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Ah! Worldbuilding stuff!

This one is still highly in development, and if you’ve seen the maps, this is completely irrelevant. Now that I think about it I should really have tags or something to help differentiate them. Honestly, maybe separate blogs would be better. I could reblog into other blogs! Wouldn’t that be perfect. Actually, I think I might just do that then.

ANYHOW.

More on the world!

I’ve no intentions to spill all the beans just yet, and honestly there’s a whole lot of uncooked ones in there, but the basics are as follows:

THIS is a world between the realms of life and death, conscious and cadaver. It is beyond the unconscious, but what penetrates it are dreams. Dreams make up the basis of life here. They are the source of all matter, all energy, and all physics. They shape what would otherwise be a void.

Souls aren’t supposed to exist here, but some get trapped between where they are supposed to be.

Normally, souls would be the driving force of this world, what with them being a collection of dreams, and they would be rather distant from this world altogether. But a soul inside the world, oh they’re a walking target for things that eat dreams. Something that is a near undying source of energy and radiating dreams wherever it goes? The dream creatures would see a hamburger with legs!

And these two folks are a couple of the unlucky souls stuck here, poor them.

About the drawing, though!

The jellyfish are probably the biggest thing anyone would wonder about, so I’ll just address that.

See, unlike down in our world, there’s no stars in this place, and it’s perpetually nighttime. Though, if you gaze up at the sky you might see something that resembles stars, but they move! You’d be seeing jellyfish. Like stars, they look small, but in actuality they’re monumental things. Maybe not quite as big as a star, but probably bigger than a house.

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Heheh

Roz sketches

I finally got to watching this film and it is absolutely wonderful. Roz is wonderful, I love how natural her arc feels, the events that pulled her to breaking her programming and coming to terms with who she was outside of what she was made to be.

Ahh! So good. I was wondering how accurate it was when people would say “This is one of the best Dreamworks movies ever made” but they’re right, I think. Dreamworks has done well!

I’d say more but I rather not spoil things.

If you haven’t watched the movie, please do, it’s refreshing to see in the midst of the live action remake sludge that has littered the modern film landscape.

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World Map!

Was this unnecessary? Yes. Definitely. I did not have to make this whole map for my worldbuilding stuff, I really didn’t, but it makes things so much easier to visualize!

Now when I talk about geopolitics I can point to a map and say “this one right here, that’s the dictatorship that is horribly xenophobic and has a massive ego but gets away with it because good trade relations!” (Top right, if you were curious)

I worked this place ground up from plate tectonics and placed biomes with the help of geological features and ocean currents. I couldn’t poured rice onto a piece of paper and traced it, but a reason for everything!

I will admit that it is quite inaccurate and probably needs to be reworked, but I’m very proud.

Now, the nations in this world have been jam packed with lore, and while I’d love to ramble about that here, it would take forever and be an organizational nightmare.

But then again, giving you a map with names, telling you it’s cool, and then telling you I’ll elaborate maybe some other time is anticlimactic, sad, droll what have you, and I don’t want this to be any of those things!

So, instead, I’ll give you a reason to stay tuned…

With some wonderful highlights of what’s to come!

Introducing:

Aureole!

Self proclaimed “City of Sunshine” smack in the middle of a hellscape of their own making! They have lots of territory, most of it inhabitable!

Viru!

The only city where magic isn’t outlawed, and also drives half the economy by supplying the black market which everyone else pretends to hate!

Transoceanic Links!

Neutral territory, very hard to live in. Natural habitat of sea serpents and pirates.

Senit!

They haven’t noticed the entire secret city under the mountain range yet, and they probably never will!

Capitulum!

They built their capital on a giant tree! Bad design? Maybe! But it doesn’t seem to be anywhere close to dying yet.

Township of Nivalis!

Not a lot of land, but a really scary Navy.

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I was getting inspired by all the Over the Garden Wall art that kept passing me, so I decided to do a quick drawing of this guy.

It’s a bit late for this to be in the spirit of halloween, but it is anyhow, because I like the spooky season. And I also really like this show, and this dog. Such a good dog when it’s not trying to kill people!

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I love this very much, it’s like biology Sherlock Holmes gig, fascinating stuff. You never even think about a lot of this but it makes perfect sense! It gives you that same, “How did I ever miss it!”

Could you imagine a parody of Sherlock Holmes but it’s like Shark Tales? I’d say Finding Nemo but Shark Tales has a fish mafia so it’s better suited.

But my point is fish Sherlock could use the different biological differences in fish to figure out what species the villain of the week is and it could be like a kids educational show.

What would you call it?

Sealock Holmes and Dr. Washedson

I swear it’s a marketable pitch.

The body shape of a fish can tell you a lot about it! It can tell you where they like to hang out, how they hunt, what they eat, and more!

Let's use the Asian Arowana (Scleropages formosus) as an example!

Based off the rounded caudal fin (the "tail"), this fish is not a very fast swimmer

Having the dorsal fin and anal fin right near the end of the fish's body suggests it is an ambush predator

The flat head suggests it hunts at the surface

The upturned, large mouth suggests it catches its prey from below

Arowana are ambush predators that hunt at the surface!

They don't need to go very far very fast, hence the rounded caudal fin (which is the slowest moving fin)

Having posterior dorsal and anal fins are a common trait amongst ambush predator

They primarily hunt at the surface! They will sit near the surface and grab small fish, bugs, crustaceans, and even occasionally a bird!

