This.

This is Caeru.

I've had so many pieces of art of Caeru drawn over the years, but I've never had a fully accurate picture of him. Several pictures have come close, but there would often be little tiny details that were off juuust a bit, far too little for it to feel right for me to complain or nitpick over. In some cases it could even just be down to the artist's style, which is something I kinda like sometimes!

But this?

Credit where credit is due--and I really don't think I can give him anywhere near enough praise for this: Todd went above and beyond with this picture. I approached him with the idea of making a ref for Caeru, letting him know ahead of time that... if he agreed, I was going to be picky. Veeery picky. Not because I wanted to be a jerk or put a ton of extra work on him, but because a ref is a foundation; every little issue with a ref would inevitably bleed into future art of the character, so it was important to get every little detail just right.

And holy shit, did he deliver. <3

I love this.

This is Caeru, as I see him in my head. This is how the character is supposed to look. No more putting together "refs" that are just bits and pieces from several different images; this is *it*. This is the character that I've had in my mind for so damn long, but haven't been skilled enough at art to ever draw perfectly myself.

Caeru is mine, art is  tiedernas

Go send Todd some love. Seriously.

(Note: There will (very likely) be a more complete ref sheet using this art sometime in the future--back view, expressions, etc. For now though, cash is pretty tight (thanks 2020), so it will have to wait.)