#it's been great so far i've been doing a lot of sketches like these

[lexicog]

some doodles from recently

[theereboseffect]

art vs artist 2024!

i used sooo much blue and yellow this year, maybe next year ill branch out to more colours but i cant help that blue and yellow are just the best colours for drawing.

here are my favourite works for each month of 2024!

january:

I used colour layer modes instead of colouring 'organically', but this was the first time I made a drawing in full colour and actually really liked it. this was before i started painting colours directly into my drawings but its a great effort and i learned a lot about colour layer modes here!

february:

didn't make much great art this month but this sketch scratches my brain correctly. the contrast the hatching the lighting!!!! this was where i started being obsessed with the different forms you can manage to portray with just a little rimlight

march:

possibly one of my favourites of the WHOLE YEAR. Inspired by Andrew Salgado's work, I'm a huge fan of his stuff. In this I learned that colours are literally stupid and if you don't care about logic, you can actually make something very distinctive and somewhat abstract work. Kick-started my whole journey to learning colours so this was probably one of my most important pieces i've ever made

April:

again, not much good art but this is nice I guess. drew this for the anniversary of senna's death, i like the polaroidy feel

may:

I LOVE my may era. Most of everything was done with this oil painter brush I found and it just went very painterly and kinda abstract with strokes and colours, was a month of experimentation for sure

june:

I didn't like this very much when I made it originally, but looking back I love the kinda creaminess of this piece. I haven't really been able to recreate that effect so far though, so this one stands out to me for sure

july:

Not a fantastic art month for me, but I was experimenting with textures in this piece and learned a lot of what I SHOULDN'T do. Very useful

August

I made this piece because I hadn't spotted any other lesteban enjoyers in the wild. Idk the colours in this just came out very easily which is always enjoyable

September:

GRAHHHB the colours in this have me in a CHOKEHOLD the DESATURATED BLUE SHADOWS and PINK CHEEKS!!! This definitely isn't my best of the month but it BRINGS ME A LOT OF JOY OKAY I suddenly turned into an Esteban superfan in theast fiveish months of the year. so dumb that like one of my favourite pieces ever was a shitpost

November:

the textures the eyelash shadow. PERIODD!! the first of my f1 x gladiator series, i just love this a lot even if it doesn't look like max

december:

one of the best of my whole year tbh. Like the final boss where you use all the stuff you learned throughout your journey. The jewellery okay divaaa

okay very long post but i hope you guys like it!! thank you everyone for the support i've received this year you guys are the best

[tinydumpsterdiver]

So I've been thinking about Axle's early past a bit.. uhhh

Yeah here are a few doodles and a sketch. Along with a small bit of Axle's early childhood life. I got carried away

Just some simple doodles of Axle's childhood. He technically grew up in a lab although he wasn't born in captivity. Most of his early childhood was doing puzzles or tests, lots of observation as well.

His development is similar to that of a human in terms of brain growth and physical form. He grows at about the same rate as a human just on a far smaller scale.

For the most part in his younger years he mostly did cognitive testing and development. They mostly used simple tests, and some general animal psychology experiments. Such as seeing what he did for fun, for food, and some logical reasoning.

The odd time the scientists still would do a surgery or two on a young Axle, but it wasn't the norm at that time.

However as time went on they began to do more invasive tests.

Axle had always liked the scientists growing up, as he was younger he'd seen them as a sort of family, having favorites and having preferred caretakers. But at the age of about 12 years old even the nicer caretakers had begun to grow sour.

People were being more careful around him, using gloves more often, constricting his movements more often, and other things of the sort which Axle noticed.

The experiments eventually began to get more invasive, such as when he was 13 he had his first brain vivisection specifically. It was a procedure to place wires into his brain to do more invasive tests on his nervous system.

He tried asking more questions, which quickly he learned would get him nowhere. Soon even the nice humans he'd barely see anymore or they would just leave all together. It was at the age of 13 he'd decided he didn't like the humans or how they kept him captured. He didn't know what else there could be, but he knew from the little bits and pieces he was able to listen to that there had to be more than the lab.

At the age of 14 Axle was being treated more like the mice he'd been raised with than a person that the scientists would talk to passively. Axle only grew more resentful as the months went on and the rotation of scientists got more harsh.

At 16 he was being treated as though he was completely feral. He refused to cooperate with the humans but they would refuse to let him feel like he had any form of control over the situation whatsoever.

Ok so this was just a doodle that got out of hand and colored. It's not great but it's the best I got rn. I'm pretty stressed out lol

Anyways. Axle had a pretty traumatic upbringing, but it did teach him to never trust humans which was probably the best thing he could have learned for when he did eventually escape one day.

He did have his mother with him at one point in captivity, but one day she disappeared and he never really figured out what happened to her. Current Day Axle likes to think she managed to escape one day and was free somewhere.

Axle after that day grew up around mice, usually a circulation of mice that were young enough not to be a danger to Axle. But this really took a toll on him when eventually all his mice friends would get taken away and he'd have to get attached to new friends all over again.

Sometimes the scientists would have him do experiments alongside grown mice, sometimes he would remember them but usually not. Under normal circumstances the mice were never aggressive with Axle, but were usually more curious about him.

Ok my unorganized ranting is over. I'm not sure. I think it's fun to share my silly cringe lore.

Thanks for reading it! Or thanks for just looking at the art ^^

Sending positive vibes y'all

Till next time

[eldritchscythe]

a little update

heyyy, how's everyone doing?

it's been a while since I've posted anything and I have quite a lot of followers here now so I felt like you guys deserve an update on what's been going on lately and why the lack of the new art.

the truth is that I became burnt out of doing the same type of art. Discovering the world of collages and photo manipulation was an incredible way for me to dip my toes into art 4 years ago, but I'm at a point now where I don't feel like I can create anything else in that medium that will keep me motivated. A lot of times I have a great idea for a piece but photos can only take me so far in bringing that vision to life, so I just stopped doing it.

