Tatucan and Hochuma
I wasn't supposed to post anything on Tumblr anymore because it's an ungrateful place for art, but… I'm so proud of this picture that I can give this website another chance…
As every year, Pride Month has arrived, and somehow I felt to draw my favourite couple... Tatucan and Hochuma from "Empire of the Sun and the Moon." I considered using a flag as the background, but they were born long before the idea of pride flags, so I decided against it. In their communities, people don't have any issues with who sleeps with whom.
As for their characters... King Tatucan (left) is the ruler of the Kingdom of the Sun, considered the son of the Sun god, who would love to return to his father's house (leaving his mortal coil behind). At the beginning of the novel, he is 20 years old, and by the end of the third volume, 34. He is a good king, a reformer, eager to change everything for the better, but at the same time, he doesn't know how to enjoy his own life very much. He is also impulsive and has a tendency to be hot-headed. He jumps to conclusions very easily and can make bad decisions based on them sometimes, and it's not proper for a god to make mistakes and go back on his word, right?
Hochuma (right), on the other hand, is a 34-year-old shaman in a tribe worshiping the mother goddess Moon (by the way, I just noticed that Hochuma begins where Tatucan ends if we talk about their ages, lol). As a child, he experienced an intense romance that broke his heart, which makes it difficult for him to trust his own feelings and those of other people (men), making him somewhat of a coward when it comes to forming a serious relationship. He is somewhat childish, but at the same time very serious about matters of health, rituals, and adherence to the principles of the Great Mother Moon.
I love them both :3 My lovely goofy lovebirds <3
If I were to assign them any flags, King Tatucan would probably get a pansexual one.
Hochuma is more complicated because he is what his tribe calls "two souls" - meaning, although physically born a boy, he is considered both male and female by his community. He is allowed to act as either gender, or even both, depending on his needs, which he uses in his work (he is a shaman). In a sense, he is non-binary, but not entirely, because essentially, his gender is always defined. It simply isn't fixed once and for all and he can change his community role every time he wants (sorry, if it isn't cleare in my explanations, English isn't my first language).
I'm getting ready to publish a novel featuring these two lovely goofballs. My first reviewers outside my small circle of friends are currently reading it, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed they'll like it.
The drawing was created entirely on the computer, in GIMP, using a regular computer mouse. It took me over two hours. The hair was the worst. I'm not happy with Tatucan's hair.
King Tatucan and Shaman Hochuma from "Empire of the Sun and the Moon" (c) Nayia Lovecat