I think it’s hilarious that when I started playing Lioden, I was like “>:( >:( >:( !! That’s not realistic! Lions don’t look like that! Spots??? On my lions?? No thank you sir, lions only have spots when they’re cubs! And they certainly don’t have black or red fur!! Ugh these ~unrealistic~ fantasy lions!” and now I’m like “💖💖💖 These are my beautiful kings. This one is red with white spots and this one is blue with black spots. :) :) :) They’re my beautiful perfect babies 💖. One wears flowers because he’s a very good boi and the other wears a sparkly black cape because he’s a dramatic bitch. Also they’re both bi and in love.” Honestly probably the best turnaround I could ask for
One day, son, the sun will set on my time here, and will rise with you as the new King
Bedengii has fallen. Chekirii rises.
A tribute piece to my king’s retirement! This is entitled Passing the Colors, and is one of my only pieces that has a name! The quote is from the Lion King - I had that line in my head the whole time I was painting this. This took me so long aaahh. I stayed off Lioden for 11 days to make sure I could post this on the same day Bedengii retired! My time management is so bad... Anyway, here’s my rambles on Lore and my thoughts on the making of the piece.
Lore:
This is my headcanon for how a King’s markings are passed to his heir in-universe. The November shamans summon the spirit of the fallen King, and he passes his pelt to his heir. The glowing incense surrounding them is inspired by a November encounter!
Bedengii was murdered in an argument with his lover Uongo, which devastated his adopted son Chekirii. Chekirii is the product of a lioness’s affair with a Ferus, and also has a Heartless personality. So he never felt like he’d be able to measure up to his adopted dad - he’s not a naturally kind person, and doesn’t care about other people like Bedengii does. He only tries to be a good person because he wants to please his dad. To be given his father’s pelt is the ultimate confirmation that his father does love him and does believe in him.
My process:
I learned so much making this! I loved doing the background - there’s an entire night sky with hundreds of stars back there! You can only see a tiny snatch of it.
The glowy stuff is incense smoke from the shamans. Bedengii steps out of it when summoned and it follows him around. I decided to try color blocking it out, so I could make sure Bedengii’s white lineart would be easy to see, and I loved the color blocking so much that I decided to keep it!
I enjoyed doing the tears a lot too! I googled some tutorials and I think they turned out really well! Bedengii’s sparkles are nice too.
The transformation line I’m iffy on. I like it but I wanted it to be more glowy.
What I don’t like is the lack of shading. I really wanted to shade them and have the incense casting deep shadows and shining bright lights on them, but no matter how much I tried I couldn’t get it right. I guess I’ll learn it time! Blending modes like Luminosity and Multiply are really hard for me. I thinking I like painting the shading better, but I’m not experienced enough to make it shine. I would love tips!
This is taking me a while because it’s so detailed. I got bored of doing the decor so now I’ve finished the bases and I’m moving on to the markings! Then it’s finishing the decor and doing the actual background. Keep an eye out for the finished product in the next couple days!
Drew myself an icon! For my Lioden account, ShadedColors, where I play as Bedengii (pictured above)
I’m honestly so proud of this, and I’m super happy with it. Favorite things: The bi decor. The feathers and the face paint, I’m in love. The background is supposed to be a sunrise but it also looks very bi, which, yanno, no objections here! In general, I’m just happy I managed to fit all his flower decor.
The only thing I wish I could change is the super thick lineart. Lioden requires your avatar to be 150x150 px, so the lineart is at 2px. I tried 1px but it broke up and looks very strange. I’m gonna try and draw an icon for my side account, CurledLight, so I might try out the 1px lineart there. But he has a very complicated crown made of gold feathers, so that’ll take a while!
It’s been taking me longer than I expected to get it done (bc I’ve been having job interviews!!!!) but the markings are going well! I’m so pleased with Uongo’s Cloudburst Mist! I downloaded a whole bunch of new brushes and texture packs to get the cloudy effect and then ended up only using two and one was a default texture lmao. Right now I’m getting ready to do his Blue Dapple and I have absolutely no idea where to begin lmao. The image file looks like Xylax did a solid marking and then erased patches of it, so I’m going to try that. Here’s hoping it goes well! If anyone has any tips I would 110% love to hear them!!
I’ve decided on the decor for my Achromia baby Ewr! She’s got Sudan Drought because she was born during the droughts, a tree to keep her cool, a rabbit fur cloak to keep her back from getting sunburned, a rabbit fluff tail cause it looked right, and body paint because I’ve decided that she likes to trick people into thinking she’s a ghost! So skeleton body paint. Thought about giving her a little animal friend but I decided it took the focus off of her. I love this baby so much!
I have some time on my hands, an old notebook, and eye strain, so I’m trying to figure out how to make Bedengii look even more bi without just shoving a jean jacket and some flannel on him. Time to sketch the best boy!
I’m definitely gonna draw him braiding flower crowns
(He’s totally a jean jacket bi. Uongo is a leather jacket bi)
So my current heir for my King Bedengii is a Smilus I got purely by accident, through a studding while I was trying to breed for an ebony. I plan to mutie replace with him but I’ve never been sure whether I’ll keep calling him Bedengii and just be like “Oh yeah he’s always been a Smilus. For sure. Yep.” Or continue to call him Chekirii and treat him as a separate king. And Chekirii has like his own lore, he’s Bedengii’s giant grumpy adopted son, Bedengii loves him despite all his edginess and grumpiness. He’s got a Heartless personality, and I’ve been thinking about what I could do with that, lore wise.
Currently in my lore, my two kings Uongo and Bedengii are, like, star-crossed lovers, and Bedengii eventually dies in a battle between the two (aka I retire him). And I thought about leaning into Chekirii’s evil personality - swearing vengeance against his dad’s killer, taking on his pelt color and becoming a Deathlord as he rages against the world who took his father from him. The father who knew he wasn’t his son, but took him in anyway, forgave his mother, loved him, raised him, taught him, the only person Chekirii ever cared about, gone! He’d take out his pain on everyone around him.
But you know what? I really love the idea of a bad person trying to be good. He’s hurting and he’s angry and he wants to break everything, but he knows that isn’t what his dad would have wanted. He knows his dad wouldn’t want him to kill his lover. He knows his dad would have wanted him to be good. So he tries. He goes to the shamans and has them give him his father’s pelt color. He tries to be good, to be kind. He tries to fill pawprints that shouldn’t be bigger than his own, but are. He tries to be the person his father always believed he could be, even though it’s hard.
I still don’t know whether I’m going to call him Bedengii or Chekirii, but I know his lore.
