#it was green and ribbony and he looked good!!!!!

[jazzums]

had a dream with brennan lee mulligan in a dress “as a bit” n i wake up thinking that guy would not be doing a bit. he would own it

[cerame]

Artisan’s and Archer’s designs

So a little bit ago, I got a compliment on the two designs of Echoes of Courage I'm proudest of. I do love all these characters, but these two took a bit more creativity on my part, so I'm going to explain them because I am a sucker for design. I will try to remember as many of my own details as I can, but no promises.

Let's explain Archer first.

Behold, the most recent Link! Breath of the Wild took a departure from the classic green, so I kept with that and made his tunic the main splotch of color on him. The browns and monotone colors are subdued in comparison so that the blue can have the spotlight.

In regards to the tunic itself, botw and totk both have significant influence from traditional Japanese culture, as seen with the sheikah taking on a more japanese fashion sense and the dragons being eastern instead of european shaped, so I kept that with the design of his shirt. His tunic was originally the shape it was in botw, but after the calamity, it sustained such damage that Impa was only able to save some parts of the tunic. Using those parts, she repaired it as best she could, but Archer took a liking to Kakariko fashion anyway, so he's perfectly happy with it. In addition, with the looser fashion of the ancient clothes, I changed his belt to a more ribbony shape.

Thinking about how his shirt might have worked during botw. Perhaps he wore it as a haori, or maybe it was damaged, of a shorter cut, etc. and his Zelda made him the current one. Nothing is concrete about that yet, and I think it would be neat if it was different than it is post-totk.

The turtleneck and the leather armor from the new tunic in totk is incredibly charming to me, so I naturally had to keep it, but in order to show it off practically over the tunic I'd decided on, his sleeve got pulled down. I also designed him before totk came out but after the first trailer came out, and from the trailers, we could all tell that something was going to happen to his arm. I had no idea what purpose it would serve or how Link would end up by the end of the game, so I kept his arm covered up but outside his shirt. Turned out to be a good call.

As for his hair, I loved seeing his hair down so often in totk. It feels all free and wild and soft, so I kept it, except it felt a bit impractical to have it hanging all around him like that, so I did a half-bun. He gets to keep his hair down while tying it out of his face. This also lends itself further to eastern style inspiration.

A note on the smaller details: he does wear his amber earrings, and he's got scars across his body.

Now, we have Artisan.

It was a bit more difficult to figure out Artisan at first. I took inspiration from as many links meet aus as I could find, but everything for him is so varied, and while it's fun, it does make it difficult to nail down what does work. Unlike with Archer, I had no real direction in the beginning, so I searched for what made him unique as a Link. I also went back to the original ideas of character design, the most prominent being outlines and silhouettes. I'm still a bit iffy on his silhouette, but overall, he works.

First, the albw aspects: His bracelet from Ravio went inactive after the rifts between Lorule and Hyrule closed, but he still wears it. It's becoming comforting to him. As for the clasp on his cloak, it is absolutely the two triforces, and he got it custom-made in Hytopia. His pegasus boots are also from albw, and since Collector and Forge both had their unique pegasus boots, I had to come up with something just as striking for Artisan..... and then, I looked upon none other than the Zelda cartoon of olde, and I decided that Artisan would absolutely wear over-knee boots. So that's what he got.

Now, his triforce heroes parts. I know the green one is player one and all that jazz, but I wanted to see if I could do something not-green, just like Archer or even Piper. The sword suit in the costume catalogue stood out, and not just because the red link is wearing it in the official art. It's more tame than most other choices, and it's casually royal, which is a strange flavor of style, but I discovered after significant experimentation that when you pair it (or the idea of it) with poofy bardic sleeves (yellow, courtesy of albw's blue tunic) and gloves, it takes on an almost roguish look while maintaining the fancier feel. Also, when I lined him up next to Collector and Scout, I found that their colors together were red, blue, then green, and I couldn't not keep him blue after realizing that.

