Werewolf Sketches

Felt like showing my werewolves in their human shapes (since all werewolves had been human at one point). I'm also going to try my hand at their life stories, explaining how they went from men to monsters. Nothing like Twilight, that much I can guarantee.

1: TITUS

Even as a human, that smile warns you to never turn your back on this guy!

2: VULCAN

 

 

Tried my hardest not to make him look too much like Terence. Oh well, that's what practice is for.

Amethyst and Darkheart

Terence and Tristan's dam and sire, with a story that would give William Shakespeare a run for his money. In fact, I like to think of their story as that of Romeo and Juliet, minus the suicide.

You can get the picture: mare falls for stallion, stallion falls for mare, parents on both sides not only disapprove but do everything possible to keep their children apart. Some unicorns are friendlier than others, but between Amethyst and Darkheart's parents, we're talking a legitimate feud here. There's more than one reason for this bad blood, but suffice it to say that whenever they cross one another's paths, there's bound to be trouble. 

Still, that didn't stop Darkheart and Amethyst from falling head over hooves for each other. They became determined to become mates at any cost, and when their parents refused to give their blessing, the young unicorns were obliged to run away together. This came at a heavy price indeed; Amethyst's heart was all but broken, and even Darkheart was affected so much more by the loss of his parents and his home than he would have readily admitted. Unbeknownst to them, their parents' hearts were also shattered. 

For a little while, Darkheart and Amethyst got along very well. They soon had their first foal, Tristan, and Darkheart's relationship with his boy was a far cry from the one he'd shared with his own father. Before too long, Amethyst found herself expecting yet another foal. 

However, before this second foal was born, something happened that drove a serious wedge between Amethyst and Darkheart. Darkheart ended up walking out on his mate and his son, and he never came back. Neither Tristan nor Amethyst were ever the same after that.

Terence became Amethyst's sole reason to go on living. Despite having to raise him alone, she took up the slack remarkably well. For the first few years of Terence's life, he was inseparable from his mother. 

Tristan believed for the longest time that Amethyst favored Terence over him. Of course, she adored both her sons, but there was only so much of her to go around, and Terence easily required the most time and care. Still, Tristan saw it and took it the wrong way. 

It might have been all right if Darkheart had come back sooner, or never left at all, or if Tristan had at least been able to talk things out with his mother. Unfortunately, Amethyst died while Terence was still quite young. Now Terence and Tristan were all alone. 

To make matters worse, Darkheart was just about to come back to Amethyst. After going away, he'd had plenty of time to cool down and reconsider, and his love for Amethyst ultimately got the better of him. He resolved to go back to her, plead for her forgiveness, and try to make things right with her. As commendable as his resolution was, it came just a little too late. 

Eat your heart out, Shakespeare.

Bad Boys

With every hero, there's a villain. Where Terence is the good guy in my story, Scorpio is the bad guy.

No doubt about it: out of all my characters, Scorpio's given me the most grief. I struggled with everything about him (and I mean EVERYTHING) for the longest time. Even now, I'm still fine-tuning him. But the good news is, I believe I finally have some idea of who he is and what I want to do with him.

On the surface, Scorpio appears as your typical villain. For some reason, he's absolutely hell-bent on finding Terence and destroying him. He's as hard on his followers as he is on his enemies, and he makes little to no distinction between those he's after and those who get in his way.

However, there is more to Scorpio than meets the eye. Don't want to give too much information away, but he's more, so much more, than just some cold-hearted sadist; he does what he does for understandable if unjustifiable reasons.

As if Terence didn't have enough with Scorpio, he's got a few werewolves to worry about, too, especially Moloth, the leader and possibly the most feared werewolf of them all.

I'm no fan of horror. I don't read Stephen King and I wouldn't watch a Freddy Krueger flick if you paid me in diamonds. So you'd be surprised at Moloth and his gang; they say it's a smart move for writers to write outside their comfort zones, and this is definitely out of my comfort zone. (Far out!)

I guarantee these werewolves will be nothing like Twilight's perpetually shirtless shape-shifters. They would make Jacob into a throw rug and polish off Edward and Bella, and still have plenty of time for breakfast.

While I've yet to figure out how to draw Moloth's entire gang (there are five werewolves besides him), I have come up with passable designs for two of them, Titus and Vulcan.

Titus is one of the smaller, scrawnier werewolves, but he's easily the most insane member of his gang, which makes him one of the most dangerous. Rumor has it that he was already mentally unstable as a human, but becoming a werewolf sent him completely over the edge. He usually gets his pleasure at someone else's expense and harbors immense fascination in the most twisted, bizarre things. He would give the Joker, Bellatrix Lestrange, and Azula a run for their money.

He's supposed to come in patches (white and crimson), and I've yet to refine those patches. At least I got his creepy-as-heck smile just about right. Yeesh!

Vulcan is one of the biggest and strongest werewolves. Unlike Titus, he's quite mentally sound, but he keeps to himself and seldom utilizes more than two or three words at a time. Moloth would have had some mighty fine competition with Vulcan as the leader if Vulcan had showed any actual interest in leading the pack.

