#but also the only facial feature that really changes is the nose. which is very stylized. and the hair ig.

[8thparadox]

Mish Mash

[cutiepieloves131]

Sidereal Vedic Beauty Indicators Pt.3

~{🪻}~Vishakha: I have no words to describe how divine and picturesque these folks appear that have this placement. Vishaka's beauty is the type that will have you looking for hours or even have you fully captivated and nobody can change my mind about their heavenly and enthralling beauty! They look like porcelain dolls with a delicate effect on them! Vishaka is the "Cherubic Beauty", so these people facial features includes emphasized and broad mid-face, cheekbones which grow outwardly to a strong extent, large, and very defined cheek apples which are slightly low-set, foreheads that are generally medium to tall in height, with a more narrow and short jawline, eyes are most typically small to medium in size, and sometimes generally widely-spaced, and their gaze/natural expression can appear distant, detached, or cold, their noses are plump (wide in the bridge and tip), a horizontally-elongated cupid's bow, and small (often generally spacey) teeth.

Vishakha Women {Left to Right}: Dove Cameron, Cindy Kimberly, Jessica Lowndes

~{🪻}~Swati: Oh. My. Gosh! Ugh, I am so in love with people that have this nakshatra in their charts! Swati individuals beauty is so dazzling and jaw-dropping! Not only that but their eyes are so mesmerizing to many and myself appearing hypnotic due to Rahu's influence. Swati men and women definitely have me in choke hold, you just can't help but to fall in love with their otherworldly visuals! Also I've noticed that they look photogenic and glowing in photos but mostly attention is drawn to the eyes. Swati is known to be the "Bug Pretty", so their features contains protruding eyes with prominent eyelids and medium to close spacing, thin to medium, with a more de-emphasized upper lip, cheek bones that' are on the small side, but high and gently defined, with medium sized cheek apples, contrasting typically shorter, square (to rectangular) face shape, and sometimes with a prominent and pointed chin.

Swati Women {Left to Right}: Glow Princess, Lisa, Eva Marcille

~{🪻}~Ashwini: My oh my!~ Y'all these natives are so fine!~ Ashwini's beauty tends to be youthful and appealing! You'll always see an Ashwini person that never looks their age, or might mistake them for being a kid, teen, or in their early 20's! It's really amazing how they maintain their beauty even at old age, to me Ashwini folks strike me as the one to have their visuals praised by many online and in real life, especially in the Kpop industry. Ashwini represents the "Raven Pretty", their looks consist of full and large cheeks, which are rounded and prominent in the buccal area, face shape tends to be round or gently squared, full and soft fleshy lips that's very succulent, nose is also soft and widened, upturned, and with quite broad nostril wings and rounded nostrils, eyes are typically small to medium in size, almond-shaped, medium to wide-set, and neutral to upturned but have also light vibrant undertones having minimal eyelid spacing, brows that are long, and straight to lightly arched, and shiny hair in dark and ashy tones.

Ashwini Women {Left to Right}: Meika Woollard, Challan Trishann, India Eisley

~{🪻}~Ardra: I had to add another Rahu nakshatra in this post! Ardra beauty is incredibly splendiferous and fetching to me! I'm not joking like Ardra had to be on the list because they can't go unnoticed including their electrifying eyes that's a little protruding and medium to close-set, just like other Rahu nakshatras their eyes are a prominent feature on their face that can't be ignored. Their beauty is one of a kind and rare almost alien-like or dreamy to a lot of people! They tend to outwardly appear celestial in pictures, try brighter, sparkly, and bling filters on your phone, I promise you the results will turn out beautiful! Last not least Ardra natives beauty that's "Diamond Pretty", are made up of a pointy & pinched lower face resulting in a inverted triangle face or ovalish because of the ruling symbol which is the "tear drop", stronger mid-face area, emphasized cheekbones, long medium to large size nose and low-set like the yoni animal (female dog), and lips that are thin to medium.

Ardra Women {Left to Right}: Ariana Grande, Yodit Yemane, Kaya Scodelario

[saintsenara]

If Voldemort had repented and felt remorse like Harry offered him, what exactly would have happened to him? Would his soul have been healed and he forgiven? I mean, I’m pretty sure he would definitely be thrown into Azkaban for life, but would he be normal again? Like, no longer that bald, no-nose snake face creep and his soul intact.

thank you very much for the ask, @hollyparker! i can think of no question more suitable for this season of allhallowtide.

canon is clear that genuine remorse would have resulted in the fissures in voldemort's soul being healed:

"Isn't there any way of putting yourself back together?" Ron asked. "Yes," said Hermione with a hollow smile, "but it would be excruciatingly painful." "Why? How do you do it?" asked Harry.  "Remorse," said Hermione. "You've got to really feel what you've done. There's a footnote. Apparently the pain of it can destroy you. I can't see Voldemort attempting it somehow, can you?"

so, the only thing necessary to trigger the healing of the soul is the feeling of remorse. there's no need to perform any sort of public penance, nor even to actually say out loud that you're sorry. you just need to be sorry, and the slate of your soul is wiped clean.

[that is - as we'll come to below - your salvation is achieved by faith alone, rather than by works and rituals...]

so yes, voldemort would be forgiven. but only in the theological - rather than the psychological, social, or legal - sense of the word.

his victims wouldn't suddenly be expected to be fine with him, his slate wouldn't be wiped clean in the eyes of the wizarding legal system, and he would still be expected to be punished for what he'd done. if he survives putting his soul back together, instead of dying on the spot, he's definitely looking at life in azkaban - if not a capital sentence - and he'd deserve it. and if he dies, he's still going to be remembered as an evil man, rather than the history of his crimes being erased by his deathbed repentance. he would simply rot in azkaban and/or die with an intact soul.

but what about with an intact appearance?

canon doesn't ever discuss what would happen to voldemort's body if he healed his soul, and either option - that his appearance would revert or that it wouldn't - is justifiable. but my view is certainly that healing his soul would trigger the transformation of his appearance.

[i don't have a preference on whether this means he would revert to the body he had when he first split his soul - that is, his appearance would be as it was when he was sixteen - or if he'd be his canonical age, just with a human face. either makes one hell of a premise for a fic.]

voldemort's physical degradation is directly caused by making horcruxes - right down to the very first time he splits his soul - and it accelerates as he goes beyond the norms of even this darkest of magic. the version of him which visits hepzibah smith - who has made two horcruxes: the diary and the ring - is very thin, very pale, and heavily implied to look quite sickly, and he also has a red gleam in his eyes. the version who comes to see dumbledore for a job interview - who has made four or five horcruxes: the diary, the ring, the cup, the diadem, and possibly the locket - is unnaturally pale, has skin which looks like melted wax, has eyes which are starting to look permanently bloodshot, and [much to harry's disappointment] is no longer good-looking. creating harry - rather than his resurrection ritual - is what seems to cause his looks to degrade further, since the voldemort of philosopher's stone is described facially in identical ways to the voldemort of goblet of fire, although the creation of nagini probably makes these features even more horrifying.

as a narrative device, voldemort's physical changes has an enormous amount in common with the gradual disfigurement of the portrait in the picture of dorian gray.

