Sass Juice

 It's been awhile since I've made something goofy, and this idea has been on my mind for months.

This idea bloomed shortly after I saw the picture Vakama, Toa of Sass  by Atlasavion 

Her OC, Toa Whakara, has become a very intriguing character from my own personal viewpoint, and this little joke of a sassy Vakama has spread quite a bit, started by some lone comment which led to a crazy idea that's left many with the giggles.

I felt for Whakara, this is when I dreamed of  Atlasavion's character falling into a void dimension where my OC, Pearllight, is having tea and taking a break. What kind of tea? An herbal tea that I actually do drink, the two herb names my fuel of inspiration for this comic. Sassafras instantly made me think of sassy Vakama and the pitiful Whakara, which led to the idea of Whakara being introduced to a drink with the word sass in it.

At last, Whakara believes he may have found a drink that can level the playing field against the sass of Vakama, and swipes the drink from Pearllight, who can only wonder what dimension Whakara fell from, and since when was Vakama sassy? She's use to the odd scenarios of dimensional travel seeing she does it herself, and recognized Whakara's mask, figuring he took a wrong turn, willing to have tea time with a stranger anyway. 

 A bit more on the art, I've included the messy sketch base because it was so relaxing to slap down the concepts for this comic. You can see what lies under the details and colors when I first start a drawing.

As I added detail to the first panel, I just kept laughing at how Whakara came out, starting to love his character even more as I drew him.

I'll admit it, I love the design of Whakara. Something about him that holds a lot of interesting, mysterious traits, like the fact his shoulder plating is missing on his right arm, bringing the question of how did that happen, and who tore it off? But overall I just like his character, and had fun drawing him next to mine.

When it came to getting down the details, I used two references, images from Atlasavion, and also a peek at Be Reasonable Whakara by Saronicle. I found Saronicle added details to Whakara's character that made him even more interesting in some ways, having an almost Egyptian feel to his plating, the color scheme of his character gearing towards that style. Seeing this was the first time I've ever drawn him, I combined a few details I liked from Saronicle's work, and added them to the base details of his original design of Atlasavion's work.