A referential post for anyone who might want to ever attempt to drew my drakoon protagonist Ki, which will also serve as a compiled reference for me too! There's lots of pictures of Ki hanging around, but very few of him just being on model, so here's a few which ARE on model! First, a reference to his face, alongside another protagonist of Emperor's Blood, Kelveniska.
For me, Ki's can be a bit of a hard little jerk to draw. He's got some fairly weird proportions in both his forms, but particularly in his human form he gives me grief. Here's some key points I use when drawing him and remember to click on images to view them bigger:
- Ki is SHORT and SMALL. In the story I list him as being about 5"4, but I'm not really that great at figuring out to-scale heights, so I pretty much draw him as always being a head shorter than everyone else. Growing up, he suffered from human negligence causing him to live in a constant state of starvation, which is why he has not grown to his would-be full height of around 6 foot, despite his strong drakoon DNA. In short, Ki is STUNTED.
- Ki is SCRAWNY. As before said, the guy was literally starved growing up. It's not that his human caretakers meant to almost kill him, it's just that they were too oblivious to realize that he was not their species, despite some fairly obvious signs. Brainwashed and oblivious himself, Ki couldn't help himself although he knew something was wrong. Though Ki is also scrawny just because he's a drakoon, most drakoon are a bit better put together than him. Without his clothes you can count his ribs and he's one of those guys whose elbows are like razer blades because they're so BONY. To show his scrawniness, I typically draw a slight line pointing off from the bridge of his nose to show his hallowed eyes and another line to show his cheekbones. Before the drakoon got a hold of him, if we think in terms of the Ki in the story, he was probably one ugly sunovabitch.
- Ki's hair is short and sticks straight up, kind of in a military way but better looking. This should be easily seen in all these references.
- Ki is kind of girly or effeminate. This means he has nice thin eyebrows and stuff. When I draw him, I think of him of being refined in his features even though he is scrawny. He should look young. If I could draw hands, his would be lovely, pianist's hands.
- Ki rides horses, so he is almost never seen out of riding or paddock boots. He absolutely does not wear shoes. Clothing wise, while in Escavia he's usually seen in either his university uniform, his polo uniform, or a wool sweater with a sarong over his pants. (Sarongs being popular items around his time in Escavia.) In Sloveniska he is typically either wearing his full formal regalia, his military kit without full formalities (gaiters) or his ceremonial garb of white dress-like tunic thing, cloth belt and pants with no foot wear. When wearing his Sloveniskan military kit he should always look kind of stiff in the neck, as he's wearing around four layers of armour around that area, so he can't really bend it very far.
- Ki's eye colour varies from pale amber to bright gold. Gold is usually seen when he is anxious or afraid, while amber is when he is calm. This change in colour is actually due to shifting in the cells of his irises from his elven form to his dragon form and as a result, when his irises are gold, his pupils should be slitted. (Think CAT!) Eyes are rounder when he is calmer and in elven form, they actually look quite human, which contributed to Ki never being found by his kind until he was eighteen.
- For expressions, Ki's fun. He's got large, expressive golden eyes (pupils are slits when he's anxious - think cat eyes) and because of his personality, he's easily outraged, particularly when met by his cousin Keel. He's scared easily, angered easily and is touchy about his height. In EB, there's even a passage where he sees the Emperor Kelveniska shirtless and feels inferior. In fact, he spends a lot of time feeling inferior, when actually he's not. Ki does not like his position in life and will do everything he can to change it. He's selfish, but he also really loves his foster brother Hunter (who is a human.) Ki is nearly always suspicious of things around him and is extremely slow to trust. He is insecure. From the start of Emperor's Blood to the end in Imperial Spirit, Ki will change dramatically as a character.
Ki as-dragon is where things get tough for this reference, because I recently redesigned dragon-form drakoon, so I am no longer sure of what his markings are as-dragon. This is not a subject I have much explored, but here are a few things to remember:
- Ki is an IMPERIAL. They're like another breed of drakoon. This means that instead of being a great big ugly brute, he's a little on the pretty side with an arabesque sort of face. His legs are long and his body is sleek, built for speed. His wings are angled like a falcon's, meant for quick dives and aerial stunts. In dragon form, he's even more effeminate than in his elven form, but don't tell him that.
- HOWEVER because Ki is stunted, he's still a bony little bastard and as such, his fetlocks and hocks are thick. His knees stick out. He should look a bit like a puppy in proportions as he is not filled out. He is scrawny. I have a drawing of this somewhere, but I probably have yet to scan it. Just like in his elven form, he's smaller than everyone else!
- Ki always wears a leather halter on his face as well as a chain loop over his nose which serves as a muzzle, which is there so that people may control him (keep him from running away.) This is often accompanied by a leather lead rope, all of which Ki hates.
- Ki wears gaiters on his legs. These will be explained if I ever get around to drawing his (*&^!! as-dragon reference. (UPDATE: Look up the page for his colour ref! it exists now!)
- Ki has a tattoo under his upper lip on the right side of his head of the Sloveniskan crest.
- There is slight grey banding along the end of his tail.
- Eventually, Ki has tattoos on the insides of his hindquarters and along the underside of his wings. Throughout EB, the first book of the trilogy his identification is mainly in the form of blue paint on his wings and tail.
Ki as a kid looks something like this:
There will hopefully be updates to this post in the future. As it stands there are at least two pictures I would like to add which need to be scanned (Ki in ceremonial garb and Ki with Ykaren) but I have not the time for that right now. Hopefully in the future there will also be a complete reference of his draconic form, in colour. I leave you with the Sloveniskan crest which Ki wears on a chain around his neck!
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment