Sketchbook: Jadinn Profile
Sketch N' Wash pencil on Bristol board
With fantasy creatures, no matter how strange they are, they're still based in reality. If you want to draw a griffin, for example, you've got to learn how to draw lions and eagles. For this character, Jadinn, I turned to dinosaurs. I wanted her profile to be distinct from the rest of the humanoid cast of the comic, and the hip-heavy bone structure of duckbilled dinosaurs conveyed weight and power. The bony frill of the Styracosaurus inspired her head crest.
When I showed this sketch to another artist, he commented that Jadinn had "nice big child-bearing hips" (without knowing her gender!). Jadinn doesn't really have a sex because she's a construct-a living statue similar to a golem. However, the key ingredient in the magic that animates her is the blood of a mother dragon, so she has a female identity.
Jadinn and others like her guard magic circles, so their creators imbue them with a fierce protective nature. I wanted there to be something motherly about her amidst her obvious power, and I feel I've succeeded when someone who knows nothing about my characters gets the right impression from the drawing.
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