#is one i roughly traced over the reference picture

[erigold13261]

Flowers!

[princeanxious]

✨️Moondrop progress update #1✨️

Picture 1 desc/info: knowing that I'd want to make Moondrop once I finished Sundrop, I made sure that(when I remembered to, as I'm learning that i wasn't quite as 100% consistent as I hoped I was) to make traced out references of each finished carved piece so that I wouldn't waste time struggling matching both of their proportions, considering nearly every piece required a duplicate piece to help achieve the eventual 'hollow skeleton' method that I use. Also, this is what I mean when I state that theyre carved from popsicle sticks. If it works, it works. lol

Picture 2 desc/info: here's the full lineup of every carved piece I have ready for Moondrop so far, and roughly how it will fit together. Every arm piece, leg piece, and even knee joint and the head piece have a duplicate(sans for the detail on the head's piece, obviously, though the headpiece is more complex than that as well). To further expand on why I did this, instead of just having one piece each, I need to point out the arm, hand, and ankle joint pieces. They will not be connected in two places, only one, to achieve full range of movement for the limb that they are attached to.

To achieve this, whilst still trying to keep this project's weight light, I'll create a hollowed skeleton. Essentially where the insides of the limbs(and body) are made hollow via smaller pieces of wood/popsickle stick scraps glued in-between the base pieces, but leaving enough empty space on either side to add two things. One side will have a rolled cylinder of a reinforced cardboard/paper mache combo, to provide a hollowed slot for the long joint piece side to slot into, and the other side, two hollowed holes to slot a dowel through with the joint piece inbetween. (If this doesn't make sense, dw, I plan on taking pictures when I get to that stage to show how I do it)

I also just end up stuffing the remaining 'dead-space' between the carved pieces with paper before i add clay, to further sheer off any unnecessary internal weight. Now, what you couldn't see with my Sundrop, is that by the time I finished adding clay and test stringing him together and started looking at reference photos again for color references, I hadn't realized up until that point that I'd entirely forgotten to add the dca standard wire-hook on his back. Not even superficially. So this will be where project Moondrop(whom at least uses the wire far more than sundrop, lol) will deviate from my original Sundrop design. I might use paper and cardboard to flesh out his limb shapes further before adding clay to make his body even lighter than suns, I've reinforced his torso pieces to account for the hole I'll carve into the back for my goal of a Functional wire-hook, I've made adjustments to his thigh shape for better ease of movement/posability(which might coincidentally make him just a smidgen shorter than Sun by design, shhh) because sundrops leg slots and the actual part of the leg that's supposed to slot in ended up quite a bit out of alignment due to the leg shape lacking a taper at the top to allow for a rounder end. Sundrop's legs are just a little janky bc of it.

Picture 3 desc/info: this is a look at the inbetween stage that the hip piece goes through, and you'll find that it's not reinforced with wood anywhere simply because of the completely curved surface. There were attempts made with sundrop to do this but they proved to be way too hard to bother with and less than affective with just popsickle sticks. Hense I use cardboard from a soda can box(aka cardboard that's compact and can carry a heavy capacity if the design is balanced and re-attachment points are reinforced properly) and then have so far gone over certain points with paper and glue(using the papermache method) to base reinforce places and also provide more adhesable texture internally. Because, that round piece(also cardboard) is going to sit in the main juncture of the top of the hips. A hole will be cut into it to maintain the ability to string the limbs and body together, and it will be further reinforced further with paper and glue, and later covered in clay- along with the rest of the hips inside and out, thus entirely made smaller than intended to account for the eventual bulk up of the piece. This cover provides a supportive divot in the hips that the middle torso piece can sit in that will give it the range of movement intended but also aid it in allowing the body to sit up straight otherwise(something that was discovered to be needed when working on finetuning sundrop whilst test-stringing, adding yet more weight due to the fix having been made solidly out of clay. Probably provides more support to Sundrop this way, but Moon needs to be as light as possible to prevent stress cracks/damage/balance issues/ect. If I want him to be able to have a functional hook to be used to be displayed with.

On a less technical note, there isn't much to show in the skeleton stage for the middle torso piece bc it's just a hollow cylinder of cardboard, thin enough to escape the bulk, but wide enough to still be strung through. It's just a lil tube for Sundrops frame anyway lol. Though, tbf, I might bulk Moondrops middle with paper/cardboard/whatever I decide, for the, once again, lightweight intention. I use air dry clay but even still it do be solid af when dry and sealed lol

Off camera just inches out of shot of each picture is sundrop, whom has slowly become disrobed and carefully disassembled in places to give me size references for things, but also one of these updates I'll show you how I made his head/face/ ray settup- why? Because it broke. Cuz my dumbass should've used wire and not a wooden dowel to support it all. (Further more, I'm using it as an opportunity to eventually redo Suns rays, because when I did the first set, I went for accuracy in the ray count, but still wanted them to spin freely. But I realized I HATE the gap that's left anywhere if his rays arent perfectly positioned and honestly this mechanism breaking is my sign and chance to fix it now that the rays aren't locked in anymore lol.)

I've decided to give this progress update log the tag '#projectdcadoll' from now on, so any posts I make abt this in the future will have that tag!

And if anyone has any questions about any specifics of the project, I'll also answer them/respond to them under this tag, so please feel free to ask away! I'm excited to share this process with ya'll!

[alienducky]

Fire Emblem Three Houses Crochet Wyvern - attempt 1

I finally finished it! It's taken me since the end of March 2022 (on and off, I got sidetracked making Alligator Loki for a while) but my prototype wyvern is done

Wyvern is 123.5 inches / 10foot 3.5 inches / 313.69cm wingtip to wingtip, and 56 inches / 4 foot 6 inches / 142.24cm nose to tail tip, and roughly 6 lbs / 2.72 kg ish. So a chunky baby He was made out of aran weight yarn using a 5mm hook and for the most part is Tunisian knit stitch. His toes were done in Tunisian simple stitch, and I think I did his teeth in normal rounds?

And now I do a cut to save everyone's feeds from all the pictures I'm going to share ^_^

(For reference, here are two photos of the wyvern from in game)

First, a few more angles on wyvern, and then I'll point out things I want to change for the next one

He's a handsome lad, and very recognisable for what he's meant to be!

But he also could be improved. A lot

Example 1, I lined up wyverns nose and tail tip against the in game 3d model to see how close he was to being accurate. And, er. yeah.

To give myself credit, when I first started this back in March 2022, I was working out lengths and widths and general sizing from screenshots taken from examining units in Three Houses, where I traced the outline onto a sheet of paper to measure things and perspective makes things AWKWARD, ok? (As is having brain farts and not remembering that the ruler had metric on the other side of it, but shush, let's not mention that bit)

So the biggest thing to fix will be the scaling, if I can. I can definitely make the tail longer, the head shorter and thinner, the chest between the wings thinner, the wing sockets bulkier, and thanking all the stars, the wings get to be smaller too. By a LOT

The other major thing I want to do different/better is how the ridges along his back from nose to tail tip work.

While they do work on wyvern, they don't look as great as I think they potentially can? So I'm going to be doing double layers of crochet, sort of, to help give the sticky up bit of the overlapping ridges more definition, and hopefully make them look like the slightly thicker scaling they're meant to be. It'll also help to smooth them out, so they won't have the weird dips where I've joined one to the next

I'm going to do the wings differently too, because what I did with these ones was quite frankly awful? I cut each wing segment into individual pieces to then hem and flip inside out to over sew the visible edges, and then hemmed up the sides that went inside the struts to then sew the crocheted parts to the fabric. So the fabric was the cheese to the crochet bread in this awful, awful sandwich situation. I am also never, ever buying anything that is even vaguely silky or satiny or slippery ever again for anything

For the next one I'll keep the two pieces of wing fabric as one big piece, since the top and bottom of the wing membranes are actually slightly different colours if you look closely, but I'm going to cheat and use some of that iron on hemming tape stuff to fill the inside of the fabric after I've done all the outer hemming and over sewing so it'll kind of look like all the veins and stuff that the membranes have? So the fabric hopefully won't slip around so much, so will be easier to sew, and keeping it as one big piece means there's less change of me messing up the positioning of the struts on the panels because the wings on this one aren't equal despite my best efforts

Next is Claude's white wyvern, but it'll be made with DK yarn and either a 3.5 or 4mm hook, so it will (hopefully) come out significantly smaller than this one. And that one is going to get plastic boning/skeleton in it, so it'll be poseable!!!

[something-ricked-this-way-comesx]

An Obsidian Eden - Chapter 16 - The Morty٫ The Rick٫ and The War Drones

Hey guys٫ heres another smut excerpt chapter from my Rick Sanchez fan fiction - above picture is an edit of Rick and my self insert OC Aurora٫ whom this fic follows.

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Warnings: (18+ only minors DNI), NSFW, 3-4k word count, fem reader, self- insert OC character, p in v, Rick Sanchez with feelings, big dick Rick, degradation a bit, rough sex, praise kink, marking kink, choking, orgasms, cream-pie, fingering, nipple play, manhandling, calling him God, age gap I guess٫ love٫ dirty talk٫ relationship Rick

-----------------------

Rick had Aurora propped up on the porcelain bathroom sink, legs apart as he kissed her senseless. He made a note in his head that Aurora’s skin tone almost matched that of the sink she was sitting on, beautifully porcelain and just as soft and spotless. His hands were now snaking their way up her skirt to find a home on her wide٫ curvy hips for a short moment. He squeezed them gently, hooking his thumbs diligently under the waistband of her panties before beginning to pull them down and off systematically. His lips didn’t leave hers until her panties were dangling by her ankles unfortunately caught on the zipper of one of her signature thick, black, combat boots. When he finally did break their kiss, he bent down swiftly to yank her black lace panties all the way off, placing them inside his right front pants pocket. She wasn’t getting them back either he thought before re-locking lips with her and placing his hands back under her skirt.