in both texts, damage visited upon the soul - and, indeed, damage visited upon the soul in pursuit of immortality - is visited upon the face [although in dorian's case, this damage is confined to the portrait, while his flesh-and-blood self lives behind a mask of false youth and beauty]. at the end of the novel, dorian - horrified at the portrait's appearance - resolves to mend his ways, but only does so half-heartedly [by deciding that not seducing a woman he feels nothing for is enough to cancel out murder and driving two people to suicide], which causes no change to the portrait. in a fit of rage, he destroys the portrait rather than attempting true repentance. this kills him, and when his body is discovered his appearance is the monstrous one of the painting. that is, he - like voldemort - finally has to wear the damage to his soul on his face.

from which we can reasonably suppose that the impact of true repentance on the soul would reflect similarly on the face. voldemort being returned to his former humanity - then - would be the proof [since, as we've seen, he wouldn't need to prove his remorse through works or words] that his repentance was genuine and he had - again, only in the theological sense of the word - been forgiven.

but he's still going to be thrown in azkaban, or hurled through the veil, or die on the spot even if he's pretty again. it doesn't change anything about what he's done on earth.

what it changes is his experience in the afterlife.

the text approaches the possibility of voldemort's remorse very interestingly. by which i mean, it presents it not just as a purgative act, but as a quasi-baptismal one.

the wizarding world canonically has two stable spheres of existence - life and afterlife. there's no suggestion in canon that this afterlife attaches a moral price to admission - that is, it doesn't seem to function as [the christian] heaven, and nor does there seem to be an in-universe version of [the christian] hell - but it does require something: an intact soul.

in between these two spheres is a liminal space - the theshold between life and death which appears to harry as king's cross. this threshold exists so that the newly dead [those who aren't harry, whose experience is unique, at least] can make a choice - to move on to the afterlife or to return to the sphere of the living as a ghost.

there's some implication in canon that it takes some people longer to accept the need to move on to the afterlife than others - and so there's some sense of the threshold serving a similar purpose to purgatory, and serving as an intermediate space in which an intact soul sheds all the baggage it's carried with it from life before it settles happily into death.

but in voldemort's case, it represents something very different... limbo.

and, specifically, the limbo of infants.

this term refers to the permanent - rather than liminal - sphere in which the souls of unbaptised babies linger, unable - since they've never been cleansed of original sin via baptism, but also haven't committed any sins of their own [since, y'know, they're babies] - either to access heaven or to be condemned to hell.

within the metaphysics of canon, then, voldemort's mutilation of his soul has a similar impact to the state of unbaptism. it prevents him from moving across the threshold between life and death, thus causing him to get stuck forever - in a baby-like form! - in the liminal space of king's cross.

and this is fascinating.

as deathly hallows reaches its climax, the themes and tropes the doylist narrative draws upon are overtly christian. harry freely chooses to die for the salvation of the world, rises again from the dead, and then protects anyone who believes in him from coming to harm at voldemort's hands with the supernatural force of his love. numerous other characters have arcs in the final book which have similarly christian overtones - lily as the virgin mary [who crushes the serpent's head, before her son defeats him entirely], dumbledore as john the baptist [who teaches and guides harry-as-christ, but is subordinate to him in greatness], and ron as st peter [who abandons harry-as-christ and then returns to him].

but - crucially - its christian tropes are not simply christian. they are protestant.

and voldemort - as much as his christian-literature archetype is satan [hence all the snake imagery] - is approached by the text, especially when it comes to the text's treatment of his horcruxes, with christian allegories which are catholic.

the horcruxes are relics, and his belief that they - rather than faith in the power of love as the text understands it - will save him is delusional. jkr has heavily implied in several interviews that they are created via a cannibalistic ritual - which calls to mind the doctrine of transubstantiation in the catholic eucharist. there are seven of them, just as there are seven sacraments in the catholic church, since voldemort believes seven to be the most powerful magical number - something he's wrong about, since the seven-fold power of his horcruxes is nothing in the face of harry's faith in the trinity of the hallows. and his clinging to them condemns him to a post-death state which calls the limbo of infants - which, while not official catholic doctrine, is a hypothetical concept only catholic theology entertains; all mainstream protestant and orthodox denominations reject it entirely - to mind.

it's a really interesting example of what both the doylist and watsonian texts believe him to have transgressed through the creation of horcruxes.

because, of course, he's not condemned to limbo for the sin of murder, he's condemned to it because he puts his faith in something other than faith [or love] alone.

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

Making Humanoids Less Human

I did make a small post on this, but now I've got the art for a much bigger and more detailed post! so here we go.

I had several anonymous asks that all came in quick succession weeks ago. Every single one of them was basically just a variation on "how would you take (typically humanoid) fantasy being, and make them look less human?"

This blog does not exist for me to just give people original designs for free, my goal is to show off my own personal thoughts about fantasy design and help people figure out how to adjust their own designs to fit their vision better. That means when people ask me questions about how to do something, I want to give them things to think about so they can come to their own conclusion. I don't mind making original designs to illustrate concepts, but a whole flood of "show me how to make this specific thing look different" all at once like that was too much. I'm not answering them all individually, it's just not what I want to do.

But what I can do is show my own thoughts and ideas about how to take any fantasy design and push it further away from "human", and you all can look at my ideas and figure out your own way to do things!

So here are the main 4 methods I've come up with to make humanoids look less human.

(image description: a simplified drawing of a humanoid face surrounded by four altered versions of the same face. clockwise starting from the top left, they are:

Speculative, drawn as a cat person. Additive, drawn with horns, pointy ears, sharp teeth, and a second pair of eyes. Subtractive, drawn with blank eyes, no nose, and no eyebrows. Exaggerative, drawn with a long face and huge eyes, as well as a wide mouth, narrow nose, and big ears.

end description)

I am personally a fan of the speculative route, which means exploring an alternate root of evolution to create a new design. Through this method, I've created monkey elves, frog goblins, and pig orcs.

the additive option is the most common, I think. adding new feature or doubled features to a humanoid form is a very intuitive way to change the design and make it look less human. you see this in most fantasy and scifi designs, like star trek aliens and the dnd player races.

subtractive and evaggerative are the most common options for people that like the uncanny valley. it's really easy to make uncomfortable designs by removing or exaggerating recognizable features, and they're often used together. Slenderman, for example, removes all facial features and skin color but also exaggerates the limbs and body.

Combining the four methods will give you a really interesting design as well! So for practice I decided to explore an alternate design for Tieflings, the part-demon player race in dnd.

(image description: four examples of differnt tiefling designs using the previously described methods. the additive example is just offical dnd art of a tiefling woman with purple skin, horns, and a long tail.

the subtractive sketch looks very alien, with a bald head, empty eyes, and no other facial featuers aside from a small mouth. it has three fingers per hand and two toe per foot.

the exaggerative sketch shows a hunched humanoid figure with huge eyes and big ears. the neck, limbs, and digits are all long with claws at the ends of the fingers and toes, and the limbs are also quite muscular.

the speculative sketch shows a bipedal figure with features similar to a giraffe, including a long neck, ossicones, and hooves.

end description)

now, because tielflings have such a distinct look to them, obviously my new sketches don't really look like tieflings, do they? the only one that comes close is the giraffe. relying only on one type of alteration to the human form has left the designs rather empty and lacking in the more iconic traits of the original concept. so i tried a sketch that combined my ideas! it came out looking like a completely different creature lol, like it could be a kobold or something, still not really a tiefling.

