Decided to do some more art in this style, which is a good excuse to draw some of my favorite comic cats :3
Characters are Suncat from @jumalanpelko ,Thresher and Auklet from @whatlurksbean , Firespots from @the-exiled-comic, Runnelfish from @our-clangen , Canary from @wavesalwayscrash , and Lycan from @lifeordeathcomic (rip Lycan ig 🥲 probably)!
you're so good at the jumalanpelko style! Would you be willing to explain how you approach it?
Jumalanpelko style breakdown!!!
Hellooo! I’ve had a few people now ask me about how I replicate the Jumalanpelko style, so i’m gonna do a breakdown of the comic’s artstyle and what you can do to make your characters look like they’d fit right in the jumalanpelko universe!
The way Sysi designs cats is very interesting to me. Compared to other artists I see drawing cats, Sysi tends to focus much more on pose and shape to convey who a character is rather than color or pattern.
Each character is completely distinguishable from the others without any color. This is how the comic gets away with those constantly shifting palettes and two-colored scenes as well! Having an incredibly defined facial shape is key to the comic’s style.
I’ll be breaking the faces down into four parts for better understanding.
Base, eyes, nose+mouth, ears.
Continue under the cut! (this thing gets looooong)
The base shape of every character’s head should be different from the others, defining them as a certain character. There are exceptions to this of course; sometimes people look the same and cats are no different!
Eyes in jumalanpelko are very simple. The edges near the outer corner of the eye tend to be thicker than the edges near the inner corner, and eyelashes on cats are more of an extension of the eye than an extrusion.
Eyes have a lot more faces than other parts of the cat. They’re very smooth compared to things like the body, and that’s because the eyes want to draw the viewer in. The head is the focus of the cat, and a smoother shape is easier for our brains to define.
The nose and mouth are always connected to one another by a line. That line usually is thicker near the nose and thinner near the mouth, and makes a little Y shape.
The noses sometimes change in shape, but the most common nose shape in the comic is 3-faced triangle, especially from far away. In more detailed shots, the nose will indent and form a more rounded shape.
Mouths in jumalanpelko are always connected to the nose line. Most of the time, they avoid the typical :3 shape seen in a lot of cat art, and instead function like cartoon human mouths for the most part.
The wider a characters mouth gets, the more faces will appear. If a character’s mouth is conveying an expression of anger, the shape will distort and become squiggly, along with there being more faces. Lines usually also appear around the edges of the mouth in these poses to convey more emotion.
Ears of characters usually look attached to the head in one big blob. They’re not defined as separate from the head, and are more of an extension of it. They always look very connected to the cat, and Sysi often draws them as one big piece rather than separate from what I can gauge.
Ears also have insides that are almost always the lightest color on the cat. The insides are usually not following the shape of the ear and are instead mostly just lil circles, unless the ear is pointed down in which the inside is triangular and colors the entire bottom of the ear.
Moving on to bodies!
Bodies can get away with much less shape definition. Cats are liquid, after all. A character’s pose should reflect who they are as a person. Suncat in the comics always looks very relaxed around guard, and sits straight when interacting with other colony cats. Upon suneve, she is shown slouching much more.
Guard is always on edge, and his poses reflect that. His poses are much more rigid than other cats.
Senior Guard (Mesi) holds her head low, and is often laying down looking deflated and lethargic.
A cats pose is very important! It gives so much to their character.
Bodies should be simple in shape. They’re usually bean-like in jumalanpelko, with definition for the back legs and shoulders when sitting.
When a cat stands, they lose that defined body shape, and return to a bean.
Feet have two different shapes in jumalanpelko depending on the situation.
When a cat has their feet planted on the ground, they’re shaped kind-of wedge like. When off the ground or interacting with their environment, they’re usually in a clover-like shape. Each cat also has 3 toes.
Color and patterns
Now focusing more on pattern and color, there’s a few rules present in jumalanpelko.
The cats in the comic have to be drawn over and over again, as is the nature of the comic. To prevent Sysi from going insane, he makes all their cats super simplified.
Each cat can have no more than 3 fur colors. Every cat in the comic abides by this rule.
(using a frame from the comic as it has many cats, this is from page 1 of god’s favorite.)
Even more complex designs such as Kuutamo are still limited to 3 colors.
Markings for characters are very limited and simplified. If a cat has stripes, they usually have no more than 3 or 4. If a cat has spots, the same applies.
As for shading, the only time I shade these goobers is when there’s a part overlapping with another part and both are the same color.
As for misc stuff, keep fur shapes simple and don't add too many random strands of hair. Fur in the comic is most often present on the forehead, cheeks, chin and tail. I try to limit myself to 5 tufts per area, but also i sometimes (most of the time) do not follow this rule. Just try to keep shapes simple.
Also! Kittens in the jumalanpelko style are almost always desaturated, and don't really emote. They usually have no mouth and their eyes are blue-ish. Along with that, they're incredibly fluffy and their shapes are not as defined. There should be very little contrast between the kittens base color and their markings, and that contrast will increase as they get older.
Anyways thank you for reading my silly jumalanpelko style guide! I'm not perfect with how I replicate the style, but these are the little tips I use to help me get at least pretty close!
Let me know if I missed anything that you wanna know more about, i threw this together from 3am to 5am and so theres probably a lot of things i didn't go over