The music bumping loudly outside the door quickly shifted genres from the rap music that had been playing all night so far and they both could hear Nine Inch Nail’s “Closer” begin playing loudly throughout the house, echoing now in the bathroom. How fitting, Rick thought as he continued to kiss Aurora like his life depended on it, her lips so soft and malleable against his. She was moaning softly now against his mouth as he traced small circle patterns on the insides of her thick, plush thighs and he wanted nothing more than his cock to be buried to the hilt between those thighs in her sinfully tight pussy. Had he not hurt her feelings earlier, he absolutely would already be inside her, but he wanted to make up for hurting her in a more sensual way first. He was going to worship her body and apologize to her deeply with a love note written on her clit with his tongue.

He flipped her black skirt up onto her hips where it pooled in the spaces between her thighs and hips - he had heard Summer refer to that spot as the thigh-brow once and he felt as if that was a fitting name as any. He got down on his knees in front of her, kissing his way down her thighs as he held her hips roughly in place to the sink. He spread her legs even farther apart, throwing one over his shoulders as he buried his face between her thighs delicately to work his magic on her core with his tongue. Her hands went to his wild hair where they pulled gently as he could hear small, soft moans erupting from her perfect, pouty lips. He fucking loved the way she tasted, so sweet and delectable. He couldn’t quite explain it, but she had always tasted faintly of pancake syrup and it was no secret how much he loved pancakes. He enjoyed giving head in general, just about as much as he enjoyed receiving it, but the way Aurora tasted paired with the way she sounded as she came undone - made him all the more happy to do it especially for her.

In fact, he loved pleasuring her with his tongue. He was obsessed with the way she bucked her hips to ride his face and he couldn’t help, but notice how his cock was so hard now that it was uncomfortably scraping up against the zipper of his pants. Fuck, was she was killing him and he achingly longed to be inside of her with each stroke of his tongue against her sensitive nub. Her moans were growing louder now and he didn’t even care that people could possibly hear her unraveling for him in here, actually, he hoped they did because she was all his - every single bit of her. He wanted people to know that she belonged to him, even if they had no label and they weren’t entirely official, he wanted the world to know that Aurora came undone so beautifully for no one, but him.

“Oh my God - Rick - I’m so c-close.” She moaned, her hands gripping his hair even tighter now. He already knew, before she had even said it because he had it down to a science what exactly and how long it took to push her over the edge.

He loved when she called out to God because he knew that she was talking about him and he absolutely got off on it in a narcissistic kind of way, but he knew she didn’t mind. Despite the fact that he had a God kink, he would have gladly worshiped Aurora like she was a Goddess - his own little Persephone, her immaculate beauty unlike anyone else he had or would ever fuck. He had quite the body count too of course - he had been a lot of places, fucked a lot of people and despite all the people he had encountered, not a single one of them paled in comparison to Aurora in his eyes. Not even Unity.

One of his hands left Aurora’s hips to push two of his long fingers inside of her, curling them delicately to stroke the raised, bumpy flesh of her g-spot as he pumped them in and out of her slowly. She was wriggling underneath his touch now as he picked up the pace with his tongue and he could tell that it wouldn’t be too much longer now before she would be moaning his name and begging him to get inside of her. It was almost like divine intervention the way that after he thought that, her pussy started to pulsate around his fingers and she started to moan endlessly above him.

“Rick.” She moaned, coming completely undone. She grabbed his hair harshly, pulling him out from between her thighs to bring him up to her face again - kissing him as hard as she could.

Rick was taken aback by how fiercely she had kissed him as she was usually so much more soft٫ submissive٫ and delicate with how she presented herself sexually, but he wasn’t opposed to this new side of her at all. He knew that she could taste herself all over his lips and that made his cock even harder, if that was even possible - god damn he thought as his dick was like concrete at this point as it ached for every single part of her.

“Fuck me Rick, fuck me please, fuck me like you hate me.” She begged, grabbing the collar of his lab coat and whispering it into his ear before taking his ear lobe between her teeth for just a moment before releasing it and staring into his eyes.

He wasted no time in unbuckling his belt, his zipper flying down in the process. He had his cock in one hand and grabbed her neck roughly with the other, pulling her in close to him so he could whisper in her ear;

“I’ll fuck you baby, I’ll fuck you fucking senseless, but make no mistake that I will never, ever hate you.” He growled, his hand tightening around the sides of her neck as she let out a small moan and a mousey “please” in response and fuck was he concerned that he might turn into a puddle for her right then and there.

“Fuck, you are so beautiful.” He said as he maneuvered his cock to the entrance of her bare, wet pussy - waiting for her to beg for him one last time before he could finally bury himself within her.

“Rick, please.”

There it was, what he was waiting for and he gave her a small smirk before reattaching his lips to hers and began pushing himself all the way inside of her, hearing her gasp from the size stretching her out like she always did. He didn’t know if it was the alcohol or maybe the drugs that he had taken throughout the night, but he could feel himself be smacked with an overwhelming rush of love and affection towards the beautiful, whimpering woman beneath him. He broke their kiss to watch as his dick disappeared and reappeared from her depths as he rhythmically thrusted in and out of her - her pussy gripping his cock like it didn’t want to let him go.

He bottomed out, cumming inside of her as he laid his forehead gently against hers, both of them out of breath as they held each other.

“I’ll never get tired of that.” He grinned, rubbing his nose affectionately against Aurora’s causing a small smile to creep across her ruby tinted swollen lips.

“Me either, fuck - please help me clean myself up.” She begged as he pulled out of her tortuously slowly before pulling his pants up and re-tucking his shirt.

“Oh come on - you don’t want me running down your thighs for the rest of the night?”

“Are you saying we’re done for the night?”

“As fucking if, I could be be buried in that pussy all night baby, you know that.”

“Then help me by grabbing me a towel from that cabinet.” She pleaded, legs still spread wide open as she sat on the edge of the sink.

“I have a better idea.” Rick smiled devilishly, sliding to his knees once more to attach his mouth to the fountain between her legs, lapping up any and all mixed bodily fluids.

He looked up at her through his eyelashes as he feasted upon her folds as if she was his last meal and his dick got uncomfortably hard again as he seen her head back٫ eyes rolled٫ and mouth open releasing small moans in pleasure. She didn’t tangle her delicate hands in his hair this time٫ but rather white knuckled the edge of the sink as he worked his tongue around her clit now.

“Rick٫ please - someone is going to need this bathroom.”

“Fuck ‘em٫ I was in prison and I missed the sweet taste and feeling of this perfect pussy every goddamn day - they can go use Squanchy's other bathroom or maybe a fucking bush outside like normal fucking drunks.” He hummed٫ hovering over her sleekness as he spoke before taking two fingers and shoving them inside of her roughly - a gaspy moan erupting from her throat in response.

“Rick.”

“What is it٫ Aurora?”

“Please٫ don’t stop.”

“Thought you’d see it my way٫ such a little slut for me aren’t you?”

She mewled a small “mhm” in response٫ grinding her hips up against his face as he continued to bring her to the edge and back every few seconds - the denial almost becoming painful for her as he held her harshly to the edge of the sink by her right hip. Aurora was growing impatient with Rick’s antics though and thought of a devious plan to not only get what she wanted٫ but woo Rick in the process. She shuffled under his touch a bit٫ his grip on her hip loosening up enough for her scoot away from him. He stood up confused by the sudden interruption and she used this as an opportunity to tackle him - him catching her in his arms as her arms and legs snaked around his body tightly.

He was taken aback by her sudden defiance٫ but placed his hands underneath her ass to support her weight as he not so gently slammed her perfect body up against the wall. He could see her tits bouncing from behind their long sleeve prison and grabbed ahold of the collar harshly enough to pull it down. Just enough to where her bra-less٫ pierced tits were now on full display to him and Jesus fucking Christ were they beautiful. He dipped his head down, pulling one of her already hard nipples between his lips where he suckled intensely and teased her with his tongue٫ one of his hands reaching out from under her to twist the other nipple between his thumb and forefinger. He simply wanted to devour her whole body and not only with his touch٫ but his eyes too. He almost wished that he could take pictures of her during these moments so he could remember how beautiful she was when she was a glutton under his touch٫ but he didn’t need them when he could have the real thing whenever and wherever he wanted it.

He thought back to the night he turned himself in at the Plim Plom Tavern and how he had fucked her brains out in that bathroom then too٫ promising not to drop the soap or fuck anyone else in that dirty federation prison. He didn’t either٫ keeping his promise to her; it was honestly hard to fuck other people when he knew they weren’t going to be anywhere near the same level of perfect at taking his dick the way Aurora was. He didn’t even want to fuck Unity anymore and they could be anyone he wanted them to be٫ but that didn’t matter to him because they couldn’t compare to his Rory no matter who they assimilated.

Rick unbuckled his pants again٫ Aurora pushing them with her legs off his hips just enough for his very hard dick to spring free٫ slapping her with a loud “smack” as it was freed from its own denim prison. He hoisted her up against the wall just enough to lower her till his dick was buried all the way inside of her - her soft٫ spongy flesh somehow feeling even better than it had just 15 minutes short minutes ago. He adjusted himself to where he had one hand gripping her throat to the wall and the other was still supporting her weight on one of her perfectly round ass cheeks. He began to thrust up into her at an unforgiving pace٫ him noticing the mascara streaks on the apples of her pink hued cheeks now. He felt an unfamiliar twinge of pain or maybe it was guilt as he realized those streaks were from her crying earlier and not from their sexcapade in this bathroom.

