September MOTM: Creepy unicorn concept sketch + design commentary // nsfw-ish

GOSH this monster was fun to design and draw! one of my favourite MOTMs so far, tbh!

when i published the poll where "creepy unicorn" was an option i already had a pretty clear mental image of a very tall and slender person with long, lanky limbs, simultaneously elegant and eerie, graceful and unnerving. before i even started sketching i spent some boring bus rides thinking about my design ideas, mentally refining them, coming up with new creepy details. i came to picture her with a long mane, a slender snout and big eyes with stylized lashes--except her mouth opens to reveal a maw full of razor teeth, and an abundance of eyes blink open across her face when circumstances call for it. in other words, before i even put pen to paper i had a rather clear mental image of what i wanted her to look like. that said, i still had to do some sketches to nail the design (it can be so tricky to transfer a mental image from your brain to paper!) and work out some details. i hadn't planned for the sighthound-like look of her quadrupedal form, but loved the look of it so i went with it; and while i knew that i wanted her colour scheme to be very pale, i had to experiment a bit to decide on the exact hues (i settled for a yellow-ish undertone). 

of course, i wanted her to be recognizable as a unicorn, so i stuck with some conventional unicorn features; the single horn (duh), the tufted tail, the cleft hooves, pale/white colours, a graceful aura. she's also quite vain, which is apparently a common unicorn sin.

but in many other aspects i did not play by conventional unicorn rules. i wanted her to be gorgeous in a strange way that deviates from how unicorns are usually depicted. i played around with more or less unusual proportions, giving her long arms, a long and relatively thick neck relative to her small head, big and elongated hands, proud shoulders combined with a rather thin ribcage, muscular thighs combined with skinny ankles. the most obviously weird anatomical feature would be her extra arms; the second pair is smaller and shorter than the first, but looks like regular arms, while the third pair is even smaller and almost looks like featherless bird wings, lacking a hand/fingers completely and instead ending in "pokers." her built is lanky and slender, with sinewy musculature; i didn't want her to look frail, so i paid extra attention to her posture and the way she carries herself; her head always held high, her angular shoulders squared, back straight, yet relaxed. she's very effortless.

her cascading hair looks smooth, but a bit too smooth, as if it would slip through your fingers like water, in a way that would send pleasant shivers down your spine because it just isn't natural. you'd think it would get tangled all the time, but it doesn't. her tail winds its way like that of a snake, long and dexterous, and her fingers looks like they could be carved from marble but have a grip of iron. of course, the crowning glory of her creepyness is how, in the blink of an eye, her face can switch from that bored, half-lidded look to a nightmarish grin.

contrary to popular unicorn belief, she is not a pure creature that can only be tamed by an innocent virgin. our dear unicorn is a rather aloof and cynical woman who could easily be described as prideful and arrogant. it takes a lot to impress her, even more to make her smile, and she's definitely not a people person. she's a loveable douchebag--you know, the kind where you recognise that they leave much to be desired in the social skills department, but you sort of love them for it. 

her girlfriend, the witch, is a more kind and warm person, whose good-hearted ways do influence the unicorn to put more of an effort into being less of an asshole, but there was none of the "taming" of unicorn lore. the unicorn did not need to be tamed, nor did the witch want to. 

and no, there was nothing virginal about either of them, when first they met. i haven't decided exactly how that happened, but i might draw inspiration from the idea that unicorn horns have healing and purifying qualities. naturally, our unicorn wants to keep her horn intact, thank you very much, but what if the witch first goes to find her to ask for just a few strands of hair, to use in healing potions and other medicines? and normally our unicorn would tell any unexpected visitor to her forest to fuck right off, but something about this witch makes the unicorn want her to linger a little longer... 

speaking of unexpected visitors, though, i imagine that she has to deal with the occasional hunter, trying to capture or kill her. unicorn lore describes them as elusive and wild, nigh impossible to capture, but this unicorn doesn't stop at merely slipping away and disappearing. as already mentioned, she is not pure, innocent, and virtuous. she's strong as hell and she has those teeth and claws for a reason. anyone who enters her forest expecting a regular ol' unicorn is in for a nasty surprise--but likely won't live to tell about it. the locals always warn hunters and adventurers from entering the forest, shaking their heads in dismay as yet another crew of fools are found dead a few days later, gored to bloody pieces.

(on a closing note, i've realised that when designing characters that are supposed to look eerie and eldritch, i often resort to lanky proportions, bony joints, sinewy musculature, and long-fingered hands. nothing wrong with that, but i am hereby posing a challenge to myself: next time i design an eldritch character i'll try to 'kill my darlings' and go for a different body type and vibe.)

// art + characters © me.