#in terms of my drawing quality

[purplepixel]

Bro cant deal with this shit rn

[kitamars]

high school joui 4 shenanigans

[allosaurids]

I wanted to try out my design for the Silkwings and tweaked the canon design since Joy Ang really messed the anatomy of these guys in the books.

[doodleodds]

Happy Valentines, Akira. Happy Valentines, Asshole.

If you can’t read what Akechi’s secondary inner-dialogue says cause I obscured it too much behind his regular dialogue, here’s a transcription in panel order: Hello, you fucking- Ah- Hello, Akira! Fuck off, why should I tell you- Just a soda- there’s a new flavor.

I don’t want your shitty gift. Oh- haha! You’re so sweet.

I hope I choke. They’re lovely, thank you.

Like hell. Likewise. There’s no way it’s just a coincidence. Still though, it’s a funny coincidence.

[krembruleed]

this week on CoS: our intrepid adventurers are reunited after being scattered to the winds outside vellaki. also ismark is there for some reason

[coral-and-reef]

Extra below

note for myself: improvising is better than organising

[fleouriarts]

remade the height lineup for jamie and co! it's been almost exactly 6 months since i made the original one, and omar and andre didn't even exist when i made it, so i figured it needed an update. also the original was made in one night (vs this being made in a week) and you can TELL

under the cut are individual pics for each of them with some design notes and such. tumblr also likes to crunch big images like this, for full size click here and here

originally finished 9-28-2024

JAMIE: biggest change is that im actually drawing him with a long ass linsang neck. i wanted him to be small so bad before that i forgot the most important linsang trait... this is also why he has gained 2 inches of height LOL

SANTIAGO: santiago got like 25% wider and his horns are more visible. i considered making a second unclothed ref for his look during the summer (all wool shaved except for the head), but i don't draw him like that very much. maybe later

JOHNNY: no changes. johnny is a perfect animal. i just finally have a full ref of her spots (at least from the front)

NULL: i completely changed their head shape to look like an actual siamese cat, and gave them 6 nipples like an actual cat. their original shirt had just a blue scribble (my usual shorthand when i'm drawing from a ref and don't feel like drawing a shirt design) but i decided they deserve an actual shirt design now. i tried a cat skull at first and then i thought to do cartoon fish bones instead and fell in love with it

ARGYLE: argyle's face spots became more pronounced, his mane is bigger, his bigass robe has only yellow stripes now, and i changed the colors on his pants a bit. a character change that comes with this is that he is now a journalism student instead of fashion. he was originally a fashion student so him, jamie, and santiago would all have to interact (since they're all in the arts at their college). however developing argyle more made me think he would care way more about comfort than looking good when it comes to his clothes. also the son of a lawyer and a history professor going into journalism just makes sense to me

OMAR: omar wasn't on the original lineup, but when compared to my first drawing of her, i just made her fatter with a longer neck. and now i have a good ref of his spots! i've also decided they have hyperestrogenism, no clue if it's caused by an underlying syndrome like aexs or not. either way she has gynecomastia and hypogonadism because of it

ANDRE: andre straight up didn't have a color ref before now cus i mostly drew her in my sketchbook. i just forced myself to figure out his markings and give him a "default" outfit (i really liked the one i drew him in here so that's his default now). also i have decided she does not wear wigs anymore she's just a cool bald bitch

overall i think i just got better at drawing furries ^__^ a lot of it comes down to just thinking harder about their anatomy. you may notice that the new drawing has the carnivorans (jamie null argyle and andre) as plantigrade at rest now instead of digitigrade. part of this is because i went and looked at my zootopia artbook to study it and that's how they do it. another part of it is that when you look at plantigrade vs digitigrade legs (unguligrade is here too i guess):

the entirety of the paw on a digitrade animal is homologous to just the toes on a plantigrade one. do you want to stand on your toes all day? does that sound fun to you? HELL NO!!!!!! unguligrade animals stand on their toenails but they're weirdos we don't have to talk about them

anyway enough of my rambling cheers to you if you read this far. if you're an aspiring furry artist you might find it fun to learn some irl animal anatomy to help you w your drawings, like looking at skulls/full skeletons and stuff. or maybe it'll just frustrate you. i'm a biology student so this is enriching for me. have a nice day

[gingermintpepper]

hi I love your tags so so much! they were so sweet and so interesting and creative and the whole Aphrodite type of beauty thing sounds really interesting do you have any articles and recommendations to read further into it??