He removed his hand from her throat and instead used it to caress her face gently٫ his thumb running over the black streaks littering her face as if he was checking to see if they were real. Her big٫ large doe eyes were looking up at him as he furrowed his brow in worry at her. She was so delicate٫ so fragile despite her bad bitch goth persona and he was actually worried that he would one day destroy her. Not in a fun٫ sexual way either. His mind wandered to how he didn’t want to hurt her anymore and he thought that maybe the best course of action would be to break whatever this was with her off٫ but he didn’t know if he had it in him to do so. He actually really did love Aurora and knew for a fact that he probably didn’t have the strength to let her go.

He was still fucking her as his mind raced through what he should do٫ it taking longer than usual for him to come because he was preoccupied mentally with a different dilemma. She was still writhing against him in pleasure٫ her hands gripping him with an extreme tightness that let him know that she herself was close to orgasm. He was good at putting on a good poker face and was glad she couldn’t tell anything was amiss٫ he really didn’t want to have to lie to her and he would have to if she asked what was wrong. He soon pulled out of her٫ setting her down gently to the floor as he milked his cock into shooting thick ribbons of his cum into the sink near by - him pulling his pants up again and cleaning the mess from the sink by turning on the water for a few seconds.

He kissed Aurora’s temple as she adjusted her top and skirt to look less disheveled before she looked into the mirror and gasped at her mascara streaked face and her wild sex hair. He watched her intently as she hurriedly fixed her appearance even though he thought that it didn’t matter much because she looked beautiful either way. He wrapped his arms around her waist and laid his head on top of hers as he looked at them in the mirror and couldn’t help٫ but think how good they looked together.

“I love you.” He murmured٫ watching a smile creep across Aurora's beautiful face as he said it.

“I love you Aurora٫ you gorgeous٫ delicate٫ little flower you.” He hummed again٫ her turning to reach up and pull his mouth to hers - pressing their foreheads together as she broke away.

“What kind of flower am I to you٫ Rick?”

“Of course you’re a magnus flower from The Forbidden Zone٫ deadliest٫ but most beautiful flower in the galaxy.” He replied٫ kissing all over the sides of her face as he awaited her response.

The flower he was talking about was a large٫ hibiscus like flower that was often poached and synthesized for either poison or an additive to multiple of the galaxies most potent drugs. It was a black flower that shined with a purple overlay٫ just as aesthetically beautiful as it was dangerous - there were even rumors that some sub species had cross pollinated and grown sentient overtime٫ but that was yet to be anything more than just a theory. This flower was not only one of the most beautiful things Rick had ever seen٫ but the minute he had stumbled upon it some odd years ago٫ he immediately thought of Aurora. Aurora was also a deadly force of nature when she wanted to be٫ but her beauty over shined her poison just like the magnus flower.

“Awe wow٫ that was actually r-really nice of you٫ t-thank y-you.” She stammered٫ her cheeks blushing wild with pink as she struggled to get her sentence out without stuttering nervously.

“I have my moments.”

“Rick?”

“Yes٫ love o�� mine.”

“Are we - is this? Are we finally together?”

“Is that what you want?”

“Well٫ I thought it was kind of obvious-”

“Then yes٫ we are whatever you want us to be.”

“Okay٫ good because we are absolutely fixing this eye sore of a bald spot tomorrow officially as a couple.” She beamed٫ her doe eyes lighting up at Rick as she said the words “as a couple”.

“Hey٫ it adds character.”

“No٫ it doesn’t - oh٫ and I love you too.”

“Took you long enough to say it back٫ christ.”

She giggled at him٫ his lips kissing a heart pattern all over her forehead now.

“We should probably get back. Ya know before they start to wonder where we are.” She said٫ grabbing his hand in hers as she started to walk towards the locked door.

“Oh٫ trust me they know where we are.”

“Was I really that loud?”

“Well٫ you weren't exactly quiet Ror.”

He rolled up his lab coat sleeves and walked over to the door unlocking it before opening it and gesturing her out first.

“After you٫ m’lady.”

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As always if you enjoyed this give the full fic a chance over on wattpad:

[eldathsgrove]

The Talk of the Town

I finally finished my art project!

Gift and process under the cut

As a treat, I saved the frame separately, so other people can use it for their toxic ships 👀 please tag me; I want to see them 👀

Now, I want to walk y’all through the process for this, because I think it’s hilariously odd

I can’t picture things. At all. I get the impression, like the brains reaction to having seen something, but no actual visuals, so…

There were at least two different version I tried to work through first; I really wanted to draw AAstarion with his corset visible, but I just couldn’t make it work

I started this one by turning these two into 3D models with Hero Forge, and posing them

With some paper on top of my laptop, I roughly traced their outline, and then drew a grid on top of it 👀

So…do you remember those pages in coloring books where you’re supposed to use a grid to redraw a picture? I always hated those, but that’s how I got the outline into my sketchbook 🙃

This is what I took Forever (months) fleshing out, and then, well…the border 🙃 each individual rose was its own grid, and the others I had to break down first. I wanted there to be another layer of flowers as the background, all Wolfsbane. I just couldn’t figure out how to do that one well enough 😅

I took the picture of the finished sketch, and traced over it in art studio

I only had three layers to work with, which was a pain in the ass, even though I was barely doing more than dumping colors

Astarion’s dainty face and pain in the ass hair were too delicate for my pencil, so they were done entirely digitally…by precisely pasting game and hair references I could use as guide lines to trace over. I don’t love tracing, but I could not figure out how else to do this; his face is impossibly pretty

Gortash’s mug, in sharp and obvious contrast, was not as involved of a process. I think he’s ugly cute. The only specific detail I made sure to include is the mole I saw someone mention getting obsessed with. I turned it into a little heart 🖤

Anyway, a whole bunch of cleaning up, selecting and cutting, a diy glaze, and here we are, just in time for the chapter it goes with 💪😭✨

@nyda-the-tav thank you again again for helping me figure out how to get the formatting functional; I hope my process didn’t give you an aneurism

[forecast-disaster]

rtc oct day 10!

prompt- free day

thought it would be fun to practice drawing for the @rtc-graphic-novel and figured i could also do a quick tutorial on how i do my usual colored sketches for anyone who may be curious! that tutorial is under the cut

step 1- finding refs

i usually have a general idea of what i want to sketch and will find refs of both the character/actor as well as the specific pose

step 2- the base sketch

i do super loose, primarily rectangular based sketches to map out the basic pose and make sure it fits the space. also shout out to the one rendered noel face in this sketch lmao

step 3- finalized sketch

i observe the references and kind of mash ‘em together until they make sense? idk, can try to explain it better later if someone is interested. i then erase the sketches a bit so the graphic doesn’t bleed through the markers too much

step 4- base coloring

now this step is different depending on what type of marker i’m using, but for acrylic paint markers, i lay down the flats first over the pencil

step 5- shading and blush

forgot to take a picture before i started lining, whoops, but i’ll usually take a darker tone and shade in the proper shading area as well as add some blush on the nose, checks, knuckles, and elbows

step 6- lining

i take a pen and quickly trace roughly where the lines would make sense. i also use a white gel pen to make the eyes and teeth white

[nexus-my-beloved]

Writing time is back in session, boys

In a time of creative genius, I have come up with three new fics to give you all, and I hope you enjoy them to their fullest. If one of them interests you, it is either up already or will be sometime soon !!! Fic One : D O L L H O U S E Tags : Castiel & Dean Winchester, whump, FBI agent Dean Winchester, hurt/comfort, psychological trauma, physical abuse, past abuse, several past sa mentions, graphic/semi-graphic depictions Status: Uploaded !! / In progress !! Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/52509145/chapters/132833086

“According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, roughly 800,000 children are reported missing each year in the United States. Most are found. Thousands are not.”

—

The Novak family had gone off the grid years ago. Two of the eldest sons ran away, followed by one of the daughters. A prestigious family that owned land, businesses, and had power in the industry, had started to crumble due to the diminishing reputation that had begun to follow it.

That was when one of their sons went missing.

Such a reputable family would normally have sent out an immediate search for the boy, but this one did not. Instead, their assets were abandoned, businesses left behind to be taken over “temporarily” by their CEOs, the family seemingly disappearing without a trace.

Now, Agent Smith is investigating a lead in a popular case. What seems to be an elaborate drug-trade turns out to be something much more disturbing; substances aren’t the only thing being traded.

Through paperwork, field investigations, suspect interrogations and unlikely tips, Agent Smith discovers the horrifying connection between the Novaks and his elusive "drug cartel". !!! Fic two : Incandescent Tags : Castiel/Dean Winchester, Minor Jessica Moore/Sam Winchester, Minor/Implied Gabriel/Sam Winchester, Murderer Castiel, Victim Dean Winchester, Bloody Romance, Blood and Violence, Slow Burn, can it still be called slow burn if they fuck in chapter one, it is not safe or sane but the sex sure is consensual ! Status : In progress, not yet uploaded !! Link : N/A Incandescent /ˌinkənˈdes(ə)nt/ 1. full of strong emotion; passionate. ..Well, that's one word for it. — Castiel is a killer. And, as much as his brother insists, he isn't messy. He's bored. Everyone he kills is too simple, hardly able to be called entertainment at this point. What Castiel wants is a complex target, someone that will give him enjoyment. Someone that will bleed out in his arms and look to him for mercy, a plea for their life that's mixed with the devastation and dread of their impending death. Cue in Dean Winchester. !!! Fic three : less is planned, but this is likely gonna come out first. Description : In every other universe, Castiel raises Dean from perdition and leaves, does as he's told. Dean wakes up one morning, and something isn't right. Cas isn't in the bunker. Everything else is the same, but there's no mark of Cas in the place- no picture on Dean's desk, the zeppelin mix tape is missing off of Dean's desk, and there's jam in the cupboard - Cas hated jam. And now, when Dean asks Sam about it, Sam acts like he's never spoken to Cas in his life, and only refers to him as Castiel.

Maybe a prayer will get Cas to come and fix it all? Except... something isn't right with Cas.

