Hey there, friends! It’s me, Hermit! I am responsible for the majority of the art associated with THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCESS KAYA and the universe that lies therein. For the last 18 months Kitten and I have been building this world together through sound and sight. Her music was mostly already compiled by the time she approached me to redesign Kaya, and upon hearing her work, I couldn’t help but be inspired. I felt this music couldn’t be left solely to her albums, and with the blueprint of her character and some of the world in place, I figured a webtoon and various other multimedia needed to be made for it. It was ripe for adaptation, so why not indulge and have fun with it?
So, with the WEBTOON 2025 LEGENDS CONTEST around the corner I figured why not use the opportunity to finally bring Kaya and her world to life. After long talks. sketches, and notes we started to come to a thrilling consensus for Kaya’s world. Intelligent, precocious, mischievous, and all around naïve was the tenants of Kaya, but what about those around her? Before long this story of the Felinian Kingdom she was born into and its harrowing past almost naturally came into fruition. I was so comfortable in telling this story I went into creating its character and world via digital art with great confidence.
So, lets go through some of the pre-production process of the character art and a few details about Kaya and her world. As our journey in creating this webtoon continues, I will bring you more info about the creation process. If you’re ever curious, feel free to look at my Twitch and X accounts, where I share plenty of content including live streams of the webtoon in progress.
THE CREATION OF KAYA
Kaya went through a lot of designs between the end of 2023 and through 2024. Her body type was always meant to be lithe, and Kitten’s initial expectations of the character was a precocious and mischievous catgirl using her music as one would magic. Couple that with some designs of her before I came on (which would eventually be designs used to inspire Dr. Maia Starbright, Kaya’s composer mentor), I approached it like I did every piece or character I ever made: ask questions.
Why was Kaya, well, Kaya? Why did she act mischievous? How did she use music as magic? Was she alone or was she raised by someone? Was she taught this magic? These questions and many more is how I go about creating the character down to the objects she might have on her person or why she might favor a certain phrase. I came to the conclusion a conductor’s wand used like a magic wand made sense, and being a catgirl (a species I assumed would be born solipsists obsessed with their self), I figured she wore pretty skimpy clothes and took pride in doing so. Over time I added things like a singing belt, open dress, and the color scheme which seemed classic magic girl to me. Before long she had a fully fledged image and personality.
I looked at a lot of videos to burgeon my creativity on not just the characters, but storytelling in general. Andrew Stanton’s TedTalk on writing for Pixar, and John Cleese’s lecture on creativity were often things I went back to. Joseph Campbell’s A Hero with a Thousand Faces, Lord of the Rings making-of appendices, and countless features on animation and comic artist entered the fold too. One of my primary inspirations for character approach was Avatar: The Last Airbender and its art book, Avatar: The Last Airbender (The Art of the Animated Series). When making a world and its characters, you want to motivate yourself with the best, and these and more drove me towards meticulously making these fun characters you could get to really embroil yourself in as readers.
Take for instance the surly, disillusioned captain of the Felinian royal guard, Riordan Launchpad.
Based off Kitten and I’s appreciation for sardonic patriarchal characters in shows like Star Trek, Stargate SG-1, and various Disney films, I set out to create a character that was a reluctant antagonist. Though Riordan helped raise Kaya and obviously has a deep affinity for her as a sort of surrogate little sister or niece, he struggles constantly with his difficult past. After spending much of his youth fighting a viscous war between a neighboring group of dog people called the Houndar, he’s left fearful of his kingdom’s security and future. This only extends to Kaya, who he wishes would never have to experience the heartbreak and terror he did during wartime. He covets her innocence, and regrets losing his. Unfortunately for him Princess Kaya has very different plans when it comes to her own future that causes a rift between the two.
Want to learn more? Well my links for my X and Twitch have plenty of WIP content for the webtoon. By May 15th, 2025 the first episode of the webtoon will be released, introducing you to Kaya’s world. Until then, I will post here as often as I am capable. For now, here’s timelapses of both Kaya and Riordan’s model sheets so you can get an idea of the actual drawing workflow I use.
Well, see you later. Next time I will go into detail about creating a few webtoon panels from script to its final posting. Until then, stay cool, friends!
HERMIT
