#long post. just hecking long as heck

[screwpinecaprice]

Some warm up connverse

[ninja-knox-ur-sox-off]

I don’t have any other way to describe my read on their dynamic other than Geode is in a gay relationship and Cole is in a QPR that is all

[saintbleeding]

it’s a horror tragedy. people are mean and uncharitable and impatient with him and don’t give him the benefit of the doubt because he is the protagonist of a horror tragedy. u are supposed to think it is tragic. dare i say u are supposed to be horrified.

[adeleine-everyday]

day 90

she is NOT a 3D art kid

[demigodofhoolemere]

If Siegfried is that adorable with the baby this entire season then I’m definitely going to die

[residentialsinyomakai]

Greetings and salutations yokai watch fans, I have a request!!

If you could tell me some cool yokai (or human!) headcanons that would be neat sauce. ☆☆☆ (●^▽^●) please and thank you!

[kay9leo]

McStareface Part 3 - NO JEWELRY!

Trequel to McStareface Part 1

Sequel to McStareface Part 2 - Smack Talk

No Jewelry

Was the purpose of this entire mini comic series (Especially part 3) because of panel 9?

YES***

Like Eda Mode's "NO CAPES!", growing up when I used to play sports in school we were not allowed to wear jewelry while playing.

And in my mind, magical dueling is as much of a sport just like any other individual 1-v-1 muggle sport.

When I first saw that duel between MC and Sebastian in which Prof. Hecat pits the two students against each other, I couldn't help but think that if that was me, out of habit, I would jump off the piste (in fencing terms, that is the fencing strip play area you would duel on and I would like to imagine that's also the magical name of the dueling strip play area since to me dueling is just the magical version of fencing) and immediately take my jewelry off because I have no wishes to become the next horror story of how wearing jewelry during sports caused an injury.

And hence why part 1, 2 and 3 of McStareface was born - all because of panel 9.

That's it.

That's the whole reason.

***That and to give a reason for Iñaki to call Sebastian "Stare-y McStareface" since she doesn't know his name yet. She essentially gave him the Boaty McBoatface type of nickname as a stand in until she learned his real name 😂. I needed to make part one in order to get part 2 and 3 where I wanted to be and for that nickname she picked for him to make sense. 🤣 This was more than 3 months in the making 😂🤣😂

You won't be catching Iñaki getting a dumb injury because of her jewelry, but unfortunately (or fortunately I guess in this case -depending which scenario you're looking at due to my MC coming from NY) most people (muggleborns and half-bloods who know muggle culture and seen American media) will probably see her taking her earrings as a sign she's going to get in a serious fight and she's not someone to not play around with. Especially since she's Latina and when you tell people that you're from New York, everyone automatically think's you're from the city lol. Ahh, stereotypes. I didn't mean to accidentally stumble upon it with Iñaki 😅😂.

(I mean she used to be from NYC before she moved to the 'burbs and turned to a suburban kid, but that's not the point XD)

While Iñaki isn't someone to play around, (she has ancient magic - not that anybody knows about it) she REALLY just doesn't want to get injured wearing jewelry while playing magical sports. Heck getting your earrings caught in either clothing, your comb or hair is painful (speaking from experience), I REALLY don't want to imagine how painful it will be in a sports injury. 😬

So she gives it to Natty to hold since she finds her new friendly classmate trustworthy enough to hold it. And Natty is all too pleased to help her new friend.

After all, Natty wants for her new friend, Iñaki, to destroy sweep Sebastian off his feet seeing how Natty couldn't defeat her number one nemesis in Crossed Wands yet. 🤗

Just a girl who wants to support another girl to destroy her dueling rival -just girly things, you know? 🤗🤭😁

Not that Natty is the only one who wants to see the undefeatable Sebastian Sallow go down.