[takamimami]

Perfectly Misaligned

Chapter 4 - The Point of No Return

Previous Chapter | Masterlist

Pairing: Eustass "Captain" Kidd x OC (Morrigan, The Phantom)

Chapter Tracklist:

Nobody’s Home - Avril Lavigne

Glitter in the Air - P!NK

Swimming Home - Evanescence

CW: minor depictions of violence, references to Morrigan's childhood trauma, minor character death, suggestive conversation about Mor's v-card, Kidd being Kidd --- word count: 3.6k

NSFW; Explicit Language/Themes - MINORS/AGELESS BLOGS DNI

A cool breeze blew my hair forward and into my face, obscuring my vision for a moment as I stared up into the starlit sky. My eyes were puffy and swollen from the crying I’d done, still trying to process the flurry of emotions inside me as I felt the familiar burning of tears sting them again. 

I’d found my way up onto the roof of the cabin, needing time and space to myself after my interrogation from Kidd earlier. 

I’d expected him to refuse to let me come with them to the New World - Kidd didn’t like being told what to do, and, unfortunately for me, I seemed to rub him the wrong way just by breathing. But I’d expected Killer to be able to convince him like he usually did, and hearing the way he argued with Killer inside the room earlier—I wasn’t too sure he could be persuaded otherwise.

Definitely not tonight, which is why I secluded myself on the roof, a blanket wrapped around my shoulder and a candle between my legs—the flames dancing in the breeze as the candle threatened to go out altogether.

I closed my eyes as the breeze picked up again, and let my mind wander back to the place I’d called home just short of a year ago. 

~

A chill ran up my spine as I stood in the center of the crowded room, everyone’s eyes focused on my little sister, Celeste, as she opened presents for what would have been her 16th birthday.

Everyone was gathered in the entertainment hall of the palace, the place that once housed pictures of all four members of our family now missing one face amongst the frames. No one’s eyes faltered as I walked over to the banister where my sister’s portrait hung, my matching one missing and the pictures shifted around as if it had never been there at all.

All trace of me gone from the place I’d once called home, the ghost of me lingering as I watched my father and stepmother’s faces light up as my sister held up a ruby necklace she’d pulled from the gift bag. 

I dragged my feet as I walked to the center of the room again, blinking once as the room fell silent– all previous occupants vanished and the room lights dimmed. 

I twirled my head around to find myself alone in the hall, my eyes darting around the room until they landed on a frail body standing a few feet away from me, her face covered in shadows as she faced me.

My knees nearly buckle as I look my mother up and down, lip quivering as I struggle to find my voice to call out to her. I reach out my hand and open my mouth when a gunshot rings out through the empty room, my mother’s body slumping to the floor as blood begins to pool around her. 

My throat constricts as I try to scream, but no sound comes out. Tears blur my vision as I will my legs to carry me forward, but as I approach my mother’s body I’m halted with fear as my father stands over her lifeless body, eyes piercing into mine as he stares me down– my mouth growing dry as I feel a hand grab my shoulder.

“Hey…”

~

“Hey! Squeak! Snap out of it!”

I rubbed my eyes roughly with the backs of my hands as I felt Killer’s tight grip on my shoulders, blinking away tears as I came back to reality.

Tendrils of dark shadows swirled in the air around both of us, some of them swirling around his arms as they gripped my shoulders and caused me to pull away from him. I scooted along the roof as I created some distance between us, forcing my shadows to vanish as I tried to center my breathing.

“D-did that hurt?” I stuttered after a few moments of silence, my eyes trained on his forearms where I had seen the shadows dancing over his skin.

“I’ve been through worse,” he admits, rubbing a hand over his arm as he scoots closer to me. “Are you okay?”

Instead of answering I reached for the blanket still wrapped around my shoulders, turning my gaze down to the candle that must have tipped over at some point during my nightmare, luckily not set the entire roof on fire. I breathed a sigh of relief as I shifted toward it, picking at the dried wax that had spilled onto the roof tiles as flashes of my dreams crept back into my mind.

I let the silence answer for me as Killer kept his gaze in my direction, pulling my gaze from the flakes of dried wax and peering into the night sky. Stars scattered across the vast expanse of darkness, twinkling in the moonlight as if someone took a fist full of glitter and launched it into the air.

“You spoke of the angels and archangels earlier,” I started, desperate for something to distract me from the face of my mother plaguing my mind. “I thought all angels were supposed to be ‘good’... why would any of them have powers like mine?”

Killer shifts closer to me, eyes still locked on me as he speaks. 

“Archangels were the more powerful of their kind, and were usually responsible for maintaining the balance between good and evil - meaning they often mastered the powers of both.”

I nodded as I processed the information, finding myself impressed by Killer’s seemingly endless knowledge. 

I turn my head and meet his gaze, a small smile curling up on my lips as I shift closer to him. “Fucking nerd,” I say teasingly, giggling lightly as I look back up towards the stars. 

“Maybe there is hope for me, then.” 

I lift my hand and stare at it for a moment, feeling the power surging just below my skin. I let out a deep breath and let the darkness swirling inside me manifest itself in the air between Killer and me. 

We both watch the tendrils swirl and snake through the air and along the roof tiles, Killer not flinching as the shadows wrap around his forearm. I drop my hand and the shadows dissipate, but Killer flicks his head back to me as they disappear.

“Do it again.”

I eye him wearily, his request making the hair on my arms stand as I imagine the soldiers I’d incapacitated. But I lifted my hand again, the tendrils dancing over to him again, this time snaking further up his arm as I watched him cautiously.

My pulse roared in my veins as I watched Killer’s arm tense as if he were actively fighting against the darkness trying to consume him. I hear him let out a grunt as he imbues his arm with his Armament Haki, his shoulders relaxing slightly once he is able to successfully shield his skin from my shadows.

I drop my hand a moment later, breathing slightly labored from the exertion, my eyes still trained on Killer’s arm as he drops his defenses.

“What does it feel like?” I ask quietly, my curiosity getting the better of me.

Killer flexes his hand, then his elbow, and I watch the rippling muscles contract as he ponders how to respond.

“It felt like something was sucking up my strength, preventing me from fully exerting my Haki,” he starts, chuckling a bit as he rolls his shoulder. “I’d hate to see what you could do to someone with better control over those things.”

I grimaced at the comment, but before I could reply something pulled my attention to the trees in the distance. My head snaps in that direction, and Killer shifts as he sees my body tense from the disturbance.

“Wha-”

“Someone’s coming,” I cut him off, my eyes still locked on the trees. Killer seemed to sense the same presence a heartbeat later, but I had already turned and began climbing back up the roof and into the window I’d climbed out of previously. 

Once inside, I shuffled through the dark room in search of the light switch, feeling along the wall until I found it and flicked on the lights.

A groan startled me, the body sleeping in the bed shifting as the muscled frame sat up in the bed, tousled red hair covering his face as he rubbed at his eyes.

“The fuck are you doing?!”

Kidd’s voice echoes off the walls, a scowl immediately forming on my face as he looks over me.

“Someone is coming,” I said flatly as Killer climbed in through the window. Kidd’s brow furrowed as he looked between the two of us.

“It’s Hawkins,” Killer says calmly, and Kidd rolls his eyes as he pulls the blankets off himself and shuffles off the bed. My eyes trace over his toned body, watching his muscles ripple and flex as he tugs on his pants and lets them hang loosely on his hips. 

Kidd’s head flicks in my direction, a smirk flicking onto his lips as he catches where my stare is lingering. I feel heat prickling at my cheeks as I shift my gaze over to Killer, and Kidd mirrors my movements as Killer crosses the room and grabs for the door. 

I take a step to follow him through it and feel a tug at my arm, looking back to see Kidd’s hand wrapped around my wrist.

“Stay here,” he commands, pulling me back into the room as he pushes past me and out into the hallway. 

“No,” I bite back sharply, shoulders straightening as I resume my stride and follow him out into the hallway. 

He brings a hand to rub at his temples as he turns to face me, sticking an arm out to stop me from pushing past him.

“I said,” he glares, eyes dimming a shade, “ Stay here. ”

His touch is firm as I press against his arm, eyes staring up into him defiantly as I try to press past him. His arm tenses as I try to take another step, grunting as he pushes against me and causes my step to falter. 

“For someone who wants to join my crew, you sure don’t know how to listen to fucking orders,” he grumbles, turning to walk further down the hall. 

“I didn’t ask to join your crew,” I snap back, following a few strides behind him, “I asked you to take me to the New World, not to be my captain.”

Kidd stills at my words, his hand squeezing the railing of the stairs as he turns to glare at me from over his shoulder.

Killer glances in our direction from the bottom of the stairs, sensing the tension as his eyes move between the two of us.

I stop just out of arm's length from Kidd, not faltering as he turns to face me again. Eyes closed and brows bunched in frustration, he lets out a deep sigh before glancing my way, a glimmer of something in his eyes I couldn’t quite place.

“ Fine, ” he said exasperatedly, shoulders slumping slightly as he took a step closer to me. “I will consider taking you with us, Morrigan, if you just listen to me this one fucking time.”

I shuddered as my name fell from his lips, loosening my fists that I hadn’t realized were balled at my sides. His brows were still knit together as he watched my tension lessen, a weary gaze cast his way as I wondered why he was so insistent on my absence from this conversation.

“Fine,” I breathed, and both Kidd and Killer sighed in unison as a knock on the door drew the attention of all three of us. Kidd hurriedly glided down the stairs, casting me a warning glance as he reached the bottom. 

I turned and made my way back to the room, lingering in the doorway as the front door creaked open and unfamiliar voices mixed with those of Kidd and Killer’s briefly before the door shut.

Just as I was shifting on my feet I heard a door from down the hall swing open, and I peeked my head back out to see two tall figures sauntering down the hall toward me.

“I knew we heard your voice,” one of them crooned, and I couldn’t help the smile that curled onto my lips as Wire and Heat stepped out from the shadows of the hall, the latter’s arms outstretched toward me as I gladly let him pull me into an embrace.

