shadesmcgee

[shadesmcgee]

So I'm about done designing the characters for my Iliad retelling called "The Golden Thread of Fate" and I finally designed Patroclus. I originally had him with short hair and he ended up looking too much like Paris and I was like "well that can't work!" So I ended up giving him long hair instead. And y'know I actually really like him with long hair! It works pretty well for him!

[shadesmcgee]

I'm so mad I can feel the burnout creeping over the horizon and I just . NO!!! LEMME WRITE MORE OF MY ODYSSEY RETELLING!!!!! LEMME DRAW ODYSSEUS AS MUCH AS I WANT DAMNIT!!!

[shadesmcgee]

I'm now 134 pages into my Odyssey retelling, The Harpy of Ithaca!!! 🎉🎉🎉

[shadesmcgee]

Just

Dumps Antinous' rough here.

This is my fifth attempt at drafting a design for him lmao and I'm at least more happy with this than the others! So, that is progress at least!

[shadesmcgee]

Also! Note to self!!! Make sure you get ALL YOUR DUCKS (characters) IN ORDER *first* before you start building the plot of the Iliad retelling when you begin to work on that future me! To save you the trouble of going, "well shoot, I forgot so and so, and now I have to go back and rewrite all this to add them in :/"

I already have the characters I'm using planned but I need to go back, go over them, and make sure that I didn't miss anyone important. I will do that later.

[shadesmcgee]

Suddenly remembered that Antinous exists and I'm now adding him to my retelling LMAO. Thankfully adding him isn't going to like mess anything up egregiously, it will just take a few scene rewrites on my part and rewriting the scene when Odysseus comes back and begins killing the suitors and whatnot. So overall not a BIG change, but a change nonetheless. And simple one at that.

Now I just need to design him and give him a ref. I'll draft his design out later today I think at lunch during work/between projects.

[shadesmcgee]

Finished Scylla's ref! And this marks my first digital art of 2025!

This was tons of fun to work on, and I'm looking forward to drawing her more!!

[shadesmcgee]

And the first art of 2025!! Some doodles to get used to two new oc, Dionysia and Tharros! And then a wip of Scylla's ref! Well an earlier version of her ref, I've added some more things to it since this specific version. And honestly I thought of a few more things to add to it when I'm home tonight.

Scylla was a bit of a challenge to design, but overall I'm pretty happy with her design! Figuring out colors will kick my ass I think lol, but it will be a fun process! Also she can unhinge her jaw, by a large margin.

[shadesmcgee]

Last art of 2024!! And it's Odysseus, no one is surprised lmfao. I experimented a little with this one, and it's...weird seeing him in a different color palette lol.

[shadesmcgee]

I can't stop drawing these two lmao

[shadesmcgee]

My Odyssey retelling got me like

[shadesmcgee]

And last but not least, the harpies of my retelling! All but Calypso (the last one, I took some liberties with her in this retelling lmao) are a part of a harpy flock that Odysseus stumbles upon and then gets stuck in for a week. Well Aello isn't a part of the flock, but she's a part of the original 300 handmaidens that make up the original harpies.

Their names are: Eutropia, Aello, Syntyche (the leader of the flock), Thrinia and Calypso!

Thrinia ends up befriending Odysseus and helping him hold onto his humanity in the flock as they try to rip it away from him. Eventually she joins him on his journey home.

Also all the harpies patterns/colorization are based on real birds!! Which I had a LOT of fun with!

[shadesmcgee]

Been knocking out refs for "The Harpy of Ithaca" my Odyssey retelling! Primarily Becasue I like having finished refs for my ocs, and also this helps me when I describe them as I write, Becasue I'm actively writing my Odyssey retelling as a novel rn.

In order: Polites, Eurymachus, Eurylochus, Ctimene, Circe, and Anticlea!

[shadesmcgee]

NYOOM

[shadesmcgee]

the curse is lifted! you are no a beast no more! congratulations! but you'll never forget the way they looked at you, will you.

[shadesmcgee]

Another EPIC inspired doodle!

[shadesmcgee]

Doodles of Eurylochus and Polites as I get used to drawing their designs that I did at work today! I'm still figuring it out 😂