Even if Iñaki doesn't know anything about his dueling record -heck, she doesn't even know who McStareface is- one thing she does know is that she's SOOOOO looking forward to returning the favor of his smack talk in a duel 🤗😁🤗

After all, it's “Perro que ladra no muerde”/ (A dog that barks doesn't bite) talk to her right now. And after her rough entrance to Hogwarts, Iñaki knows how to bite between the dragon, knights and everything not nice she had to face so far up to this point.

So a duel with McStareface should be fun. 🤗

✨🌺💅🌺✨Just girly things, you know? ✨🌺💅🌺✨

Click Here For Iñaki "MC" Martinez Cariaga Masterlist

[atlantic-riona]

Batgirl #9 (2000) // the Iliad trans. Caroline Alexander // Táin Bó Cuailnge trans. Thomas Kinsella

[aur0ralights]

Part 1 (ur here) | Part 2

LUWAP2023, I got to do some art for JadeHawk0290′s fic; The Hour of Twilight

I loved legit everything abt the fic and I couldn’t narrow down exactly which one artwork I wanted to do.... so i did the entire first chapter loll

[after-nine-at-the-oasis]

I'm sorry W H A T

[sysig]

2024 Purge (Part 3)

A whole Three-Parter for 2024! Damned very completely took over my brain and I made so many many doodles about it haha <3 Also ft. Helix and SCII generally, and a few other cursory Damned-style things :)

Little mini ZEX walk cycle from his Kissing Strangers meme ♥ He’s so cute, wobbling around on these weird new legs, not used to using these stiff arms to assist him back up!

Floorplans!! Of the Vyer Estate, I unfortunately don't know the layout/room configuration of estates or mansions very well haha, so I kinda just guessed at what kind of structure the house would have - I could've looked up blueprints, but the foyer is such a strong image in my head that every other room kind of fell off around it lol - though I still oscillate between seeing the stairs in the frontmost room or to the sides, hmm

Many many speculations, including the outer spaces, yard out front and in back, what all is within their fencing, if its built on a slab or foundation, if there's a crawlspace or cellar or full basement, ahh, so many possibilities! You can see in the left full-view I mistakenly put Dex's room on the first floor lol, both his and Max's room are explicitly described as being upstairs, on a separate floor from the kitchen. Very important! But where is the master bedroom...? The two on the right are kind-of both of the same thing; the platform at the top of the foyer double stairs, and the room beneath it that leads outside to the back garden - I moved the dining room around here and there, it would be nice to open up the back doors and have a dinner party able to go in and out I think :)

Going a bit more granular, made some temps for Max's room specifically - he hangs out there a lot, it's important! Even pulled out my grid paper for this one haha, fun to have an actual floorplan kind of look with tile-spaced everything! Very Sims, quite fun. I do like the idea of him having a window seat, but he's also described as standing in front of his windows so that probably wouldn't be the Only type he'd have hmm

On the topic of the Sims, I ended up making the three mockups in the Sims 2 as well! I do like this one - I was especially surprised that Max was even able to get to the bed! I thought the dresser would be in the way but no, it’s all walkable :D Very pleased. Not fully satisfied with the placement of his en suite tho, would it encroach into his room itself, or be tucked into a wall...? I kind of like that idea of that :0

The double bay windows is maybe a bit much, but I mean. Idle rich lol. At one point he’s looking out the window and then backs Dex up against a wall, but Which wall hmmm, must align room layout with seduction attempts, very important

Switching entirely over, you might remember the card I posted of Stanley, and the small mention of having made a matching card for the Narrator... I may have made significantly more than just that lol, I can't help it!! The Damned structure is wonderfully made, it invites creative speculation and idea generation at a nearly alarming rate! I commend the game builders for their craft. So I made a bunch of the faces I'd want to see at the institute lol, I love duos the most-most, so picking a pair from several of my favourite pieces of media was just ahh! Yes!

