February MOTM: hunter & the beast - concept sketch + design commentary // sfw

this motm design was based on a scenario suggested by xan farley, who gave "a human ‘hunting’ their big monster sub" as an example of a human dom/monster sub relationship.

me and kubi have some couples where the more monstrous partner plays the submissive role in the power dynamic (foremost among them, logan and ariel) and i do love play hunting scenarios. but i don’t know if i’ve ever combined the two before, because when i do play hunting it’s usually the monster ‘hunting’ their human(oid) bae. you could say i got to stay in my comfort zone by getting to work with tropes i love, while simultaneously stepping outside my box by combining said tropes in a way that’s new to me.

all in all it was exciting to merge the human dom/monster sub dynamic with the play hunting trope, with a submissive monster as ‘prey,’ as it were. of course, the hunting that this couple gets up to is purely for play. she is a hunter by trade and he is a beast by nature, and perhaps they first met while she was out hunting on the woods he roams, and perhaps they keep meeting because he intentionally gets himself stuck in her traps. but i don’t necessarily imagine humans actually hunting monsters of his kind. she was never hunting him, only "hunting" him, if you know what i mean. but i still wanted to play with the hunter and prey concept and imagery, so i started thinking about how to design a monster that was suitably beastly but also reminiscent of creatures people may or may not hunt. 

that’s not to say he needed to resemble a prey animal. in fact i liked the idea of him being relatively high up the food chain, because it adds some extra punch to the dynamic of a big and powerful monster being dominated by a much smaller human. not that he should be the #1 apex predator either—i wanted him to sit somewhere inbetween the two extremes of perpetual prey and bloodthirsty carnivore. 

if you’d ask me to start naming animals that humans have hunted throughout history, i’d begin with moose, capercaillie, and lagopus, followed by deer and boars. forgive the eurocentricism, but i grew up in northern europe with a hunter dad, so those are the first animals that come to mind. i loved the idea of drawing inspiration from boars, because they’re powerful and potentially very dangerous creatures that i think are often underappreciated and underestimated. but i didn’t want him to resemble deer or moose or a bird, because to me, those are more ‘typical’ prey animals for human hunters. they don’t fit the criterium of being ‘somewhere inbetween.’

(as an interesting aside, i should mention how the spear that you can see in the background of the painting is, specifically, a boar-hunting spear. even after getting stabbed a boar might try to further impale itself on the spear to reach the hunter, hence the crossbars near the spearhead, on which it would get stuck. if that doesn’t give you an idea of how fierce boars are, play some assassin’s creed odyssey. my kassandra can take on any bear, lion, or human enemy, but she’s been gored by attacking boars so many times lol.)

two other large wild animals where i live are brown bears and wolverines. both have been/can be hunted by humans, but in my mind they aren’t ‘common’ targets for human hunters the same way moose or capercaillie is (which, again, is probably influenced by my dad’s hunting growing up). they’re both strong and formidable, too, with bears being famously impressive and wolverines being fierce and hardy. 

i felt like drawing inspiration from both boars, bears, and wolverines would really hit the spot. i wanted to combine characteristics and features from all three into a were-monster, to create something new where you can still tell which animals he’s based on. it seemed to create a good balance between predator and prey, too. like all three of these animals he’d be an omnivore, with a bear-like preference for berries, nuts, and fish. he doesn’t have as many natural enemies as a boar, but he’s not at the very top of the food chain either—there’s things out there that are bigger and badder than him. in that way he’d resemble a wolverine.

visually speaking, it was relatively easy to mix them all together—they look very different, sure, but have enough in common that the design seemed to draw itself.

bears, boars, and wolverines are all strong, powerful, hardy animals that are not to be trifled with. it made sense to make him a beefcake (as if most of my monsters aren’t beefcakes whether it makes sense or not) and i imagine his movement pattern to be kind of lumbering and ‘heavy.’ he’s not graceful but the pure strength contained in his limbs gives him a very powerful air. 

i drew mostly on wolverines for his colouration. all three animals are different hues of brown, but i borrowed some of the wolverine’s characteristic markings, specifically the lighter ‘diadem’ on the head, the pale patch on the chest, the darker legs + belly, and the lighter sides. i imagine his fur as relatively coarse, like boar bristle, except for the longer and softer (but still shaggy) fluff of his neck and tail. there’s also some longer, darker tufts of fur on his chest and stomach that mimic human body hair, just ... just because. lol.

like both bears, wolverines, and boars, he has a thick neck and a kind of hunched posture. his head is likewise a mixture of all three, with the boar’s tusks, boar-like ears, a bear-like nose, a ‘sloping’ profile that resembles that of a wolverine, and eyes that have the ‘dark circles’ of some bear individuals. he’s got a ‘mohawk’ like a boar, and chunky hands with the long, sturdy claws of a bear or wolverine. his rough pawpads and plantigrade feet also reference both those animals.

he lives deep in the woods, where thick moss covers the ground and sunlight is filtered through the dense foliage of old trees. he’ll gladly share the beauty and the bounties of his forest with those who seek it out—you should definitely respect him and be wary of the damage he can do if provoked or threatened, but he’s not going to hunt you down for the sheer sport of it. in fact he’s something of a gentle giant, who’s more interested in going about his peaceful, berry-loving existence than causing a scene. he forages more often than he hunts, and sometimes he scavenges. basically, he’ll eat anything (especially pussy).

ANYWAY if you have any questions about this design, comment below and i’ll do my best to answer!

// art + character © me.