A New Udevu

Udevu appeared in the comic “An Unusual Choir” as a rather fuzzy Mufasa-clone.  (Udevu is my own name for him since he did not have one in the story.) Since clones are boring, I never really drew him.  But then I just recently noticed that Udevu has a minor coloring error on his left shoulder.  So I revamped his design to include that (I call it a birthmark) and then spiced up his look even further by giving his tail the same treatment, since his tail is never shown in the comic.

Udevu is Simba’s uncle in the comic, and I like the idea of him being a younger brother to Mufasa and Scar…read the brief story I have for him in the comments on the pic.  That’s why I added the green eyes and black tail tuft to his design.  Here is the revamp:

Kovu/Kiara Spawn, Part Un

And here he is!  My Kovu/Kiara spawn…to be more specific, their son.  He’s been uploaded on TLKFAA. I’m also working on a daughter that I will talk about in part two.

The main reason why I’ve never made a Kovu/Kiara spawn is because my canon story doesn’t extend that far into the future.  I’ve done work pre-movies all the way back to Mohatu, and extensive work during and inbetween TLK and SP, but nothing post-SP.  I still am not planning to make up a story post-SP, not in any detail; I just felt the urge to finally make my own spawn. :)

His name is Kijana, which means “young man”; it generally has a male connotation (though it may be gender-neutral depending on context). I used to call him “Kora” a couple years back, a result of combining Kiara and Kovu’s names which I have found out is very common.  I changed his name partly because it was so common, and of course because it was too similar to my own username, Koraden.

For the son, I decided to draw more from Kiara’s heritage than Kovu’s.  His base color scheme is very similar to Kiara’s: fur and underfur color, ears, nose, and mane color (his tail tuft is pretty much the color of Kiara’s at birth).  His mane reddens as he gets older like Simba’s does, but the color I have on his adult form is as red as it gets, nowhere near the classic Mufasa and Simba red.  He also has a similar body build

However, I did draw from Kovu’s side of things as well.  The classic outlander scruffy cheeks and hooked nose (though Kijana’s is supposed to be like a large Mufasa-version of that shape); the light nose bridge coloring, and the darker upper eye surround all come from Kovu.  His nose bridge shape is a pridelander/outlander combo, but his adult chin is Kovu-shaped.  Kijana’s eyes are also quite similar to Kovu’s with a more subtle version of the dark outside corner – the iris size is supposed to be midway between Kiara and Kovu’s.  I went with the blue-green eyes because they seemed unique (Majordomo gave me the idea to separate the blue and green instead of having a single matte color; the blue is the outside and green inside).  To me they recall Nala’s heritage and her sea-green/bright blue morphing inbetween movies.

Mane style was a difficult decision for me since Kovu’s flop is so iconic, as well as Simba’s shaggy bangs.  In the end I made an effort to combine the manes of Mufasa (basic shape); Simba (reddish color + those dark curved areas over the forehead); and Kovu (that “point” in the center that leans forward is supposed to recall his prominent tuft).  That mohawk-ish shape is especially prominent in cubhood and adolescence; the cub version is kind of a merging of the Simba/Kovu cub designs.

Whew, so I think I’ve summed up most of my design thoughts for Kijana here.  You wouldn’t think that character design could be so involved, but it can definitely become complicated when you really become engrossed in the details.  For me it can also be a very rewarding process, and I am quite proud of the end result. =)