Apaultheosis and Emma seemed like a particularly fun match :D Would that make Paul his "real" counterpart...? I mean, it says Matthew right there lol, but would he just act like Paul? Would be doubly weird if Paul-proper showed up while the Apotheosis was out swanning around haha, Apaultheosis really seems like the right level of "belongs in an institute" to have a lot of fun with :) And if it's my immune-Emma AU in particular, Emma's already used to having to be around a bunch of weirdos haha

The LAC boys!!! ♥ Making everyone's little background was a lot of fun too - yellow for the TSPs, blue splotches for the Hatchetfield duo, little devil trappings for these two :D Such fun! It was also very fun to write up everyone's little personalities in simple phrasing, really break them all down to their core characterizations haha. Helps with not pushing them too far one way or another too! Would they do any given thing because [trait]? S'fun!

Weird Duo, the Watchers pulled from And the Universe Shifts - the explorations of villains having to put up being on the same side as/having to get along with heroes really makes for an interesting examination of how they'd go about doing that! These two are still absolutely insufferable, but they're also trying to escape! It's interesting :0 Also casual headcanon of how the institute would deal with enby/trans characters, possibly something I've had a lot of thoughts about lol

Last fanduo from the first batch - all of these were made over the course of like, two days, if that lol, I was very excited about this idea - I genuinely love how anime/JRPG characters are usually given fake names also in Japanese, it's very fun :D I only did so halfway for Nova's since she's only ever had the one kind of anglicized personal name, no family name - could she also be a kid from Jersey? Such mysteries haha. She also probably wouldn't have her hair clips during the day unfortunately :P But I couldn't resist drawing them, she's not her without them! The Watchers get their masks, give my girl her barrettes!

Back to Helix, more short-haired Max! I do like this one but I also thought the pose was silly so I held off on it haha, he looks cute with short hair! <biased towards Max generally

Another one that was too silly to put anywhere haha, ZEX being attacked by an invisible Kayako - Teisel is very confused at your inexplicable reactions, Admiral!

Normally I wouldn't post my studies, partially because they're mostly for my own benefit, to better understand how to draw a character, and also because I am usually very ❤️💕💖💞💗 in my commentary lol, as evidenced. I was excited to see him!! Especially in the institute uniform!!! <3 I'd doodled him a couple times as such but Seeing it, ahh <3 <3 So cute, wonderful ♪♫

Max! Another half-study, frog mouthed boy <3 Goofy floofy lad, love him <3

And another! This time of him being teary-mad, gosh he's adorable no matter what he's up to

Hehe <3 A particularly silly one in reaction to Dexter having arm-pinned him on the floor - how different certain things look in hindsight, through the lense of a crush, hm?

Talanaaaa ♪ In actuality she removed her shirt, but how cute would it have been to tie it up at her side instead ahhh

Lovestruck Zelnick, totally listening, mmhm <3

The silliness continues! Was thinking about the little pink bits at the end of VUX tendrils and how I've sometimes seen them speculated as also being little tongues? I'm still not sure what I think about it! It is good and potentially creepy I think, but would they taste? Would they be as dexterous? Hmmm, thoughts thoughts

A dandelion for the sunshine Captain <3

There he is! The sunniest boy of them all! Sweetest sweet lad ♥ Love him :)

Speculating ZEX plushie stuff still - going over the construction of his uniform, possibly as part of his body, possibly as something to dress him in so he can be fitted into other clothes as well :0 I'm still considering the tail slot, but probably only for uniform-as-body - otherwise, laying his tunic overtop his tail would probably be the easiest all the way around. I do like VUX with short tails too tho, hmm, how to make it visible... On the right are a few more detail ideas :D Different eye styles, what would be embroidered vs. sewn together etc. - I considered felt medals and badges, but I really think embroidery would have the prettiest result! Even my notes say so haha, that and where to put weighted pellets in place of fluffy stuffing :)

Speaking of plush 👀 Ahem

An alternate Strawberry Blond panel, ZEX pulling him up fully to look at him hhh I love him <3

And also touching him a bit, what is this feeling DAX is feeling! ZEX has some ideas :3c Though when doesn't he lol

More DAX expressions! Angy and owie, they do tend to go hand-in-hand, poor lad got well-knocked around and he still ended up the least injured of the three!