What I have been doing in the meantime though, has been learning how to draw. I've always been one of those people who said "I wish I knew how to draw but I can't even draw a stick figure". So when this burnt out happened I figured "Why not actually learn how to draw?" and that has kept my artistic flow going even if I'm not posting anything on here.

Here's some of the stuff I've drawn since I started learning during these last couple of months:

day 4:

day 7:

day 14:

day 20:

day 27:

day 33:

and today I made a simple sketch of one of my own artworks:

I would like to get to a point where I can draw and illustrate my own space landscapes. I still have a lot of ideas and my love of scifi and retro futurism is still the same :)

In the meantime, I might still do a few collages when I feel like it.

I could also start showing my drawing progress here if you guys would be interested in that? Let me know! :)

Thank you for reading!

[brakken-spideyverse]

Hi, first things first I *love* the whole Makeoververse premise, I've browsed through the page and many of your ideas seem so fresh for these characters, accompanied by the great art. So it got me wondering, are you mostly done with this AU? Like, don't, get me wrong, I see you've been still posting some stuff lately, like the F4 redesigns or other fun little arts, but you didn't really do much posts about the lore or story of this 'verse like you did in the past. If you feel like you've told in this regard everything you wanted or just don't have that much time to do that anymore, I must respect it. But damn, would love to hear more about the lore of this Spider-Man again someday, especially since you've said you thought of this as a story with an ending planned. Anyway, keep up the great work!

Thank you for the kind words! It is genuinely so heartening to hear that my AU has made an impression on you.

Am I done? That is a good question - sorry it took me a bit to get to it. The short answer is that no, I'm not yet done with this little 'verse - or at least don't want to be. My mind is always orbiting Spidey, and I have sketches to spare of various characters and comic ideas.

The longer answer is that this year has been pretty tough for me so far, in some respects. I had my askbox closed for a bit while I was busy managing other projects and some life stuff, and just when I reopened it with the intent of a nice big return, I got hit with what may have been the most stressful months of my life - which culminated in an unexpected moving of house, and the internet dropping out for nearly a month.

Not to dwell too much on frustrating stuff, but it was pretty upsetting to not be able to come back full force like I'd intended. I still want to get to people's requests, and finish up my set of Sinister Six strips, and also would really like to try streaming as a frequent thing.

So it's been a lot, and there are continuing things I'm managing, but I still enjoy developing this 'verse when I have the time, and to interact with folks here.

Ideally you'll see things pick up more steam in the near future. At the very least you should see more of the occasional design pop up. Glad for folks who continue taking a look :)

Keep climbin', keep swingin' 🕸🤟

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

south africa but i've never been there also i'm drinking

HELLO MAGGOTS this is the good omens mascot here hello hello. my psychiatrist just spent today telling me how I won't be able to be out in college when it starts in May and I'll be misgendered etc etc it's all a good time. So my solution:

My darling cousin @imchronicallyonlinesowhat (the one who thought Sir Terry Pratchett looked like Sudha Murthy, was a kindly old woman and was married to Neil Gaiman because their book cover fonts were similar, OG maggots know the PAIN) who lives in South Africa asked me to make a South Africa post. FYI, she's moving to Australia for college, so you can be assured I shared my Australia posts with her she is SO prepared she won't say marmite instead of vegemite and she knows the Wibbles are inherently sexual. SOUTH AFRICA (I've only had a teeny weeny bit of cheap ass wine so far):

There a lot of white people there it's ineffable. There are enough of them there that my cousin regularly talks about not ever marrying someone who doesn't have some masala.

Afrikaans is a gorgeous language. I thought my cousin was showing me her Afrikaans notes once. She wasn't. It was her English notes, she just has the most illegible yet neat handwriting in the world.

They don't say yo but they say YOH and it sounds very much like a bass drum.

People at my cousin's school pump their hands in the air while saying jesus-jesus.

There's a trio of white boys that rule the school kind of like a genderswapped mean girls. They all look the same haircut-wise, they're Catholic and they're called the Triumvirate.

I'm realising here that my knowledge of South Africa is limited to cuzzy's school. But the wine is shit and I promised my blood-relative so I am continuing.

The books are fucking expensive and so everyone has to pirate shit. This sounds like the US.

Everyone is TALL. Like VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY TALL. The standard of height is insanely different from India. TALL.

If you don't have a last name you're going to get into legal trouble.

The no hat no play rule applies here as well as Australia apparently.

The wine cost like 2.5 dollars in USD if my conversion rates are correct, it smells like battery acid and tastes of rotted grapes. Nothing to do with South Africa, it's just that I cannot remember a single other thing about South Africa other than it's a country in Africa that's presumably in the South.

My braincells are already frying. For my cousin's sake, I'm going to compile all my Australia posts here so that she knows what to expect! Australian maggots your continent is about to be graced with the Good Omens Mascot bloodline. Notably the one with the Sudha Murthy fuck up so that's doubly fun. @howmanyholesinswisscheese, @im-a-sentient-magic-carpet, @madfangirlontheloose @obsessed-sketches @drconstellation and any other Aussie maggots be prepared and welcome her.

Toot Toot Chugga Chugga by the Wiggles is an Ineffable Husbands Song

Deaths in Australia in 2015, an ask

VEGEMITE IS NOT MARMITE, another passionate ask

Pt I Australia but I've never been there

Pt II Australia but I've never been there

Oh I hate cheap wine. @imchronicallyonlinesowhat I hope you appreciate this, blood of mine. I'm such a great cousin.

[marcelloshdz]

love song

summary: writing a love song for marcello, and playing it for him for the first time. requested by anonymous. marcello x f!musician reader

being a songwriter was one of your greatest passions in life. you took inspiration from so many things that happened in your life, from your friends, family, and overall experiences. you also took a lot of inspiration from your relationships, both good and bad.

you'd written plenty of breakup songs, or songs about guys that you knew that lead you on or kept you hidden from the world. but all that changed when you met marcello.

marcello was truly the greatest thing that ever happened to you. he was a breath of fresh air from all the terrible guys you'd hung out with, as he treated you better than you could've ever asked for. you'd been dating for just a few years, but it was the greatest few years you'd ever spent with anyone. 

he was the love of your life, and you were his.

thinking about marcello in a writing session, you took pen to paper and words immediately began flowing through you. you filled up your sheet of notebook paper faster than you ever had before, as writing about him came so easy to you. the song ended up being about 

you were in studio with your producers who'd been working on a beat for you, and as soon as you heard it, you knew it would pair perfectly with the words you wrote. you recorded the song in record time, and before you knew it, you were listening to it again on your drive back home.

"man, this is so good already." you said to yourself as you parked outside of your apartment. you made your way upstairs, walking into your apartment to find marcello with dinner set on the table.

"hey! perfect timing, the food just got here." he said, smiling as you walked over to him.

"mm, looks good." you said, hugging marcello as he pressed a kiss to your cheek. you sat down to eat, catching each other up on your days. marcello was telling you about some sketches he was working on for snl, and new stand up jokes he'd been working on.

"i've been having so much fun writing this set. i really like some of these new jokes i have." he said to you with a smile.

"i love seeing you so excited about your work." you said to him. "speaking of writing, i had a good writing day in the studio. i had good inspiration today, and actually was able to put the song to music, too." you said to him.

"that's great! do you have a snippet or anything?" he asked, and you nodded. you pulled your phone from your pocket, opening the song and making sure the volume was up all the way. you set your phone on the table, and pressed play. your heart was racing in your chest, nervous for marcello's reaction.

you watched him intently, watching the faces he made and how he was reacting to the song. 

"god, your voice is incredible." he said softly, and you felt your face flush. 

"so, what do you think?" you asked him. "obviously it isn't finished yet, and it still needs some finishing touches. but i think it sounds really good so far." 

"y/n, it's amazing. you already know how talented i think you are. your voice is incredible, and you're such an amazing songwriter. this song is incredible.

"i'm glad you think so. i had you in mind when i wrote it." 

"me?" he asked, genuinely shocked. you watched as his cheeks flush, a soft smile spreading across his face. 

"well, yes. who else do you think i'd be writing love songs about." you laughed.

"wow. i've never had a song written about me before. i feel tingly inside." he said, taking your hands in his. "i love it, y/n. and i love you."

"i love you." you repeated, leaning over the table to press a kiss to marcello's lips.

you'd sent the recording to marcello, and he immediately saved it to his phone. every few days, you would catch him playing it from his phone and singing along to it. every time you did, it made your heart flutter knowing how much he was already enjoying the song. it made you much more excited to get back into the studio and finally finish it, especially knowing how much marcello already loved it.

[nikanono]

I know I'm not active on here anymore, but I need a place to get this off my chest.

And Tumblr is where I found my creativity so I guess it fits

It has been so difficult to create anything as of recent. Ive lost so much confidence in what I do with so many shortcomings with my art. And I feel as if part of it is my fault- other parts its completely out of my hands.

Yes, Ai art and the industry tossing creatives aside hasnt been the most encouraging thing in the world. Its a good reason as to why i've been feeling not so great with creating things.

In 2022, I suffered a really bad art burnout. I didnt draw anything for a year. I started to kick it back up again in 2023. I found a lot of comfort in spending a lot of time drawing my OC's- which was far different than what I used to do- which was a shit ton of fanart. It definetely ignighted my spark and I really started to draw what I loved.

I really felt I was diving back into what I was really passionate about.

But I guess i could never escape how badly I relied on external validation for things I make. Because if I truely reflect, I've mostly drawn things for others. And I kept tellling myself that that was something I found comfort in. Getting feedback from an external source is where I grounded my validation for so many years and I really need to break out of that habit. And I'm back in a rut where I'm not finding interest or enjoyment in it anymore.

But its rough- I know OC content doesnt get much attention online, not compared to fanart at least. But seeing numbers dwindle on social def hit the brain a little to hard. I know I cant ever beat the algorithm but it still does suck a whole lot

The art burnout at the start of this year hit me so hard like a 500kg Eagle Strike. I can tell that im forcing any art that I put out. But I look at the recent stuff i make, wether it be a sketch or an illustration, and just feel so disheartened. I dont hate it, I dont critique it- I just feel disheartned by it.

And I know its affecting other parts in my life. Im a lot more moody and irritable, and I have this lingering worry that its starting to affect my social circles. I do my best to check in with my friends and partner but anxiety really just isnt kind at times.

I know time is going to be my friend in overcoming burnout- I know I've overworked myself. I just hate how I'm starting to resent the things I was so passionate about.

But really, I needed to get this off my chest somewhere.

Thanks for hanging friends

[egghowl]

The End Times featuring @lilybug-02 's Toasty

Some context and process showcase stuff under the cut.

There is a lot of text.

Ok so Outer Wilds, one of my favorite games ever. I wanted to draw something for it for a while now. With brittle hollow being my favorite planet of the solar system it felt right having it take up most of the image. I added giant's deep because it's simply iconic and you can kinda see it from anywhere during the whole game. And Timber Hearth because it just felt right having it in the picture. Also the supernova is there because it looks cool.

Toasty

why is Toasty experiencing the Horrors?

yeah um so about that. I started working on this image back in september (i don't know why it took me so long to finish it i worked on it most of the time [you do not want to see the state of the half bread chaos fanart i've been making for like 2.5 years]).

During that time when i was sketching it, lilybug was posting a lot about their OC toasty. Now i didn't really feel like drawing the hatchling at the time and was also heavily sleep deprived so i drew them, mainly for fun. They were on my mind and i wanted to have a character in the middle of the image. Now i planned to replace them with something more appropriate eventually.

Now why did i not do that? To be frank i tried. Quite a few times actually. I tried to replace them with the hatchling, the spaceship, i also tried to put my own character there instead, tried it with the spot being empty (that looked awful), put a symbol of the eye there, silhouette of the far away stranger, ... just over all tried a bunch of things but... none of them looked right.

I kept returning to the sketch of toasty and they always looked the most... present(?) in the picture. None of the other things looked that bad but Toasty just felt correct. Even tho they were "kinda" out of place. I finally decided to color and shade them and they just looked... great. So i kept them there. Even though they should have never been there.

