isleofavalonart

[isleofavalonart]

I started a pathfinder game recently! Meet Sgyri, my deaf fetching thaumaturge who collects memories, stories, forgotten things, people, objects, etc. because she feels a kinship with them. She keeps her trinkets in a hand made cabinet backpack that in my head is kinda like a cabinet of holding. Though if you ask my DM, they might have other ideas.

Her name is from me smashing together “superior frontal gyru” which is a part of the brain that deals with sensory awareness.

Our campaign is set on a school campus and animal sanctuary where everyone on campus finds a familiar on the first day that becomes theirs for the rest of their lives. Sgyri’s is an ethereal leopardtera named Saturn!

[isleofavalonart]

Haeca, my beloved.

Haeca is an atheris viper, also known as a bush viper, which are one of the most venomous snakes in the world.

Haeca was a subject of experimentation by a vampiric cult, primarily looking at the hemotoxic qualities of her venom. At one point however, they removed sections of her scales which never fully healed. They also removed one eye before Rem rescued her.

Now she is a free roaming, emotional support familiar. She is rarely if ever away from Rem whenever she goes out. Haeca is a very sweet girl once you get on her good side but before that it’s best not to get too close. Her favorite place to sleep is a massive monstera plant in Rem’s bedroom.

Coloring this took a very long time because I forgot that I didn’t need to color in every scale individually until about halfway through. You live and you learn. Also because I lost my pencil sharpener and dull colored pencils are my worst enemy.

[isleofavalonart]

I had a D&D game for a while when my friends noticed I wasn't super into my character and they said "you know you can make another one right?"

This led to a solid two months of character building. I realized I always made D&D characters like novel characters and those are two very different things.

So meet Remrys (Rem for Short)! Rem started as a circle of mutation druid which is a homebrew subclass from the Grim Hollow players guide but then we ended up switching systems to Mage the Ascension. It was really interesting to basically make a human AU of her and figure out, not only what stays the same, but experiment with ways to allude to those previous mutations and design choices.

Her base backstory remained fairly similar. She was a medical student in New Orleans when she was kidnapped and experimented on by a vampiric cult for two years. She awakened to her magic because she was quite literally bleeding out on the floor as a ritual sacrifice and was so fucking furious about it that she basically didn’t die through magical willpower.

She was rescued, along with her familiar Haeca, and now the major trust issues and PTSD she already had are a thousand times worse! But hey, most of her cabal is like that too in some shape or form, so whether she likes it or not, she's making friends (and she does begrudgingly like it.)

[isleofavalonart]

Let me tell you a tale of ADHD and the too much gene.

I recently moved to a different state to start graduate school. I moved a whole month early because I’m disabled and know I require a shit ton of decorations to feel comfy in my house, which requires a lot of work.

For some reason I decided a week in to start repainting my bookshelf. This bookshelf was already painted blue and had some spindly gold stars. I imagine a teenager painted it since that’s the kinda thing I did at that age, but who knows.

I have no ability gauge how long projects will take, it took multiple evenings painting for 4+ hours to realize, I’d fucked up.

By the time my semester started I’d finished one side and half of the top. I’m proud of my focus for that. But it took another month before I finished varnishing that side and painted the other half of the top.

This was a problem because I keep many knick knacks on top my bookshelf and I couldn’t do that until it was finished. So they sat in a box in the middle of my living room forever, taking up space and acting as toe stubbing fodder. Until one day, miraculously, I had the energy, not to go to class, but to paint the top and arrange knick knacks.

“What about the other side?” you may ask. Shhhh. We don’t talk about that side. (It’s unpainted and shoved against a wall to hide my shame.)

[isleofavalonart]

I finally finished my sketchbook! It literally took an entire year but here she is!

Through this adventure I learned how to:

Dye linen thread (ft. So much math. Fabric dyes never have instructions for small amounts of material. Special shout out to my dad for being a homie and helping me convert from imperial/volume based measurements to metric/weight based ones. He saved me many hours of turmoil)

Measure hole sizes and use post screws

Cut and drill through acrylic sheets without shattering them (and to drill bigger than the screw size when working with rigid material)

Make book cloth adjacent cover material out of fabric. (Aka glue fabric to paper then to cover. No more unravelling)

I also learned to stop expecting anything that relies on extremely specific and tiny measurements with literally no wiggle room for human error to work out well. (Covering that last book board frame layer was a ✨problem✨)

I was also finally able to stop being such a perfectionist when the cover holes didn’t align in all four places, as evident by my weaving thread through it and calling it a day.

(Listen, aligning three layers worth of hole punches is really hard and I’m mathematically challenged. I literally had to relearn how to read a ruler correctly for some reason during this project.)