Rando icons, I can't help myself ♪ This uniform has its hooks in me, is it the ominous smiley face's bright yellow on boring grey, the contrast, the sameness?? I just like it! Was a fun small and simple thing to pull together :)

I actually started this set somewhat early on, speculating what DAX's MU scene might be, but never ended up with anything solid - since he wasn't there initially, it's hard to think of what would be a fitting torture for him, apart from what Was there i.e. having to watch what ZEX went through :( That does seem like it'd leave some pretty massive mental scars on him - always always always unable to save him in the moments where it really counts! :'0 But it doesn't do anything to his Body, and that's supposed to be the point of MU! I do still like many things here, DAX's offer of self-sacrifice being rejected and him being powerless to do anything else

And the way I used hashmarks to imply his eyes going fuzzy with them both open and the stress - looks like a pause symbol haha

Also a big fan of the little corner doodle being so cute and wholesome, the two of them excitedly circling each other, excited to see each other! I love-loved that so much in their meeting <3 <3

Then there was that one time DAX and DAX met, that was fun :) If only ZEX had shown up, then what would DAX do! Self-defense in a way hehe, that's one way of getting on the same side haha

The raw doodle that eventually became Get Out of the Way! For as sad a way as it was to go out - failing to be protected, the last of his allies, not even able to wield his own weapon effectively - it does still remind me of a silly quote. Those dogs were indeed very nasty!

A temp doodle of Dexter holding both Max's clothes and ZEX's uniform after his "discharge" (;;) from the institute, the only things he has left to hold onto 💔 So very little left of him :(

I at one point asked smol who she’d put in the institute for funsies and she picked Maison Talo, and so I tossed Apaultheosis at him - they do both consider humans as prey! Just, a bit differently lol. Would the Apotheosis even be able to convert a Realtor by their lure? Where does the goo need to be to start to take effect, many questions

Stanley Icons <3 It's only fitting that my first choice for a card gets his own set of reactions! Icons like these are actually really fun to make - pulling around from my doodles, slapping a bit of colour overtop, edits to screenshots (Stanley's "Dead" reaction is probably my favourite of those, I'm sure y'all can guess which ending I pulled from lol) - and it all has me tempted to make a few more...

Back to Just-SCII! More Baby VUX!! 💖 They're so cute!!! Just little guys, adorable <3 Casual clothing and PJs and having to tie one's sash back on haha, all those complicated loops and knots :)

Also some muscle/arm shape speculations of how VUX armtips might change based on what they're doing, the roundedness of recoiling is very funny to me haha

Obviously had to make these two's versions in TS2 as well, the most fun <3 “What brings you in today, Mr. Vargas?” “That’s doctor.” “Oh, sure, right.”

More of the Doctor meme! Poor DAX haha, certainly sick with Something ♪

I think the lyric is “three times a day”? But what three times a day, that's the real question lol. ZEX has his own suggestions hmm :) I do like their hug in the first one hehe, so cute <3

Totally all better! Definitely nothing would make his symptoms flare up again!

Poor DAX <3

Digitized Dr. Doran! He really is so tiny haha, it was fun using Wander's colour scheme, mostly filled out already! The institute's dress code for staff is a mystery; presumably some of the therapists wear medical/professional clothes, but then there's Stein who still has the screw in his head - surely they'd allow jeans, right? Or is that where they draw the line lol. Look it's fine, he's meant to be the Approachable Therapist, he gets special allowances, totallyyy

All two Locked In doodles that didn't make the cut but also have nowhere else to go lol - there’s a few dozen concept sketches that haven’t been written into complete scenes yet that I'd love to post as their own sets! At some point!! Poor Oz is so put out, and Leah's big goofy grin, very silly hehe - that one's just meant to show off her outfit! It's winter, no bare legs here!