Rhiella

Of course, I had to invent a human girl who would win Terence's heart when he became human. While Terence has encountered plenty of women as a unicorn (unicorns have always had a strange attraction to human females), something sets Rhiella apart from the others.

Being a princess, Rhiella has also met with a number of royal suitors, all of which turned out to be abysmal failures. But when she meets Terence, something just clicks.

Much as I love Disney and fairy tales, I don't believe in rushing a relationship. I don't believe in marrying someone you've only known for one day, or a few days, or even a month. This means that while Terence and Rhiella do notice each other at the first, they take their time to build up their relationship. Terence doesn't speak to Rhiella or give her a whole lot of thought; he just acknowledges her presence and moves on. After a few more meetings, when they do start talking and getting to know each other better, that's when he warms up to her and you can guess the rest of the story.

Some people may view Rhiella as one-dimensional, as another typical rebellious princess. That's not quite the case; at least, I'm working my hardest not to make it so. She does have a rebellious streak, a knack for doing things not considered fitting for a princess. She can ride a horse, shoot an arrow, and wield a sword as well as any man, and while she honestly needs help now and then, for the most part she can look after herself just fine. Half the time, she's saving Terence's life.

When she's not fighting or caught up in her royal duties, she loves to swim. She essentially taught herself to swim and takes to water like a fish; if she were living in our time, she would really get off on snorkeling and scuba diving. (So would Terence.)

While generally sweet and even-tempered, Rhiella can blast through the roof when she gets angry. She's not afraid to speak her mind and can get brutally frank even with Terence. While Terence adores Rhiella and would never lay a finger on her, he still has his moments when he lets her have it, too. It's a little joke of mine that you know you're an official couple when you argue like a couple. Despite the flowers, the candy, the hugs and kisses, and the overall goo-goo feelings, it's the first legitimate argument that seals the deal.

People view Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey as legitimate love stories. Well, I'll show 'em! With Terence and Rhiella, I'll prove what real, honest-to-goodness love is. Just you wait, mates. Just you wait.

I'm half-tempted to say in my advertisement, "Everything that 'Twilight' and 'Fifty Shades' are NOT." But that probably wouldn't be a very good marketing strategy. Or would it?

Tristan

I knew pretty much from the start that Terence would have some kind of sibling, and I always had a hunch it would be a brother. I considered giving him a sister, too, but changed my mind. 

Tristan is the oldest and largest of the two. He's as handsome as anything, and also as vain as anything. While just about every unicorn possesses some vanity (never call a unicorn a horse to his or her face!), Tristan is notably narcissistic. He gives himself ridiculous airs and goes out of his way to show he's the most superior, especially to his brother.

While he comes off as silly, superficial, and a bit of an idiot, he does have a good heart. In fact, you'd be surprised at what you'd find behind his mask. You wouldn't think the stallion ever had any self-esteem issues. But the truth is, he acts like he is so important just to feel important at all. He's jealous of Terence for a host of reasons, possibly the biggest reason being he believed Terence was their mother's favorite.

For all that, Tristan loves Terence, even if he doesn't always know how to express it, and will do anything to keep his brother safe. That's the beauty of their relationship: no matter how much they aggravate and infuriate each other (and trust me, they get into plenty of squabbles), whenever one is in trouble, the other will always be the first to do something about it.

Terence

Out of all the stories I've got in the works right now, the one I'm focusing on the most (and the one I feel shows the most potential) features Terence, a young unicorn turned human.

Sounds very much like Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn, doesn't it? I'll admit that's what inspired me to begin with, and I've borrowed a great deal from that book. But I assure you I'm doing everything I can right now to make this as much my thing as possible. I've also been inspired by C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia (I'd be extremely flattered if anyone compared me to him), J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Bruce Coville's The Unicorn Chronicles, and a host of other things.

Among my friends and viewers on other sites, Terence is easily my best-known and best-liked character. I've developed quite a soft spot for him, too. (Corny as it may sound, I'm half in love with him.) I think what makes him so likeable is he's very human, even before he becomes one. He's warm, caring, brave, funny, and loyal to the death; he's also vain, impulsive, smart-alecky, often says harsh things he doesn't really mean, and he frequently keeps to himself, though he doesn't hide his emotions very well.

He skirts that line separating childhood from adulthood. He's not a kid anymore, but he's not quite adult, either. He can be wise and prudent when necessary, and yet he knows how to have a good time.

He's come a long way since I started writing about him in 2005. He's changed in countless ways for the better. With luck, I'll be able to finish his first story (yes, I'm making a series about him) and present it in official book form relatively soon. I don't mind taking as long as I have with this story (not as much as I used to, anyway), but it would be nice if I could get the darn thing out there to the public while I'm still young.

Maybe I'm hoping too much for a movie or TV deal, but if my story's ever lucky enough to make it to the big screen, I have my eye on James McAvoy for Terence's voice.

In the meantime, I'm having a ball drawing him as much as writing him, and I've received some pretty amazing fan art and commissions featuring him over the years. I don't fork out my hard-earned cash for many commissions, but when I do, I always get my money's worth.

Sometimes I like to have a little extra fun with Terence by dressing him up and placing him in different eras. Some people think he's from Narnia (since I wrote quite a few Narnia fan stories that included him), but he's not. I just stuck him in there for pure kicks.