The faint smell of ash tickles my nose as I smile into the warm hug, Wire staring at me blankly as I pull away from Heat and lean in his direction. He barely moves as I pull him into a side hug, and Heat leans over the railing of the staircase as he looks for whom I assume are Killer and Kidd. 

“We were trying to figure out who the Boss was arguing with,” he muses, cracking a smile as he nods in my direction, “Now it makes sense”.

“We were not arguing,” I said stubbornly, recalling the way Kidd’s eyes had softened when he made his bargain with me. It almost seemed like there was concern hidden behind them – his amber eyes flashing into my mind as I tried to understand the sudden shift in his emotion.

“Of course, you weren’t,” Wire cuts in, tone unamused as he pulls me from my recollection, “You and the Boss are always so agreeable ”.

The dry sarcasm in his voice didn’t go unnoticed by Heat or me, and I rolled my eyes as I switched my attention back to Heat.

“It’s good to see you guys,” I smile warmly, the tall man before me grinning as he extends a hand out to rest on my shoulder.

“It’s good to see you too, Mor,” he sighs, “Though, I have to admit, I didn’t think our paths would ever cross again.”

I grimaced at the notion, Heat’s hand dropping from my shoulder as he offered me a sympathetic look.

“It’s…. A long story,” I groan, running my fingers through my hair as I puff out a deep sigh. 

I turned my head and gazed down the stairs, not ready to hash out the details with them quite yet. They both take the hint and shuffle past me, descending the staircase without another word.

Before they can reach the bottom the sound of the front door swinging open halts them, and the sudden slam of the door has me gripping the railing as Kidd stomps back into the cabin, a scowl etched on his face as he turns the corner to find Heat and Wire looking at him from the steps.

“What’s up, Boss?” Wire asks, though his face is emotionless as he looks over his captain.

Kidd grunts, disappearing into the kitchen without another glance in any of our directions. Killer sighs a deep breath before walking after Kidd, motioning for Wire and Heat to follow.

My curiosity had me halfway down the stairs before the kitchen door closed, and without considering Kidd’s previous hesitations I pulled open the handle to find Kidd throwing back a bottle of booze.

Killer snaps his neck over to me while Heat and Wire keep their eyes on Kidd, and something about Killer’s body language has me lingering in the doorway.

Sure enough, Kidd’s gaze lands on me as he brings the bottle from his lips, and his brows furrow, looking me up and down and setting the bottle on the table before stepping toward me.

“What did Hawkins want?” Heat asks insistently, but Kidd continues approaching me, only stopping once he is towering over me. His arm extended out and held the door I still propped open with my foot, and his eyes flick through the doorway before falling back down to me.

“I got business to discuss with my crew,” he grumbles, leaning closer to me as if to usher me out of the kitchen.

“What the hell is so important that you can’t tell them with me present?” I press, holding my ground and not backing away from my position in the doorway.

Kidd’s eye twitches – a movement that I almost miss – and he braces his arm on the door harder before leaning down closer to me, the smell of whiskey coating his breath as his breath tickles my face.

“I don’t discuss anything pertaining to my crew with outsiders ,” he nearly growls, as if the term were supposed to be an insult. “Last time I checked, you didn’t want any part of my crew, so how about you run along and get some sleep, Princess.”

The command in his tone nearly made my knees wobble, and I kissed my teeth before turning around, no longer interested in playing this game with him.

I make my way back up to the room, stomping my feet up the stairs dramatically before slamming the door hard enough for everyone in the cabin to hear. My heartbeat was pounding in my ears as I sank into the mattress, trying to tune out Kidd’s voice that now rang through my head.

“ So how about you run along and get some sleep, Princess.”

“Princess.”

The condescension in his tone alone as he spat that nickname at me was enough to set my blood on fire. 

Forcing my eyes shut, I try to shove the insufferable redhead to the back of my mind, but it only serves the opposite purpose as my mind races.

~

Kidd’s arms rested on the railing on either side of me, his neck craned to look down at me as I felt my chest tighten from his proximity.

“C’mon, Princess ,” he crooned, the gods forsake nickname dripping with honey as he brought his lips closer to mine, “We both know that kiss wasn’t the accident you claimed it to be.”

He and I had been drunk the night prior, the rest of the crew already retired to their respective quarters as he listened to me prattle on and on about stars and constellations. When I was done he’d walked across the deck with me toward one of the spare rooms beneath the helm, and in a drunken haze, I’d decided it would be a good idea to kiss the moron after he’d offered me one too many flirtatious compliments.

“Kidd,” I groaned, pushing a hand against his chest half-heartedly, “I was drunk and so were you, let's not make this a bigger deal than it needs to be.”

He snickers at my claim, allowing me to push him away as he backs up a few steps. He eyes me up and down before tucking a hand in his pocket, the other hand reaching up to rub at his chin.

“You a virgin, Princess?”

My cheeks heated at the question, my silence damning me as my lips tremble.

Kidd nods his head, smirking as he tucks his other hand into his pocket and takes a step closer to me. I feel my shoulders sag under his gaze, my back pressing against the railing as he resumes his previous position.

“I’d be gentle with you,” he rasped, voice thick as he dropped his head to my ear. “To start with, at least.”

“Are you still drunk?” I manage to whisper, feeling his arm snake around my waist and pulling my body closer to his.

He must have heard my breath catch in my throat because I can hear his smirk in his next words.

“It wasn’t the alcohol talking for me, Princess. I’ve thought about getting you in my bed since the first time you called me a ‘filthy pirate’.”

‘I’m no one’s plaything, you filthy pirate.’ The first words I’d ever spoken to him.

He had to still be drunk, it was the only explanation for why he was telling me all this. 

I felt my self-consciousness drawing up my defenses as I raised a shaky hand to his chest, pushing harder than I had the first time as I tried desperately to make space between us.

“Enough, Kidd,” I snarl, taking a step back before bearing my teeth to him, “I said it was a mistake .”

That wasn’t the word I’d originally used. ‘Accident’ – that was the word I’d meant, but I lashed out and noted the slight shift in Kidd’s expression, indicating I’d hit my mark.

~

My eyes open and struggle to adjust to the darkness in the room as the sound of voices outside my room pulls me from my sleep. Careful not to make a sound, I slip from the bed and make my way over to the door, leaning my head against it to hear the voices on the other end.

“Just let her sleep, Kidd.”

Killer. 

“Here you go telling me what to do again.” Kidd. “I just want to ask her why she wants to come with us so bad. We’re not a fucking escort service, Kill.”

“That can wait for the morning when you’re sober .”

A disgruntled noise comes from the other end of the door and I hear the doorhandle jiggle. I hold in my sigh of relief at the fact I had remembered to lock it, my pupils dilating as they watch the metal object shake.

Giving up after a few failed shakes, I hear Kidd and Killer’s footsteps disappear down the hall, and I silently creep back into the bed at the sound of a door closing.

I toss and turn for a bit as I contemplate what exactly I’m going to tell Kidd when he questions me come the morning, coming to the conclusion that I didn’t even know myself why I wanted to go with them.

Something just told me I needed to stay with them.

Next Chapter (Coming Soon)

if you liked this, I would love it if you liked and reblogged to spread the love <3 ✨come say hai :3✨

[charredcheddar]

I've been trying to learn to draw foxes so thought I'd share the process so far. There's a lot of screenshots so I've put them under the cut

First I gathered some pictures of foxes and tried to outline the basic structure for reference

I traced over the images roughly to get a better idea of the shape. Then I looked at the two combined and coloured the shapes adding some simple details and making a few changes that I thought looked better

I also attempted to draw some freeehand to get away from tracing. I don't think they're great but I'm enjoying practicing. I've enlarged the one I think is the best

Anyway I feel like I've sort of learned what foxes look like now so might be able to start drawing them in custom poses so I can actually get around to the reason I started this in the first place :)

[sablesoulfoolery]

So for those who claim AI art is real art; The biggest AI "Art" Program, Midjourney, has a huge bit of info that just came out.

What is this info, you ask? Well the development team behind Midjourney has been keeping a list of names of all the artists they were stealing from. And recently there was a large lawsuit that is happening. Currently the number of artists affected are reaching around roughly 1.5k.

Let me repeat: 1 THOUSAND, 5 HUNDRED ARTISTS. Which all had their art styles/ art pieces stolen for Midjourney to abuse and mash together. Maybe there's more numbers, more artists being stolen from, but this just comes to show that no AI art can fully make an original piece because they steal from artists that actually take the time to learn the craft.

I know most of you have your questions and concerns about this so lemme answer some of them:

-"What's the difference? I mean, I've seen artists use their computers to make art."

The difference is that artists have to pour money and time into buying the right device for their art, either being a tablet that hooks up to your PC or a tablet that becomes it's own display of your PC. Not only that, but they have to scour their sources to get the right art program for them. Not ai program, but a program that uses brushes, fill buckets, stamps, and other minor things like rulers or layers or filters.

-"Ok? But digital art isn't real art."

Making digital art works the same as traditional art. In school we learn about different mediums of art. Mediums are different layouts, canvases even of what we choose to make our art from. Saying digital art isn't real art isn't true because digital art can be considered art as long as it's made with the hands of a human with a passion.

-"Well, nothing's wrong with just using an AI program."

For you it may not be, but for the grueling hours artists have to spend to just have their work, their style, their own identity stolen- it could be just as bad as pirating a movie.

-"Well I don't know how to draw. Using AI is easier."

I assure you all artists didn't know how to draw at one point. But art isn't just some sports skill that needs muscle memory, like football or baseball. It's a craft, a product made from one's imagination and creativity. What matters most is how you use of it. What everyone needs to remember is Art takes time, and that practice doesn't make perfect; it brings improvement.

-"AI art does the work faster than I could do it."

