#and then the pondside drawing

[purple-the-turtle]

Help the insecurity is winning

[buncade]

Pondside

One last Autumn painting before its Christmas time. Oh overly rendered drawings. my beloved. This was a Ponytown screenshot redraw (seen below). Also trying some more semi realism cus im bored from drawing cartoons

If you see me on ponytown- whisper me hi!

[01solarsmiles]

fae of the air. a story of deception and little truth. with mark lee.

synopsis: it’s been years since mark joined your realm, and for the mot part, you’ve not been his biggest fan. your mother – the queen of rivermond – has orchestrated your life up until now, wanting to be in control of anything and everything. little does she know that she’s far from in control and she might just drive you to defecting to somewhere less… magical. with the fae playing cruel tricks on mark one minute and acting like his friend the next you start to lose your patience and begin slipping up with your secret plans. not to mention you’ve been successful for years without being noticed but more recently things have been going wrong and you can sense someone spying on you. do you ask for help or work through it all? the lies and deception included?

tl;dr: a story of deception and little truth

genre: magic, faerie!au, mark is mortal

warnings: swearing, unrequited love, themes of bullying bc fae are cruel creatures, mutual frustration, mutual pining, deception (bc fae are good at that since they can’t lie), a little bit of fondling, a couple of steamy kisses, loving gazing

wordcount: maybe 1k here

tags: @kiri-ah​ i don't know if you remember me saying in one comment off of a inbox message i sent to brooke about this and i remember having a note saved somewhere with your tag saved. so if this is still of interest. here you go.

a/n: this has easily been sat in my drafts for over a year now but over the course of this year i’ve been finding time to build and write this au. it’s something that makes me really happy and keeps me occupied on my days off. this is possibly the biggest project i’ve done yet. it requires a lot of world building – especially if you’re unfamilliar with holly black’s cruel prince series. or even her modern faerie tales series. her writing amazes me and basically i’ll never amount to something like her but here’s my go at something i’m passionate about. thank you. enjoy. below are some snippets from what i have written.

“He’s…” she hesitates, fingers still and dropping her dress as her eyes move to meet yours,  “human.”

The book in your lap slams shut and you move to stand, from underneath the tree you had been using for shade, on your slippered feet, astonished with the words that had just left her mouth.

“My mother approved this?”

She nods, silently, eyes carefully watching you.

A human was joining your classes. One that your mother had approved of too.

Today, like most of your waking moments, you were at the pondside, studying. Your teacher had taken to studying in the dusk of the evening wanting you to enjoy the particularly fragrant air as the sun set before jumping into the astrophysics of the universe. Mark, as usual, sat closer to the back, a soft floof of hair bent towards his writing paper as he fiddled with a lamp a blacksmith had gifted him. You assumed there was some kind of trick to it but nothing ever came of it but it worked just fine for the boy and never faltered or distracted any of the fae during class so there was no room to complain.

Yuta, a pink haired selkie, had taken a liking to the boy, infatuated with Mark’s round ears and unwebbed feet. It was oddly overbearing but you never said anything, doing your best to keep your distance as you had found it rather irritating trying to talk to the boy.

“Mark,” Yuta says in a loud sing-song voice, drawing shapes with his finger on Mark’s paper, “has anyone ever told you that you have such lovely ears? They’re so… perfect. Even with their imperfections.”

The rest of the group was busy talking amongst themselves but quietened down to tune in to the conversation without actually stopping their own conversations.

Mark lifts his head, cheeks flushed from either embarrassment from the attention being dragged his way or from the odd compliment of sorts, and says, “Yes. Usually it’s you who likes to point out my lack of pointed ears.”

Yuta grins, happy to have had an effect on him, “Well, I do think that it is a rather remarkable feature of yours – what with being human and all…”

“What in Queen Estrellica’s name do we do now?”

The panic in Mark’s voice was evident, catching you off guard and far from knowing what to do next, you edge closer to him, leaning on the heels of your bare feet – possibly not the best decision you had made, after all the information Mark had given you regarding the Human world. Not that you didn’t know the bare basics.

But you were finally here, the very thing you had been working up to for as long as you could remember and Mark had helped you get here.

afterword: so. here it is. updated whenever. there’s no schedule. only me doing my bit here and there. please enjoy.

[ryukyuan-sunflower]

The Art of Samurai Champloo’s Opening Credits (and Fuugen?!)

Samurai Champloo, has some very clear symbolic images shown in the opening credits in order to represent the three main protagonists.