TLDR: they were a placeholder that i tried to replace a bunch of times, and after failing i decided to keep them in the image.

Alright some closing thoughts.

Outer Wilds is a game that means a lot to me as it does to many other people. I could say the whole spiel about how much you shouldn't look up anything about it whilst insisting that you have to play it. But i don't want to do that. I played Outer Wilds when i was going through a bunch of stuff. And during my fractured play through of it, it didn't make all of it disappear or change my world view so much i that i finally stopped... having "dreams". What it managed to do is... calm me down. It was the first time in so long i felt at least partially content with... everything. I am still dealing with all the stuff I was going through, more than ever. But, i am a little bit calmer during it. At least for now.

You don't have to play outer wilds. But i think you would like it.

I want to thank Alex, Kelsey, Andrew and everyone else that worked on Outer Wilds. You all made a very special game that has done what no one else could.

Anyway here are some pictures from the process.

Alright, Byee [Ōō]/

[transmascaraa]

bf!lyney headcannons!

you've been in class for a while now and your boyfriend texts you saying that he's "bored" ... what shall you do to help him?

bf!lyney x m!reader

author's note: i knew this would win the poll. anyway, have fun reading this cuz it was fun to make<3 (btw this might be a start to some spiciness which might make me less embarrassed to make smut in the future)

"now that class is over, let me have my fun... "

-it's like the middle of the lecture and both of you are clearly bored

-he's spent the last 10mins trying to get you to look at him using some type of telekinesis (which of course didn't work cuz you were too focused on biting your pencil)

-and you've been scribbling in your notebook(you've been sketching lyney<3)

-suddenly, he decides to text you

-"hey, mon amour, what's up??? :))"

-and you can just feel his gaze on you as you see the notification

-"nothing really, i'm just bored and yeahhh just drawing smthn"

-"what are you drawing??? is it meee?????"

-you practically just know that he's seen your sketch by now. it's not like you two sit that far away

-"maybe" you reply to his text, turning off your phone, thinking he he'll stop texting you

-but then, you get more notifications. a lot. you turn off your sound for notifications and open your messages with lyney.

-oh boy, he surely was clingy.

-not that you had a problem with it

-the messages went like this:

-"yeah well i'm boreddd"

-"should we do something??"

-"mon cœur???"

-"hello???"

-"bonjour?"

-"did i do something?????"

-"[name] i'm boredd"

-"oh dear boyfrienddd"

-"i wanna kiss you so bad rn"

-you finally calm down your blushing face and reply to him

-"bro we're in class"

-"idc let's talk over text<33"

-he's so persistent but you can't help but put a little smile on your face

-"fine" you replied to him

-"yayyy" you looked at him and he was smiling like an idiot at you

-you roll your eyes and text him again

-"anything specific you wanna talk abt?"

-"hmm yeah but how long until it rings"

-"idk like 10mins. possibly 5."

-"great then!"

-"why"

-"i have my plans ;)"

-that was the line. you blushed and hid your face, but you made it look like you were "focusing on the lecture"

-he smiled at your reaction and texted you again

-"c'mon the teacher said 2 more mins"

-you just look at him and nod, as a sign of a "yes" and also a sign for him to stop texting you so he nods in return

-after those 2 mins, and the bell rings, you two meet in the bathroom, well, he was waiting for you there first

-"what did you want, lyney?" you ask him as you walk into the school bathroom

-"just... you~" he pulled you into one of the bathroom stalls and held you by the waist, his hot breath against your neck

-"dear archons... i've missed you for these 45 minutes..." he chuckled breathly into your ear, sending shivers down your spine while he smirked against your neck

-he kissed it softly and gently, making you squirm a bit

-soon enough, he was very touchy and very needy, all thanks to you.

-"this is what you get for biting that pencil so attractively~..."