(image description: a sketch of a creature with a giraffe-like head, long tongue, and sharp teeth. it appears to be roaring at something and stands in a half-crouch. it has long limbs with hoof feet and clawed hands, as well as a long tufted tail curled behind it. end description.)

didn't work out. too far into the animal side of the speculative evolution, I think. so I tried again and got a design I liked much better!

(image description: a digital painting of a tiefling leaping back and casting a glowing orange spell. she is wearing a tunic with a corset and detached sleeves, as well as several pieces of jewelry. Her skin is purple with dark patches like a giraffe's spots, and she has a giraffe's ossicones as well as hoof-like hands and two-toed hoof feet. Her tail is long with a tuft at the end. She has glowing eyes and a flat nose, and there is a single sharp tooth visible poking out of the side of her mouth. end description.)

Brought the face back into slightly more human proportions and that helped a lot. Sometimes designs just take a few tries! that's normal.

and hopefully this is helpful to all of you! there are so many ways to alter humanoid designs to come up with something original and unique to you!

[parisoonic]

I'm in love with how you draw characters (especially when you draw sniperscout and demoman in general), I'm unsure if you've answered a question like this before, but how do you figure out what to do with face shapes? It's hard to explain but the way you over-exaggerate certain features to make their design pop is so cool to me and I've never been able to do it for myself. That, and making faces look like.. well, faces.

thank you so much!!! hopefully i'm understanding you right...

Regarding the face shapes in TF2...we're all standing on the shoulders of the (excellent) design work already done and laid out. The characters have really nice distinct face shapes with some general overlap before you even consider that a lot of them have facial accessories which you can pick and choose from to help push facial silhouettes and peel apart characters that are a little similar.

Naff threshold filter heads to show silhouettes lol In order to exaggerate them - it's mainly about pushing and pulling the existing proportions and ratios of their faces IE: Making Medic's/Soldier's/Heavy's stupid large-chins even longer but sacrificing some of their forehead or eye-region. Varied proportions have a lot of 'rhythm' or 'appeal' and typically the human face can break down into the forehead (+ hair), eyes (I like to do a Batman style mask but people will often use the nose to form a triangle too) and then....everything else (chin, cheek etc).

Soldier, Heavy and Sniper all have REALLY similar proportional ratios but their silhouettes are really different (in both the x and z). When you add in that the 'default' way to view Soldier and Sniper is with their accessories they're all really nice and different. Funnily enough Sniper's 'eye mask' is teeny tiny with his visors off but this relationship changes with his sunglasses on. Kinda interesting... I sometimes like to think of visual vibe-based 'archetypes' when i'm drawing the tf2 guys. I don't have one for everyone yet but Heavy is sort of like 'handsome caveman' to me. Archetypally, cavemen are drawn with thick brows, small low foreheads and big chins. The 'handsome'-ness comes in when you apply a delicate approach to eyes, cheekbones, lips and with careful posing. Having this kind of visual-archetype in mind informs how I view the character as a whole and thus how i depict them! HOPEFULLY even if I drift away from how they actually look because the vibes are right...it feels right you know? There's also a sliding scale to me as to HOW you represent them. If the character is doing something goofy/stupid, drawing them less handsome and toonier can add levity. Obviouslyyyy you can have your handsome depictions making a dick joke (and that's its own sort of visual gag) but you'll notice in a lot of my images the straight-man gets drawn a little more...realistic? on-model? than the butt of the joke. It just feels more appropriate to me haha I'm using 'toonier' here to mean not only am I drawing fewer details but also exaggerating those ratios between areas of the face away from their 'default' ratio. like with most drawing-y things it's practice AND experimentation! i draw these guys differently depending on my mood and how generous i'm feeling towards their looks lol if you wanted tips on the construction of faces I really recommend checking out Griz and Norm's 'Tuesday Tips'. They're incredibly clear, concise and very approachable (and cover a variety of subjects!) Hopefully this link works? but if you search them on Pinterest and grab a cuppa, there's some AMAZING tips to be had here: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/search/pins/?q=griz%20and%20norm&rs=typed

[carnalhaus]

Hi! I asked this question on my other account but I had to delete it before you could respond so I’d thought I’d just ask you again lol

Do you have any tips as to facial likeness? Like making the character look the same in each drawing, at different angles, expressions, ect? I struggle with it, especially expressions and how a persons features change depending on which emotion, you know?

Also random but have you ever played left 4 dead? 😅

hi 🦭 sorry ! answering things can definitely take me a very long while sometimes. if i don’t get to it right away, stuff can get buried.

to answer your question, i’m really not sure if i have a definitive answer, but i can try. trust me i have a lot of trouble sometimes too. my main tip i guess is to have real life people in mind when it comes to drawing characters. it can either be their whole face or just specific features, but it really helps to have something tangible. over time it becomes a lot easier to replicate when you have a physical example of what you’re trying to draw, like staring at a vase would help you draw vases better. overall, it’s just all about keeping in mind which specific features they have, and what the important parts of their faces are.

as easier examples: for cheyenne, i reference pictures of kate lambert (katopunk), and for dove, i reference pictures of quannah chasinghorse. the likeness doesn’t have to be exact, but general facial shapes are pretty much the same. with chey, i keep in mind her very high arched eyebrows, stronger nose bridge, dead eyed stare, pouty lips, and sunken cheeks. with dove, i keep in mind her almond eyes, stronger jaw, freckles, fine lines, and thicker eyebrows. so, even if you make “mistakes” or draw in a completely different style, the important features still carry on that it’s the same person.

as a more difficult example, i’ll put down sledge. i made this little mishmash a while ago to help a friend out with drawing him. as you can see, he doesn’t really resemble one person specifically, but he has important features that i look for in other people, and general facial likeness to help get expressions across.

+ i honestly have no idea what left 4 dead is ! i don’t play a lot of games. i think the only big video game i actually played “myself” was rdr2 and i refused to hold the controller the whole time cause video games make me nervous.

[where-theres-smoak-2]

So this whole 'if rhaenyra insisted on having bastards then she should at least have chosen someone who looked more targaryen/velaryon' argument actually doesn't make much sense when you think more about it. This idea that the problem with rhaenyra having bastards was that they had dark hair, like if they didn't there wouldn't be a problem, it was the dark hair that gave them away and caused suspicion etc. I feel like some in the fandom, and I also think the show can be a bit guilty of this too, assume that the white hair and purple eyes of the targaryens are a dominant trait like the baratheons black hair, but actually it's not. There are several targaryens who don't have the white hair, baelor breakspear targaryen had his dornish mother's dark hair which he in turn passed on to his son valarr, elia martell's daughter with rhaegar targaryen, rhaenys, also had dark hair as did jon snow. Another rhaenys that had dark hair, at least in the book, is the rhaenys from hotd, and I'm sure there are others too. In fact the only reason these 'targaryen' features were common amongst targaryens was because of the inbreeding.