As a bonus to make up for those being the only two doodles, here’s Ozzy and Thrax in TS2 failing to get along lol. Oz! You're not good enough friends for that yet! Will they get there someday? :3c

VUX snuggles <3 Love the them so very much ♥

This is one I really want to digitize to get them a little more cosplay-accurate, but I'd been going back through some nostalgic AMVs and had the sudden realization that KuroFai, being one of my fairly early/influential ships on my heart, and now they...

Fai even loses an eye, I jfdlskafdlhfdf

Finishing out with my last set of cards, I had to make the two leads from SAOA, truly a masterwork in abridging <3 They're just such fun characters! And it's not like they're not already used to being trapped somewhere that constantly risks their lives :'0 I love them, I swear! Good things for them!

[pushspacetocontinue]

An Uplifting Feeling (Narrative)

Just something nice and light-hearted that was in my head for a little while since reading a certain short story. If you choose to read, enjoy.

This was actually rather nice. The Falling Star was rather busy, but Russell was feeling okay with that. He was tucked in a bit of quieter corner of the club, and Leofric was sat nearby, clearly wanting to keep to a more isolated spot as well. But he had given Russell a polite nod of acknowledgement as he sat.

Russell held a glass of lemonade in his hand, the cool temperature against his palm. A few tables closer to the main performing platform, Travis was sitting with a couple of his gym buddies.

The show was the highlight. It was Lord Enigma's comeback show. A smaller one to start the year off, but still highly intriguing and entertaining all the same. It was a good atmosphere, with a cheerful vibe in the air.

Time flew when you were having fun, almost an hour and a half had past, and the final trick was due. According to the talk and the fliers, no one had ever seen this in one of Lord Enigma's shows before.

"I will be needing another kind volunteer for this one," Lord Enigma's smile never left his face as he took the Calico plushie cat (having been returned earlier by an earlier subject), "And again, Gelato will be deciding who it will be for us."

Like all his shows, Lord Enigma would throw frisbees for audience members to catch if there he required multiple people, and he would throw that plushie if he was only going to need one. He was also a surprisingly good pitcher with that stuffed toy.

As soon as it was in the air, many people tried to grab it, a few very nearly did, fingers brushing against fur knocking if out of the original trajectory.

Russell hadn't actually been expecting it to land right in his lap, its green marble eyes innocently gazing up into his. He sat there stunned for a moment. But then a lightly gently lit up above him, bringing it to everyone's attention where Gelato was.

"Ah, wonderful. I think she's made a great choice," Lord Enigma said, as he held out a hand, "Would you like to come up here, sir?"

Leofric had turned his head towards Russell, silently signalling that if he didn't want to, he didn't have to.

"Go on, Custard," Travis whispered, "Go on, you can do it. It'll be fun. They always are for the shows."

That was true enough. Besides, Russell had asked Lucien on a date. He had been brave enough to do that. He could do this, right?

With that though, Russell stood and started to make his way between the tables until he made it to the steps and came up to join Lord Enigma, giving a self-conscious smile to the audience as he did.

"Ah, a very familiar face," Lord Enigma said, "Russell Tolbert, yes? Love your drumming streams."

"Y-yes, th-thank you," Russell said, with a small nod, his cheeks turning a bit pink at the compliment.

"Wonderful. I think you'll enjoy this," Lord Enigma replied, "But if you feel like you'd rather not, then I won't force you to stay. Would you like to do this?"

In the corner of his eye, Travis was giving Russell a thumbs up.

I can do this.

"Y-yes," despite the stammer, Russell's voice was resolved and his gaze was steady as he met the magician's green eyes.

"Are you sure?" Lord Enigma asked. He was still smiling.

I can do this!

"Yes," Russell answered.

