Juan Parellada

Yes, your eyes are not decieving you. This is an actual drawing of mine that I colored digitally. Recently I got a Wacom One and i've been using that baby like no tomorrow. This is the first time i've colored something digitally since last year and i'm proud as fuck about it.

Anyway, I made a Wolfwalkers fan character, and a pretty unconventional at that:

Juan Parellada is a barbary macaque who used to be human. However the reason behind his transformation isn't related to wolfwalkers or even celtic entities. He was a 44 year old man from Málaga, Spain who got spelled by a gypsie man in retaliation after accidentally almost dying from an allergic reaction from a plate that Juan served him. That said, that incident was years ago and Juan has already gotten used to be a macaque and even found advantages of his new body that werent there in his former self. Personality wise, Juan is cheeky, easy going and a bit of a snark but still loyal to the ones he deems close to him even though he hasn't kept in contact with his family for years. He also has a thing for cooking and learning native and foreign gastronomy, especially involving seafood since he was raised in a seaside household.

However one day he got trapped by a tradesman and was shipped overseas to Ireland as an exotic pet (there's records of barbary macaques being traded to the British Isles as far back as the Iron Age). There he ended up in a town's market isolated in a small cage without food or water for days as well as no way to get out. Then one faithfull day that changed when Robyn and Mehb's family were passing by the market through the town to reach their new home, and the former two noticed Juan in the cage and when he pleaded them to let him out they got sympathy as well as intrigue towards him since they've never seen a monkey before and set him free when no one was looking. When they got back to their parents to show them their newfound friend Juan pleaded them if he could stay with them since he doesn't know the land he's in and the market man could be looking for him at any rate. Bill and Moll were at first iffy of letting this random guy join their family, but then Moll gained sympathy towards the monkey since she too knew how it feels like to be captured against your will and locked up in a cage and thus decided to let him stay. Grateful for their generosity, Juan promised to watch over the family as a way to return the favor. Not to mention Juan was also shocked that someone could finally understand him since no one could hear him speak back in Spain and the wolfwalker family could understand animals as well as animalized humans because magic is transcendent that way.

As time went on, Juan became an uncle figure towards Mehb and Robyn, sometimes going on adventures and mischiefs with them as well as telling stories to the family from his southern home. He also grew a special fondess towards Moll since she was the one who gave him a second chance, and while Bill can get somewhat jealous about it he still views Juan as a friend of the family as well as someone worth hanging out with. As for Juan's relationship with the wolf pack, they were curious at first to check this new critter out which Juan was afraid of for good reason (wolves for him were a rarity to see plus he never got along with dogs all that much after a childhood encounter) but then Moll ordered them to treat him as an ally and when he saw they posed no threat his disdain towards dogs gradually went away. Speaking of Moll, she has offered him some help if she could try to change him back into a human, and while Juan thanked her offer he declined it since he's gotten used to be a macaque for so long to the point he's embraced it though he did told her he wouldn't mind trying to go back to how he used to be for a day or two. Juan also served as a sentry when they're travelling through the woods and scan for dangers through the trees while the pack was on ground level and even showed them how to prepare some Malagan dishes for dinner which they liked quite a bit although one thing he's yet to get used to is the northern chilly climate since he is from a warm area and the most cold he's endured are certain winter nights which are even colder up there in Ireland, and that's without mentioning all the snow. But despite that, he's decided to stay with his newfound family who gave him a place to stay in this new land as well as the love that he's been missing for so long.

I was inspired by ascetic-of-the-hills 's work on DA to create Juan right here. You should totally check their stuff out if you're into Wolfwalkers or Cartoon Saloon stuff. Also it as kinda hard trying to find references for how monkeys look in the style of Cartoon Saloon but I managed to pull through fine. I also used Mehb as a ref for translating him into the WW style since she's kind of macaque-ish in shape. Speaking of Mehb, I guess you could say she and Robyn became a monkey's nieces lol.Jun 30, 2021

#originalcharacter

#characterdesign

#fanart

#wolfwalkers

#monkey

Comments

schnozart

5yr

Ah yes, I remember my first drawing tablet. I got a Huion... Didn't last that long...
And what you've written here is excellent! I hope you enjoy your new Wacom

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@zebicopithecus

Costa Rica

Traditional artist/cartoonist/zoology-paleontology fan