This is where I think hotd messed up with the character design of rhaenys because, as I said above, in the book she has dark hair on account of her mother being a baratheon. If they had kept rhaenys dark hair then whenever anyone questioned jace, luke or joffrey's dark hair, rhaenyra could just shrug and go they get it from their grandmother. Even though they changed how rhaenys looked I do still wish that we had seen rhaenyra play the 'it's their baratheon genes coming through' angle in the show because it's the most logical explanation she could have given.

Another thing that I find kind of amusing about the assumption that the targaryen genes are dominant like the baratheon genes is that the founder of house baratheon, the very first baratheon, was orys baratheon who was actually a targaryen bastard himself, born from the same targaryen father as aegon the conqueror. So dark-haired targaryen bastards have existed since aegon the conqueror came to westeros and baratheon dark hair genes have been cancelling out the white hair of targaryens from the very first time a targaryen and baratheon crossed bloodlines.

So I don't think rhaenyra having dark haired children should be that big of a deal when they have close baratheon relatives and again I really wish the show had played into that more. I think the suspicion should have more been centered around maybe their facial features looked like harwin strong's, they had the same nose or the same mouth shape, but them merely having dark hair should have been a non issue in my opinion. Also where exactly would rhaenyra have found someone with targaryen/velaryon features who she could also trust to keep quiet about it afterwards? Just practically I don't think that makes sense nor would it have been safe for her or her children, so choosing someone who had similar features, ie dark hair, like a baratheon which could be explained away due to her sons having baratheon blood through rhaenys, was the most logical next step.

[eveningrainstorm]

my take on teenage raz and lili!

some design notes under the cut:

They're intended to be about 16 here! I didn't go for anything too drastic in terms of changes -- these are largely just what I'd consider natural evolutions of their canon designs

For Raz, my main focus besides just making him look older was to add a bit more resemblance to the other Aquatos in his design, since his relationship with them wouldn't be strained like it is during canon

Raz is shown with very straight hair in canon, but since most of his family's hair is more wavy or curly I tend to imagine he styles it that way on purpose as part of his Sasha Nein cosplay or whatever. He wouldn't still feel the need to do that at this point, though, so for this design I wanted to make it more curly, similar to Augustus or Frazie, while still similar to his canon style. This turned out to be incredibly difficult and I'm still not entirely happy with where I landed, but it's good enough

I didn't think he would still wear the helmet but I didn't want to discard it entirely, so the goggles were a compromise. I meant to give them some visible scratches and wear and tear since they're presumably the same goggles he's been wearing since he was 10, but I forgot. rip

Obviously the most notable change to Raz's outfit is the scarf -- I wanted something that would tie him visually to the other Aquatos while still fitting with his general look. I imagine they gave it to him as a gift, sort of an acknowledgement that even if he doesn't perform with them as an acrobat, doing his Psychonaut work is his own way of being an Aquato

Raz's outfit here is honestly very similar to his PN2 outfit. This is because in my eyes "long coat and turtleneck" is Peak Character Design and cannot be improved on. (Hence why I may not be the best person to redesign Raz.) He has an actual coat rather than just an oversized blazer this time though, so that's an improvement. With the turtleneck I was was vaguely intending for it to be color-wise something of a middle ground between the Sasha-style green striped turtleneck and the Aquato blue/green and white stripes, but it ended up basically just being the PN1 stripes with the PN2 color. which, you know, that works

I went back and forth on what their heights should be -- I thought it would be kind of funny if Raz ended up short and Lili ended up taller than him, but then I decided to just make them more in line with their families, with Raz being tall and lanky and Lili being average verging on short. Except then I accidentally made Lili tall anyway because I was only vaguely considering her height relative to Raz. I guess Lili's probably taller than her dad now? good for her ig

Most of their facial features are just slight variations of how they look in canon -- slightly smaller eyes and so on. the only real specific change is that Lili has a more defined nose now, similar in shape to her father's

Lili's outfit here is more different from either of her canon outfits than Raz's is, but there's still not much that really requires a ton of explanation. The goal was to make her look vaguely cool and fashionable, although as I am neither of those things I cannot guarantee I was successful

I tried a couple different hairstyles for Lili, and I'm still not entirely set on this one -- Originally what I settled on was to give her two braids, which I did like, but I kept doing sketches of her where I just drew the top part of the hair and was like "ngl this kind of works on its own" and so I ended up going with the short hair. I also briefly tried an asymmetrical haircut but I couldn't get it to look right. I think this one suits her though

Lili's tattoo (on her left wrist) was a later addition to the design, and even in the later stages of drawing this I wasn't sure whether to keep it. I like it conceptually I just haven't figured out a consistent design for it yet, only that it has to be of plants

god these notes got way longer than I meant them to be I am so sorry. Uh basically I'm still figuring out the details of these designs but for now here's Raz and Lili, they're teenagers now, thanks for reading

[cripplecharacters]

Hi, I'm writing a book with a lot of characters who have facial differences for various reasons, and there are two I was hoping to ask you about because I'm afraid they may be too trope-y due to how they are when the reader meets them.

One is a girl who had a traumatic injury as a baby that caused the forced removal of around half of her face, including the skull, meaning she's missing one eye, around a third of her jaw, one cheekbone- the scar goes from right next to her nose back to just in front of her right ear, up to just a touch above her hairline (where her face meets the crown of her head) to halfway down her neck, as if someone took a upward swing at her head with some kind of blade. This girl has a magical healing ability, which is how she survived the injury, and has received a few surgeries years after the fact to try and give her face a more normal shape, but cosmetics aren't something she's extremely interested in. It's her face and she's pretty used to it, she likes it, and if people want to freak out at the sight of her scar then that's on them and she'll laugh. Still, when the reader first meets her, she is covering her face, though not because of her facial difference. She has a noticeably nonhuman skin tone, indigo, that marks her as someone with strong magic and thus puts her in a lot of danger, so she covers her skin to keep people from trying to kill her. This mask also includes a kind of plastic face shield under the cloth part that gives her face a slightly more normal shape. She ditches both pretty quickly once she's in a safe situation where she won't be killed over her skin colour, but I'm still really worried she falls into the mask trope.

The other character has Williams Syndrome, a scar from a clef lip, a major scar that covers around 70% of her body, including part of her face, and her pupils are kind of foggy from her glaucoma, eyes not usually focusing which makes it kind of obvious she's nearly completely blind (retinopathy of prematurity and recurring glaucoma.) The thing about her is that, when she reader first meets her, she's used her shapeshifting to hide most of her facial difference (all except the features from her Williams Syndrome) because there's an emergency going on and she would rather not be interrogated about her face while trying to save someone's life. She loses control of her shapeshifting and goes back to her normal form, with her scars and all of that, while extremely angry at someone, which does shock the two people in the room who don't see her day-to-day and who don't know that this is what she usually looks like. As far as this character is concerned, her scars are something she takes pride in. Her Williams Syndrome is a fact of her life, as is her blindness, her cleft lip scar has been there for as long as she can remember, it's as unremarkable to her as her eyebrows, and the big scar is from the time she fought what was basically a god a few years back and won, and she takes pride in that one. She usually doesn't shapeshift this stuff away (other than changing her eyes just a bit, just enough to make it so that she isn't obviously blind because that puts a target on her back,) because she doesn't see a point in it.