"Excellent, Russell thank you for coming up to do this," Lord Enigma's smile seemed to widen a little with delight, and there was an excited little glint in that green gaze. But then the magician held out his hand. Without even thinking about it, Russell's own automatically came up to shake, "Look at me now, and sleep."

It happened in seconds, blue eyes met green once more at the sudden instruction, the interrupted handshake leaving his brain open for a new idea. Russell's eyes fell shut, and there was the brush of a thumb tip against a thin wrist. Russell's hand was moved up gently but firmly to cover his eyelids while Lord Enigma's rested on the back of his neck to carefully tilt his head downwards. All the while Lord Enigma spoke smoothly, ensuring that Russell stayed in that state, while guiding him further into it.

"I'm just going to move a chair behind you, I'm going to take your hand, and with your eyes closed, let's just get you sat down..." Lord Enigma continued, "I'll leave your hand there."

Russell was vaguely aware of being lowered into sitting, his head gently lolled back against the cushioning. He felt like he was on the edge of sleep; calm, almost dreaming, and not needing to move. Numb but comfortable. His right hand was lifted away and held upwards.

"Your hand can come down at any rate you like, for the time it takes for you to just sink and fall away..."

Peaceful blank quiet. Russell didn't know how long he had sat like that before Lord Enigma's voice spoke up again.

"Are you ready to do something amazing?"

"Yes..." Russell's voice sounded distant to his own ears.

"Good," Lord Enigma had a smile in his voice, "In that case... without standing, rise from the chair."

Although Russell had the muffled thought of how he was going to do that, he was somewhat aware of the feeling of his back no longer touching the soft leather. Had he somehow found a way off the chair?

Some quiet gasps among the audience; some louder noises of awe and some murmurings. There was a gentle ruffle of air as a set of hands were hovered over his wrists, hands, and lower back.

"As you can see..." Lord Enigma was addressing the audience more than him, "No wires, nothing underneath him to prop him up, this is all the power of the mind."

Russell had no idea what he was talking about, not that he really minded right now.

"Open your eyes, staying very calm and relaxed," Lord Enigma instructed, "See for yourself, Russell."

Russell obeyed. The edges of his vision were slightly soft and blurry, and the area around them didn't seem as bright as it usually was. Everyone was looking at him.

Normally, he would have been flooded with anxiety at just one person staring at him, let alone an entire crowd. But at that moment, he simply remained calm and relaxed, as asked. But why was he up so high if he was simply standing? He wasn't very tall... he couldn't be standing. But then another distant thought crept into his head.

My feet aren't touching the floor...

He leaned forward just a little, just so he could indeed see for himself. That's when he realised just what the audience had been surprised about.

I'm floating...

He was hovering about three feet above the stage. Under other circumstances, he might have felt a little bit worried about that. But like a dream that only made sense until you woke up, this was easily just as accepted as knowing that Sirius was the brightest star in the night sky.

This is... really cool!

A small smile had crept across his lips as he looked at himself and where he was in relation to the room around him. This was amazing. There was something rather uplifting about this. Russell couldn't help but then chuckle a little at the accidental pun his own brain had come up with, and maybe because this was making him feel oddly happy in the first place.

It was a few minutes later (and after Russell was encouraged to do a careful mid-air flip and to walk in place) that Russell was carefully helped back down to the ground, placed deep back under, and then brought out of the trance entirely.

"Please show your appreciation to our brave volunteer," Lord Enigma then said, gesturing with his hand. Russell felt his cheeks turn pink again as the crowd applauded, but he gave a small wave and sheepish smile all the same.

"You were amazing, Custard!" Travis shouted out.

Despite Russell initial anxiety and his self-consciousness coming back with his awakening, that had been very fun. Russell couldn't deny that.

"Th-thank you," Russell then said.

"Glad you enjoyed it," Lord Enigma replied.

