ekbelsher - Tumblr blog

[ekbelsher]

I worked really hard this week, and then all at once it seemed terribly important to go on a side quest and draw my OC wiping blood off his mouth. I meant for him to have a shirt on, but once again I did not follow through. It just always seems such a shame to cover up the anatomy I worked so hard to get right. The serratus muscles mess me up every time. I showed it to an art friend and this is how the conversation went:

them: I am looking

me: Somehow my OCs never have any clothes on

them: he flexes them off

me: I feel like I’ve seen that in a cartoon! I’m blanking

them: I’ve seen it too, but I like to think your OC doesn’t try, he just moves and then they tear themselves off

[ekbelsher]

For some reason yesterday it seemed really important to draw naked kissing instead of getting any actual work done. But look! I drew her hands totally without reference. Actually I drew most of this without photo reference (I did use ref for his head angle), which means it took me hours (this sketch is my third attempt) but I think it was time well spent because I learned a few things :)

[ekbelsher]

No question, just had to tell you the illustration of a siren under the crescent moon that you posted recently is so beautiful!

Oh wow, thanks so much! I've revisited that piece several times, over a period of two years, trying to fix it. It lacks contrast, but I like the pose. Glad it struck a chord with you 💕

[ekbelsher]

Terry Pratchett started his career as a crypto-monarchist and ended up the most consistently humane writer of his generation.  He never entirely lost his affection for benevolent dictatorship, and made a few classic colonial missteps along the way, but in the end you’d be hard pressed to find a more staunchly feminist, anti-racist, anti-classist, unsentimental and clear-sighted writer of Old White British Fantasy.  

The thing I love about Terry’s writing is that he loved - loved - civil society.  He loved the correct functioning of the social contract.  He loved technology, loved innovation, but also loved nature and the ways of living that work with and through it.   He loved Britain, but hated empire (see “Jingo”) - he was a ruralist who hated provincialism, a capitalist who hated wealth, an urbanist who reveled in stories of pollution, crime and decay.  He was above all a man who loved systems, of nature, of thought, of tradition and of culture.  He believed in the best of humanity and knew that we could be even better if we just thought a little more.

As a writer: how skillful, how prolific, how consistent.  The yearly event of a new Discworld book has been a part of my life for more than two decades, and in that barrage of material there have been so few disappointments, so many surprises… to come out with a book as fresh and inspired as “Monstrous Regiment” as the 31st novel in your big fantasy series?  Ludicrous.  He was just full of treasure.  What a thing to have had, what a thing to have lost.

In the end, he set a higher standard, as a writer and as a person.  He got better as he learned, and he kept learning, and there was no “too late” or “too hard” or “I can’t be bothered to do the research.”  He just did the work.  I think in his memory the best thing we can do is to roll up our sleeves and do the same.

[ekbelsher]

Alina and Mal. This is the last of the images I did for the Litjoy crate Shadow and Bone series, and my favourite. The heartrending moments are where I live 🖤

[ekbelsher]

Not exactly a question, but I wanted to tell you that I’m going to school to be a graphic designer, and one of my main goals is to do what you do for a job when I’m finished with school— illustrating for books and novels and such, I mean. Your art style is beyond gorgeous, and I hope to one day be as half as good as you. 🩷

What a lovely comment to wake up to! Thanks so much 💕 I hope you enjoy your design program. (I loved art school, but I wish I'd spent less time worrying about grades and more time planning ahead 😅). I wish you every success!

[ekbelsher]

Happy MerMay 🧜‍♀️

[ekbelsher]

Around the world today, the penumbra of the rising of the first sun of May is lined with onlookers and wellwishers, eyes on the eastern horizon to catch the first glimpse of a new season.

Because in our hearts, this is how summer returns to the northern hemisphere; this sun a baton passed in the annual relay as the south prepares for what winter may bring.

Among our number, where the hilltops flatten enough for people to trust their feet in the gloom, for over a century now morris dancers have set out in the fading dark to dance in the dawn, for the same reason we do anything: because it's what we do. That's all tradition is, after all.

And every year, alongside the bells, a passage from Terry Pratchett's Hogfather rings in my mind.

"The sun would have risen just the same, yes?"

NO.

"Oh, come on. You can't expect me to believe that. It's an astronomical fact."

THE SUN WOULD NOT HAVE RISEN.

...

"Really? Then what would have happened, pray?"

A MERE BALL OF FLAMING GAS WOULD HAVE ILLUMINATED THE WORLD.

And so, every year, follow the sound of bells and sticks, the chorus of voices singing Hal And Tow, and you'll find a bunch of knackered weirdos in the middle of nowhere in daft hats and a chill breeze, but proud of what they've done.

After all, we just made the sun rise.

[ekbelsher]

Siege and Storm: the scene where Alina's hair turns white

[ekbelsher]

Warmup pose study that got away on me. Something about this pose screamed "sexy angel" so that's where it went! Whenever I do wings I find myself in wild mad guessing territory, no matter how many bird reference photos I look at

[ekbelsher]

Alina and Mal get attacked by volcra, and her Sun Summoner powers finally show up (for the Litjoy Shadow and Bone box set)

[ekbelsher]

Nina buries Matthias, and his white wolf shows up 🌷😢🥀 (for the Litjoy King of Scars box set)

[ekbelsher]

Sir Terry Pratchett: on writing Good Omens with Neil Gaiman

I love the whole interview but this little snippet most of all:

Terry: “You can usually bet, and I’m sure Neil Gaiman would say the same thing, that, uh, if I go into a bookstore to do a signing and someone presents me with three books, the chances are that one of them is going to be a very battered copy of Good Omens; and it will smell as if it’s been dropped in parsnip soup or something in and it’s gone fluffy and crinkly around the edges and they’ll admit that it’s the fourth copy they’ve bought”.

You can never own enough Good Omens copies.

[ekbelsher]

Hello! Your Six of Crows and Ninth House/Hell Bent art make me soo happyyy! Something about your color choices makes so much sense for these worlds. I remember seeing your Darlington for the first time and just going woah. It stuck with me! Fun fact, your art's (plus kolarpem's) actually the reason I got Tumblr in the first place, I figured I couldn't search by photo for eternity. Anyway, just wanted to say really loove your style!

AAaaaAAA 😭 Comments like these make my day, you have no idea. Especially on days like today, when I've been struggling with something difficult (crowd shot) and I'm feeling a bit useless 😂 Thank you for making my day better, ily ❤️❤️

[ekbelsher]

Rath Roiben Rye, everybody's first book boyfriend! The struggle with fae characters is making them look beautiful, but in a nonhuman way. I had real trouble with this sketch

[ekbelsher]

Warmup pose study that got away on me. Something about this pose screamed "sexy angel" so that's where it went! Whenever I do wings I find myself in wild mad guessing territory, no matter how many bird reference photos I look at

[ekbelsher]

Secret garden 🌿