scalycat

[scalycat]

So, since apparently offering sweets is the way to send an ask these days 😄 Please accept this humble offering: 🍫🍫 (one for you, one for Abel - please share and eat responsibly)

I seem to recall another tag recently where you were pondering drawing Viago and Abel again?! Well, here's to encourage you to, YES, please do that!! 🤣❤️ Your art is wonderful, and I love seeing these characters in your drawing style!

I'll leave another bar of 🍫 for Viago, just to be sure...

Thank you for the sweets, hehe. Are you all trying to make him put on weight? Giving him a dad bod this early in life??

Your timing is perfect though, because I am drawing them again! Brace yourself for a sad little AU... And since it's probably going to take me quite some time to finish, you can have a small work in progress as a preview :)

[scalycat]

The Rook and the Talon

Chapter 10 : The Temple of Fire

Lucanis and the others arrive in the Sulfur Lakes. What will wait for them there ?

Once again, thank you to @scalycat for allowing me to incorporate their Abel de Riva into this fic. Source of the image.

[scalycat]

So, since apparently offering sweets is the way to send an ask these days 😄 Please accept this humble offering: 🍫🍫 (one for you, one for Abel - please share and eat responsibly)

I seem to recall another tag recently where you were pondering drawing Viago and Abel again?! Well, here's to encourage you to, YES, please do that!! 🤣❤️ Your art is wonderful, and I love seeing these characters in your drawing style!

I'll leave another bar of 🍫 for Viago, just to be sure...

Thank you for the sweets, hehe. Are you all trying to make him put on weight? Giving him a dad bod this early in life??

Your timing is perfect though, because I am drawing them again! Brace yourself for a sad little AU... And since it's probably going to take me quite some time to finish, you can have a small work in progress as a preview :)

[scalycat]

hi!! 🍨 i bring ice cream this time because, well, heatwave :D but if it's not hot where you are, theeen… a cookie! 🍪

i randomly remembered the "its always “what the Rook doin” and never “How the Rook doin” tag under your art and now i have the urge to ask Abel how he's doing 😄 and i'm also curious about what he's doing…. any hobbies perhaps? 👀

Hello!! Thanks for the sweets once again hehe

I love when someone notices the useless details I hide in my tags! So thank you for asking, forever the optimist, he would say he's doing pretty well! And he does have a few hobbies, but one pasttime he really enjoys is horseback riding. Abel is a skilled rider, and likes the challenge of handling a stubborn/wild horse, lol. (One day, I will have to explore his adrenaline addiction.) He has his own mare, Thistle, an Orlesian Courser he may or may not have stolen during one of his contracts. Abel sometimes calls her Sneak-Thief because she loves stealing his stuff and running off with it (just like him- who said that?) Thistle is a dog trapped in a horse's body, and she's incredibly sweet to Abel. (A bit less so with Viago)

[scalycat]

Bonus close up 🤗

Gifting knives and exchanging glances in Treviso 💭

[scalycat]

The Rook & the Talon

Chapter 9 : The Lair of the Phantom is now available !

Abel is taking on his mission and Lucanis sets the record straight about Magnus.

Once more, a huge "Thank you." to @scalycat for allowing me to incorporate their Abel de Riva into this fic. Enjoy your reading !

[scalycat]

Gifting knives and exchanging glances in Treviso 💭

[scalycat]

hi!! 🧁 (adding a cupcake so i don't visit you empty handed :D) dunno if this has been asked before, but is there anything Abel is afraid of? or something he tries to avoid whenever possible?

Hello you !

You had me thinking about it for a moment ! He doesn’t have any dramatic phobias (aside from the usual fear of losing your loved ones) and he’s not particularly anxious, but there are a few things that make him uneasy, or at least – uncomfortable.

1. Solitude. Not just being alone - he can handle that, to a degree - but the kind of solitude where no one is around and no one would respond if he called out. He needs to know there are people nearby. He doesn’t need constant company, but he finds comfort in the ambiant proof that the world is still turning, and sleeps best with the faint background noise of a living city.

2. Being restrained. He doesn’t panic, but being stuck, tied up, held down, or unable to move freely makes him visibly uncomfortable. Even in a playful context, once he becomes aware of the restriction, fun ends for him. It’s about the lack of control and command of his own body. The moment that’s taken away, his tolerance evaporates.

