VIXEN!!

pfp by citrusinkstudios on etsy i do wc requests 🧡💚

[vixenday]

hawkfrost is lying here, obviously (he would probably have used some metaphor or loophole or even been a teacher for jaypaw to use his powers for evil). jaypaw would’ve had an internalized ableism moment before being forcefully pulled out of the dark forest and into brightheart’s nightmare dream before he could agree, kind of like spottedleaf in canon, by the same silhouette that pushed him here (the silhouette is not spottedleaf btw)

[vixenday]

animatic? 👀

yeah there’s an animatic. a really, really old animatic. like half a year old.

made with kinemaster because i don’t have any editing apps and all of the money i make from commissions goes straight to my dumb stupid cats

ALRIGHT so the design changes for squilf and ashfur throughout the animatic, showcasing the fade into reality and ashfur’s anger. ashfur’s design changes twice while squilf’s changes once, the three stay the same. as you can see in the animatic, lion’s ears hadn’t yet been floppy because i hadn’t made the designs yet. i also hadn’t made the crush au so i stayed canon with this one (ew).

this was from the beginning when both are pastel colors, with a fuckton of heart symbolism because the world they live in is literally rose tinted.

when squilf pushes ashfur away because she’s like no dude i don’t like you. heart symbolism is all gone, hence the notes you saw!

ashfur when he makes the fire because he’s EDGY

and at last, the three.

this is also why holly’s design has no star symbolism, even though in awj she’s part of the prophecy and does have it. i need to fix that actually

this design was originally supposed to be a collab but who i was working with lost interest in warrior cats and got an actual job (ew), so it’s forever a wip on kinemaster

[vixenday]

Why does Lionpaw have Squirrelflight’s ears and markings if she’s not his actual mother, unless she is in this AU?

okay okay hold on let me get their designs rq, and no she’s not their bio mom, it’s still crowpool

okay!! the most notable traits are that their paws all have coloring, but their left (right?? i’m bad with directions) paw is white (or a significantly lighter color), their floppy ears with the splotching on the tip, and their white/cream tipped tail. and their back and tail ig but i do that design feature with too many cats for it to count

OKAY so these designs were originally made for an animatic (hence the notes) that then turned into the crush au (i’ll put its tag down here in case you want to see it) in which lionpaw sort of kind of almost kills ashfur and thinks he did for a long while. the parallels between him and squilf were important to me because i thought it was cool that the one to almost kill ashfur for what he did to squirrelflight was the kit that looked the most like her. plus i love floppy eared lionpaw

as for why they have these traits, they actually come from princess, firestar’s sister, hence why leafpool was able to pass those traits down to the three. also, i wanted to drive in how the three really are squirrelflight’s kits, because she was the one to raise them. leafpool, on the other hand, has the most similarities to hollypaw, and crowfeather with jaypaw. idk i thought that was cool.

[vixenday]

this answer takes place after the longest night, hence why kestrel’s at the windclan medicine den, which i drew from my vague vague memory so it’s likely not close to canon at All

edit: @wyntrlight I FORGOT TO TAG YOU WHOOPS.

if you don’t know what’s going on, i’m doing sketches of what ask responses would’ve been had i had time to do them when they were asked.

[vixenday]

AUGUHHH SO MANY SCRAPPED TAWNY INTERACTIONS. i was supposed to have so much more for the longest night. journey group reunited ft tension most of them don’t know about was one of my favorites but i could not keep up with all the asks and ideas

[vixenday]

@hollowflight-propaganda

this was originally supposed to be the ask that got them to meet, but as mentioned in the prev ask post, i was insanely stressed and unfortunately didn’t have the time nor will to draw them all interacting with jaypaw, upsettingly.

as for the OOC ask, outside of holly being a medcat and jay being a warrior, no other allegiances have changed (for now).

[vixenday]

ask credit - @aerial-jace

after this jaypaw would’ve probably gotten to meet tawny, which is what i’d initially planned. but at the time i was going through a lot of stress, and couldn’t keep up with the amount of asks at the time that i’d gotten, so i ended the longest night a bit sooner than i wanted. now, obviously, i can keep up with the asks.

i’m thinking of making an awj masterpost, and having asks i didn’t yet answer (like this) be eventually fully drawn and put somewhere in between the current canon parts. im also thinking of redrawing the old awj asks, before i got the designs updated and everything. it’s been over half a year since the blog started, and a lot of things have changed since then!! i don’t want anyone reading awj from beginning to end in one go see my old art.