About an hour or so later, the evening had started to wind down. Most of the patrons had gone home for the night, and those that hadn't were quietly chatting at tables.

Antonio sat at the bar, nursing an espresso martini. Leofric had gotten another glass of coconut water, and Bill was wiping down the counter.

"You were planning for him to be the volunteer for that last trick you've never done, weren't you?" Bill asked.

"Not necessarily planning," Antonio said, "But I am glad that he was."

"He's shy as all heck," Bill said, "I'm surprised he did it."

"He's shy, but he's a natural performer," Antonio said, "You saw how he managed to act when putting on a mask for those Twin thugs, and heard about how he tricked Five by pretending to be terrified, and you've seen his streams; had him guest star in some of yours too."

"Good point," Bill conceded, with a shrug, "And I won't deny it was pretty nice to see him enjoying himself."

"I suppose after everything that's been going on, and working up the courage to ask Lucien out on a date helped him to feel braver as well," Leofric mused.

"It did," Antonio confirmed.

"Any reason you decided to make him float? And don't give me some daft 'because I could' response."

"Well, it was mainly because it was a new trick that no one had ever seen, and I suppose it also some sort of symbolic way of telling him people look up to him."

Bill paused briefly.

"Was that pun on purpose?" Bill then asked.

"Yes," Antonio answered.

"I'll let it slide this time," Bill said, "But as the dad of this found family of ours, I'm meant to be telling those jokes."

"Keep telling yourself that," Antonio said, before he took a sip of the drink, "Wonderful as usual."

"Damn right," Bill agreed, "All right then. How did you do that? Was it hypnosis? Or were you just cheating and using your actual magic?"

"Now, now, Bill, you know the cliche. A good magician never reveals his secret," Antonio said, chuckling a little at the look in Bill's grey gaze.

"Leofric?" Bill asked.

"I'm not saying anything," Leofric answered.

"You are so annoying sometimes, you know that, Antonio?" Bill asked, although the smile on his own lips had a faint hint of fondness within it.

"I know," Antonio replied, returning it with his own.

[little-pup-pip]

ok. This one might be OUT THERE. BUT.

MARBLED NEWT. marbled newts are my current hyperfixation please please please please please I LOVE THESE GUYS.

Decorated paci please? green shiny things!

🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

Sure!!

[sydney-carton-of-sour-milk]

📣ANNOUNCEMENT📣 THE BIG 2024 PROJECT

At long last, I'm announcing what I've been working on🥁

Starting February 6th and continuing every other Tuesday through at least mid-December, this blog will be highlighting the work of various illustrators of A Tale of Two Cities over the many decades since its initial publishing!💫

As it stands right now, the archive will span from the very beginning in 1859 all the way through about 1992 (with a heavy density at the turn of the century) and will contain just under 500 individual illustrations by 20 individual illustrators — in styles ranging all the way from pen to painting and abstraction to realism✍️

All of these numbers will continue to grow, however, because this is an ongoing project! In fact I expect the queue to continue through a good portion of 2025 as I keep finding and archiving more and more — there's just so much out there! For this reason I am not posting these in a sorted order — I looked at what I have right now and ordered them to feel random and balanced, with some themed for certain months😎

Also! A large percentage of these (about half of the artists and well over half of the total illustrations) are coming from sources difficult or impossible to find on the Internet and are instead coming from my own scanning work: When I would discover in my research editions that I knew to have work by new illustrators whose pages weren't available for online viewing, I would seek out and buy those editions for super cheap online and scan them on my own printer's scanner — so for a lot of the old illustration work that this blog will be posting, it will possibly be the first time some of these have ever been uploaded for public view on the Internet!🤩

As far as keeping the archive organized on this blog, the organizational tag for these posts will be " #illustrators ", and I will also tag each post with the highlighted artist's name and with the decade in which each set of illustrations was initially published (as far as my research tells me)🏷️

