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Caiden and Ari

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This is a long description; I go into lots of detail, more than I usually do! :P

Okay. So this is my entry for :icondisney-club:'s Contest, Heroes, Villains and Sidekicks :D I haven't entered one of their competitions in 3 years! :ohnoes: So here is my hero and sidekick, Caiden (the boy) and Ari (the animal) from a story called 'The Lost Companion' :D

So this is an original story that I've thought up, not everything's been thought through ^^; I'm gonna have to ramble a bit to explain it though :S This story is set in a world where every human being has a 'companion': a spirit animal who is basically a part of that human; if the human gets hurt, they do too, if the human is killed, so is the companion (and vice versa). They're not exactly a soul, but they do serve as a conscience for that human, as a guide and most importantly, a friend that they can confide in. No one can really be alone in this world, as everyone has their own, unique companion. Now with companions, they are always the same gender as their human, will have the same eye colour and hair/fur colour as their human, and will generally share the same personality as their human. If you lose a companion (they do not have to stay with you at all times), they can easily be returned to their human, because they will be so similar to them. Some humans ever go so far as to give their companions their own name, so they really are a part of them.

So Caiden's companion is Ari, a...creature of some sort, and naturally they are the closest of friends. However, they are both outcasts in the town they live in. Why is that? Well, take a look at them. Caiden is a boy, Ari is not. Caiden has black hair and green eyes, Ari does not. Plus Ari is no real definite species of animal. It's almost like Ari isn't meant to be Caiden's companion...and yet they've been together since birth, and have gotten on so well together. They really are special...but the townspeople believe it's strange.

So in the actual story, Caiden is about to turn eighteen years old, which means he's ready to go out into the world and live his life. He is more than ready to get away from the town who have ostracised him all these years (with Ari, of course), but begins to have thoughts about his 'real' companion: is there a black-haired, green-eyed companion out there with the wrong human? What if he could find it? But he tries not to dwell on these silly thoughts; Ari is his companion, and the only one he'll ever need. But one day Ari is stolen away by a mysterious companion-less being, who is obsessed with how companions work, and is searching for the perfect one. So Caiden must go off on a quest to get Ari back, while on the way wondering if the right companion he was meant for is really out there somewhere...

SO. Inspiration for this. Yes, alright, I admit, the concept of humans and companions is similar to Northern Lights/The Golden Compass; however, companions aren't the humans' souls in physical form, they're more of a conscience and mentor...which is kinda what daemons are also, but hey, it's my story :P If this were a real Disney film, the main themes I would want to get across are the themes of friendship and identity and learning to accept yourself...maybe with a bit of romance? It probably doesn't need it? I don't know :P

In designing the characters, one was extremely easy and one was extremely difficult. Try and guess which one's which :P
I'll let you in on a secret: I really really love dark-haired, light-eyed guys; like the proper moppy hair and either blue or green eyes - and preferably wearing a hat. I blame Tony from An American Tail. So with Caiden, I finally got my chance to design a character based on this image I find really attractive. Only Caiden doesn't have a hat :( I wanted Caiden and Ari to contrast each other in appearance, so Caiden is not really that interesting in his appearance. Ari, however...

Let's just say I have never designed a character like Ari before. I don't draw animals or fantasy characters, but I felt like this needed to be an animal I created myself. I had the image in my head, I just needed to get it onto paper...and oh boy, did it take forever until I was happy. So Ari is a hybrid of mainly a bird and a cat - I don't draw birds or cats, so this was the hardest thing ever for me - she sort of has the head and neck of a swan, and the body of a cat. I used Faline from Bambi as a model for her face, because I had no idea how to draw a smile on a beak, and I saw that Faline (and Bambi, for that matter) was a good example of putting expression on an animal's facial features :thumbsup: One thing I definitely wanted Ari to have was a really long and flowing tail, more like a cat or a dog's tail - the Pokémon Ninetails was a bit of an inspiration here! - and a sort of 'hair-piece' of the same style, to make her a bit more fantastical; she can float in mid-air too, without the aid of her wings (which she does have, hidden under her cat-like limbs), so that's what she's doing around Caiden in this picture :D At first, Ari's colours were bright blue and purple, but it looked a bit too fantastical - if all these other companions are just meant to be animals, Ari would have stood out too much, already being this hybrid creature. So I chose colours a normal bird or cat would have ^^; I feel kinda bad having most of Ari's body hidden in this picture; maybe I should do a picture of Ari's full body, to show her wings and her cat body and everything :shrug:

Um, this is the first time I've done coloured digital lines on my characters! Did it turn out alright? I think the outlines on Ari's 'hair' and tail are too light, and I think I should have made her beak outline black, the same as her eye outlines. I guess Caiden looks better, because I did a practice run on him using some sketches I did, to see which colours each outline should be; I particularly like the lighter outline around his black hair, it brings out the detail in the bangs :thumbsup:

I found the background here: [link] I wanted a background of a Disney-style village, like in Beauty and the Beast, but I couldn't find any, so searched for 'Disney forest background' and found this and fell in love with it :D

Comment and enjoy :)
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Gotapenname's avatar
Very cool concept picture and charecters