Some tips to draw Stian

For the first, I want to thank everybody who loves my OC Stian and how has drawn him for me!!! I also realise that he is a very, very  difficult character to draw. His very feline body build, all the small details and fur extensions, plus my super-critical look make it quite a challenge to draw him correctly (so that I’m satisfied…) . So therefore, I thought to make a kind of tutorial summing up the most important things to remember when drawing him. I hope that that makes life much easier for those who wish to draw him – You’re very welcome to try – don’t be scared of making a mistake! I LOVE Stian-fanart- no matter what!! - and it’s a good exercise in drawing felines

For those who don’t know it yet; Stian is a siderian: my fantasy big cats species (nearly as tall as a horse!) that roughly look like a tiger-oriental cat hybrid. Stian is huge and robust compared to the species’ average and has exceptionally big paws. On the other hand, he’s pretty lean and narrow, especially his hindquarters.
(Btw- I'm going to work on a general canine/feline anatomy tutorial - and it may become HUGE and scientific).

**********This is the information I used to send to people I commission or want to do an art trade please don’t be upset if I say no…I’m always suffering from lack of time with ************

Stygian Stígandr Sætansen – or in short: Stian
Freely translated, his full name means Satan’s Infernal Wanderer.

**Here are the two reference sheets I made of Stian


**And this sketch dump shows exactly how Stian is, from different angles and in different poses:


** Here are two animations of him, that give an impression of how he moves:


** Here is a folder with all the drawings of Stian
blackmystica.deviantart.com/ga…

** This general siderian tutorial can be useful as well, to make him look correct and feline – and compare him relative to the species’ average.


Here is a written summary of the tutorial here (if you study the tutorial, you don't have to read this) and the most important things to remember when drawing him:

1)His typical angular eye-shape and poker face.
- It is shown very clear here: blackmystica.deviantart.com/ar…
- He nearly always has an emotionless poker face/ death glare. He hardly ever shows any expression on his face.

2) The very tiger like body shape with the extremely narrow hind-quarters.
-  The narrowness of a tiger’s back and hindquarters is even more exaggerated in Stian.
- It looks like as if he has no pelvis at all; as if his butt and backbone are fused together.
- He is generally lean, narrow and bony but still has a robust and powerful body build as if his skeleton is too large for the rest of his body.
Again; the recent sketch-dump is again most accurate: blackmystica.deviantart.com/ar…

3) He has HUGE paws, narrow but strong front quarters and HUGE bony shoulder blades

4) His facial anatomy resembles that of an Oriental-cat but with the pantherine heaviness
- Huge nearly horizontally placed air-plane like ears – with a very clear kink in the middle.
- His face is triangular and reminds you a bit of an inverted pentagram in combination with the fur
- The eyes are placed rather high

5) His neck fur resembles human-hair
- On the upper side of his neck he has long, very sleek mane like human hair (not fluffy!).
- The hair is slightly layered, shorter at the back of his head and longer near the shoulders.
- the fur on the throat is fluffy and points to the sides with a kind of separation in the middle
- generally all the fur details demand attention...


Story and personality
You can read it in the character sheet, but I will give you a (most recent) summary. First of all - this drawing and especially the text are kind of ‘Stian in a nutshell’
:thumb561196259:

*Personality:
He is a calm gentleman, vain with an enormous personal ego (but not arrogant), quiet, tidy and clean, dominant, indifferent, appears emotionless (has always a poker-face), not very social, hates weakness and refuses any help even if he would be dying. He has a reduced sense of empathy but deeply respects females, loves birds and nature. He can be competitive among males. Has a deeply rooted hate and fear for humans; this haunts him during his entire life. Is generally non-responsive to any kind of social stimulus but once one seriously threatens his ego or his wife and kittens, he reacts like thunder from clear sky, shows no mercy and goes for the kill with some strong tendencies towards sadism. He is generally very vengeful.

The Myer Briggs personality test for Stian: INTJ – A (the same as me…, not because I can’t ‘roleplay’ but because Stian and me are similar in many aspects …only in a very few things we are opposites).
I: Extraverted: 42% -  Introverted 58%
N: Intuitive 61%  -  Observant: 39%  (S-sensing)
T: Thinking: 100% - Feeling: 0%
J: Judging: 97% - Prospecting: 3%
Identity:
Assertive: 100% - Turbulent: 0%

*General appearance
Majestic, tall, powerful, intimidating, cold

*Story:
Stian has grown up in the forests of Norway, as member of a rather notorious family. His crazy grandfather (Matthias) was just feeding the hate between humans and siderians by doing stupid things. As a kitten, Stian got caught and abused by humans; an experience that has carved very deep scars in his mind. His father (Morten) saved him and this experience has changed him once and for all. During his adolescence, he learned a lot more about human behaviour and their respectless treatment of nature and other animals (especially in Scandinavia and Europe- in my story). The hate grew worse and when he became a young adult, he thought that it was time for action (after first having murdered his same-age, bullying neighbouring siderian). Blinded by hate, he started attacking and burning small villages and began to travel all over the world to collect (biased) information about humans that support his ideas of humans being a violent pest. Meanwhile he caused death and destruction in many human-settlements, but also got into serious trouble on the way. He got for example shot in the back after a betrayal trick by other siderians, but survived. During the 17 years of research and fighting people, he turned into a psychopathic, emotionless mass murderer. He got completely detached from his family and the siderian society in general. His family got very worried and went after him but hardly dared to approach him. However, he finally reunited with his elder brother (Goran) and cousin (Yava). In the later years of his life he gained some support from other siderians who have had bad experience with humans and desperately tried to get rid of humanity. However, most siderians didn’t support the violence to people and the spreading of hate and Stian met a lot of resistance. Despite this, he continued fighting his biggest fear in a more organized, larger-scaled way. He simply cannot live on a planet with humans and this drove him to continue fighting a hopeless mission.


Some photo's to show the impression, but don't rely too much to them
Here are some references of tigers and Oriental cats, but I STRONGLY recommend to stick mainly to the character sheets and my own sketches/ art of Stian if you wish to draw him. Too often, I have seen that people stick to the photo references only and missing important details. They then then interpret and Stian differently than how I see him and draw him simply wrong. The way I draw him is not a matter of style- it is how I really see him and how he IS. 

But maybe the references can help to give an impression of what I mean.
*Some tiger photos that give an impression of Stian’s general body-shape -  but keep in mind: Stian is narrower and much leaner and more bony – his paws are also much bigger.
rainman65.deviantart.com/art/T…
roxmad.deviantart.com/art/Back…
roxmad.deviantart.com/art/Alon…
rainman65.deviantart.com/art/w…
aussiegal7.deviantart.com/art/…

*Stian’s shoulders look roughly like this – narrow and body with huge, flat, triangular shoulder blades.
rainman65.deviantart.com/art/T…
rainman65.deviantart.com/art/A…

*Some Oriental cats that give an indication of the facial anatomy and the his eye-shape. But again – remember that Stian’s eyes and face are not exactly the same as those of an oriental cat. His face is much heavier, since he is also a much bigger cat
cdn5.siamese-cat-breeder.co.uk…
www.siameseplanet.co.uk/images…
cdn5.siamese-cat-breeder.co.uk…
www.siamese-cat-breeder.co.uk/…


Character, species and art by me. Please don't copy and/or use it without my permission