There are several other characters with facial differences, both congenital and from injuries, including the main character who has Williams Syndrome, I just want to know if there's anything I need to change about these two. Thank you

Hi!

First things first - great to see you have multiple characters with FD! That makes a lot of difference for tropes. Even better to hear that they're diverse among themselves! Love to see that.

For the first character, it sounds fine! She doesn't use it for her scarring - I enjoy that you make it clear - and doesn't wear it all the time, or even the majority of it. If you want to be very safe, you can have a character who is also indigo and hides it, but without a facial difference - could be referenced only in passing, or even just a mention that it was a some other, FD-less character in the same situation as her that gave her the idea on how to hide it. But again, it sounds good - I think of it in the same way as a character with FD who is a knight or a surgeon who covers their face when necessary because that's what needed at the moment.

The second one is a bit more complicated but it's okay as well! First thing I thought of is to make sure what type (open, closed, congenital, etc.) of glaucoma she has, as not all of them change the outward appearance of the eye! Just something to keep in mind to not accidentally mix the congenital appearance with open-angle onset. But back to the question. It's nice that when she transforms she still keeps some of her disability's features! As for the "hiding" I think it can be okay if done occasionally/not constantly, and especially if it's actually somewhat addressed in the story - with how, for example, people pay way too much attention to people with FDs and that can be awkward and uncomfortable. Of course it doesn't have to be said like that, but the sentiment is real for a ton of visibly disabled people - sometimes you just want others to stop staring and mind their business. That's real. Just pay attention to not make it seem like it's the disability's fault, but it doesn't seem like you need that remainder. For the "reveal", this is the slightly complicated part. It's not bad, but I would just advise you to use words carefully. I would consider it an interesting scenario that could be possibly written in a pejorative way. Make sure to put the shock on the change in her appearance, not the fact that it's a scar (or, if that is what the other characters focus on, narrate it in a way that shows it's a reaction that this specific person has, not a reasonable reaction to that information). Having someone you know shape-shift into someone else in front of you is the horrifying part, not the fact that they have a scar! Last thing, in regard to her shapeshifting her eyes' appearance - most people are extremely bad at telling when someone is blind. I suppose that it depends on the culture and knowledge of the environment she's in, but just something to keep in mind.

I will admit that I was rather nitpicky in this answer because I still wanted to give some suggestions and input, and there just isn't anything major to critique. In most questions I get about FD there are usually many glaring issues that I try to help with, but your story... doesn't really have those. You seem to be careful and cautious in your writing of characters with facial differences and I appreciate this a lot! Consider my answer a suggestion on how to expand on your characters or story, not "fix" them.

I'm very pleasantly surprised and I hope I get to read more things like this! :) (smile emoji)

Mod Sasza

[adobe-outdesign]

If you are still talking about neopets designs, plz review lutari? I always wanted one of them

Lutari are probably most well-known for being one of the limited pets on the site, only being able to be made on their pet day and previously connected to the long-defunct Neopets Mobile game from back in the flip phone days. It's to the extreme where you can't even put one up for adoption, with them just running away instead of going to the pound. (Side note: TNT should re-release Lutari Island as a main site feature and make it so you can always create a Lutari while visiting. But I digress.)

Lutari are mostly just otters, but their very distinct, mottled markings, huge claws, and fluffy, curly tails are pretty distinct and make them feel unique, even though they're otherwise pretty straightforward. I like the amount of detail present; they have just the right balance of color, with white underbellies, black claws and noses, and two shades of the main color for their bodies, all of which is carefully balanced as to not be too busy. Overall, they're pretty dang nice... though they do have one drawback.

Considering that Lutari were released only shortly before conversion happened, you would think that they wouldn't have changed much other than losing their swimming pose (which is a shame, but a necessary change for customization). But in actuality, they actually changed quite a bit in various subtle ways, ending up with completely different proportions, markings, facial structure, and more. Here's a really great redraw that's more accurate to the original design, which really highlights the differences between the two:

The eyes are a completely different shape and the pupils are smaller, the mouth is smaller, the ears a completely different shape, the feet are weirdly elongated, the tail is less swirly... and they're such weird changes, because none of them actually have to do with customization.

Another good example of the changes made is Mr. Chipper, who was, weirdly enough, released prior to the Lutari species as a whole. He stands bipedally, and thus shows what a converted Lutari should've looked like. Also of note is the markings, which for some reason became weirdly angular on converted Lutari and less organic than they were originally.

And don't get me wrong, converted Lutaris are still fine, and are by no means ruined or anything like that. It's just a shame that they're less cute than they used to be, and that seemingly little care was put in to convert them properly.

Favorite Colours:

Maraquan: I went over this already in my Maraquan colour review so I won't go into too much detail here, but this design (based off a user submission) is beautiful. I love the use of an axoltle as a base, the pink and cream colors are lovely, and the gill ears are just perfect.

Pirate: While this design is pretty good as a whole, with a nice grey base with a few bright red accents and a properly cutthroat expression, it's the way they managed to seamlessly and subtly work a skull into the tail markings that really earns it a spot on this list. 10/10 no notes.

Faerie: While a little on the busy side, the faerie Lutari is quite pretty. The light green, blue and pink color palette works perfectly, and the beautiful swirled body markings work off of the Lutari's default markings perfectly. The wings also compliment it will, matching both the body colors and the intricate designs.

As an added benefit, you can also get a very pretty, less busy design out of this by using wings-be-gone, which arguably looks even better than the full color. I appreciate that kind of versatility.

BONUS: Camouflage isn't anything crazy, and it's not even all that camouflage-ish, but honestly I just really like this design. The use of a neutral palette and gradients creates a lovely and distinct color that's quite appealing for those who want a more realistic otter look or those, like me, who just like subtle and simple designs.

[lilenui]

My favourite page from the Complete Character Book <3 (no duh!) I love Ito Yu's art a whole bunch, and even though the art style and character designs were what got me to check the show out in the first place, I don't think Chiba's anime adaptation fully does it justice. That's because the anime has a very rigid, hard-shaded look, while Ito's art has this soft, voluminous three-dimensionality to it. Especially when it comes to hair and cavernous clothing that seems to engulf the characters. It's so unique. I also like her preference for a more stocky build with her characters, gives some variety from your typical noodle anime silhouette. Plus the endless variety of facial features on display. Her rough drafts for the show are a display of incredible skill and talent all on their own. Here's some interesting notes on the page:

Shino's particularly wide shoulders are to differentiate him from Akihiro, who is wide and sturdy all over, and from Orga, who is slim and narrow like a straight line.

Akihiro is built like a judoka, he always tucks his shirt in.

Shino is built like an olympic swimmer or a basketball player.

His shoulders are really wide.

Further notes on Shino: Both ears pierced, cheerful, muscular, short hair, Latino appearance.