-you had only been hoping that nobody caught you there.

~~~~~

oh how i love this oneee it's so cute lmao

thanks for reading and imma be on my way now lol

thanks to everyone who reads my work at all<3

[dunmeshistash]

G'day, I hope you're doing well on this fine Saturday!

A while ago, I began writing and sketching a Dungeon Meshi OC by basing him/her (haven't decided, though I might take the liberty of making it a guy) on my own characteristics, continent of residence and my play style in games like D&D to see what race, country and occupation would best fit that description in the world of good ol' Dungeons & Diners. In all honesty, the parallels I drew are somewhat superficial, so I could technically bullshit my way into being one of many things, but it's been a very fun way to kind of craft an OC that I think fits me the most regardless.

BUT, I have run into an epiphany! I need a hero, a guiding light, an archiver of Dungeon Meshi trivia! I need someone to save me! Super Meshi, will you answer my call for help?!

You see, I settled on making my OC an elf as I drew the most parallels with them on all fields and so far my characteristics are translating over quite well, but the problem lies in the fact that I'm above average in terms of tallness, but I don't really know how much I'd need to shorten this feller to make him pass as a right proper elf, y'know? I have dark hair too, I suppose, but you already answered a question regarding that a while ago. However, I can't find anything here on tallness other than a chart for every story character's height and that Mithrun's teammates are all taller than average, which... well, almost answers my question! Almost.

I guess I could just wing it, but with how much thought I already put into this character, I felt it was a good idea to ask you this; how tall can the average elf reasonably be based on all the information we have? Is it at all possible for them to reach or exceed tall-man heights or would that be far too unusual? Lycion is roughly 170cm, but I can't remember if any elf is taller than that, and while I've perused a great many ancient scriptures in search of precious knowledge, I believe you might be the hero I need to solve this relatively minor conundrum that may not even have a clear answer! I think the question might be a bit silly, but I hope you'll indulge me regardless. You'd have my infinite gratitude! I uh, I prolly coulda and shoulda condensed this ask into a single sentence. Pleasedon'tkillmethanks-

TL;DR: How tall can elves reasonably be based on what we know?

Oh, while I'm at it—and I say this every time I'm here and will continue to do so 'til the cows come home—your blog is a blessing. A wonderful, nice-looking, tidy blessing. The fact you're maintaining all of this is a boon to all of us. Thank you so much for keeping this up! I hope you have a delightful weekend!

Hello! That's really cool! I thought about making a Dungeon Meshi oc based on myself too before (a dunmeshisona?) but then I didn't lmao. Making characters is hard

Anyway I think "how tall can an elf be" is pretty subjective cause even irl humans vary a lot. I think one way to guess would be to do what people tend to do with their ages and compare the average proportions??

Average Male elf is 155 and Average Female Elf is 150 Average Male Tallman is 180 and average Female Tallman is 170

I did some doubtful math and came up with *0,86 for male and *0,88 for female (that's for tallmen height to elf height, if you want to calculate from elf to tallman it would be *1,16 for male and *1,13 for female, both of them you can round up the result)

I don't think that's very correct tho cause using that math on the tallest elves, Lycion who is 170cm and Cithis who is 165cm, it puts him at 197cm and Cithis at 186cm as tallmen that doesn't sound right but maybe it is. (Edit: I got flamela's height wrong she's 140cm I was still asleep I guess, changing it to cithis who IS 165cm I double checked)

It probably doesn't really work cause tallmen average in dungeon meshi is WAY taller than irl human average (google tells me the global average is 171 for men, and the average where I live is even shorter than that) and also cause the height difference between male and female elves is really small, which fits with how androgynous they are in general, there's not much difference between male and females so as a tallmen might be way taller than you'd expect for a woman but for elves Cithis and Lycion being so tall is probably about the same amount of striking.

I ended up rambling but this might help somehow? or just make you even more confused. Anyway I wouldn't worry too much about how tall to make your elf, if I were to make one I'd just make it like a bit taller than average cause that's what I am irl. I'm really bad at explaining math but if you need me to I can try (I tried and ended up making the post double the size and I don't think it made any sense LMAO)

And thanks! I love reading your comments it's very encouraging!

[jeannereames]

Hii Dr. Reames, I hope you're having a good day.

I've seen the claim several times that Hephaistion's funeral was the most expensive (or one of the most expensive) in history or at least of its time, how true is that? I'm curious to know how much money Alexander spent and how much that amount would be equivalent to today

Hephaistion's Funeral

Making comparisons between ancient and modern costs is tricky because it's not one-to-one. Accounts say Alexander spent 10 or 12-thousand talents on Hephaistion's funeral. It doesn't specify of gold or silver, but silver is probably to be assumed if gold isn't specified. As of today (12/7/24), a gram of silver is worth $1.00, US, and an Attic talent is estimated at about 26 kilograms. I'm using Attic, although archaeologists DO actually know the silver weight for Macedonia in Alexander's reign...but I'm not sure where to find that (without a lot of digging), so Attic will do as an estimate; it won't be enormously far off.

26,000 grams of silver = 1 Attic talent. Multiplying that, we get $260,000,000 for 10,000 talents.

BUT the real question is what will that buy? That's why one-to-one conversion is meaningless. For instance, a cheap t-shirt in the US is under $10, more if specialized or nice soft cotton...but a cheap wool garment (chiton) in Classical Athens was about 20 drachmai or 10 days' wages. Linen was at least twice that. (Why clothes were made at home.) The standard wage for a skilled laborer was 2 drachmai a day. A single talent = 6000 drachma, so a skilled laborer earned a talent in a little over 8 years, if he worked every day, 8.5 if he took off for holidays.

(An article on the cost of common items in Classical Athens.)

So, Hephaistion's funeral (low-end) cost the equivalent of 1 year's wages for 80,000 people, or the entire population of Kalamazoo, Michigan (minus temp college students), and then some. Or you could buy 13 million wool chitones. The entire population of modern Greece in 2023 was not-quite 10.5 million.

Whether that's the most expensive funeral in history, I don't know that we have the data to say...so avoid hyperbole. We CAN say it was hella costly.

BUT I'd also caution that we must take these numbers with a grain of salt--just like the supposed cost of Boukephalas, Alexander's famous warhorse, at 13 talents. Whatever the funeral actually cost, it almost certainly didn't cost 10K talents, much less 12K.

By the Roman era, Hephaistion's funeral had become the ne plus ultra of "excessive grieving" = lack of sophrosune/self-control = A BAD THING. The "moral of the story" was that, in his final years, Alexander had lost it...excessive wealth leading to complete immoderation. IOW, Alexander the Great = Elon Musk.