Sure but there's a reason many people say Quality over Quantity. What does this mean? Well, in this case you can make all the AI art you want, but it will lack the personality behind their work. As for if you did it yourself, it may not look like the Mona Lisa, but it came from your gut, your heart, your MIND. Wouldn't you like to share a work with someone and say "Look what I did!!"? I would.

-"AI art gets me more likes."

But then what? You also get scorned by the artists that take their time for their work. There's only so long an AI user can hold out until they get tired of the backlash from the human artists.

-"Who cares? It's just a picture."

Artists do. Artists whose work was probably stolen to make your picture. Art enjoyers who have to worry if this is the future of art. Upcoming artists who has yet to improve their art.

-"Well since you said AI steal from artists, don't Artists also steal?"

Yes, some of them do. But let me clarify exactly what I mean.

So there's three main terms people use when using someone else's work: Reference, Tracing, and Stealing

Reference is using bits and pieces of ideas from other artists and remixing them to fit your style. Think of it as if you were tasked with designing armor. Well you can't just pull one out of your brain and say "Here's the armor!". You'd have to look up what armor looks like, where the separate pieces go, what layer folds over which, what protects the wearer, etc etc. things like that is what reference is.

Tracing is also a way of reference, but not the way you think of it. See with making a subject like a human standing up, you have to figure out how the joints bend. While referencing is nice, that's more of a complex strategy. So? What then? You can trace over the individual limb or piece to understand how it looks. Tracing mainly helps with perspective and also with details. Do you remember tracing over your hand in grade school? Think of it like that.

Stealing is not a way to learn from your art. Oftentimes the way someone can see a piece of work as stolen is by viewing the detail behind the art. Does this artwork have another that looks just like it by another artist? Does this artwork copy the same perspective and subject? Does this artwork have any base sketches or time lapses that shows an artists current formula? If you answered no to the last one and yes to the other two, congrats. The piece of art is stolen.

Oftentimes when artwork is stolen, the thief is reprimanded and gains the distrust of the community.

This whole tangent I went on is how you can tell someone really looked into art. Art can seem easy to copy but I assure you it's no easy feat. Could AI possibly get rid and replace artists? Maybe, but in doing so the art loses their luster, their shine. Eventually, if that happens, all artists that are currently living might probably leave social media. And there's only so much AI can create before it gets too repetitive and the errors AI makes are a pain.

-"Well why do you care?"

Because I was taught that art had meaning. Maybe not every bit of art, but the ones that are made with the finest of details are. I used art to escape the stress, the fear, the worry I had in my younger years. Art connected me to other people like me. I was bullied a lot in school so Art was the friend I had when nobody else became my friend. Through the pains of betrayal and constantly being unsure if I would even have a home again, Art was the one that helped me steady my feet and express myself in ways my words couldn't. I've met some amazing teachers and mentors that found me through my art. Some through my digital/traditional art, and some through other crafts I learned, like sewing and photography.

-"I would try, but art takes too much time and is too expensive."

All it takes is one canvas and one tool. If you choose to make digital art then there are plenty of free programs that gives you plenty of free brushes and tools to use. I personally use Medibang. All you need is a phone, or a tablet, or a computer.

If you choose traditional just get some cheap copy paper or a mixed media sketchbook and some pencils. If you want color, grab some cheap colored pencils or crayons. Eventually you'll find a medium you like and only from there you'll begin improving.

-"Nobody will teach me."

Many artists online will gladly give tutorials on how they learned to draw. Some may be more detailed, but you'll learn a way you like.

-"What if I don't want to draw?"

Well artists across many other platforms are accepting commissions and could use support. Just find one you like, request your art, and let them work once you come to an agreement about payment. Just a safe note; check through their history and prior works to see if they're legit. Some accounts usually steal from others.

-"How will I know which artists are good artists?"

Listen to the community. The biggest ones are currently TikTok and here on Tumblr. if anything bad arises or if an upcoming artist is shown to be open minded to their fans, you will know if that's an artist worthy of support.

I will simplify all of this. AI art could replace human art; but it can never fully replace the soul, the dedication, the skill it takes to make even one piece of art. If anything, consumerism is trying to make us feel like we will accept anything.

For a long time we did; We relied on Ai when it helped function our household items, when it aided us in the simple pleasures of miniscule things like self-checkout stations. When it vended our drinks and foods after a long day of work or when it heated up a stove for us to cook on. But for Art, Art is something that can't be replaced.

There's a reason why people grow so fascinated over art made in countries where AI isn't used, where they are seen as Natural Talent- But just to let you know, Art is actually a learned talent: Not with exercising our muscles, but our minds and hearts.

[alliluyevas]

I mentioned earlier that a lot of Young family members are scattered around the Salt Lake City cemetery in a few different sections, so I thought I'd share the graves for some of the women I don't know as much about in a post together. Aside from Emily Partridge and Zina Huntington, who I'll make a separate post for in a bit, these are all the wives of Brigham Young I located in the SLC cemetery (ie, not buried with him in the family graveyard). I put the pictures of both the graves and the women in chronological order of when they married into the family, which also (roughly) tracks with their age.

Augusta Adams Cobb (1802-1886) lived in Boston with her first husband and nine children before being converted to Mormonism by Brigham Young when he was a missionary in Massachusetts. She ended up leaving her first husband and her older children to move to Nauvoo with her two youngest and become Brigham's second plural wife. They were about the same age and she did not have children with him. The marriage proved rather fraught, as she wrote him numerous letters complaining with quite caustic language about him paying more attention to younger wives. They did stay married, although he eventually agreed to allow her to unseal from him and seal herself to Joseph Smith for eternity. Twenty-five years later, her son James's ex-wife Mary van Cott ended up becoming Brigham's second-to-last wife. When Augusta died, she was initially buried according to her wishes with Brigham, but her daughter Charlotte, who had left Mormonism as an adult, later had her exhumed and she is now buried with James, Charlotte, and Charlotte's husband. You'll note that Augusta's current gravestone does not mention Brigham Young at all--I'm assuming that was probably Charlotte's choice as well.

Harriet Cook (1824-1898) (identified on her grave as Harriett C.) was Brigham Young's third plural wife and the last woman he married before Joseph Smith's death. I don't know a lot about her except that virtually every reference I've found to her involves other women talking about her being difficult to get along with and irritable, though there's also references to her being brave and intelligent. Apparently, she told a sister-wife that she was "only a proxy wife" and Brigham didn't love her. I don't get the sense that she was a particular favorite either, so I tend to interpret her behavior as someone who was unhappy with her situation trying to "punch down" on wives she viewed as being worse off than her. She had one son, Oscar, who she is buried next to.

Clara Decker (1828-1889) was the younger sister of Lucy Decker, Brigham's first plural wife. She married him in 1844 when she was fifteen. I don't know a lot about her life or personality, unfortunately. Her obituary refers to her as "of a very modest and retiring disposition". Clara, like many other women whose life was primarily in the sphere of the home and who did not leave much if any personal writing, is hard to find traces of in the historical record. (Very much women's historian and fellow Mormon Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s "well-behaved women rarely make history"). As her gravestone and much of the contemporary writing I can find about her tells us, she was one of three women who accompanied the vanguard pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. The other two women were wives of Heber Kimball and Brigham's brother Lorenzo Young. Again, we don't know what Clara thought or felt about this journey, but I imagine traveling to an unknown new home as a nineteen-year-old in a company of over 140 men led by her husband must have been a bit of a strange experience. She is buried next to her daughter Jeanette and near her two other daughters. She also had two sons who did not live to adulthood.

Eliza Burgess (1827-1915), unfortunately, I do not know a lot about either. Eliza immigrated from England to Nauvoo with her family and worked in the Lion House as a servant before marrying Brigham at age 25. Her stepdaughter Susa Young, who wrote a fair amount about her childhood in the Lion House and is one of the only sources on the personality of some lesser-documented wives, described her as a "capable, efficient housewife" and said that "her one release from what might have been corroding jealousy in a lesser soul was driving labor", which is frankly pretty depressing. Susa also described Eliza as a doting mother to her only child, Alfales. As an adult, Alfales was editor of a Mormon-critical paper and was one of two children of Brigham Young who I know outright left the church. Eliza lived with him after being widowed until her death, and he is buried next to her. She was Brigham Young's last surviving wife. Interestingly, there's a photograph taken of Brigham's other seven living wives in 1899, but for some reason Eliza was not included (maybe because of her son's outspoken religious views?)

Harriet Barney (1830-1911) first married at the age of sixteen as the third wife of 31-year-old William Sayers, though their first child was not born until about five years later. She left Sayers after four children and remarried Brigham Young in 1856. (Though both her marriages were polygamous, single mothers, whether divorced or widowed, were disproportionately likely to be in plural marriages if they married again.) She had one more child, Phineas Young, who she is buried next to. Susa Young described her as a "calm, peaceful soul" who was friendly with her sister-wives even though she did not live in the Lion House, which was already fully occupied by the time she married into the family. Her obituary implies that she had suffered from some sort of chronic illness for 40 years by the time of her death.

Finally, we have the third woman named Harriet that Brigham Young married, generally known to historians as Amelia Folsom--she started going by her middle name after her marriage to distinguish herself from the two other Harriets. Harriet Amelia (1838-1910) married 61-year-old Brigham in 1863, and was his undisputed favorite wife until his death. She was the oldest child of church-employed architect William Folsom, apparently a talented pianist and singer, described by contemporaries as charming and fashionable, and frequently accompanied her husband to dances and the theater. As he aged and developed various health problems, she also provided him comfort and companionship at home, including at his home in southern Utah, where he spent the last several winters of his life with just Amelia. She seems to have been liked by some of her sister-wives and resented by others. She never had children--I'm guessing she was not able to, because he had children with other women after their marriage. Still in her thirties when she was widowed, she was left a significant bequest. She ended up spending some time living with her elderly father as his caregiver (like her husband, he suffered from arthritis), and then purchased her own home, where she taught piano lessons and entertained until being disabled by a stroke three years before her death.

