[Raven's Guide to Creating Realistic Lion Characters

[RaventheVerewolf]

Raven's Guide to Creating Realistic Lions

    Hello again, floofs! I'm back with another guide. You know from my first guide (Which is worth the read in my opinion. Find it here) how a lion behaves so you can accuratly role-play, but what about your character? No point in having flawlessly realistic behavior if your character looks like someone went crazy with the hair dye!

     So lets get to it!

Lion's Body

    Ok, so first things first. We gotta make your lion's body. Now, I personally believe that no matter where you set your sliders, it will look like a lion. It is ALL YOUR PERSONAL PREFERENCE. BUT, if you still want to get real technical with it, the muzzle slider should be short for females, maybe a little longer for males. Males should have more chin than females (Mine have no chin or barely any chin because I don't like chin). Ears should be a little bigger than the head (I don't like doing this because in Feral Heart it looks dumb). I like my lions tall, so I made mine pretty darn big. Lionesses would be smaller than lions. Weight is up to preference, but a lion in a pride would obviously be a big stockier than a loner.

     Honostly, if someone doesn't let you join a realistic RP because of your body sliders, that person needs to get a hobby and stop nitpicking so darn much. Unless your lions looks like this (see below), you're fine

Screen II

    Once your lion(ess) is the way you want it, we can move on to the next step. Mane, tail, and ears. These features matter much more to realism than your body sliders, trust me.

    Now, above I was going for an adult male. Females don't have any mane, but they may have elbow/butt tufts (I prefer just elbow). For an adult male, any of the full manes are great!

     For a teenage or adolescent male, the half manes are perfect. For a lion juuuust starting to grow mane, go for maybe just elbow mane and Side (or something similar. Now you see why I tend to skip this part of growing up in making an RP character. Poor little guy...though if you know of a better way to do this, please let me know) If your lion is close to getting his full mane, but not there yet, Fluffy is fantastic.

     For the tail, just keep it as the Lion Tail (duh).

     Now, for ears I just keep it as normal. Rounded, ripped, and any more rounded ear choices are fine. NO pointy ears please

Screen III

     Now we begin with the eyes, and aaah yes. The markings. The part of lion making (other than color) that can make or break the realism of your feline.

     Let's start with the eyes. If you want to be realistic, go with contracted. I personally think it looks creepy, so I use Whole, or Whole Slit (usually just Whole).

     Now, we move onto markings. Lions don't have very much in the way of markings. They tend to have either very faint spots and/or stripes (Usually as cubs, and lose them as they age), or highlights. I usually use (I'm trying to stick with just normal markings, no Mass Markings here) Back Splotch, a little lighter than the pelt, Cub Spots on younger lions or cubs, either a little lighter or a little darker than the pelt, or Liger, again a little darker or little lighter than the pelt (This just makes it look like the pelt is wavy. For this marking it is very very important not to make it too dark or too light).

     For face markings, I tend not to do anything, cub spots to match the description of them above, and I personally never put Liger on the face. Actually...for my lions I personally don't put any markings on the face.

     Again, for the tail, rinse and repeat from the face markings.  

Screen IV

    For your realistic lion if you aren't on this screen to add whiskers, then you're not getting accepted into a realistic RP. Move along (With my markings pack, there is nothing a lion in real life would have on it on this page)

Screen V

    Ladies, and gentleman. Drumroll please! We've now reached the color sliders. The breaking point of many a character. Where getting that perfect shade of tan makes me almost explode. Here, is where it aaaaaall comes together.

     If you're not exactly sure what shade of tan you're going for, or you don't know how to make it, upload a picture of a lion to a "Color Finder" website. It will give you the RGB codes for the color so all you have to do is put those numbers in for Red, Green, and Blue and presto, the color of a lion.

     Now, a lion can be many shades of tan and tawny. No NORMAL lion has pure black, or pure white on it ANYWHERE. Keep this is mind. Some lions are a lighter shade of tan than others, and some have a different colored mane than others, usually a shade of brown. NO JET BLACK, make a very, very, very, dark grey, a dark brown is allowed, but a lighter brown is preferred. Look at pictures of lions for a general idea. Usually the farther down the back, the darker it is, but FH does not allow for that at this moment. The underfur should be slightly lighter than the pelt. (Take note of the word slightly)

     The markings you chose are meant as shading for your lion, NOT as "markings" like you would see on a tiger. They are simply to add depth to an otherwise one tone body.

     The tail tip matches the mane, the nose is usually a dark tan, or brown. The eyes are an amber or brown to black color. The darkness or lightness of any of the tan colors is all up to you. Make this lion YOURS.

Go RP!

    You've made your realistic lion. You've read up on realistic lion behavior (In my previous guide I hope *wink wink*). Now, you are prepared to realistically RP a lion. Good luck, and happy RPing!

Pst....hey...if you're looking for an RP to use your brand new lion in, take a look at this

[RaventheVerewolf]

Any ideas for what guide I should do next?