It's also important to point out that, whatever it did cost, Alexander was not the sole donor. Both people and cities in the empire sent money, some to honor Hephaistion, others to avoid Alexander's ire or to gain his favor. We have no way of knowing what percentages were, but it's worth noting a general outpouring of financial contributions.

There is also disagreement as to whether the whole thing went to his funeral pyre, or to a monument (like the Mausoleum), or to a mixture of monument and pyre. I'll go with door #3, btw.

Whatever it was doesn't seem to have been fully completed by Alexander's own death, 9-10 months later. Diodoros gives us our fullest description, but he may have been working from plans, not the completed structure.

(Sketch below: Quatremere de Quincy, publ. on Magasin Pittoresque, Paris, 1849, available from Getty Images.)

[fallenangels-cb]

The Angels have posted!

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Mingyu.Kim: It's been a great couple of months for me actually. The coffee shop has been doing really well and the new hires are great and friendly. Humans really are diligent is what I was able to realise after hiring them. Hoshi convinced me that I could trust them and work 5 days, instead of 7 days a week and that honestly has been great for me. How have you guys been since the new year?

Jeno.Lee: Fashion week has been excellent so far! I'm mainly out here collecting information and inspiration for myself since Sana has asked to see some designs from me for the new line! It's definitely inspiring to be out here and I've been sketching a lot after each show. Hopefully Sana will like my designs!

Kwon.Hosh: It's been a busy couple of weeks with a couple of my cases having their hearings in January. It's funny to see the same lawyer colleagues day in day out at court. We're each fighting each other for more than one case so tensions are high but it's all in good spirits! It would be great to get a couple of wins this month, December was a bit disappointing with my win rate but that's just how it goes sometimes. Is anyone else's work really busy in the new year?

Chan.B: Christmas was so good! I spent some time with a couple of my producer friends and really enjoyed the quieter period since most artists aren't looking for new songs over Christmas. Things have really ramped up since then and I'm working on I think 4... different tracks at the moment. One of them I'm really hoping the girl group will select it because it's made with their style in mind. We'll see how it goes though haha

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[glitchpirate]

Another year, another same template.

This Last year was pretty packed; I managed to get back into commissions (still catching up with waiting list though) and draw some gifts for friends. ^_^ While still being able to draw for myself!

Happy new year y'all. May your dreams come true and all. I'm not big on speeches. No talking, only ART.

Or, well. Some talking. Ramble again, like last year, under the cut.

January: ko-fi limited palette sketch commission overdue many years of mutual's OC. <3 Thankfully everyone's been so patient with my lack of speed. I'll do better next time, I promise!

February: COTL brainrot... I had an Anassy art I was thinking about putting in here but COTL was really so big in my life in February, I had to put my low-effort fanart in there... which surprisingly blew up in numbers. (Thank you 🛐)

March: didn't really draw anything in March except this OC art and a small fanart doodle, so decided to go with this one, with which I experimented with textures. I haven't shared this before and I don't think I will (sorry), but it's on Dia's (depicted OC) toyhouse.

April: birhday gift for friend I haven't talked to in years. This was a perfect opportunity to get back in contact and it worked out nicely. ^_^ In the art are her OCs from her story still in progress. Lineart and painting together works surprisingly well!

May: fun little drawing I had depicting my inkling OC as a human. ^_^ Sorry not sorry for the eyestrain-

June: boy, this month was THE OC month. I created so many here, I don't know what happened. The characters in here are one of them, my beloved Mortis Twins. They are an asura (Guild Wars 2) musical duo who play darkwave music about death and dying. ^_^ (<-Glitch stop writing this emoticon every time pls) Goth siblings beloved. This art is a promo shoot for their new era and album. Get yours signed at a local show now!!!

July: another birthday gift for a long time no contact/talk friend/mutual! Was super happy how this came out and for the recipient's reaction. <3 It's her VTuber! (Check her out at ChiikaboomTV on twitch)! I prefer not uploading birthday gifts and only sharing them privately to who I'm drawing them for but I might share this one sometime cuz I'm really prou of this one. I experimented with a new shading technique even, and it worked out just fine~

August: would you guess it? Another birthday gift for a long time no contact- ok you get the drill. Same shading technique, same-ly happy friend. ^_^ It's her main OC, Persephone Eddington, whom I love very much. <3

September: another overdue ko-fi commission! Despite the overwhelming details, I like how it came out~ I've always been so bad with great amount of detail and mecha stuff. x_x

October: birthday gift for my bestie leeche, depicting their Dragon Heist dragonborn character, Nephintaad Morzavur, whom I also love very much. <3

November: Guild Wars 2 Tyria Pride giveaway art! I offered a bust and wanted to go back to painting again, and the recipient loved it very much. The biggest compliment. <3 Included a lot of things important to the "commissioner's" player character and had a blast!

December: normal commission! I'm finally catching up with the waiting list. A bit saucy hehe but that's just icing, I swear!

-

Aaand that's it. Thank you for reading if you've reached this far and once again, Happy New Year!

[taylor-titmouse]

Julia is sick of working late. She's sick of being disrespected, and most of all she's sick of her boss. Lance is a burned out, smooth-talking playboy, but he also happens to be the son of the CEO.  When Lance pushes her buttons once too often, Julia is tempted to put him in his place – but is it worth throwing away her career for a moment of satisfaction? Content: -F/M -dom -degradation -small penis humiliation -directed masturbation -power play 5k words,  EPUB and PDF format Only $3, Releases later tonight! you can go read the first two pages on the shop page!

i've mentioned a couple times now that my editor and the author of roger crenshaw: the dogs at duskfall @mortalityplays is now available for freelance work for people other than me, but i don't think i've made as big of a deal how he's ALSO going to start releasing his own smut shorts on the last friday of every month! he is SUCH a talented writer on top of being an excellent editor and it's my absolute delight to work with him on the cover for his first release. FINALLY i have a great answer when asked "is there anyone else writing smut like you?"

and since this was the first time in a while i went through a cover design process that wasn't just me making one for myself, i thought i would go into how it went!

The Prompt

R/L wanted something that didn't visually describe the characters, because he had deliberately avoided that himself in the text. these characters are archetypes, ideas of characters: a woman who works in an office and her playboy burnout boss. for an erotic fantasy scenario, not going into detail can be ideal, as it allows the reader to project their own fantasies onto the characters. but what does that mean for a cover, when showing off the characters is often the point?

The Thumbnails