The crying Shino sketch is from when he's mourning Denji, the quote above says: "Didn't you say that, Danji?"

When Yamagi's hair is lifted it reveals his beautiful face with japanese features.

Yamagi is beautiful but he's also strong.

Yamagi has small, short eyebrows and a shallow nose bridge.

He's quiet and unobtrusive but he likes being with everyone else.

Tekkadan uniform was designed by Juuki Maejima, Ito Yu's husband. Jackets and pants are a common feature, underneath are random t-shirts and tank tops. Yu's comment on Shino: "Initially he had short dreadlocks*. To be honest I thought he was going to be a very minor character, kind of a small fry (lol). It was a great surprise to see him become such an active participant. I didn't expect it to be an ensemble drama which gave spotlight to so many characters, I thought the other Tekkadan members were rather minor characters at first. They've all become important people." Yu's comment on Yamagi: "My impression of him was someone of asian descent, so I was surprised to see that he ended up blonde. His hairstyle seems to reflect the director's image of an introvert. It's only when Shino caressed his head that both his eyes were revealed, and I think that's why grown-up Yamagi in the last episode decided to lift his bangs and show both his eyes. Grownup Yamagi wasn't something included in my proposal, I was very impressed with the artistic skill of showing his whole heart at a glance with just a single image." *I have also seen it mentionned on twitter that Shino initially also had a lot darker skin. As a result of several edits he gradually ended up looking more like Asian/Latino mix. The reason why his design was changed were never given, but my take is that dreads were deemed too difficult to animate for someone they thought would be a minor character.

[catboybiologist]

Slightly late monthly journal!

First off, the spreadsheet has been updated:

Nothing too drastic here, especially compared to my initial growth spurt. But still… there’s so much, yet so little to talk about.

I’ve been on spiro for a longer time now, and recently increased my estradiol dose. Note that my levels check was before the increased dose- the dates aren’t completely coordinated (they are on my private spreadsheet for my own personal tracking, don’t worry). It’s looking pretty good. Testosterone is well within target levels. E is about the same, which is much lower than I would like it. My endo says that 100-200 is “minimally acceptable”, and wants to shoot even higher than that. That’s comforting, in a way- I’m the slightest bit frustrated that some changes aren’t happening too quickly, but that gives a very distinct avenue for improvement. Ultimately, I’m gonna switch to injection monotherapy, probably around the same time I start prog. So the big change is decreased T. What has that done to me?

First off, the hard measurements. There’s really no surprises here. I’m losing weight, which tracks with my general diet and an increase in exercise levels. It seems to be happening faster than normal, though. Which, is pretty easily explainable by a new variable in the equation: adderall. I started adderall in the middle of the month. I’ve used it sparingly, but everyone I know that takes it told me that weight loss is pretty much unavoidable. I’m certainly still above any point where my weight would be worrying, but I’m gonna have to keep an eye on it. Especially if I want fat tits. As for how the weight loss is happening, I’m very happy with what’s going on. My bust and hip measurements are holding steady, while my waist and underbust are still slightly going down. 

I do know that there’s another source of weight loss, however: muscle mass. With the increase in exercise level has come an increase in exertion for the same results, which has made me slightly dismayed. This is the main HRT effect that I was a little scared of. But honestly, I really only care about the muscle that helps me hike and swim- and if I maintain that better, I think it won’t be too much of an issue. I was never some pariah of physical condition, so I think with training I can even improve my hiking stamina. That’ll be very necessary with my future backpacking plans.

The main thing that I’m REALLY happy about is that, if I squint, I think I can slowly start to see the first hints of facial changes start to come in. They’re subtle, of course. A weird one is that my nose is literally straighter. Y’all don’t see it, but the reason I still shield my face (despite being easily identifiable at this point if you saw me irl and knew this account) is mostly insecurity about my nose and chin. My nose actually physically curves to my right when viewed from the front, and in general, is a huge, classic Roman nose. Looking at head on progress pictures, its actually starting to straighten out. I thought I was imagining things, but I checked in with a couple friends before and after pictures of several years on HRT, and yeah- their noses are different, usually smaller and more symmetrical. Saying that this is a huge relief to me would be an understatement. Additionally, I was insecure about my boxy jawline, but for some reason, it seems to work as a femme feature of my face now- I think slight cheek restructuring helps frame it better. Still not so sure how the chin is gonna turn out. But hey- I started HRT thinking that I would for sure need FFS to pass, but now, I'm far less concerned. I'll at least give it two years.

I’ve also gotten a lot of interesting comments. Several labmates and family members that don’t know I’m transitioning have remarked that my skin looks healthier, and I look younger. I’ve also had noticeable mental health improvement, so I think most people think I’m on some kind of self improvement kick. I mentioned skin care as part of that. We’ll see how long the excuse holds- probably a while, as the changes are so, so subtle at the moment. But shit, I’m only three months in. I’m thrilled.

There’s still no getting rid of my beard shadow. Even though the growth rate of my facial hair has noticeably decreased, the thickness of the basal hairs will always add shading to my face. When I started HRT, I thought it wouldn’t bother me that much until I was ready to socially transition- but tbh, it’s starting to look glaring to me. I’m looking into starting laser sometime in January, and hopefully that’ll help.

Which brings me to the emotional changes. Holy FUCK what a month its been. I’m not gonna expose all of my dirty laundry. But, a mixture of some long term anxieties and a few particular events led to a classic mid-20s “what the fuck am I doing with my life” crisis. One of those long term anxieties was a thought I’m sure many of y’all are familiar with: “I started HRT. Now what? How the fuck am I going to socially transition?”

For a couple days, I was very seriously considering quitting grad school and academia. I’m past that. Tragically, I love science a little too much. I do, however, need a break. I talked to my advisor about taking a hiatus, and he’s fully supportive of the idea. And conveniently, that also provides me with a clean way to simply disappear, and come back as a woman. A nice little break to allow me to socially transition.

But anyways. Here’s my big point here: if I went through something similar pre-HRT, I would’ve reacted completely differently. I would’ve shoved those thoughts deep and let them simmer as a general, background malaise that I would just stew in and suffer. Now? I cried. A lot. Actual fucking tears. I went through a few days of sharp sadness, and then actually fucking processed those emotions. What the fuck? That’s new. It’s insane. I wouldn’t have had the emotional capacity to that before. 

I’m elated. It’s wonderful. It’s a more than welcome change.

But yeah. Steady as she goes. Progress is a little stalled, but both me and my provider are adamant about getting that E up. And I’m still making slow progress as it is.

Very quick NSFW notes after this button.

The final note: sexual function. With the low T… yup, my downstairs functionality has decreased. My ejaculate is clear, and often happens without being fully erect. That said… there’s no way in hell that I would ever trade getting that back for what I have now. My libido is still comes in waves, and is crazy when it comes. The feelings I get from intimate situations now are incredible beyond belief. 

[ell-arts]

Hello ! Time for some Speculative Biology because my mind can't rest !

Ey... have you noticed that each and every Pac-baby looks the same ? Check this out: same roundness, same eyebrows, same noses, same colors. They all start out from somewhere with a base color (pink, orange-ish and blue-ish. Primary colors, that's smart)

I know it might just be lazy copy-pasting of characters but lets take it the other way:

Pacster as a baby looked exactly the same, except he was just as yellow as his parents.