The only one of these women who left much of anything in her own words was Augusta, so there's definitely a process here of guesswork when you try to reassemble what these women and their lives might be like, working off the reminiscences of co-wives, stepchildren, children, and public memory.

[flatwoodsdemon]

some genuine art tips that aren’t just “don’t make characters ugly”

been seeing a lot of.. very bad art advice over on twitter, ranging from the useless to the downright offensive, so i’d thought i’d give some tips that can usually be applied to a wide range of body types. 

Your wrists roughly line up with the bottom of your crotch - mark out a line parallel to your characters crotch for an easy arm length guide. This, of course, can be exaggerated if you want! But it’s a good rule of thumb if you struggle with arm length.

Don’t forget to draw heels! Not as in a shoe, but as in your actual anatomical heel. A LOT of beginner artists draw a very straight line on the inner leg - if your character looks unbalanced, check your heel! Ankles are less of a point where the legs meet, and more of a curve in and out, as pictured below. 

Another leg tip - your toes will always point in the direction that your knee is facing. Your knee controls your lower leg, so if your knee is facing right, so is your foot. Try and see if you can move your foot without shifting your knee even slightly - I bet you can’t. And even if you can - it’s usually an uncomfortable position to hold for an extended period of time. If the pose looks unnatural or unbalanced, make sure the direction of your characters knees and fit are aligned. 

Cis men rarely have entirely flat chests - while it may appear that way with a shirt on, pecs exist, even if they’re small! Give your shirtless cis men some tiddy. Pec size will increase with muscle mass and/or fat. 

When it comes to cell-shading, I’ve discovered that less is more! Simplified characters don’t need shadows in every clothing fold - your lineart can actually do a lot of the heavy lifting in that regard. Of course this is all dependant on art style, but if you lean more towards cartoons, minimal shading might work a lot better. 

When thinking about art, and using reference, try to think in shapes rather than lines. If you think about the lines, you get too fussed about little details and your gestures will be kinda stiff - view every body part as it’s own shape. Shoulders can be either circles or squares depending on your characters build, for example. A lot of people say “draw characters made up of rectangles” - but I personally find that using a wide variety of shapes helps me a lot more than sticking to just one. 

Drawing from life is important, but so is studying other artist’s work - especially if stylisation is your goal. Turning complex squishy human bodies into something simple is a hard skill to learn, and it’s important to look at other cartoon/anime artists to see how they do things - especially when it comes to aspects that you’re finding hard to simplify, like certain hairstyles or hands. Hell, trace em if you gotta, just make sure they’re credited. 

Do so many sketches. Sketches prove that you are thinking about what you’re drawing. Your first draft can be as messy as possible - think of it as stretching. Drawing is an exercise for both your arm and mind, so make sure to warm up! 

[impoverishedrat]

Assignment 1: Stripping Down!

I wanted to abstract an object that had a number of details so that I can just trace over the reference picture in Stage 1 and simplify it further, so I decided to make use of one of the plants I have at home. This plant stood out to me because of its spots, which felt pretty interesting because spotted leaves usually point towards some kind of plant disease. As such, I decided to use it for this assignment, with my main message being: Leaves with spots! 

Stage 1

I imported my image into Adobe Illustrator and traced the plant using the pen tool. I used the ellipse tool for most of the spots and joined some of them using the unite shape mode.

I ended up with this, but I felt that the arrangement of the leaves looked quite messy, which could influence where the viewer places their attention. I decided to colour some of the leaves black and introduce contrast to make the plant look more striking as it directs the viewer to focus on the centre of the image first. 

Stage 2

I reduced the number of leaves so that the plant wouldn’t look so cluttered. While the black leaves helped slightly, it didn’t feel ideal as there seemed to be some unnecessary emphasis on them, which wasn’t my intention. I thought that having fewer leaves could be another possible way to direct the viewer’s attention so I went ahead with that. 

Stage 3 

This was partially inspired by my picture in Stage 0. I saw the plant’s shadow and thought, right, shadows are a form of abstraction too. I tried joining the lines together and filling it black, but it didn’t fill nicely, so I ended up tracing the outline of what I had in Stage 2 instead and filling that in.

I wanted to keep it as a plant, so I thought I had to keep the pot as well to signal to the viewer that it is a plant that they are looking at through association, since some people may not recognise it immediately because the leaf shapes are not clearly defined, especially on the left hand side. However, those two leaves that were dangling out of the pot were interfering with the shape of the pot, so it might take the viewer a longer time to register that it is a potted plant. Thus, I added the pot details back, hoping that it would be more telling that it was a pot.

It looks strange because of the same two leaves. I experimented by adding outlines and leaf veins to check if it would look better.

It still wasn’t what I had in mind. I decided to remove those leaves, and added leaf veins and spots for the remaining leaves that did not have a “normal” leaf shape. I thought that the leaf veins especially would aid the viewer in recognising that they were leaves. 

While the pot’s shape was now clearly defined, I kept the pot details to balance out the amount of white lines in the upper and lower halves of the image, so that the lower half wouldn’t look too plain in contrast, especially since they were roughly around the same size.

Stage 4

I wanted something way simpler, so I used the pen tool to draw a pot and a plant from scratch instead of largely referencing the previous stage, like what I have been doing. I only included two leaves for simplicity, both facing opposite directions, to create a sense of balance. Just like stage 3, I only included a few leaf spots. I felt that I didn’t need so many spots to communicate my main message.

Stage 5

I was stuck here and wasn’t sure how to abstract further, so I reduced the plant to a single leaf as I thought it still conveys my main message. I decided to standardise the shape of the spots for a simpler design, and ended up with this:

The leaf spots looked really unnatural the more I stared at them. I looked through my previous stages again and realised that round spots felt alright previously because they were really small, but I enlarged the spots to fill up more space on the leaf so that I could reduce the number of spots. I decided to experiment with ellipses instead.

Looks slightly better, but something still feels strange. I couldn’t think of how to improve it further so I submitted it for critique. 

Some of the feedback I got:

1. Instead of abstracting it to just 1 leaf, I should keep the pot so that it is still identifiable as the object in the previous stages, especially in stage 1.

I agreed with this, as I also thought that having just one leaf felt like I was going overboard. Someone else suggested using a pot like what I had in stage 4 but without the U curves, which sounds like a good idea.

2. The spots look like holes, especially because of the white background. I received two separate suggestions to reduce the opacity of the white spots, or opt for something similar to what I had in stage 3. 

3. Keep the “united shapes” instead of using just circles/ellipses for the spots, as there are other plant species with holes in their leaves and my plant might be mistaken for those.

I agreed with both of the points above, and I finally realised why the leaf felt strange (because the spots looked like holes). I thought that the 3rd feedback was especially interesting as I have never considered that before.

After working on the feedback, I ended up with this:

I decided to go with the left image. For the left image, I lowered the opacity so that the white lines are less jarring as the amount of white in the upper and lower halves did not feel well-balanced at 100% opacity, since I no longer have pot details. It was similar to the concern that I had in Stage 3.

Here’s my final submission! Kudos to you for going through my abstraction process with me :)

[fungustober]

I started thinking about this again and I feel like I need to talk about it more because I'm not sure that this comic actually got across what I was feeling when I made it. So, first: A little backstory. This summer, me and my family went on vacation to Minnesota. Since I'm from the lower Midwest where there's basically shit-all except for a few cities here and there that are anomalously large for being in the Midwest, this was a very cool trip for me, since I got to see what it was like in a real big city (the Twin Cities, to be precise), view a cargo ship up close for the first time (it was very loud and the recording I took of it is mostly composed of me going "wow, this thing is huge") at the Superior, Michigan/Duluth, Minnesota canals, have a slight panic attack at the fact that I couldn't see the other edge of Lake Superior, and go to the Mall of America just to end up spending all the time there looking at fish in the aquarium (time well spent, might I add).

But the focus of this post specifically is the Science Museum of Minnesota. Like most things in the Minnesotan cities I visited, the SMM was huge; a four story building with big staircases, a giant glass window giving you a view of the Mississippi River and West St. Paul, a giant contraption that made patterns by putting bubbles into tubes of mineral oil, and more than I could fit in a text post without getting distracted. This brings us to the opening panel of the comic here. As I was walking through the museum, I noticed a big sign on the wall that was something to the effect of "Mummy this Way." Now I, a fuckin nerd, went "oh hell yeah a Mummy that's sick" and took my ass right over to the alcove that they had the glass display case tucked away in. My enthusiasm evaporated when I came face to face with the body.

Hm. "The body" and "The mummy" are such informal phrases, you know? It's almost like you're referring to a cup or a plate, rather than a corpse, the preserved remains of someone who was once living. Earlier, before this had happened, I heard about a controversy with some groups advocating for museums to stop referring to mummies as "the mummy", and focus more on talking about them to remind people that they are looking at a person. I didn't really get it until the encounter. Sure, I understood why they were doing it. It made sense to me. But I didn't really get it until then.

If you don't want to see pictures of a real human corpse from Ancient Egypt, I suggest you click away now. If you want to keep going, be my guest.

Here he is. For lack of a better term than "the mummy" or "the corpse", I'm going to be referring to him as Min (a shortening of Minnesota or Minneapolis) from here on. No one knows where Min came from. Anyone that might have known would have died a long time ago. He was bought by a museum trustee in 1925 while on a trip to Cairo. Back then, the perception was that you weren't a real museum unless you had a mummy, no matter how minor. The western world was enchanted not only by the treasure and the wealth, but the dead as well. In the 1930s, they removed some of his wrappings, leaving him to look as he does in these pictures. Since there was no way to trace him back to his tomb, there's a lot that is unknown about him. Initially, it wasn't even known whether or not he was a he at all. Scientists have done their best, though. Analysis showed that he died in his 30s or 40s. His head was shaved, and his hands did not show signs of a life of heavy manual labor, likely meaning he was some sort of priest or civil servant. Carbon dating of some of his linen revealed that he was from around 2,000 years ago, a very recent time when talking about the history of Ancient Egypt. He is roughly as ancient to us as the Great Pyramids at Giza would have been to him.

