#and I had so much fun sketching out the composition for this 😊

[fistfuloflightning]

I’ll never get there, but if I put the work in, maybe I’ll get close enough that I can chase just behind perfection — and have a front-row seat as you achieve it.

Chapter 20, Cultivate by @neonghostcat

[noliaert]

NOLIAERT'S IWTV WIPS

Okay so I thought to show off some of my WIPs for IWTV (amc), especially since I've not managed to finish off most of my WIPS regardless of how excited I have been for them :/ IWTV in 2022 was like a muse to me! I had so many wips! But little or nothing to show for it (cause extensive projects got overwhelming) 😔 I have however finished off 2 loumand pieces since S2 started off, 1 that had too been a wip from 2022 (I'll edit in a link once I post it, I've done so on twitter, but I feel the need to fix on some things... majorly is the issue one of the louis-es as it was a 3, initially 4,-in-1 piece :/ was rushing cause of the looming loumand divorce and doom, otherwise known as S2 "trial" finality, was approaching... and I was feeling 😅 about the reception of softer loumand kisses at the time. Like- timing!)!

1. Batnight: I worked out this timeglass composition to symbolise Louis' transformation into vampirism after he entered that church one fateful night. The trifecta of the vampfam, the time encapsulated by death and by blood, something which Louis seemingly has a different relationship to than most living vampires as the "tortured vampire". All focusing on the drop of blood, but with different expressions. Idk if i should do anything with the background of the bottom half of the timeglass though 🤔I'm meant to sketch out Louis' family and community from the wedding on the top half, as the sun sets (or rise...) behind the family home (sorry), a life now closed off to him. Vampires and bats- uncontested. The church? It is one from New Orleans S1 and I remember asking for the ref, but I am uncertain that it is the correct church when thinking back on it. Which is 🧍 Also as I started on this late 2022, I had only Bailey!Claudia to go off of, which I'll probably stick to for this one. Would be cool with both! But idk if I can extend that energy. I do need to figure out which of her hairstyles to do though 🤔 and I've been learning more about how to draw black hair so that's fun too

CLAUDIA WIPS! (Both from late 2022)

2: For the first one? Something about the tragedy of claudia, for S1, leaning towards the middle, Claudia the child, the eternal teenager, but a breaking into maturity and adulthood, on... the child witnessing the troubles of their parents, and of the child failed by their parents. Claudia standing in ashes alone (oh not the born from ashes turned to ashes 😭 at least she wasn't entirely alone by the end but had someone choose to face the same fate with her over her own living ♡), looked down upon from our pov to showcase her continued positions of disadvantage. Not the most thought out composition or anything, just wanted to draw Claudia, but these were the things I was thinking about while doing so. Also just really want to try make more dynamic compositions. Try that is.

3: The second one is me wanting to either do a 3-piece with smaller edits, or a 3(+?)-in-1, showing off a little vaguely different stages in Claudia's life back in S1. Or maybe a combined 1 if I figure it out. Combining the cutesy and the horror ✌️ Since these were majorly just sketches, I should be able to try draw Delainey!Claudia! And though S2 makes for SO MUCH inspo too, I'm scared to start on more new things. An irony. But I'd like to finish some more ideas.

4 & 5: Lestat wips! First one is really just a sketch trying to capture his face, buuut the second one? My attempts at a gorier more horrific looking corpsestat since I was feeling robbed by the S1 finale? Oh certainly 🙏 gotta figure out how best to pose Claudia and Louis though, to make sure I make the right impression I wanted 🤔 may have to flip him over too... idk just... extensive work, but I've been especially excited about this one as well as batnight (and the soon-to-be-posted loumands)!! Both from late 2022.

6: St. Paul! Ah the brothers! 🙏 the impact his family, and specifically Paul, has on Louis cannot be understated (S2E8 final dubai scene 😊). Kinda get so emotional when I've been rewatching S1E1 too ;-; another wip from 2022! I so rarely have seen pieces of Louis' family, or human family, which is a shame. I really wanted to do one for Louis and Paul though, and so I ended up with this wip meant to symbolically (far from vague though hah) capture some of that "confessional relationship" (can't escape the catholism) they had, but in a more playful youthful setting. Lowkey pointing towards an elevated sainthood of the future dead too. Paul being Louis' closest confidante, and someone who wanted to be a priest. Many thoughts on Paul really. Paul practicing I suppose, during their teenage years, Louis happily entertaining him and then glancing over his shoulder at- I am thinking Grace, their sister. I found the angle of Louis' head challenging though (been feeling intimately on my limitations), and as it is, I need some refs of Jacob to actually capture HIM too, and not just the angle.

Now unfinished iwtv wips from 2024...