Thanks for asking!

PS, and thanks for the cupcake, very kind of you to indulge his sweet tooth. He hopes it’s not mint-flavored, though. He might consider it a hate crime. 😏

[scalycat]

Ayo you do comms?

Hello! No, unfortunately I don't at the moment, sorry. I'm thinking about it though but I'm not decided yet 😬

[scalycat]

Hearing voices again, Rook?

[scalycat]

The Rook & the Talon

Chapter 7 : An Old Friend is now available !

This chapter introduces a new character. A big "Thank you!" to @scalycat who gracefully allowed me to incorporate their Abel de Riva into my fic (the art above is from their blog, feel free to check it out).

[scalycat]

Giving this one its own post🙂‍↕️🫴

[scalycat]

Any tips on how to draw Lucanis? Like your thought process? Yours is the most accurate I’ve seen and I’m in awe 🙇🏽‍♀️

Hello Anon!

I’m incredibly honoured that you like the way I draw Lucanis. I always try my best to get him right, and it can certainly be challenging sometimes.. Faces are one of the hardest things for me to draw. I often redo them again and again until I’m more or less satisfied, so I don’t know if I can really provide a method, but i can definitely share how I approach it if you're interested!

First I gather references. If the ref has the same angle as the face i’m trying to draw, it’s easier, but my process is the same either way: I start by drawing the basic structure of a face (1), and then I add what I think are Lucanis’ most « iconic » features. In my opinion, I think his hairline, nose (if side profile), and the shape of his beard are what make him very identifiable. (2)

I try not to be too attached to his in-game model, focusing only on certain aspects because If I try and stick too closely to my reference to get everything right, it often ends up looking very stiff and I lose the expression of the face. So I pick my battles...

Once I’m done with this, i refine the line a bit more (3) and that’s when I start changing the facial structure to match his. (I add more eyebrow muscle to get his frown right, I adjust the bump of his nose, the angle of his chin and forehead if I need to, I adjust the hair..) I do this step only now because if I try to get the proportions of a character right from the start, I find it a bit more challenging. I have to go through the process of creating a « regular » face first, and then I pimp it, haha.

For the parts of his face that I want to focus on, I try to find reference points on where and how they sit on the face :

Widow’s peak hairline on top, which sits very tightly on the temples. Little bump at the root of the nose, which goes down very straight. Beard has a little « wave » shape after the smile line zone. Etc..

I keep in mind his almond-shaped eyes as well but I don’t really give it a special focus.. (Sometimes the eyes are hard enough as they are, I just draw them randomly, slap some lashes and call it a day..) If i get to the coloring part, I like to add his bottom eyelashes and his signature dark cirlces, and that’s about it.

Here I only tried to get his beard and hair right, the rest was not my focus (for accuracy I mean). I don't know if this will be of any help to you anon, but in any case, good luck with your own art! And thank you again because you gave me a great excuse to draw a portrait of him haha!

[scalycat]

Dad Abel? Dad Abel. He would be a good father :)

[scalycat]

Mapping of Abel's face scars!

[scalycat]

Feeling a bit giddy this morning... sooo I need to know-- will there be another Crow! training session in which Lucanis (tops) wins? Mayhaps? 😏

Maaaaaybe...

A brat, and a brat tamer 🫡 ( Prev > here! )

[scalycat]

I felt like talking about Rookanis sleep routine a bit so… Scraps of headcanons below!

After Endgame, Abel is prone to frequent nightmares. Most of the time, he relives a memory of the fade prison, or a variation. Other times, it’s just bad memories that come back over and over again. He doesn’t wake up with a jolt or anything, but he will mumble, wince and sweat a lot. Lucanis is a light sleeper and usually wakes up at the slightest sound to hold Rook a little tighter. Gently stroking his cheek to ground him out of the nightmare.

If Spite is here, he’ll stay nearby and observe in silence, or leave it to Lucanis if it gets too intense.

But as for their sleeping habits, there’s no assigned big spoon/little spoon. They switch all the time :)

Abel is a walking heater, and he clings a lot in his sleep. It does not bother Lucanis at all :)

Bonus close-ups 😊