cryptfly

[cryptfly]

So that's all folks. TikTok is now inaccessible in the US. I've been there since 2017. It's been so central to me since then, every day I would at least check-in. It's going to be difficult without it and I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Please enjoy this edit of my work that I put a lot of effort into.

[cryptfly]

The first in my tiktok post mortem. The Goddess of Obsession was the work of a single night, though I made something like 30 videos of her. I redesigned her to be more snakelike to play off the makeup you can’t quite see in those screenshots. They look a bit like cobra markings so I went full throttle to make her that much more unsettling. The tag was started by Noell_cosplay, who is a friend of mine.

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TikTok is getting banned and I'm going to make art about it.

I joined TikTok in 2017, back when it was still Musical.ly. Until around mid-to-late 2020, TikTok was absolutely dominated by cosplayers doing dances and lipsyncs—really incredible stuff. A subsection of that was a thriving community of Original Character cosplayers. Someone would make a tag with a theme, usually something supernatural like vampires or fairies or demons, and make a costume and makeup out of what they had on hand. It was an ever-shifting, ever-new, ever-weird cauldron of creativity.

I was one of those people! I gained some mild popularity at it and for a while it was my favorite and most exhilarating form of self-expression and art. Was it peculiar? Sure. Cringey? Eat my ass, normie. I made many characters, had a great time, and made some of the best friends I will ever have. We created communities of like-minded strange little weirdos (I get to say that not you) and I'm still in one, going strong, though we have moved to a private server and most write these days.

While going through my videos I revisited these characters I personally portrayed and felt such warmth and gratitude towards them. Many of my videos fell short of my vision, however, due to a lack of space, equipment, skill, and so on. But I have pretty solid digital art skills these days and I have decided to embark on a new project. I am going to draw most if not all those characters, the way I envisioned them. Or would have designed them if I could have. Some may still look like me, some may not.

To me, this is how I honor and respect that era of my life. None of that creativity and drive was wasted, each piece was a part of me I wanted to explore in the most over-the-top and dramatic way. It would be so easy to look back at it and think it was embarrassing, but I'm refusing to. I love myself and I love each of these characters for different reasons.

I hope you enjoy my series of what is essentially self-portraits.

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Gathering for a portrait... the Circle of 9, formidable all, for @jawsandbones - compelling and terrifying characters to play against in her homebrew D&D campaign <3

Some closeups! definitely click for full view, landscape images are tricky to share on here 🥺

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Tethys of the Deep, Mother of the Ocean, Nurse of the Waters. This is a redraw of one of my first forays into digital art and I really love how this turned out! She’s a character in a long time rp I’m in. It’s important to note she’s also several stories long. Big.

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Nerevar thousands of years late with guarbucks

-Please do not reupload/edit/use without proper credit, ask first please-

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The Gatekeeper by Artur Nakhodkin

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So I’ve never needle felted before but uh? Kwama forager?

just on a whim.. idk that he looks good but he’s a kwama 👍

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It's that time of year again! For the past few years I have made myself an elaborate planner and then provided the PDFs for free on my Ko-fi for anyone to use. Happy New Year!

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On bluesky people are posting their favorite illustrations they've done this year and I pick this one! Sometimes I think "I would really like to make dynamic character portraits with dramatic lighting and poses and expression" but goddamn designing clothes just makes me so happy. The amount of time I spent staring at this and various references is just wild and I love how they all turned out.

Here's to more elf obsessions in the new year!

All I ever want to do is play dress up with my dollies. Here’s Rinsea, my ESO main, in some various ceremonial garbs she’s picked up during her adventures. More info under the cut.

Champion of Vivec

She would rather you think of her being the City’s champion than the God-King’s, but here we are. I obviously based it on the Buoyant Armiger’s glass armor. She’s not officially a Buoyant Armiger or anything, but she does get some fancy glass armor pieces for official occasions which she does not attend. This is also partially based on Bajoran liturgical wear because I like it very much.

Champion of Sotha Sil

Technically she’s the champion of the Clockwork City but that was very long to put on her picture lmao. I don’t think Seht would have gotten her any ceremonial wear honestly, but since it’s basically a standard Clockwork Apostle outfit, I like to think that one of that order got her this, something fine and suited to the environment as a thanks for saving their sadboi God. Drawing the armor pieces was really fun and satisfying and they turned out way better than I was expecting.

Champion of Almalexia

Once again I changed the actual title given to fit the picture. Almalexia actually named her a Hand! However as we all know, a Hand of Almalexia is a specific kind of Ordinator and Rin is not actually inducted into that order. She’s a Hand because Ayem says so but that doesn’t actually give her any rank or anything. Instead of giving her Ordinator armor, I gave her a fancy gown. I think Ayem did this with a touch of vanity-isn’t my Hero so beautiful, a true Daughter of Morrowind I am such a proud Mother. Also, I really wanted to draw a pretty dress and no one can stop me. I based some of the details off Kirkbride drawings of Almalexia herself.

Urshilaku Clanfriend

In my personal canon of the story, the Vvardenfell quest happened first for Rin and took around little over a year and in that time she became a Clanfriend among Ashlanders. Her father, Gares, had been an Ashlander until he was forced to flee with his infant daughter and when she returned on what seemed to be Temple business, they were wary of her. But she made herself useful and was unfailingly polite and she was folded into much of their life. I like that while the other outfits look designed and tailored to suit her, her Ashlander gear almost looks like hand me downs and mended pieces. She wasn’t given new and special clothes, she was trusted with clothes worn by the tribe, inviting her into the family itself. These clothes look nice but also like something she work in side by side with the Ashlanders.

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Sotha Sil by Michael Kirkbride (source)

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Oh man, drawing requests? How about Nerevar being briefly happy with Almalexia?

Them <3

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Well hello there, why are you trending?

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Azura Lady of Dusk and Dawn, Mother of the Rose, is still a Daedric Prince and should get to be a bit of a monster sometimes. As a treat.

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I wasn't prepared for this dialog

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Dear everyone who draws Morrowind fanart here on tumblr

You are all utterly insane

I love you

Light of my life

[cryptfly]

“Give no instruction to who have already come to know love.”