4. Fish that catch their prey from below sometimes do it via suction. They'll open their large mouth, and as the water gets sucked in, so does anything in the water. And the larger the mouth, more water will more quickly fill into the mouth, catching larger and faster prey

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Propaganda on how to avoid propaganda I bet, it already looks like a marketing pitch, in full S.M.I.L.E. fashion.

I can’t wait for a finished version whenever that happens, I’ll be watching it day in day out for a week.

Just want to share this very quick oh you bet it not finished heh looks at camera

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Jeepers, it’s really tempting to just leave a bit of art like this and then vanish with no context but that seems a bit too much like I’m screaming into some kind of void.

Actually I guess this technically still counts into screaming into some kind of void because I don’t know how tumblr…works? I don’t mind being unseen in the eyes of the vast public currently, I fully believe if I just stay active and keep posting things people will eventually congregate into some amorphous blob I can then manipulate with all the various subliminal messaging in my art.

Haha what? who said that? I’m joking though (for now in this case) because this art doesn’t have anything like that.

But I must satisfy the people who don’t like reading so before the text strays too far from the image…

TL:DR Folks it’s a deceptively peaceful scene, in actuality what you’re seeing is a picture straight from one of the most inhospitable places in this fictional world!

And now if you’ll follow me to the context…

This is a thing I drew for some worldbuilding I’m doing. The location is an environment that was once a rainforest, but too much farming and industry turned it into a bit of a hellscape.

Centuries after, the people have - mostly - learned the errors of their ways and the vegetation is reclaiming the land once more, albeit slowly. Very slowly, for the atmosphere is crippled and the land lacks nutrients, so grass practically owns the landscape, and makes trees kind of a rarity.

It does rain around here, but without a mass of trees the further into the hellscape you travel the less rainfall you’ll see, and the more wildfires because phoenixes absolutely adore a nice sun scorched savannah, it’s practically a playground for them.

Of course, despite all that, where there’s plants, there’s animals to eat those plants, and those wyverns sure animals.

They are grazers, not likely as big as what you may be imagining, they’re a bit smaller than the size of your average coyote. They can also fly, which is helpful in a place that is so hot and dry it spontaneously combusts.

Y’know what auto ignition is? It’s a term that’s used to describe an environment that has enough heat, oxygen, and fuel to get a fire going without a spark. Usually it happens in burning buildings, or where there’s a fuel that’s really combustible.

So, yes, this place is that inhospitable. You thought deserts were bad? Imagine being a dehydrated traveler trying to get through THIS place and suddenly everything from the grass snagging at your clothes to your hat is on fire. So yeah, flying is useful for running away.

Note there’s no real megafauna in this place, it’s not possible, you get caught too far from what remains of the rainforest on a particularly hot day, and can’t book it before noon you’re dead.

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I want to say this looks like stained glass, and it does, but I don't know if that would be apt. Y'know what else it looks like? Colorful tissue paper pressed until wrinkle free and laid over a collage, backlit by sunlight. Something about it is so kaleidoscope as well, holograms? Whatever it resembles, I love it.

Ooorion boy ohyeah

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You are so good at hiding, Roz

I haven’t watched this movie yet I haven’t watched it yet but ohhh I have to! I’ve even drawn my own fanart of it in appreciation for the trailer, which hasn’t seen the light of day, and I’m not letting it out until I’ve seen the source material!

Anyhow, Robotic, your line weight has always been so pleasing to look at and I get very happy when I look at your work

roz my beloved..

I have been fixating on this movie so I sketched her a little hehehehhn

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I like one Over the Garden Wall post and tumblr decides it’s my whole personality

I am so here for it though, this fandom is so full of amazing artists. The textures in this piece, goodness, wonderful!

🍂 ‘When death’ll close my eyelids

And my race on earth is run,

Will you miss me when I’m gone?’ 🍂

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Hello hello!

I’m Squawk, I can draw, look at this art! I’m struggling to figure out what exactly to say here, hah, but super cool to be here.

First post on Tumblr wahoo!

Alright, not really, because I had an account before this with a grand total of four-ish posts and a couple reblogs which I started…last year? Not sure, I didn’t exactly scrutinize the thing before I drove a wrecking ball through it. I’d like to tell you that I forgot about my first blog because life happened and my muse was shattered or some other soulful reason, and that would make for such a nice narrative, but alas that’s not the case.

The truth is more like “I was too lazy to log in and post stuff and apparently tumblr just got an update or something and everyone says it’s more confusing and OF COURSE I could install the app to make posting things more convenient but then I’d have to open my phone, click on the app store, type the individual letters T-U-M-B-L-E-R, realize it’s wrong, backtrack, install the app, log into the app, and ughhhhh so much work!”

And THEN my muse was shattered and I forgot about it.

But finally, after what was probably approximately a year, I have done it! I’ve installed tumbler I- I mean, tumblr. I pat myself on the back and hope this one also doesn’t die because I do actually want to make myself a little corner of the internet online outside of instagram (Because I don’t really like instagram much anyhow).

I have a blog now!

Probably just going to drop art here, for the most part.

I did learn the workings of this platform a while ago, but my memory is about as solid as air and most of my knowledge has evaporated, so it’s time to ride the learning curve again!