Despite the many many challenges, I am extremely proud of how this turned out!! I’m also very happy to have an actual sketchbook again so I can stop carrying around individual pieces of paper to draw on :DDD

[isleofavalonart]

I've been working on my next sketchbook since July of 2023. As of posting, it is still not bound yet because I decided to make this drawing into the cover. The design of that is now trying to mimic a pinned insect display and turns out drilling holes into very thin slices of book board is difficult!

For all of my recent sketches I've just been taking single signatures out, drawing my thing for a couple days, and then returning them to my stack.

Honestly this sketchbook might be full before I finish binding it. But I will get around to finishing it.

Eventually.

[isleofavalonart]

Talk about a glow up and also getting good.

I redrew a character a couple weeks back. I first started noodling around with her during Artober in 2018. Since then I’ve written multiple versions of a short story that included her and taken that world building to mesh with my current long-form original writing project. Turns out character design is easier when you know where they’re coming from.

Ink is a nightmare-mage, one of three types of magic users in that world (the others being Dream mages and Memory Eaters.) All mages of Ink’s kind are carriers of a deadly plague of the mind that is ravaging the world.

In Ink’s case it has spread to the point that her jaw is made of plague tar which necessitates a metal replacement. The other main side effect is that she breathes toxic infectious gas when she’s emotional (thus the gas mask.)

Everyone is obviously having a really fun not at all contentious time.

Needless to say I think the new version of her is way cooler. Will that world and story keep changing? 100%, but it’s still cool right now too, if you ask me.

Anyway tune in 6 months from now for the next installment of whatever this was.

[isleofavalonart]

Every year, despite being a human who loves Spooky Season so much that I commit to being spooky all year round, I forget to think of a costume. Mostly because time is fake.

Most years that means I don’t have a costume which is always disappointing. This year however, it meant a week prior, with $15 and a dream!

I decided to finally make a mothman costume.

This version of Mothman is colloquially known in my house now as: Bucket Hat Mothman (Southern Belle flavored)

Admittedly it’s a bit of a mouthful. But I’m so proud of how it turned out and of my ability to make a decent costume primarily with supplies and clothes I already had!

It truly was a team effort though! I have great ideas, but often have my brain short circuit when it comes to execution.

But I was saved from many hours of stress by my friend Jane and my mom!

Jane helped me figure out how to attach the antenna without having a structure that would stab me in the scalp (I was just gonna accept my fate previously tbh)

My mom offered an idea that helped stabilize them so they didn’t flop around like crazy!

Crowd sourcing, we love to see it.

The best part of this hat is that it’s really pretty functional so I’mma wear it when I do convention work because my previous goofy con thing has been retired.

Happy Halloween! And remember to Live, Laugh, and

Lurk

[isleofavalonart]

“Understand the Scary Things”, 6in x 6in, Ink and Finetec Pearlescent Watercolors on paper.

It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that I love The Narcissist Cookbook. I recently got to see them in concert with Bug Hunter this last June!

And this piece would not be the first time TNC’s lyrics have inspired my work. Especially after that concert. Though this one is perhaps more overt.

“Matador” just hit different with the lyric(s): It's a reminder not to lock the scary things away…/We don't run/From these things here…/Ideally we don't even fight them/We just see them/look directly at them/Try to understand them

It’s a good reminder and something I’ve been trying to do a lot more, this year especially.

[isleofavalonart]

Welcome to this adventure!

I’m glad you’re here!

I’m Avalon or Av, She/They. I got a fun About page for all your “who are you? What do you make?” needs!

However, here is some at a glance information about this blog.

This is an 18+ blog, my creative work often leans towards darker themes. I’ll tag to the best of my abilities, but I also expect people to curate their own experiences. For a general idea of more specific triggering themes, please see the about page.

Please take care of your own well-being! This blog will be here if/when you feel up to it!

Some guidelines for this blog:

If I want critique I will ask for it. Otherwise, assume I am not looking for it! Do not give me unsolicited feedback, I will block you.

Be respectful and kind. Again, a lot of my work engages with darker themes and as such it is extremely important that nobody is a dick about it to me or anyone else.

Don’t be a bigot. Of any kind. I’m not dealing with that shit.

A heads up if you want to ask something/otherwise contact me and you’re on desktop. Tumblr causes some shenanigans on the ask page with the theme I’m using. It will strobe/flicker/jump if you try to use it, so please feel free to message me on my main blog @rainbownomja

If you’re interested in commissioning me, please take a look at my commissions page for more information.

Visual Art Tag: Art @ The Round Table

Writing Tag: Legend has it