Notes: his cloak is still a bit weird to me, but I've gotten too used to it. Hytopia pushes the boundaries of fashion anyhow, so he can do whatever he likes. His hair is dyed because that's just fun, and it's braided because everyone else in this AU has short hair or a ponytail, and I wanted him to feel more well-groomed than everyone else. He gets to take care of it, and he has gotten hair care advice from Princess Styla. I didn't originally intend for this effect, but the pale outlines of white and gold on his clothing really make his outline pop. The consecutive dark colors of his tunic, pants, and boots would not work without those lines. His eyes are, in fact, purple! Ravio, in turn, has green eyes. I did doubt the choice of yellow sleeves at first, since it's not exactly the secondary color of my choice, but I went with it, and I was pleasantly surprised to see it work so well. Perhaps it was the yellow of his hair and the golden accents, but I am very pleased with it. He only comes a century or so after Collector, so I had to pick a tunic shape that could hold similarities between the two of them, which is why the collar of their outer layer is the same for both of them.

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[patsnaturenotes]

The sizzle of summer

If winter is the season of slowness, of waiting for the clock to tick us in to spring and Spring increases the pace of life, then summer is the season to sizzle - time burns away with the sun's blaze. My last entry was in may and now it is almost August.

Spring rains persisted until almost summer and the cool dampness has been reflected in the slowness of the summer garden to turn sunshine into fleshy vegetables. It also has meant a robust breeding season for our birds. We had 2 nests of Pacific Slope Flycatchers. One is on an outside stereo speaker on the east side of the house and the other is on a porch beam on the west side. The "speaker nest" has been about 2 weeks ahead of the "porch nest". Both females produced 3 chicks and I got to watch them go from nest-sitting to hatching and the feeding and growth of chicks from tiny balls with gaping mouths to fledglings. In both nests I missed the actual fledging, though the porch chicks were wonderful to watch stretching and flapping their wings the day before they too flight.

Both females returned at set about second clutches. Again the speaker was ahead of the porch and her 3 chicks have fledged. The 3 porch chicks are just beginning to have open eyes. I hope to see them fledge this time.  I attribute the 2 sets of chicks to the moderate weather and a good supply of insects.

We also has at least 2 pairs of Western tanagers nesting, though I didn't see their nests. Black-headed grosbeaks were nesting and I saw the adults with fledglings. Last week I watched two juvenile Red-breasted Sapsuckers feeding n a fir. A pair of Steller's jays set up house in the spare wood shed. I think they fledged 1 youngster.

Bears have been around, too. In early June  a bear broke in to the garage and got into a can of blue paint. We'll always have a reminder of "blue bear" as his footprints are painted on the floor.  Late last week our camera caught a large bruin climbing our garden fence to eat culled fruit from the orchard.

I have been taking weekly hikes as summarized below:

Long Canyon (July 24): I hiked the trail with the intent of going to Bowerman Meadow, but stopped at the major stream crossing, not wanting to try to get Sidney across a large log. The trail was mostly through fairly open conifer stands. There were a few flowers -- a penstemon, Mt. Eddy (Yellow) Lupine, Red Columbine and a Phantom Orchid (my favorite for the day).

Lake Eleanor (July 18): This was my 2nd trip to this marvelous little lake. This time I helped lead a Weaverville Summer Day Camp hike. The kids liked the Pitcher Plant, but my pick of the day was Green gentian with its green and white-striped ribbony leaves and white flowers.

Kangaroo Lake (Siskiyou County):This overnighter (July 11-12) was undertaken primarily to hike the well-known botanical trail, the Fen Trail to look for a rare plant, the Scott Mountain Phacelia. along the way we were treated to majestic views and a wide range of lovely flowers. The elevation (6000-7000 ft.) meant I climbed back in to Spring, even crossing a small snow field.

Boulder Lake (July 3):  The alpine lake is the destination, but the wildflowers made each step a joy. The highlight was the shrub-lined corridor near he beginning. The trail was lined with snowbush in full bloom. It was simply gorgeous.  The matted yerba Santa and  Spreading Phlox were nice finds, too. 

Swift Creek Trail (June 28):  I love the first mile to the bridge over Swift Creek. There are a number of small streams and wetlands decorated with wildflower -- Western Azalea, Leopard Lily and Cascade Lily come back in to view as I reflect on this hike.

Lake Eleanor (June 17): This always is the season warm-up trip and it always is about the fen (wetland) of blooming pitcher plants and the Western Azaleas in bloom along the edge of the lake.  It also is just about the peacefulness of the setting. It always sets me right of the season.