra, the African American orange tiger. Honestly, I didn't need to think too hard on this one... I'm not fan of basketball, but black basketball players always seem to give that ferocious energy to me.

Like Root Chakra, his design is pretty straightforward: an orange tank top, low crotch gym shorts and sneakers. The front of his top features a tiger with slashes logo, which I wanted to feature in the final result but could not due to the pose I had given him. This dynamic pose just brings out just how aggressive he is and I didn't want to give it up just to show what the logo looked like.

I also learned after I had finished the line art for this character that Reina wanted him to embody sexual energy. Good thing I intentionally made his trunk extra tushy from the get-go. 😏🍑

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🌈 The Seven Chakras 🌈

🐘 Root Chakra 🐘
🐯 Sacral Chakra 🐯
🦋 Solar Chakra 🦋

🕊 Heart Chakra 🕊

🐺 Throat Chakra 🐺

🐵 Third Eye Chakra 🐵

🦁 Crown Chakra 🦁

Root Chakra

Root Chakra is described as Caucasian female, featuring an elephant and the color red. She was the first I designed from the Seven Chakras and also the easiest to draw. Her design is really straightforward: a red plaid shirt with rolled sleeves and a denim jumper and boots.

I wanted to make her appear young and somewhat on the thicc side, but not too thicc. I imagined her with a cheerful and friendly personality, while being a bit of a tough gal who wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty and stand up for herself. Maybe even throw in a bit of stubbornness and rashness in there. Both Elly from the Spanish kids show Pocoyo and Claire from Harvest Moon came to mind as sources of inspiration for this character.

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🌈 The Seven Chakras 🌈

🐘 Root Chakra 🐘
🐯 Sacral Chakra 🐯

🦋 Solar Chakra 🦋

🕊 Heart Chakra 🕊

🐺 Throat Chakra 🐺

🐵 Third Eye Chakra 🐵

🦁 Crown Chakra 🦁

The Seven Chakras

Ladies and gentlemen. I present to you the reason behind my seeming lack of content this month:

The Seven Chakras is my collaboration project with my friend Reina Mystique, a wonderful musician I first met on Twitch. This features the seven chakras in humanoid forms, specifically as kemonomimi (獣耳, "beast ears"). Collectively, they also represent the seven colors of the rainbow and Reina's community, the Grundie Gang. Each of the chakras also feature the Grundie logo (an undergarment with a heart and the logo of Reina's community) in their design.

I had pondered for a long time about doing something like this with Reina, but I felt for a while that I was not prepared to do anything of the sort yet. Instead, I was dabbling in my own projects and working on my gator comics... Until she approached me one day, wishing to do a project with me.

Naturally, I felt my usual anxiety of not being able to deliver a desired result, in addition to the fact that this was my first major project in my art career: I had to create seven commissions in one. But the moment had come, and I wanted to push and prove myself despite my insecurities.

Reina approached me in late March, but at the time I still had other projects in my backlog that needed to be settled. I was only able to begin near the end of April, and worked on it for most of May. Throughout the course of the whole project, I was sharing my progress to members of the Grundie Gang in their community Discord server, and Reina was giving me references to use in a shared document. She and her community have also been very encouraging to me while giving me their thoughts and other input. It was genuinely comforting to see my characters being well-received by everyone. 😊

Seeing this project come to completion gives me a sense of fulfillment. I have learned so much about anatomy and posing in perspective, particularly with hands. I've found that I enjoy drawing ink tattoos after drawing Throat Chakra's Samoan tattoo. It has also helped rouse my spirit, and that I don't always have to feel 100% certain that I can do commissions and requests all the time. If I am at least 75% sure that I can see something through to the end, then I can just pick up the remaining 25% by figuring out what I need to do along the way. 😋

I have written this blog post as a landing page for all the characters (the original was waaaaay too long for my liking). Each post details my feelings and thoughts when designing each of the chakras. Normally, something like this would be locked behind my Patreon and Ko-fi subscriptions. However, I'd like to make an exception to help enlighten members of Reina's community, while not making it necessary for them to throw money in my general direction just to read what I have to say about the characters in-depth.

Without further ado, please click on any character listed below and read on to your hearts' content. Once again, many thanks to Reina for entrusting me with this project. I'm very honored to be a part of her ever-continuing success. 🧃

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🌈 The Seven Chakras 🌈

🐘 Root Chakra 🐘
🐯 Sacral Chakra 🐯

🦋 Solar Chakra 🦋

🕊 Heart Chakra 🕊

🐺 Throat Chakra 🐺

🐵 Third Eye Chakra 🐵

🦁 Crown Chakra 🦁

Long Ago in Gatorville (Part 17)

You thought the previous strip was the last for this arc, but it was actually this one! 😈

This officially wraps up the Gatorville arc! Now I move onto a newer, less depressing one... As soon as I work on some commissions in my backlog to just give myself a much-needed breather. 

Once again, thank you all for sticking around for my comics! Please look forward to the next arc, coming soon!

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🐊 Gator Buddies 🐊

Long Ago in Gatorville
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