Jun23 sketches

Busy month for me overall, in real life. But I'm still excited to draw.

As you can see from the cover image of this post, I've got some attention on Lize again, specifically on her human form. I couldn't find a general project idea for Yzuthl that I was satisfied with, and I'm also dissatisfied with some aspects of Lize's human design. So I decided to merge some aspects of Yzuthl's design into Lize's (with plans to draw her in full illustrations, instead of animations), and overall give it a stronger theme. I'm pretty satisfied with the result, though I might still make some minor tweaks here and there. I don't think this reference sheet will be a "finished" work in the sense of making it clean and precise and publishing it, but I'll keep it for private reference.

- I got rid of the hood and long cloak and long shirt, because I know I am going to suffer a lot with not knowing how to 1) draw long flowing cloth with lots of folds; 2) make her look nice (especially up close) with merely large patches of single-color cloth (either she's just a sea of black cloth that takes certain lighting to see the subtle folds of, or made of a patchwork of different colors); and 3) visually communicate her pose (and her sexy body in general) from underneath a cloak. (I do lose that idea of the wind blowing her shirt/skirt up, but it's an acceptable sacrifice.) With that, I'm moving fully away from the "hooded mysterious stranger" theme, and into the "dark witch/sorceress/priestess" theme, more befitting of her status as a god/avatar. In-universe, her human form is simply "plausible deniability" that she's human (though still otherworldly), as opposed to a full disguise and suppression of her presence (which was a conflicting goal I had before). If and when it's needed story-wise, I'll just make any character stupidly presume that she's a normal human.

By the way, all those red spots on her body (including her eyes) and clothes are not gems/glass beads; they're more slime. You can stick your finger (or another body part ;) ) in them.

- The main goal for this design is to make it visually easy for her to transition between her human form and her apostle/slimegod form. So it's mostly black, tight-fitting clothing that resembles her slimegod form. I really want to keep those black stockings. Unfortunately, the revealing clothes seem to make her look more like a frontline acrobat (even a bit punk-ish with the spiky shapes and platform shoes) instead of royalty/divinity.

- The secondary goal is to keep her sexy and have as many ways for her to deploy her slime powers as possible. Slime tentacles from her mouth, her sleeves, under her skirt, her back, her hair, even her ankles maybe. She can also liquefy any part of her body or clothes (and make them firm and sticky), for example her palms, or soles, or armpits, or belly... ;)

- I'm also testing out an idea with her god form's eyes. Hopefully it's not too off-putting, but then it's my OC and I can do what I want. :P I think the multi-irises give her a more inhuman, supernatural feel, and particularly bring out the aspect that the gods that she embodies are many, which reminds us of why she uses "We" and "Us" to refer to herself.

- I'm not 100% committed to the hairstyle either, but I similarly think it works for now. Sorry to see those side bangs go because that was one of her more unique features among my characters, but I often found difficulty in drawing them and making them look nice.

- I also got rid of the womb crest because I didn't like the design, and it's complicated to design a new one and place it.

Based on her appearance, I've also tried to solidify her personality a bit more. A lot of it is probably better shown than merely described. As a god, she gives off a mystic air, knowing the unknowable. She is good at interacting only with the people she wants to, whenever and however she wants to. She doesn't talk more than necessary and avoids unwanted attention in public (letting her follower(s) do the talking for her, if any), and only opens up when she is with her followers, or is attacking a new victim. Her hidden personality is playful and mischievous (and of course lustful).

She has general goals of expanding her influence (as a god) in certain ways, usually by converting new victims, but she cares more about the quality of the victims (abilities, affinity, loyalty etc.) instead of merely having numbers. At some point she might even stop expanding and just enjoy what she already has. She spends her time converting new victims, making administrative decisions for the cult, or just cultivating their essence.

She has several approaches to her victims, depending on the scenario. She likes to roleplay as an evil monster on a first encounter, making her victim helpless (via hypnosis/paralysis, slime restraint, or perhaps the victim is already in a closed and preferably dark place) and teasing them to build up anticipation as she gets into position. Alternatively, when she feels like it, she might seduce them to willingly come to her instead, and even let them take the lead, in a rare show of her sweet side. Just like her slime, her voice is soft and enticing, and feels as though it's creeping directly into your brain as she describes how good it feels / would feel. During sex, she always focuses on her victim's pleasure, and might become more passionate and immersed. While she likes to make things freaky, she never does anything cruel/sadistic. (It seems to lower the quality of the essence extracted.)

After sex, she retains mental control over her victim, and exercises it proportionately to how much they've opened up to her. Her victim might fully accept her, and for high affinity she might even grant her victim new powers. Or her victim might need a few more sessions to accept her, and she will suppress their conscious memory of her in the meantime. Or if the victim is completely antagonistic (as might happen when the cult is fighting their enemies), she might turn them into a zombie slave.

More sketches (still based on the old design; I might keep the old design in some existing sketches, and update it in others):

Finally, I have a random fanart planned. Just that the main problem is that I don't like how the float (and her arm) looks, so I might leave this one for a long while until I get my eyes trained in perspective more.