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Spritedude — Ears?
#challengers #comic #dragon #green #thorn
Published: 2019-05-31 05:17:32 +0000 UTC; Views: 1130; Favourites: 11; Downloads: 9
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Description
Thorn's design has changed quite a bit since I first drew him like... 10 years ago. I think his current design is pretty much final but for some reason I've always been a bit hung up on his ears. I thought I'd just play around with some possible designs.I even tried one without any ears at all. It looks... wrong. Probably not going with that one.
Art / The Challengers © Marcus Bower / Spritedude
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Comments: 7
I like the top left, bottom middle and actually I am okay with the bottom right. I would have to agree with you on the Bottom Middle though, it is the most "middle ground" of the six. I honestly never liked fins on the dragons myself. As you saw my dragon does not have ears on him, but it might be because of the whole facial structure.
I never understood why people gave sharks ears, due to the fact they don't have any. Visible ones that is.
So I would say it would be the top left and bottom middle for me. I like the "fin" look on it honestly but it also kinda conveys a bit of mammalian in there with the fact he has an ear to begin with. The blatant fin on the bottom left is the aquatic feeling one for me.
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Top left: Certainly reptilian, not necessarily draconic. Might even work if you're going for an aquatic theme. Can be used for emoting well.
Top middle
Top right: This can definitely work, no matter what style you're going for. IMO best option.
Bottom left: Nicely draconic, also works as aquatic. Would make things harder for you if you want to use the ears for emoting, but it's possible to work with.
Bottom middle: Somehow less hybridized than top middle one. Also has good emoting possibilities. Safest option.
Bottom right: Or you could just not have ears at all. Admittedly, it looks like something's missing on his head, but technically the ears aren't needed at all. Makes things like using human headphones, actually work right, though.
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Thanks for the in-depth opinions. I've always intended Thorn to have a mix of draconian and mammalian features, being half-human after all. I also wanted his ears to have little bit of a part in his expressions, but not too much. Not like a rabbit where his ears perk straight up or flop down, but maybe just angling up or down a bit.
Top left: This is the design I currently draw him with, and it honestly never occurred to me how aquatic and fin-like it looks. People often draw anthro sharks with a similar design. Not sure how I feel about it now since Thorn isn't really meant to be aquatic.
Top middle: I definitely had a more mammalian design in mind when drawing this one, and I wanted it to look cute and emotive to reflect Thorn's soft and timid personality. It might be a bit too much though. Almost makes him look like a cow.
Top right: Inspired by Toothless from HTTYD, and maybe a little bit of Grim Matchstick from Cuphead. I didn't care for it at first but now it's kind of growing on me. I like the little notch and the kinda flexible, floppy look.
Bottom Left: Seems to be most people's pick (here in these comments and with other people I've shown), but I don't care for how stiff it looks, and doesn't really sell the dragon-mammal hybrid thing I had in mind.
Bottom Middle: I agree with this being the "safest" option, that's pretty much what I was going for, kind of a middle ground, normal looking ear.
Bottom Right: Yeah, still don't care for this one. The possibility of using things like headphones is a good point but that actually kind of goes against what I had in mind for his character. Thorn is supposed to have little annoyances about his body not being human, such as the fact that he has to cut a hole in every pair of pants he gets to fit his tail through.
I think it's between the Bottom Middle and the Top Right for me, I'll have to think about it and do a few more sketches. Thanks for the insight dude, I think you helped a lot.
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Glad to help! What are the comments section for in posts like these, if not to provide feedback?
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The two left ones are my favorites fro Dragon "ears".
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