June MOTM: Werebear & Witch - concept sketch + design commentary // sfw

thanks again to bees for suggesting a were-creature monster of the month!

i honestly can't remember exactly why i thought of a werebear, specifically. perhaps it's because i really love bears and it's been ages since i drew a bear-inspired anything, or perhaps because i could already picture a big and lumbering bear person being soft and gentle with their human lover. i do recall why i added "& witch" to the prompt, though. one word: alliteration.

i could have made this design challenge really easy for myself. the werebear could simply have been an anthropomorphised version of a brown bear, which was the first mental image that popped into my head. for his partner, i could have drawn on any classic witchy aesthetic, whether historical and folklory (the solitary witch in the woods or the wise herbalist who lives on the edge of the village), halloween-inspired (striding through eerie green fog, dressed in long black robes, wearing jewellery given to them by their demonic counterpart) or more contemporary (think instagram flatlays of crystals and cards and herbs).  alas, i'm not in the habit of making things easy for myself. i wanted to think of something less predictable, and find a red thread that could tie the two characters together even if they look uniquely different.

first of all, i decided against drawing inspiration from brown bears -- or rather, to go for a different colour scheme than brown. it should be noted that real world brown bears and american black bears come in many more colours than the name of each species seem to imply, including blonde, creamy white, greyish browns, and blue-ish grays. that said, there was no need for my werebear to be based on any particular bear species -- he could be a fantastical mix of any ursine features, hues, and markings that would look interesting.

i did some research about cultural depictions of bears in folklore and religion, but it proved surprisingly hard to find something that 1) really grabbed my attention and 2) felt suitable and appropriate for the prompt at hand. instead of drawing inspiration from anywhere in specific i simply started sketching. i knew i wanted my werebear to have a strongman bodytype, rather than being all chiselled, so doodling his basic outline was easy enough. from there i could start experimenting with colour schemes and details, and soon enough the palette included on the sketch above took shape. i was imagining a pretty stylised aesthetic for the painting, with the characters and foreground looking almost greyscale or sepia-toned against a stark red backdrop.

i leaned towards grey tones for the werebear, and at first i experimented with making him look like he was carved from granite, with marble-like patterns and small cracks running all over his body. it's a neat concept but didn't quite work out, especially since it interfered with the fur texture (not least the patches of fur that mimic body hair in a rather decorative way). 

i tried to think of some other cool effect or neat elements to include, but nothing seemed better than the relatively minimal look of a grey bear man with some scars and stylised fur. in fact i really liked the simplicity of it all, but i have to admit that i was worried that the design was too simple. i started overthinking the whole thing and got quite stressed out about it, before i managed to remind myself that simple isn't bad and that sometimes, less is more. some of my MOTM designs are intricate and complex -- others are more "plain" and straightforward (relatively speaking). it's all good!

in any case i decided to put him aside for now, and work on the witch's design for a bit. i wanted them to be kind of sinewy in a lanky and feline way, like someone who has lived so long among the elements that they have become part of nature rather than the humanity they've long since left behind, river water in their veins rather than blood. much like many beings of the wilderness they're neither good nor evil, but they're powerful enough to earn anyone's respect  -- and fickle enough that it's wiser to fear them than take any chances.

it took me a few tries to draw a pose that embodies this kind of vibe, and longer still to figure out their outfit.  my first few concept sketches made them look like they had just stepped out of an evanescence music video, which wasn't quite the aesthetic i was going for. they should look both wild and elegant, creepy and intriguing, ethereal and earthy. i stuck with the colour palette and experimented my way to a slitted skirt, body paint, and some accessories. their skin has the unnatural hue of sun-bleached bones, with their lower arms, legs, and the ends of their hair fading into yellow. a flower wreath is always a good look, as is strips of linen wrapped around your limbs, and mis-matched belts around your waist and hip.

their face was supposed to be pretty damn creepy, making them resemble a doll sprung to like more than someone who was once human, with a gleaming eye and a slit for a mouth. i ended up giving them more human features on the painting, but note that the witch has only their left eye and the werebear only his right. there's definitely a story there, about sharing their sight and/or being two parts of a whole. they also both have scars, accumulated over unnaturally long lifespans, each telling a story of victory or defeat. they may wear matching jewellery, too, and their clothes are stained by the same dye, made from the same cloth. they're lovers but i also feel like they have some sort of pact that make each of them stronger than they would have been on their own.

i ultimately added some more details to the werebear, but otherwise stuck with the simple look i liked so much. he has the face markings of a spectacled bear, partly because it looks neat and partly because i don't think i've ever seen an anthropomorphised ursine inspired by spectacled bears. they're usually darker and the markings are more yellow, but i stuck with the grey body and near-white markings -- and made the inside of his mouth golden.

so far both characters shared a very matchy colour scheme, but it was pretty late in the process that i thought of a red thread to tie them together with. the yellow hands and hair tips of the witch was initially an aesthetic-oriented choice, but then i realised it looked a bit as if their fingertips were stained with ... honey. the jewellery also accidentally resembled a honey comb pattern, the rich yellow of the flowers seemed to be dripping with nectar, and the inside of the werebear's mouth looks as if stained with honey. many traditions of witchcraft and folk magic use honey for various purposes and many bears, of course, adore honey. so there we go, the final piece of the puzzle fell into place -- this duo is a werebear and a honey witch.

// art + characters © me.