it means silhouettes, babie! if you're a reader of romance you've probably seen this approach a few times. silhouettes allow you to give the impression of a character without actually specifying them. HOWEVER! that can only go so far. note the female silhouettes in the left and right thumbnails--one with a pony tail, one with her hair down. these two very minor design elements say completely different things about the character, and pin her design down into something specific. (there is a whole line of feminist thought about this, that there is no such thing as an "unmarked" woman, or rather a woman whose presentation does not say something about her, ie a woman not wearing makeup is not perceived as neutral the way a man not wearing makeup is).

so anyway including her in the cover in full doesn't work for the prompt, because how she wears her hair or how she dresses would say something about her that we don't want to say. thus: we chose the middle design!

a man in a shirt and tie are super archetypal, and """neutral""" enough to not say anything specific about lance, our male protagonist, other than he has a job and is of average size (which are of course not technically truly neutral, but for our purposes, are functional as symbols). and while a long, narrow, leg does still say something about julia, it is abstracted enough to simply represent the concept of "woman" without projecting an overall image of her in the reader's head. she has a leg, and she wears high heels. that's all you get!

The Sketch

now we can move on to the sketch stage! this is the point at which the palette and text are figured out. i tried a few fonts before landing on one that had the retro paperback all-caps feel that i liked, and i used what i believe to have been a risograph print texture from retrosupply.

we went with the text up top rather than at the bottom, because it lends weight to the shoe and balances out the blacks in the pants. it also allows the figure to take up more of the cover, which is ideal. honestly, not a whole lot to say about this bit that i didn't cover in thumbnails: which is the point of doing thumbnails in the first place!

The Finish

well you can just scroll up to see that one. the final colors ended up a little less saturated, a little cooler, to bring it home to the retro paperback look i was going for and tie the colors together. i'm very pleased with it and had a lot of fun. cover design is one of my favorite parts of putting out books, and it was especially fun working with someone else to bring their vision to life.

anyway, you should go buy this book! it's only three dollars and i want to make more covers for these! your purchases would prove that i am a very good investment as a cover artist >:)

[hello-universe-lovers]

Well, time for my stp au ranting (thanks @neverpathia for getting me off my ass)

For some context, have this:

SLAY THE PRINCESS: THE FIRST DRAFT AU:

(SPOILERS and OC TALK ahead)

Let's start with someone I've been referring to as the Player

(Do not mind that the sketch has a different title name. This was literally the first draft, ironically enough. And some beta voice designs weee~)

Her name is Ley, and her design is honestly what I call the "Pocket OC", a blank slate that I can insert into any universe or fandom with some modifications. For this application, she is the unfortunate Mortal that the Narrator decided would be GREAT at princess slaying!!/s

Contrary to Larry, who only had to do 5 loops to freed the Shifting Mound. Ley has to go through 11 FOR ALL THE VOICES. Since LQ isn't exactly capable of calling the voices back to him like She can. And with the "2 voice per loop" rule, she has to collect em one at a time. Fun times/s

I feel her personality is best described when I go into the routes with her, in contrast to Larry (note that they are in a specific order).

THE PRISONER:

Her first was the Prisoner. Her skepticism of the Narrator and the Princess (expressed by bringing the knife down to the basement) quickly melted away into sympathy for the Princess and resolved to save her. Unlike Larry, she didn't had to cut off her hand. Rather, she cut one of the links with the Pristine Blade, rendering it blunt. When the Narrator took over, the Princess had to bash her head against the wall, knocking her out/killing her (they have the same effect).

In the Prisoner Chapter, she woke up in chains, rather than free, and the Prisoner is her usual self. And to add to her headache, there was a new Voice with the Narrator: the Voice of the Hero (pre-egg crack). She informs her that she's been stuck here for a while, and the knife was out of their reach, presumably upstairs. Ley, not giving up, broke her thumb to get out (since the chain was for Larry's neck, not hers) and did the same for the Prisoner's wrist cuffs. With freedom and a knife again, the Prisoner asked how she was going to get her out of there. She did the same thing she did last time: cutting her free. When asked why she thought that worked and not trust her in her "alternative" plan: she did trust her, but she didn't want her to get hurt for the sake of freedom. Hero encourages her on with her choices, seeing how far a strong will can get you, as well as subtly demonstrating she can still influence this world, even for a human.

But, as the Shifting Mound claims the Prisoner and she finds herself in the Long Quiet. The Mirror is still there, but rather than showing her own reflection, she sees the Hero, in how she perceived the Voice, through her route. She says "Hi" to her (who finally cracked her egg) and comments on how Proud she was of Ley for keeping her good nature, even in such a difficult circumstances. However, their conversation couldn't last long as the darkness of the mirror starts taking Hero away. Hero screamed in fear, and Ley bangs on the mirror, but the Voice returns to the Long Quiet, to where she is meant to be. But she inherited Ley's Chivalry, and it will stick with her

(Don't worry, I won't rant too much with the rest, this is the first. The rest of them will be shorter)

Edit: so that was a lie!

THE RAZOR:

(Oh I forgot Stubborn went through a redesign godddd--)

Her next route is where her personality changes the Story. Let's be clear here: she isn't Larry. She has no God powers that makes her go numb to pain or make it go empty. But what she has is drive. Perseverance is a HELL of a drug, and it's what she did to Conquer the Razor.

After being stabbed by the Princess in the Chapter 1, Ley tried to give her the benefit of a doubt, but it's clear that this Princess's love language is "STAB! STAB! STAB!!", so it's time to arm up. It's difficult, she died a lot, but overtime, she realized that the arena they were in...was changing. Warps, cracks littered the walls of the cabin and basement. An idea was sown, and luckily she has the perfect voice to keep her going. Stubborn had to take a backseat, which he hated, but he got what he wanted. Clash after clash, the basement showed signs of breaking down. She even tore off one of Razor's arms to use as a sword. Once you have a goal that isn't just "winning", your motivation skyrockets. Chapter 4 wasn't named "Mutually Assured Destruction", but "the Bird and the Mountain". As the Princess showed her new form, Ley showed her plan's fruition. The basement finally gave out under the abuse, and collapsed on top of both of them. The Bladed Razor looked up at the sky from the hole that opened up, while pinned under tons of rubble and was memorized. Ley, meanwhile, made her way out of the rubble, in pain, but alive. This is where an unintended Side effect of her influence came in. Because she felt someone lifted her up and helped her approach the Razor. The Princess was surprised, but she had no regrets. In fact, she had fun!! Seeing her slowly growing to triumph over her was fun! And the stars were pretty to look at too! She was ok with dying now, promising to maybe try something else, now that the world is open to her...

But they won't have that next encounter, as Ley finds herself in the Long Quiet once more.