-hogoflight

Hello my fine feathered (I am assuming possession of feathers if you are, indeed, capable of flight) @hogoflight! I'm always always happy to hear that people appreciate my frenzied rambling in the tags :D! I have a lot of articles and recommendations :D!! Ancient Greek notions of beauty and representations of it in their art and sculptures is a pretty well studied topic! There isn't any way for us now to know definitively what the beauty standard was (it varied widely from region to region and culture to culture after all) but here are a couple of my favourite reads about Aphrodite and what her representations tell us about idealised beauty!

Probably the most empirically extensive one I can list is Krönström's thesis which compares statues of Aphrodite and literary text referring to both the goddess and mortal women to determine physical ideals for women in five specific eras of Grecian antiquity. Including measurements of the statues there are many descriptions of Aphrodite as 'curvy' with a 'voluptuous figure' and with 'ample buttocks and bosom'.

"When the beauty traits are described in the texts, they are never extreme or anything that could not be found in normal people just that they are more beautiful in every aspect. Furthermore, the sculptures’ physical forms look healthy, they are tall and have distinct curves. Great examples of this are the Knida sculpture and de Milo (the Melian) sculpture."

Of course, these images are still idealised, and there was still a concept such as 'too fat' or 'too skinny' found in written records (and this thesis even includes analysis of pornographic writings and descriptions of the fashion and stylings of pubic hair of women from different regions!!) but from an interpretational standpoint? There is absolutely no reason why these can't refer to a fuller figure. Height was also a very important factor after all and over the course of many eras, it seems like being well proportioned in addition to the length and appearance of one's hair were the most important factors (and, like Apollo, greater beauty was given to those with curlier hair)

Mireille M. Lee's 'Other Ways of Seeing' essay which talks about the forgotten female viewers of Knidian Aphrodite which is also extremely illuminating on how Aphroditic sexuality and sensuality was perceived totally differently from the well documented male voyeuristic gaze (which was overly preoccupied with the statue's nakedness and therefore over-sensationalised the statue's physical appearance) vs women's perspective on the statue which is more centered on the beauty of simplicity in Aphrodite's garment and decoration and in her power and ability to captivate both in her finery and without it. I think it's especially useful in exploring the importance of finery, jewellry and adornment in representations of Aphroditic beauty.

"Some of the small-scale copies are heavily jeweled, especially those from the eastern Mediterranean, for example the Hellenistic gilded terracotta statuette in the Çanakkale Museum (Fig. 5) in which the goddess wears, in addition to the armband on her (right) arm, the following: a necklace with multiple pendants; cross-bands extending over both shoulders and hips, with a cascading pendant in the center; a coiled snake armband on the left arm and another snake on her left thigh, and a twisted anklet on her right leg. (The left leg has been restored, and might also have featured an anklet.)"

"Jewelry is especially associated with Aphrodite in Greek literature. As seen above, in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, the goddess adorns herself with gold jewelry, dress-pins, and earrings in the shape of flowers (162–3)..."

Finally, and to me, the most important one in the argument for an interpretation of Hyacinthus as fat, beautiful and fundamentally Aphroditic comes from Brilmayer's brilliant brilliant thesis done on Aphrodite's work and influence in Archaic Greek Poetry which does away with all of that masculine preoccupation with physical proportion, measurement and bodily ideals for a focus on a Sapphic Aphroditic ideal centered in clothing, ornamentation and, most importantly cunning as symbols of Aphrodite and ultimately a feminine idealised form of beauty. This paper also discusses Pandora and Helen in these terms and it is just kind of a wonderful read tbh.

"Combining Homeric and Hesiodic elements with her own ideas, she [Sappho] alters the way female beauty is viewed. For example, the Homeric war chariot – a symbol of male, military prowess - comes to symbolise the totality of Aphrodite’s power uniting in itself male and female qualities. Having addressed the concept of beauty directly, Sappho then concludes that beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. With the help of Helen of Troy and her beloved Anaktoria, Sappho sets out to reinvent the concept of female beauty as a godlike, subjective quality that may be expressed in many ways, yet remains inspired by Aphrodite."