[vixenday]

Are there any OC’s in the jaypaw ask blog, or is it all just canon characters

this. this one is an old ask. sorry man

anyway!!!!!! no, theres not OCs in awj, but certain characters are changed a lot with the au (namely fallen leaves and sol, both characters who arent yet present in the ask blog and wont be for a bit, sadly, bc im really excited to get to their parts)

[vixenday]

i got asked this on the awj blog itself, so anon if youre seeing this, i answer ooc asks on this blog instead!! anyway. uh. sure?

heres two random ones from different parts!! theyre technically pre-sketches but yk

i dont think this gives many spoilers rlly, unless you count jaypaw getting knocked down once (L move really) or the dogs screaming as spoilers. ithink ive said we're going to brightheart's dream next ~2 times?

but awj is getting LORE!!! i know right. so cool. i have a lot of things plotted out while still keeping the story moldable based on asks, and theres plot points we'll hit along the way that ive mapped out already hahsjdkjfhg

[vixenday]

who’s your favorite and least favorite character to draw in awj?

favorite? lionpaw. lionpaw lionpaw lionpaw. hes so EASY. his colors arent so similar that im forbidden from using the bucket tool (save for his chest fluff) on ibis paint x, BUT he also has. no stripes except the two on each leg and on his ears, which are ROUND and EASY. and again i can bucket tool them. also i love floppy ears

least favorite? Goddamn Hawkfrost. hawkfrost is genuinely the worst mostly because his colors are similar enough with the dark brown that the bucket tool is banned from him, AND his edgy white fur tips on his face. thats one of the reasons why i changed jay's original design, because cheek fluff designs are the bane of my existence (and i was inconsistent with him because i didnt have a working reference). also i cant remember his cheek fluff pattern for the life of me so its really wonky and not consistent at all and you can probably see that in several parts

[vixenday]

had a few issues with setting the banner up, but here's the new @ask-warrior-jaypaw banner!!

commissioned by hurricanesdoodles on etsy, we now have a new (and improved) banner for the ask blog!! make sure to check them out, they were lovely to work with and i love their art style and how they drew the designs!!

[nanistar]

Any advice on how to draw backgrounds? Gotten to the point in my art where im semi confident in drawing poses and expressions but backgrounds?? girl help i can only somewhat draw a tree

oh hell yeah i love backgrounds, ive been working on more interiors lately (when not overburdened by sbc work lol) but im assuming you're asking about nature so that's how im going to answer it as okay so: -first of all find yourself a good TEXTURED blending/smudging brush because it will save your life. i use these rock texture brushes from This Studio Ghibli pack, it's $6 and i HIGHLY recommend the whole pack because it's the main one i use for most of my bg foliage/grass ect and i love it dearly

-find references either in irl photos or other artist's work. if using another artist's work watch their speedpaints or look at what you like about their art style and techniques and steal it. im serious. obviously don't trace it and pass it off as something of your own but look at how they do the aspects you struggle with, and try to incorporate that

for me, that struggle is forest foliage because i have a hard time filling out the spaces without everything looking like same colored blobs, so i looked at how my buddy hannah mudshadow does bgs because she's really good at filling out a scene and making it look natural, and i noticed she uses a lot of abstract shapes instead of trying to render every leaf, so rather than doing my base work for bushes/trees with a leaf brush, i use a chunky scatter brush now and it looks really good, and then i can go and add some leaf brushes on top of that for more definition in areas that might catch light ect so that will give it the thick, bushy .. bush look without looking crowded or too shaped

-nature is messy as hell and things are never going to be perfectly shaped and toned unless you're drawing perfectly managed hedges or something. got some dirt brown on your green bush? those are dead leaves now. accidental weird texture on your tree? the bark is gone there, something ate it. bushes and trees have dead branches that just hang out there in them, grass grows long and sometimes a deer or whatever doesn't eat the whole patch so there's long uneven sprigs sticking up. petals fall off flowers. trees have huge webs of branches

-don't try to detail everything. make things further away more abstract and messy to give the illusion of detail. throw a gradient over it for some slight tone variation or something so it;s not completely flat but ppl are going to look at your subject and see the rest of it with the corner of their eyes, so you don;t need to fully render every flower in the field. here's some examples of that

the cactuses in the far BG are just V and Y shapes, the joshua tree in the middle distance is dark with some light blobs right on the edge where the needles would catch light.

this is from 2021 so be nice to me but as the flowers go back in the distance, i stop rendering their petals and start doing blue dots with white dots, and then even further away i just sorta blend blue and green together to give the illusion of a field of flowers.

-i dont know what your style is, but i personally hate using a ton of layers and tend to merge them as i go, but for the most part i draw every panel of SBC bg on the same 1 layer, going back to front (start with sky, mountain, bg grass, foreground grass and cactus, then go back and scatter foliage as necessary) and it keeps my stuff loser and i tend to get less precious about making things look perfect. i also work very fast because i am unironically really lazy at art and am desperate for shortcuts.