Apparently, as they grow older, they get more defined facial, physical features and colors to match their personality (and probably gender too).

Everyone looks so much more different from each other as grown-ups, either it be in size, color or shape.

Although have you noticed that Pacster himself,, didn't change that much as he grew ? That he doesn't even look like his parents at his age ?

Following that logic, it means that in their universe: Pacster has a baby face. He's just a big baby-faced boy and everyone has to see it.

Words cannot express how much my brain can't deal with this theory

Fam, you've tickled my brain at 1AM in the morning and now I can't go back to sleep-

YES.

YES I LOVE THIS.

I actually never thought of it that way before!

Baby Pac really is the only individualistic baby we've ever seen, and any other babies do look like copy-pasted alternatives of him (which most likely is because they needed to be used for extra stock characters, as you've mentioned). We've seen very few characters as babies, except for a select few. One of them is little Cyli, but she was a child rather than a baby at that stage. Because of so few canon sources, we can speculate a lot on Pacworlder biology and try to fill in the gaps. What fun 👀

I also really love the idea of babies being born as a light/pastel version of the colour they will grow into as an adult. We see most baby Pacworlder as those light shades of colours you mentioned, so I think it could be plausible. Yes ofc baby Pac was the exact same tone as he is now, but let's chalk it up to him being a Yellow One lol.

In fact, yellow IS one of the primary colours...

Maybe the reason he was full-on yellow as a baby is that Pacworlders with pure red, yellow, and blue lineages are always born as bright tones rather than lighter tones, and thus they stay that colour tone throughout their lives instead of going from light to vivid. Just some extra theory-food to chew on 👀

As a bonus, if we compare a baby Pacworlder to a child Pacworlder, it's clear that the eyes and eyebrows are more-or-less the same shape, being that the period between babyhood and childhood is brief and so changes will start becoming apparent, but not always obvious. By the time a Pacworlder reaches the 5-10 age range, their hair, nose shape, and similar features start coming in, whereas certain facial features still look baby-like.

And if we use these two as examples of Pacworlders gaining their distinct features as they grow...

Yup. It's settled.

Pac has Baby Face Syndrome. And I love it.

Now I wanna squish his face even more.

[antisocialmia]

Dr. W. Afton headcanons

sfw and nsfw mentioned -> mdni

gen!neutral reader, just silly thoughts and mostly sweet (I hope) probably not readproof so sorry for any writing mistakes.

Dr. W. Afton from the game 'Thats Not My Neighbour'

Disclaimer!! I dont own the character or anything. Just trying to support the creators.

Art credits: @_.calitryx on TikTok

Appearance

probably about 5'11 to 6'0 tall

takes really good care of his facial hair (the maximum it gets are two days before he shaves again)

see him something between slim and yet muscular, sleeper build

slim waist and his shoulders on the broader side

Cake. Thats it.

his hands are rather on the rough side but he tries to take care of them

long fingers and takes the cleaning of his hands very seriously??

he has defined features but not like too sharp

Random

he has knee issues

addicted to coffee, also his very first thought after waking up

has a habit of sleeping in when he has a day off

or so he says ─ the first time you slept over he was awake at 7.

takes a lot of time for his hair in the bathroom

was insecure about his nose in his teens but learned to accept it nonetheless

he's left-handed

randomly mutturs out some facts throughout the day

he needs to push up his glasses pretty often because he once broke them by sitting down on them but refused to get them fixed

"its only a little bent." Yeah, a whole 90 degrees

he has a picture of you in his wallet

probably all his colleges know about you at this point

he's such a yapper once talking about a topic he enjoys maybe just a little too much ─ but you let him because who can say no to someone like him?

notices the tiniest changes of literally anything

going from things laying somewhere else in his apartment to the act of a person he's talking to

also the type of guy who watches you look at something a little too long and buys it for you as a present later

he remembers everything, literally has the brain of an elephant. 'I remember you saying you wish you had that so I got it for you.'

Style

you might actually mistake him for a phyics teacher (that damn checker pattern)

closet is mostly filled with linen shirts and some suit pants

'thats all he ever needed' ─ his words

color variates, he has almost every color but those bright ones.

of course he has some home clothes (you love to steal)

comfortable sweats and cozy sweaters

great taste when it comes for comfortable clothing ─ always manages to get the most fluffy ones too.

for jewlery, he only wears his watch around his left wrist

Activities

he probably has a gym membership but never actually goes

if you go tho, he might join you

in his freetime he loves to jog

loves to explore new things, like new recipes to new games (If mobile or not)

playfights usually end up with him laying down on you with his full weight

always has a stupid grin on his face when he does that

Apartment

he's completely clean, not freaky clean tho

there's not a single dust grain

but hes not too pressed about it ─ he simply enjoys tidying his apartment

gives him some sort of comfort

you can also find sometimes his clothes over the couch or laying on the ground, which is rare but it happens

his job doesnt require too much of his time so he has plenty of time at home

Relationships

like said before, he had some insecurities

confidence wasnt his thing in his teens (He was probably one of those 'uhm actually' kids but unintentionally.)

changed in his 20's ─ went out regulary but never found anything that could have gone further

which changed when you came around

so, he indeed was experienced but you taught him things aswell

love language is physical touch and acts of service (also words of affirmation)

loves random hugs and gives them too

huge on pda and shows it too

he really loves to just embrace you and cuddle with you on the couch or in bed while watching a movie or show

sleeping with him is hell

he's tussing and turning all night long, but only If you arent in his grasp

once youre trapped in his arms there's no way out and he wont move a single inch

small snores, but only once in a while ─ barely noticable too.

has all sorts of nicknames for you 'baby' , 'love' , 'honey' , 'sugar' , 'cupcake' you name it.

NSFW -> mdni

a complete switch

service dom

lives to do what you tell him to

to the location -> probably everywhere in the apartment when youre up to it

high-sex drive and probably lasts atleast 2 rounds

gets super touchy when he's worked up and just hints what he wants instead of saying it directly

he's shy! Just catch up to what he's implying.

knows the difference between harder and faster

also, not exactly into hard bdsm but isnt shy to explore with you either

praising to the top with him

you wont catch him letting out one word that would degrade

loves physical touch so this is his time to shine

body worshiping

kisses every inch of skin his lips can reach and then again

always tells you how good youre doing and how proud he is of you for taking him that well.

he's not.. exactly small either

a true mystery how he keeps it hidden beneath those forbidden pants

he loves to mark you, not for claiming and only for his eyes to see (maybe on the nape of your neck but not further)

basically, he does it how you want it. Romantic, slow and tender? He's in with all at it. Rose pedals even.

in the mood for something more rough and- ahem- man handling? Sure. He's in. But expect a godly aftercare ─ he can't stand the thought of hurting you

Aftercare

whenever, he's all sweet and gentle

acting as If youre made out of glass and will break any moment

once again he'll do anything you ask him to do.

a bath? 'Of course, my love.' Just a simple glass of water? Its already on your nightstand. Cuddles? Thats already happening before you had the thought. A massage? 'Just relax,'

a dream, literally.

he'll clean you both up without a second thought and wont let you lift a finger

if you do, youre met with a pouty expression on his face.

Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed it. A little rushed.

[sorenphelps]

All the artwork I made (so far) for the fanfic Fall For Me by @nikialexx for this year's @rsbigbang!

When we received the fanfic summaries and I saw that there's gonna be a rockstar AU, I ranked it high and was hoping for the best that I'd get it... And I got lucky, we got paired up with Niki, and I cannot even begin to express how much fun working with her has been! When I signed up for the Bang, I had no idea that I will end up being such an overachiever, but our collaboration was just too inspiring for me to stick to making only 1 picture! I'm gonna share a little backstory for all of them, also listing all the hidden easter eggs!

The banner: It was inspired by an off-screen scene (and a Hozier gif) Niki shared with me which inspired her to play with this AU to begin with! She was kind enough to let me design the look of the characters however I wanted and as I am the biggest facial hair enthusiast irl, I shamelessly drew the boys with beards, even tho it is not even once mentioned in the fic! (I aspire to be the fanartist known for drawing every male character with a beard, jsyk.) I am especially fond of Remus' nose, it just turned out so cute! Also, big thanks to Niki again for adding the extra bit about Sirius' parents coming from Vietnam, which is a very personal touch for me! It's the reason why I draw the Black family members with East Asian features, and finally it is perfectly valid in this fic's canon! 🙇🏻‍♀️

The paparazzi photo: This was my very first idea upon reading the summary of the fic, and thankfully Niki was very onboard with this too! This however turned out to be more challenging than expected, the first version was from a different angle and I really couldn't figure out the correct proportions and perspective, and the pose is harder to pull off in an anatomically correct way to begin with, so after some discussions whether it would be plausible in the fic if the paparazzi would have a room next to this balcony instead of in front, it finally clicked into place! And it is actually a real place in Madrid (the hotel and the background too)! Madrid is my ultimate favourite European city and I've spent 2 weeks working there this spring, so I could actually use my own photos as reference! I also hid a crescent moon and a star on the label of the wine bottle in the background! In the fic it is a kiss and they shouldn't be this visible, but I think I managed to convey the heat of this moment anyway. I really like how Sirius licks Remus' neck and their pleasure is obvious however subtle it is. Also because it is not an actual kiss, it has around the same level of ambiguity as the "original" semi-hidden photos would have in my opinion?

The Instagram posts: This idea came to me while reading the first draft of the fic. I've always liked social media inspired drawings, so at first I just sketched it out for fun, but then I liked it too much, so I finalized it, only to realize that I remembered incorrectly and it was not an Instagram post in the fic! Thankfully Niki was flexible enough to change the platform to Instagram in the final version to cover for my mistake! As in the fic it's Snape who takes the paparazzi photos, I referenced him in the first insta post (username). The second insta post was a last minute addition, I figured why not put the story in a "frame" this way. I wanted to draw Remus again, and I had so much fun with it, I've added a lot of easter eggs too! He is drinking wine and is a little tipsy - just as the beginning, and a lot of other times in the fic actually, haha -, he has the ring, the photo was taken in James' restaurant, and there is also Padfoot the dog, who is now bigger as a whole year has passed! Niki gave me free hand with the caption and the comments too, so I decided to really double down on the story framing idea, and have the same comments, but with a twist, emphasizing Sirius' sassiness more (the caption and the extra comment from him saying the love of his life is his dog, but i used the moon and wolf emojis so it would refer to Remus... Also Padfoot is on the picture which is a nod back to the first one when the comment said who is on the picture).

The extra sketches: Originally I didn't want to add the extra sketches, as all three were just warmup before/after working on the actual pieces, but Niki decided to include them in her fic anyways! I really enjoyed the tension of the bathroom scene, I might even clean that sketch up sometime, but the roughness somehow really fits the vibe of the scene! The guitar playing one was actually the first version of the insta post that I only drew for my own fun, before I moved to make a more direct illustration of the scene. I really like how it looks, the guitar just looks so right in Sirius' hand! The boy really is a born rockstar, haha! The balcony in the background has the same pattern as the hotel in Madrid, however it really is just a coincidence. And how could I have resisted drawing Sirius with baby Padfoot?

The promo pic: I had the basis of this picture since working on the banner, but I actually only finished it recently. My aim was to make it look like an actual promo, influencer style (that's why the text is so cringy)! I've also came up with the idea of drawing the rockstar version of Sirius with a cross earring while working on these pictures, which I liked to much that I draw every version of him with it now 😆 It's like 95% of aesthetic and 5% reference to his godfather status (which makes sense only in my native language, cause the word for godfather is mirror translated as cross-father).

The rockband pic and the concert pic: I'm gonna list them here too, because they are both connected to the fic! Neither of them is a direct illustration, but they were inspired by the conversations I had with Niki in the meantime! The concert pic is actually a variation for the situation I tried to convey with the banner!

TLDR; (this became so long again, jeez) I really enjoyed working on all of these pictures, and I am sure that I will definitely create more! (The R/J/S threesome is just too tempting!!) It was really the most prosperous of collaborations, and it was so nice to get to know Niki too! I am really grateful for the opportunity to join the Bang, in my case it really delivered all the benefits: engaging more in this fandom, my creative drive skyrocketing and getting to know a lot of new people! Thanks to everyone involved, really!

[littlesparklight]

Which of your designs do you think has evolved the most?

Ohh, fun question!

Though my answer will probably be a little boring, because there's not really that much difference even in the designs that have had some evolution. I just get an idea in my head and in the first art work out the details and then they're pretty... set?

But here;

The absolute first art I made of these three, using one of those templates. They were designed together, for visual contrast. If they weren't, Paris might've had dark hair and sometimes I waver about changing it but I keep not doing it.

About the third art I did with these three, together or not. Paris got his upswept front in the second one, so this isn't the very first art for him with that hairstyle, but it gives an idea of how quickly I abandoned the simpler fringe/front part of his hair. (It was partially to visually differentiate him from Ganymede more, even if they don't share a hair colour.)

In the end, Helen's design is definitely the one that has had most evolution, though only in the face, really!

The very latest art; she's ended up with a lot more defined/curvy facial features, though it's "just" a development of what was there from the start. Her nose, too, has gone through some tweaking, but not much.

She's also gotten quite a bit taller - my initial idea had her and Menelaos both around 173 cm thereabouts, because I did like them being a similar height but both taller than Paris. By now however, she's 188 cm (which is still the shortest among demigods, the ones that I've given heights to range between 190-200 cm). Menelaos has gained a bit of height too, but only a couple cm. Paris is the only one who kept his height as-is. I thought it silly and kind of dumb that when I'd decided that all demigods are markedly taller than non-demigod mortals, that Helen should be so much shorter. At her original height she was certainly tall for a regular woman (especially Bronze Age-wise), but it was way shorter than all the (male) demigods. So I boosted her up to be a couple cm shorter than the "average" shortest height a male demigod has so far been and that feels much more in line with my own worldbuilding/headcanon!

(Also, tall Helen supremacy!!!)