The conclusion to all of this of course is that Aphroditic ideal beauty is much more fluid compared to its stricter Apolline masculine standard. The nuances and understandings of both are of course, constantly being studied, analysed and scrutinised but really, if Dionysus who was both bearded and clean shorn, effeminate, birthed and rebirthed (and twice gestated!) and strongly associated with vegetation can be popularly portrayed as fat and handsome, why can't Hyacinthus?!

[comradejoanmir]

Some baby dani for the dash <3 ref

[demigod-of-the-agni]

runs back into bromantic flight. eyo does that mean Lloyd has a saddle (not actually a saddle, but something that connects to both him and Kai that is) that Kai can use to move Lloyd's arm in dragon form while traveling around on him?

I made a doodle just for you, dear anon

(lloyd is extra noodle-y now)

(also not tumblr eating the quality again god im so sorry)

Anyway what you're seeing here is that, yes, Kai has a saddle that he uses to connect the prosthetic to. The little glowing yellow things around Kai's leg? They're supposed to represent the straps that Kai fastens around his thigh to connect him to Lloyd's prosthetic (but i grew lazy and did not draw them in properly lmao)

Kai's thigh would be strapped to the radioulnar portion of the prosthetic, and the "stirrup" Kai's foot rests in is bolted into this sliding piston in the carpal portion of the prosthetic (which i also did not draw (forgot to) so you'll have to imagine it).

The main idea behind the self-regulating pistons is actually based on a real-life phenomenon called the perching reflex, which is found in birds! A series of "flexor tendons" are attached from the bird's femur and stretch all the way down to the back of the leg and the underside of the toes. When the bird extends its legs, the toes extend as well because the tendons relax; and when the the bird flexes its legs, the toes curl up because now the tendon is stretched around the bones and prevent free movement. This is actually how birds can sit in trees and sleep all night without falling.

(from Bird Vet Melbourne)

Similar thing is happening with the prosthetic, but instead of tendons it's pistons. When Kai flexes his leg, his thigh draws up the upper portion of the prosthetic and his flexing ankle (dorsiflexion) curls up the prosthetic's fingers, so to speak; and when Kai straightens his leg, his thigh pushes the upper portion downward, and his foot extension (plantarflexion) also extends the fingers.

I know this sounds like an absolute workout for Kai, and it is, and you may think by the time he comes back after numerous test flights everyone is very aware of his bulging quads, but it's not that obvious; it's like riding bicycle, if you think about. a really long bicycle. with one leg. while flying in the air. It's pretty much the same thing.

TLDR: there is a saddle that connects to the prosthetic. Kai sits on the saddle and uses his leg to adjust Lloyd’s prosthetic

[discjude]

Japeth if he stopped killing people and like. went to stardew valley or something

[ilovedthestars]

I wasn't kidding when I said I spent an hour just trying to sketch out the pose for this drawing! Sometimes you just gotta go through like 8 sketch layers to figure out what you're doing.

I also ended up looking at two references--this one from The Pose Archive, which I traced the legs from after struggling for a while to get proportions that looked right, and a photo of myself that I asked my roommate to take so I could figure out what to do with the arms. The process got significantly faster when I remembered I could use references and started working with them.

I think it's good to show some of the behind-the-scenes of your artwork every now and then, both because process is cool and because it removes some of the sheen of "whoa, i could never make that." I know I get discouraged at times by artists who "make it look easy," when really I can't see all the time and hard work that went into making something. I don't want to create that feeling for anyone else!

So, here's a glimpse into how much I struggled to get the pose right, and below is the timelapse where you can see how much I fiddled with the colors until I had something I was happy with. It was probably at least two hours of "i am spending way too much time on this" and "why does this still not look right" before I got to a point where I started thinking, "wow, this looks good." But I got there eventually, and I'm really happy I stuck it out!

[red-wood-reaper]

I’m a day later than normal but I got my drawings done! I was kinda tired during this month’s event but I still think I did good on drawing, and I had a good time! I was only missing one persons @ so I hope they see this or someone can tag them!

Io Rumenhide: @tlethanslol

Liifa: @sunsrefuge

Runa Wickel: @ohpollenpowder

[sundial-bee-scribbles]

hiki and geki matching post

hiki and geki matching post

[totallyalamp]

made by @moonflower012 (oldd from last yyyeearrrr :/)

i had no part in making this at alll

[voluptuarian]

At least once every 6 months I become convinced I just literally cannot write fiction anymore. Considering that's a thing that actually happened with my poetry writing and my drawing ability it's a somewhat concerning idea. Currently in one of these phases now.