My enthusiasm for seeing a real mummy was replaced by a quieter feeling. I'm not quite sure what it was, really. Reverence? Contemplation? Stunned Silence? I didn't feel disgust like I did with some of the other human remains exhibits there. Maybe it was because there was nothing left to the imagination. He was there for all the world to see, empty eye sockets, slightly open mouth holding teeth, sagged chest cavity that once contained organs, and all. The realization came to me that this wasn't just a mummy. This was a person. A real living person who lived thousands of years before I was even born, who lived a rich and full life, then died, was mummified, and then was finally put to rest in a tomb for what his funerary attendants must have assumed was the rest of time. He wasn't just a mummy, he was a corpse that had been put on display. It's funny how a little time and a little distance turns something from a horrifying act into something that was actively desired.

Do you think that, if Min was brought to our time, he would be appalled by the fact that his body is held in a glass case instead of a tomb? Would he like the fame, the people coming to see him and learn about him, him specifically, who was likely not a wealthy or powerful man? Not a pharaoh, not a warrior, not even a high priest; just an attendant at the temple (as many priests were in that time), or maybe even a simple civil servant. Maybe he would delight in the fact that he has become so much more well known in death than in life. Maybe he wouldn't.

Would you?

Would you want an archaeologist in a thousand years or more to discover your remains, excitedly cataloging their finding of an early internet-age human? Would you want to be held in a display case for an indefinite amount of time, while people stare in wonder, awe, curiosity, or amusement at your remains? Is time and documentation truly enough to separate grave robbers from archaeologists?

What do you want to happen to your body after you die?

I don't know if I can answer any of those questions myself. Instead, I'll leave you with a passage from an article on a Minneapolis-based journalism website. (https://racketmn.com/theres-a-dead-man-in-the-science-museum for the full article)

Another sign inside the alcove displays a letter from a museum patron, dated 1996. It’s surprisingly frank: "I certainly do believe that it is immoral, unethical to have the body of a human being lain there, without its consent, like furniture on display for your visitors to look at and ponder… Please, let me know what you think of this, because I made up my mind to stand up on behalf of this woman, because she was one of my ancestors." Displayed next to it is a response from Don Pohlman, the director of anthropology at the time, detailing the "inconclusive efforts by museum staff" to explore the return of the mummy to Egypt, and a promise to take these concerns seriously and carefully examine the issue. But for now, he rests in his display case, partially unwrapped, fractionally understood, prompting more questions than answers, refusing to condemn or comfort the viewer.

artistic rendering of that time while on vacation in Minnesota where I saw a mummy in a museum

[bora-in-tamriel]

(Elden Ring) ELEINA (pictured: inhabiting her vessel, taking her form upon it) BECAUSE I NEED TO TALK ABOUT HER and Morgott both of them kees kees their little story

I’m still lacking some confidence when it comes to nitty bitty itty bitty details in lore, it might not be a smooth read forgive me :”D also how does one woman, i forgot how to draw soft looking women so her face may change in the future orz

after writing note: long thing below, I wanted to write even more but might just split it? and make another thing of art for it, I like having visuals of things and I want the location n all to have visuals eventually

Lady Eleina, as she is referred to by her vessel, Lancer, is a maiden born from a sapling sprouted by the Erdtree long ago. The sapling rested beneath the golden Leyndell Capital, in a small hidden chamber webbed by long thin roots of the Erdtree.  In her “slumbering” stage, her body hovered (think of Rennala floating pose) within the branches of the sapling, surrounded by what seemed like a bubble of golden light. Her skin and hair glowing, with a silky white cloth dressing her form. She rested there for hundreds, if not thousands of moons. Specific duration is unknown.

The one who actually found her was young Morgott in his attempt to flee the sewers beneath the capital. Free from his shackles, he found himself chased into a corner. In a desperate attempt to push through the walls that confined him, he passed through one, ending up on a narrow passage. Through there, he found the chamber where the sapling and the golden woman rested. It was another dead end, but the guards had not noticed his location just yet. Morgott sought a place to hide, to leave, perhaps another wall, but the beckoning golden light of the yellow sapling and its orb pulled him to the center of the chamber.  Peering through the wall of the orb, he saw the silhouette of a person. Pushing past the blinding light, he caught a glimpse of long golden hair, before the orb that covered the branches suddenly expanded in a sound alike to glass shattering, engulfing the sapling’s trunk and touching the floor. The density of the orb lessened, now easier to see through.  The disturbance briefly awakened the woman, making her stir in her place. Her eyes light golden, peering curiously at her surroundings through her long lashes. It was too soon for her to awaken; it wasn’t her time. An unfamiliar figure caught her eye, standing at the side of the sapling, gazing at her form with wonder. 

Young Morgott, expression full of shock, confusion and a hint of curiosity, shrunk away as the golden eyes found him. But the gaze that met him made him lean back in. The woman gazed softly, with quiet curiosity. She was intrigued, albeit a bit confused, but showed no signs of repulsion, disgust, horror, anger,... She smiled. So gently.  The young Omen didn’t know what to do. She slowly uncrossed her fingers, reaching a gently glowing hand out to the omen boy. He hesitated, slightly shrinking away from her approaching hand. Halting beside his cheek, she watched him with a flinch of confusion in her brow. But she waited patiently to see if he’d allow her touch. 

She looked over his messy white hair, his frightened golden eyes, one of which was more closed than the other. His winding horns sticking out the right side of his head, the ragged cloth he was wearing over his lanky form. For a young man, he was very thin. There was a feeling within her, she wasn’t quite sure what it meant. Like a dull twist in her gut. 

After a moment, the Omen boy decided against his fears, leaning into her hand. She smiled once more as her fingers gently traced his skin. It was curious, the boy. She wasn’t quite sure what he was. Concept of people, living beings, had been ripped in the rude awakening. She had no memory of anything, only curiosity. 

She was so gentle, careful, as if she’d hurt him if she moved too quickly or touched too roughly. The warmth of her palm made him melt, expression crumbling as he leaned his cheek into her hand with a hint of desperation. It was foreign; the kind, gentle, gesture; he wished it to never end. 

Yet end it did all too soon for him. 

A pain struck his side, visions of golden light flashing around the small chamber as guards restrained him. With their shackles, their chains, they took the young Omen royalty back to his chamber, deep within the sewers of Leyndell. 

The woman in gold didn’t know better of what had happened. She seemed to have not registered he was taken by force. She only gazed into her vacant palm, before returning to her slumber, beckoned by the golden sapling. Few guards remained in her chamber, staring in confusion of this discovery. Who was she?

[alfhildr-the-word-weaver]

You know, I'm the kind of person with like 80+ ongoing projects at any given time, and I rarely ever post things on here about them because I'm always waiting until they're finished and trying to get things perfect first and then I wind up never posting them. But I have to remind myself there's no law against showing off WIPs, and in fact, that's actually like a normal thing to do on tumblr. So, I thought I'd show off my progress so far on my Danger Days phone case insert I've been working on!

[Image ID: a tall narrow painting roughly the shape of a smartphone. The background is a rainbow watercolor fading radially from one color into another, starting with red in the top left, orange in the top right, yellow down the right side, green in the bottom right, blue in the bottom left, then purple shading from blue violet to red violet heading back up the left side. The watercolor has been textured with a salt resist technique creating small floral shapes of lighter paint. On top of this background, “Look Alive Sunshine” is written in tall wavy block letters in an assortment of colors meant to contrast the background, such that the “L” is light green, the “A” is yellow, and the “S” is orange and so on. Some letters are fainter, written in sharpie that has faded into the paper, but others are brighter, having been gone over in acrylic paint. There is a ring of poked holes in the top left roughly where the phone’s camera sits and a bit of uncovered background space to the top and bottom of the text design, which covers the majority of the piece. End ID] (*If there’s anything you’d like clarified about this description feel free to ask, I found it tricky to describe clearly. )

I tried to copy the comics font here--wait, actually, I'm just going back through my reference images, and I think the text I copied from for this is actually from something by @tapefish that was itself based on the comics font. Yeah, this is based on a design that's on their redbubble actually, though I didn't trace it specifically, but that's what this is drawn from. In that design, both words in "look alive" are on the line above "sunshine", so because of the way I've done it here, "sunshine" wound up being twice as narrow, hence why letters are all really squished, but hopefully it'll still be more or less legible!

I went over the letters in sharpie initially, but they were really hard to see, so I'm gradually painting over them. I'm also probably going to put more pictures and/or text on here, like a Danger Days spider and/or an eye like the one on the mailbox, and possibly "keep running" and/or "art is the weapon" in the space at the top or bottom.

As for the color scheme, I just went "how can I make this as colorful as physically possible" and ran with that, lol :) Well, to be more precise, I did a rainbow ombre in the background and then tried to make each letter roughly the complementary color to the part of the background it was on, but I tried to still have a variety of colors in the foreground as well.

Mostly, I'm just happy I've finally gotten around to making some progress since I first did the watercolor for the background literally like 2 years ago in our first pandemic summer, and that's just the rate at which I work on things sometimes, lol.

Anyways, I could ramble about my design and my plans for this for a while yet, and I could definitely proofread and edit this post some more, but I'm trying to stop myself from spending all afternoon on this post now instead of actually continuing to work on my phone case insert. Feel free to ask me stuff about this, though I can't guarantee anything remotely resembling a quick response haha. But hopefully someday before another two years have passed, I'll be posting a finished version of this! For now, enjoy this rare glimpse into my artistic process, hahaha.