Character Development: Mali Ouda Azade

About a week ago, I was feeling very inspired after receiving some work from Maduinshorn. He had just finished an awesome set of comic pages. I turned on some music from Scheharazade and watched the dancers on Youtube. Thinking of those dancers as I drew, I tried to come up with a little Arabian hero. Today I want to share a little bit of his development with you guys.

The sketch in the middle was my first attempt at him. Originally I named the character after the music and main character from 1001 Arabian Nights, Scheherazade. I changed his name at the advice of others to come up with something a little less girly and original. Being Arabian, I wanted him to have parachute pants, but I also wanted a way to show his cock off a bit. So in the second sketch (which is the one of him holding the crystal ball) I added in a codpiece of sorts. I also began fiddling with his turban and showed he had some hair. Then came the biggest change of all. I Wonder what that was? The final sketch is the one where he's leaning into the frame. I decided to switch the places of Saturn and the moon. The colors were influenced by some great suggestions from Guytoonist some days later.

After drawing him, I thought maybe I had something. I had actually drawn a number of images that night, but he was the only one kept. On a whim I showed him to Aneros and a few other friends. The next day I found something very special in my inbox. That something is of course below:


Aneros sexed him up big time. He made him very dashing looking and really added to his costume and design. Check out those arms! YUM! He gave him a cool tattoo. That design had me thinking it should be the source of some sort of magic. And of course, Aneros always being so devilish, insisted that he should have a donkey dick to go along with that tail. :P Ha! ha! ha! I couldn't agree more. The whiskers on the end of his chin were a cute touch as well. Of all the nice additions, if I had to pick a favorite, it would be the cloth wrapped around his arm. I thought that was very stylish.

That same night I sketched him, (I believe) I sent my sketch to Caravaggia. I told her the description of the character, the back story I had so far and that was about it. She set to work and quickly had very cute sketch all worked out. We discussed changing his appearance again. This time we talked about the state of his ears. Mali was given donkey ears as he tried his best to perform some magic on a reluctant carpet. What I thought was cool was how his arm position remind me of the poses found in the ballet. ^^

When the image was done I noted to her that I found the big nose very fitting. In fact I said that I noticed many of his features looked very Arabian. Caravaggia told me "Yeah I tried to give his face more typical features from the Persian area, I think it's charming." And so do I!
The way she colored his skin with the light making it look lighter on the underside of his arm and palm is fantastic. He looks very youthful. Caravaggias coloring is just outstanding. There is way too much fine detail and beautiful work here then I have the ability to discuss. The characters muscle tone and pants have so much depth to them.

So what is the story of Mail Ouda Azade? Why the equestrian aspects? Well, I have all that in my mind. I have many characters like this, just waiting in the wings to come out and play. I am hoping it will just be a small matter of time before his story is told.