-oh yeah one more thing. assuming you draw cats, cats are SOOOOOO small in comparison to literally everything. as warrior artists i think our perspective gets a but confused sometimes (i am certainly guilty of this too!) and there is absolutely nothing wrong with this because sometimes that's just how you have to build your scenes, but it really makes me laugh when i see scenes of like, rusty jumping off his fence to go into the woods, but the fence is only a bit taller than him. so try to remember things are huge and cats are small as hell

na'ni's a huge cat, all things considered but look at her compared to my small aloe plant

or the cedar tree in my front yard.

absolutely microscopic. don't look at my slippers.

so yeah. i hope this helps, it's not so much a tutorial because i don't think i'm the best person for tutorials because honestly i dont know much and this is all stuff i've picked up on, like i dont know shit about composition or values or color theory but this is important stuff to keep in mind about the environments themselves. don't worry too hard about colors at first because you can always change it by adjusting your curves n stuff. or slap a filter on that bad boy. or dont. also pay attention to your horizon line because it helps angle the rest of your piece. but look up tutorials for that because i only started learning about it like a week ago

[vixenday]

crush au things!! after being trapped in the caves, ashfur is the one to meet fallen leaves. and instead of rock and the stick, fallen leaves is the cat who possesses the ability to send those back in time, as long as they have a former soul in the past they had been reincarnated from. (here, when a cat ‘fades’ in starclan, they’re reincarnated). fallen leaves is unaware of ashfur’s cruel history, and makes a vital mistake. ashfur takes it into his own paws to end lion’s roar’s life before it could even really begin, and to deal with jay’s wing and prickled holly as well.

ashfur is the one who causes the cats to move away from the lake and to the mountains. they want to leave this place, and the murderous cat behind.

as for fallen leaves, ashfur has a silver tongue, and manages to convince fallen leaves of things that aren’t true.

[seasaltshrimp-deactivated202402]

I have some older art tips that I keep forgetting to post here. I'll add a few in the next few days, at least those that aren't too outdated!

This one is about giving an extra feel of weight to your characters.

[spottystyle]

Genuine question to my wc fans:

What do y’all think specific cat’s kittypet names would be??

My personal favorites:

Goosefeather would be Missile Launcher (courtesy of @/goobiestar) (goobie is it MISSY launcher or MISSILE launcher???)

I think Pinestar should’ve been named Prince

Yellowfang would be Babushka

Dovewing (who totally should have become a kittypet in canon) would be named Duchess

Longtail would’ve been named Rascal

CROWFROST WOULDVE BEEN OREO

[vixenday]

I had an old AU where Tigerstar 1 was a kittypet named Latte, I think Sleekwhisker would be called Sassy (she would bite you), Lionblaze would be Bear, and Maggottail would be named Sponge. Because that’s what I would name him if I had a pet Maggottail.

I feel Alder and Spark would be adopted together by some mythology nerds and be named Apollo and Artemis.

Mousefur would probably be adopted with Longtail as a bonded pair because Look At Them, and I think her name as a kittypet would be Junie. No reason, I just sorta like it. I feel as though she’d fit a warm sounding name, she’s the kind of kittypet who would lay in the sun all day while Longtail played, and then they’d both have zoomies at night.

[vixenday]

@spottystyle hi hello um i doodled kittypet mousefur and longtail

i took the j and j thing and figured maybe jett? cause he’s fast. like a jet.

my interpretation is that they are cats that live at a retirement home, and catch the mice that scurry inside to eat. the seniors there adore them and named them, eventually getting collars and making the two their kitty residents. mousefur and longtail like it because they get multiple leftovers from different seniors there, the twolegs there aren’t loud and obnoxious, and they know they’re safe. technically, the retirement home doesn’t allow cats, but it’s a secret everyone there shares. they’d rather die than let their old thunderclan clanmates know this, but they’re really fond a lot of the twolegs there. sometimes, they look outside at the forest and think of their old life in the clans, but appreciate the life they have now enough.

[spottystyle]

Genuine question to my wc fans:

What do y’all think specific cat’s kittypet names would be??

My personal favorites:

Goosefeather would be Missile Launcher (courtesy of @/goobiestar) (goobie is it MISSY launcher or MISSILE launcher???)

I think Pinestar should’ve been named Prince

Yellowfang would be Babushka

Dovewing (who totally should have become a kittypet in canon) would be named Duchess

Longtail would’ve been named Rascal

CROWFROST WOULDVE BEEN OREO

[vixenday]

I had an old AU where Tigerstar 1 was a kittypet named Latte, I think Sleekwhisker would be called Sassy (she would bite you), Lionblaze would be Bear, and Maggottail would be named Sponge. Because that’s what I would name him if I had a pet Maggottail.

I feel Alder and Spark would be adopted together by some mythology nerds and be named Apollo and Artemis.

Mousefur would probably be adopted with Longtail as a bonded pair because Look At Them, and I think her name as a kittypet would be Junie. No reason, I just sorta like it. I feel as though she’d fit a warm sounding name, she’s the kind of kittypet who would lay in the sun all day while Longtail played, and then they’d both have zoomies at night.

[vixenday]

wc crush au ashfur design concept, post-fire scene, pre-return!! in the crush au, breezepelt attacks ashfur during the fire scene while nightcloud and the three escape. breezepelt pins ashfur down by the head in the flames and leaves, though ashfur manages to survive. he’s heavily scarred where he was touching the flames directly, and his tail is bent at horribly awkward angles now. it’s just a vague concept of what it would actually look like finalized, but this is just kinda to get an idea of what he would look like in this au ^^