Stubborn was struggling against being unraveled, but he had to congratulate her. If it was him, he would have fought her over and over with no stop. But her plan not only stopped her, it also kept her going. With a brain like that, nothing could stand in her way. Ley gave her peace with him, reassuring that the Quiet won't hurt him, it's taking him somewhere he belongs. And to tell Hero she said "hi", when he sees her...

The NIGHTMARE:

With so many deaths in one loop, it left her feeling the fatigue in the next Loop. In her tired state, she decided she needed space from both the Narrator and Princess to think, so she left the basement. She didn't, however, closed the door to the basement. She left it open to show that she wasn't gonna leave her in limbo. While she thought of what to do, exhaustion finally kicked in and she fell asleep. However, when she woke up, the door to the basement was blocked by the table. She rudely asked the Narrator what happened, and that's when SKEPTIC made himself known. He came while she was asleep, and decided that it'd be safer to talk with the door blocked. Panicked, she quickly opened the door, asking the Princess if she's OK. But her haste to check on her let her tripped and broke her neck in the fall.

The next time, Skeptic is once again not being helpful. Apparently he and Narrator had a talk while she was "dead" and Skeptic doesn't believe in anything Narry is saying about their situation. Not even the ominous cabin and the drop to the basement. For once, his Skepticism kept her alive because when the Nightmare showed up, he just didn't believe she could do that. It's not Paranoid but it will do. For Ley herself, it may felt like absolute shit to have your organs barely work, but it gave her time to say sorry to the Princess and helped her out of the basement. When asked why she said sorry, when she didn't ask for it, she responded that she deserved one anyway.

In the Long Quiet, She confronted Skeptic for his mistakes...but she does thanked him for keeping her alive, even if it was accidental on his part. He apologized for his misjudgment and was grateful to meet someone like-minded. Maybe she can discover the truth of this place, where he could not. Then he was taken away, though he resisted a little.

(Bonus but between every few loops, she just crashes into Shifty to sleep. Not repeating what happened with the Nigthmare, now that deep sleep can apparently summon these guys. Not that she'd remembered)

The TOWER:

Her hesitation to kill the Princess gave the next one an Ego boost. And Smitten is here because of a misguided respect for the Tower, that could be interpreted as "love". With a voice that's all about devotion and a literal Goddess, she was THIS close to succumbing. BUT the Tower just HAD to take the face of a loved one, brcause Ley wasn't a "little bird", try and persuade her. Which just made her ANGRY. The Fury of the AUDACITY!!

Now, Smitten believed in love, and if Tower's love language was "devotion", he was gonna give it to her. And he didn't appreciate this Lady not seeing the LOVE like he did. However, in her fury, Smitten saw her memories, and of the Love that she had with this other woman. But it ended tragically and bitterly. Died by a fire. But it was REAL. A REAL love that was meaningful that was more than devotion.

Ley pushed the Tower out of the window, letting them fall into nothingness. The Tower realized that maybe using the face of a dead loved one was a bad call...but she still thinks highly of herself. Ley coldly responded "what is a God to a non-believer?"

She is taken away, leaving Ley to fall on forever. But she soon landed gently on the ground. Facing the mirror, Smitten was crying for the lost of the Tower, but also at the beauty of Ley's love. If that was what True Love looked like, maybe He could find it again. Ley told him that True Love doesn't exist. There isn't "the one" for you, just the "love" you made together with the one you choose. Smitten has a lot to think about, now...as he fades away.

The WITCH/THORN:

To go from a tragedy to a romance, Ley didn't want to betray the Princess. But the Narrator forced her hand, and in comes our "favorite" asshole. Rather than being summoned by Ley's feelings, it was the Narrator's feelings projected onto her, the rush of pulling one over on someone. Ley is NOT happy with either of these people in my head, and Opportunist was content to go back and forth between choosing a side. It got to a point where it caused her such a headache that she broke the Pristine Blade by jamming it against the root wall, and bent the handle so no one can get it out. It was an act of desperation against the Narrator and to show trust to the Witch. However, just as they were about to leave, Opportunist decided to try what the Narrator did last time. Ley struggled hard against him, which scared the Witch so much that she stabbed her with a sharp piece of root from the ground. She fell, but muttered an "I'm sorry" before fading away.

The next time she woke up, she had a pain in her chest. And the Voice was less of a voice and more of a person. This is where the Voice finally have a body of their own in the Construct, and Ley's first action was punch the ever loving shit out of the Opportunist. Blaming him for the Witch stabbing her when she was THIS CLOSE to saving her! She never wanted to betray her but the Narrator and now him were projecting those feelings onto her and now SHE has to bear the brunt of their treachery. She did stop wailing on him, but he was crying and begging her to stop by the end of it. All she did was glare in return, saying how pathetic he truly was...before walking to the cabin, skipping the Pristine Blade all together that was just sitting there. The Thorn was there, vulnerable and surrounded by painful thorns, obviously she is scared of Ley for even MORE reasons than the canon one. Because how could she still trust herself, after what she saw and almost did? Ley answered back that she resisted, every step of the way. She never stopped resisting, and she will continue to resist, until both of them made it out of here. With her bare hands, she tore into the vines, not caring if they bleed, Thorn's protest or the Narrator's attempts to make her stop via tedium. She ketp going.

Then, a tap on her shoulder. Whipping around, it's the Opportunist, one hand holding an eye that she punched earlier, and another...the Blade, extended to her, hilt facing her. He makes a non-committal reasoning for being here ("it's better to stick together" and all that) but I ranted enough about what he actually feels before...so with the knife, she cut the Thorn and the 3 of them Escaped the basement.

In the Long Quiet, the Opportunist stood before her. The root that stabbed her chest was now in his and blooming a rose, and the shiner she put in his eye was now a poppy, like the Thorn's. He...apologized, truthfully, for his actions. There is no one to witness them, so to him, this was his only chance to say sorry. He just wanted to live...and that blinded him to the opportunities that he could have gotten, if he was kinder. Ley said that she...won't accept it, not yet...but she can acknowledge that if he's truthful, than one day, she will. And that she wasn't the only person he'd hurt. Thorn was too...if he see her again, he has a lot to make up for. He begged to not be taken away, to not die or be asleep before he got to say sorry to her. But something tells Ley that he will see Thorn again...but she won't.

((I am stopping here because I am CRAMPING: tune in next time for Broken, Cheated, Hunted, Paranoid, Cold and Contrarian!

And thanks for making it this far. It was...very nerve wracking to do this. To show my work like this outside of friends so I hope this resonated with you and I hope you asked me questions about them.