My Warrior of Light is a weird fruit

#10 - antpelt

WOOOO IT'S DESIGN TEN!!! this is a big milestone for me, as my goal was to get to this number before the end of the year :D

i haven't been able to draw at all for about a week, so i decided to start small and warm back up with a simpler design.

before i start talking about my thought process with antpelt here though, i need to go on a little tangent for a second!

i decided to take a look at all of my warriors designs side-by-side recently, because i was afraid that their silhouettes weren't distinct enough from each other - something probably not helped by the fact that four of the nine cats i had completed at the time are related. seeing them together quickly proved this wrong, but it made me realize other problems with my previous designs (which were confirmed by friends who i brought this up to for extra critique):

1. not enough variety in facial structure (including muzzle, nose, eyes, and ear placement)
2. not enough variety in body structure, particularly along the back and rear

so, going back into designing warrior cats, i wanted to try to immediately address those two issues. which, again, starting off with a simpler design gave me the best angle to approach that from.

i based antpelt here off of a cornish rex, a breed that has wackier proportions than the Generic Cats that i usually use as reference. they seem to usually hold themselves in a very different way, with the arch of their backs being super emphasized. plus their butts are just. very flat LOL which is a big change from how i normally seem to draw them.

their faces are also extremely triangular, which i did my best to emphasize in this design. i sort of tried to make bristlefrost and flipclaw's facial structure similar to this back when i did those designs, but i feel that it doesn't come across as well in retrospect.

i wanted to include a bit of ant influence into his design too, which i put into his ears, curved fangs, and tail. his natural stance is to curl his tail inwards, which is my attempt to have it resemble the abdomen of an ant.

ALSO ALSO this is my first time drawing a cat with a spirit alt, specifically for the place of no stars! i'm not sure if i want to commit to doing this with EVERY cat - especially since i'd need to go back and add it to a few - but with this simpler design it felt less intimidating. his hackles are raised when dead because he's ready to FIGHT.

i'm definitely not the first person to portray it in this way, but my headcanon is that the dying wound of a cat that goes to the place of no stars appears as an empty, gaping hole that sometimes seems to shift... deaths that are more vague, should i draw cats who fit that descriptor, will manifest a bit differently.

Wind-down sketches of everyone's favorite (or least favorite) fox mom.

I know I keep logging in and being like 'I'll post here now!' and then I don't for three more months but you have to consider: I am very tired

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