(no subject)

[kradeelav]

drawing zihark has always been interesting because on one hand he is absolutely a pretty boy bishie, right, lol.

but on the other hand i've always thought he'd have this unsettling... intensity? most of the time you'd assume he's in airhead land when he's intentionally being ~quirky silly~ or not even really see him because he knows how to melt into the background, but he'd look at you and it's simultaneously right through you and too much. i could see some characters being spooked. the scales of judgement are not in your favor, etc, and the times he'd be weirdly confrontational (rare) do not at all line up when you'd expect it too - he'd be placidly smiling when he's truly annoyed, and he'd love to annoy you when he's actually pleased (all the times he teases characters in supports - it can be surprisingly sharp at times).

(imo the best zihark fanfic writers like neotula & queenlua & a few others of you here) understand that implicitly. <3 bless u)

so i've been leaning into that askew-ness, the off-kilter like quality a little more recently in this feh strip. remember this mini essay on sleaze and trying to dial more into it with art? leaning deliberately on a lot of that since this flavor/themes the strip touches on selfshipping cough, but also the coercion factor with gacha summoning contracts is very much all in the territory. this is home, in some ways.

and idk it's fun experimenting how to pull off that intensity stylistically. exaggerating and pulling certian expressions. pushing back against the omnipresent habit of making people "pretty" first and instead bringing the subtext of expression to the forefront.

shit's the crunchy side of drawing i love. :D

Comments

[ellerean]

Yes! Behind that snark is definitely a weirdness, in that "this guy's seen things" kind of way. Like, he'd be a good, fun drinking buddy, until he starts talking weird stuff.

I do love the expressions you give him, too. Just the right amount of pretty/sleazy/tortured :D

[kradeelav]

hehee it's so much fun mixing the pretty with everything else too >:D

you got that beautifully in settlers of talrega too - a fondness for jill but there's that strange sense underneath too ~

[neotula]

zihark's so fun to write because he has that kind of complexity! zihark's absolutely got the nice, almost big brotherly type vibes with the dawn brigade, but he's got that depth, too! he has layers!

(feel like characters like that are absolutely tellius' strength: so many of them have good depth, and so many of them feel complex and almost self-contradictory in real interesting ways.)

excited to see your strip when it's finished! love seeing how you draw zihark.

[kradeelav]

absolutely to tellius characters :D probably why the fandom's remarkably self perpetuating since it takes longer to chew on the characters in general and there's still all sorts of rarepairs/crackships/combos that haven't been explored all that much.

thanks for the kind words! :D