Armand wips! But yea, I already had ideas, but I've felt prompted during S2 to draw more Armand due to the whole Assad Zaman fanbook thing that I thought could be nice to join in on. I've struggled to draw though, even if I have finished the 3-in-1 loumand thing and the spontaneous loumand cig-kiss piece, so I was really damn rushing 😅

7: It's possible I'm mixing ideas... different intents. So I'll have to review it again. I wanted one more bitey one, I was thinking of the "easeful death" scene of E5, but with a different angle. Was initially thinking active feeding I think, with half-lidded eyes or direct eye contact... to put emphasis on the darkening of his eyes in those moments. It's funky and I really wanted to draw it, though I guess this is getting too distant to really see it much. Something something generally about vampirism, a general victim, putting emphasis on the blood that they provide. First by extended blood dripping down the throat, now by the body being the blood fully visually. Something classy, yet... I want to reposition the arms and have the head burrowed further into the neck to actively feed as first intended. I also think I am certainly thinking about an intimate art piece for the whole gentlemanly death feel, so maybe i should try actually find the piece for reference. Also, it's not exactly in this sketch, but I too want to have him in that E2 or E3 coven suit, with vague coven/cult figures in the background. We never really see him feed (properly, of a human), but I've been thinking about the... parent providing food for his children thing (motorbike scene E2), or the "let me teach you" of E3... So a "lead by example" sort of thing, like pre of the picture of the mountain lion and her cub feeding of a carcass sort of thing XD leant too much into the whole typical romantic imagery as I kept going and finally got some of that posture right (and so I tought). But these are the ideas ✨️

8: Armand too got ahold of a switch btw <3 Armand and electronics huh, or... not necessarily only electronics and technology. There's a general almost manic curiosity, which is especially found in that one DM chapter that I kind of adore (smh to private island and blabla tho). A mood, though I'm not making ratshakes 🫢 Assad was talking about it too in an interview though, relating to that fascination, so I kinda wanted to make a piece leaning in on that. Had a few vague compositions, some with more of that almost cold intensity of E5, but here he's more just chilling (doesnt mean it doesnt get intense) ^^ I also wanted to display an evolution of technologies, at least within a certain timeframe, so physically stacking a room with different stuff? Like that works XD because I was rushing for the deadline, I fear I only got to send in the wip (one in an even earlier stage than this one)... which is a real shame 😔 I am excited to finish it though!

Anyway 👍

[creatureprofessor]

asking about navigators au jopson😊

Hehe, and I'm glad to answer - and this is gonna be a bit lengthy!

The gist of it is that by the time the AU starts, Thomasin Jopson has been dead for a couple of years. She died on the previous expedition Crozier had been on as a feyguided* navigator (w JCR as captain), and in this universe, navigators have stewards too.

(*Feyguided is an umbrella term in-universe, it refers to anything that isn't a saint or arcane magic, but can aid navigators, and somewhat classifies as an "entity".)

Jopson's condition is called "tethering" & is extremely rare, because it requires a very strong will and desire to remain by one specific person's side in the moment of death. So Jopson is basically tied to Crozier like a bizarre little balloon bc she chose to out of unwavering loyalty, devotion, and love. Actually, she sort of works like daemons from His Dark Materials, in the sense that she can't really be separated from Crozier (by distance) and if she dies, she perma-dies with her.

She can do things independently, like write, organize, do chores, mend, etc., but she needs no food or sleep, so every night she silently floats near Crozier's bed to keep her safe. Her hands are cold to the touch but solid enough when waking from a nightmare.

Generally she looks a bit eerie and hovers a few inches above ground. She is a bit paler than in life, her eyes are even bluer and more unsettling, she has faint tear marks under her eyes, and she looks like she's constantly out in the cold. She wears her nightrobe and stockings - the clothes she died in, but can change into a steward's clothes if required (for that she needs to borrow Crozier's life force for a bit, but it only feels like your blood being taken, it's quickly over). Her hair floats as if she's underwater, and her voice has a slight echo to it.

She can maintain this composure very well, "trouble on the inside needn't show on the outside", but she can get upset or mad, and then this composition can peel away.

This is the only sketch I have of her so far, and here she not too mad, but upset enough that the stray strands of hair that bothered her in life come back down to haunt her once again.

When something truly disturbs her, she unwillingly starts to look like when she died - frostbitten, lashing scars opened up and festering, tears falling down on her cheeks, gaunt and generally in a horrible shape. Lookswise, that form of hers draws some inspiration from the witch matrons from World of Warcraft as well as from The Terror itself.

In this AU i am sort of mixing and matching elements from the show, so the prev. expedition had to face some life-threatening situations (not Tuunbaq and Passage-related) and some freak accidents that made Crozier quit the Admiralty (she's called back by Fitzjames onto a sort of "last mission that will answer all your remaining questions"). But honestly, I wanted to experiment w the idea of a ghost that very much does things as if she was still alive because of how strongly she loves and feels loyal to Crozier.

And yes, she is like a guard dog and even if she can't do you too much harm, she can scream until your eardrums burst and if she's near Crozier, she can in theory kill someone, but she never resorted to that. She hates Hickey the moment her scheme is found out (impersonating Navigator Irving - more on that another time) and hates anything and anyone who can cause chaos and endanger her beloved Francis*, and has a darker streak to her personality that even she prefers not to dredge up - she feels horrified after Hickey gets lashed, not bc of that but bc she realizes that she found some "perverse pleasure" in it.

*Fun fact about AU Crozier: she used to be Frances Crozier but changed her name by a single letter to Francis bc she felt it rolled off the tongue better.

What Jopson does not know is that Crozier too, wanted her to stay and come back to life, so her current situation is a result of that desire also. Crozier was (and is) truly fond of her steward and that may be something even more... However, she also felt guilty after ordering Jopson to be lashed and guilty about what led to her death (partially, her negligence) - she decided to sober up completely after that expedition was over (like I said, I mix & match certain elements), and she is literally haunted by her past mistakes in the shape of her steward, who is doing all this haunting benevolently, but the nagging guilt will always be there. Has she done things differently, would Jopson still be alive? She may never know, but she does muse sometimes about the what ifs. But at the end of the day, neither of them are aware of the extent of the other's love - for now (?).