But these are not merely just drawings made for the anime. These are actual paintings from the Tokugawa Era. I like that the characters found in the Edo Era, are being represented by actual Edo Era art.

Ito Jakuchu (1716-1800) was a famous painter from the Tokugawa Era with Zen Buddhist philosophies. He was well known for paintings of nature and animals, particularly of birds. His art was so lifelike and so stylistic for the time period, it is clear he used actual live specimens for models in painting.

All of the Samurai Champloo “totems” that are shown of the characters are Ito Jakuchu’s work found in the collection of scrolls called 動植綵絵, Dōshoku Sai-e, "Pictures of the Colorful Realm of Living Beings". However, the images have been rearranged, reversed, and recolored, with only parts of the paintings showing.

Here are some examples:

Mugen

“Roosters”

Roosters are considered holy in Japan, due to their association with dawn, the sun and Amaterasu. They are also considered courageous and protective, due to fending off other roosters to protect their mates. Because of their aggression towards other roosters, cockfights have been a blood sport for thousands of years. Ito Jakuchu also did paintings of roosters and hens circling one another in mating dances, so perhaps there is a romantic element to this.

We all know how many times Mugen saved Fuu...

”Nandina and Rooster”

The Nandina plant in Japanese culture is called “Sacred Bamboo” and is important to Shintoism, same as the rooster. Its Japanese name “Nanten” means “Southern Skies”, which to me, relates to Mugen in that he is from the far south of Japan in the Ryukyuan Islands. Nanten also has a double meaning in that it means “problems which turn for the better.” Mugen, whose life was full of conflict, was seemingly a wild and problematic bodyguard, but ended up taking his duty very seriously and aiding Fuu greatly.

What strikes me most about this, is the small orange bird above the rooster. Twice in the anime, Mugen is watched by a bird from above, both in episode 14 and also episode 26. The bird is also orange in color, which was Fuu’s original character design, and also the color of her kimono in the opening credits. This is just me overthinking it, though...

Jin

Jin’s association to water symbolizes serenity and peacefulness. It is then a funny irony that he himself is terrible at fishing, and could not even catch an eel in a bucket in episode 11 either, until Shino did for him. Shino also seemed to have association with water, due to her metaphor about “eels being like women” and holding them down, will only make them run away.

In Japanese culture, the octopus is a symbol of a heavy workload, and of someone who has too many things to do. Jin was indeed, very responsible when it came to making money for the group...

Fuu

“Vegetables and Insects”

The panning of vegetables and the butterfly can be found here.

The butterfly in Japanese culture, can represent a young girl spreading her wings, and entering womanhood, much as Fuu did with her journey.

“Rooster and Sunflowers”

This one specifically, really strikes me...

Fuu’s background image...comes from the picture of sunflowers and a rooster together. Combined with all the other insane amount of Fuugen stuff I’ve posted about, this one just makes me happy, whether it was intentional or not. It adds to everything else. I just couldn’t help the passing thought of “Was Fuugen there all along since the opening credits?”

Other Imagery

This lizard can be found in “Insects and Vegetables” just to the left of the butterfly.

“Insects by Pondside”

The butterfly here, could also be the butterfly shown with Fuu. Similar design.

[adultmammal]

Pondside meeting. #inktober #inktober2017 #ink #inkwork #drawing #draw #pendrawing #art #artist #artwork #sketchbook #lineart #traditionalart #landscape #figuredrawing

[purple-the-turtle]

posting my fav duo because a certain wip is taking forever

[purple-the-turtle]

Eepy…..

[purple-the-turtle]

Turtle doodles

[purple-the-turtle]

dont draw anything, you have to to an event in 30 minutes-

PONDSIDE LEO CATCHES HIS FIRST FROG WOOOO

[purple-the-turtle]

y’all can have this one because I gave up on coloring it :]

[purple-the-turtle]

Haven’t drawn these little guys and their papa in a while

[purple-the-turtle]

Weaving Streaks Through the Air

I feel like I draw him the least…

[purple-the-turtle]

I love watching the quality of my post decrease by 1000% percent in front of my eyes real time

[purple-the-turtle]

Some doodles because I am not winning

the last one is from @allyheart707 “Little Subjects” AU and I thought plan H was too cute! So I drew them from memory (does raph have a tail? He does now ig- /j)

[purple-the-turtle]

Pondside Leo, everyone’s favorite gossiping vet (assistant) + return of Peck!!

[purple-the-turtle]

tidied this up a bit, but look! a little guy!!