On the off-weeks, this blog will be posting its usual miscellany, with a sprinkling of behind-the-scenes and extras for this specific project. But starting next week and continuing every other Tuesday* through about the entire year, expect a new post highlighting the work of a given A Tale of Two Cities illustrator — and be prepared because sometimes the number of illustrations on a single post will be in the tens/dozens since Tumblr increased the max image count for a single post to 30! *with the exception of April, which is going to have a special schedule for reasons you'll see when the queue gets there👀

I'm just so excited to at long last get to share this incredible archive here! I sincerely hope you enjoy this fascinating and often breathtaking look at these tiny, beautiful pieces of art history!🌟

[redbootsindoriath]

My already-belated Fëanorian Week took another hit when I realized my half-finished Curufin piece might not meet Tumblr guidelines so I’m going to have to start over with that one.  In the meantime, here’s something from a few months ago that feels more like something I might have made in 2019 or thereabouts.

[thatonecrookedsmile]

It's been a little over a month since I read FTB and I wanted to do (and say, I think) a few things related to it. So here, take this. FTB stuff I was wanting to share.

Including some drawings/my designs for some characters (the ones above), some separate sketches, and giving some long thoughts on the book. (This post is looong so I'm going to put everything under the curtain. Enjoy!)

Starting: Rose, Evan and Archie. They are the ones that, I admit, are what I wanted to draw/design most while/after I read the book. Now, at least, if I want to make something involving one of these three one day, I have designs ready to go! Hooray! Evan is the only one of the three that I actually had to design from scratch. With Rose I had made a sketch 1 year ago conceptualizing the idea for her design, and it was only recently that I came back to this idea to finally solidify it. And I had already done Archie's design last year while I was doing my designs for the human cast of BATDR, so I was already prepared without even knowing it.

Also,Ink!Archie!! The poor guy got screwed pretty badly. First two designs in the first image are based on the events in the book. The one on the left is him seen mostly in the book (alive) and the one on the right is when he is in the Ink Realm, post-death. The design in the second image was supposed to be a stylization/variation of his Cycle design. I tried drawing him with a visible mouth/teeth similar to what I did with Sammy in a recent drawing and in some sketches that I didn't post here. I'm not sure about the beard tho. I think I exaggerated it. Next time, remember to draw less beard in this design. (And maybe, for the design that is more "close to canon", don't draw the ends of the hair and beard in the Cycle design)

Any other character in the book, either I don't have a design and I don't plan on making a design for them now, or I do but it will take a while to show them. (I promise I'll show Dot one day)

I also have some additional sketches. So if you want to take a look at that too, here it is:

Ollie Sorenson. This wasn't quite the way I had imagined him when I was reading the book but 1. the hair I tried to draw for him before didn't work out well, so I went another route and 2. Ollie isn't particularly a character in this book that I'm going to I think a lot in comparison to the others (he's still cool, tho) and I doubt I'll make another design for him, so let's go with this one. Not a bad design,so,eh.

Rose. Sketch on the left was made last year. I'm almost certain it was done after the book synopsis was revealed by Kress. The sketch on the right was made last month when I was reading the book. I took the idea from the sketch on the left and tried to solidify her design better.

Evan. Some other sketches made when I read the book. I had just completed his design and wanted to test it a little more to, you know, see if I can actually draw him. Verdict? I think I can.

And now uhhhhhh what I thought of the book! I previously considered doing a separate text post with these thoughts only but I don't do text-only posts in general and if I were to make a separate post it would take a while and it would come out more than 1 month/probably 2 months since I read the book and it would be kinda awkward. And I'm already writing this post, so why not put it all here now, right?

(Warning: My thoughts on the book ended up being MUCH LONGER THAN I EXPECTED TO WRITE. You don't need to read them if you want, they are just more additional and optional things. But if you are going to read them, be warned)

(Spoilers: I may have strayed a little off topic when I started talking about Archie. Don't mention how long his paragraph is, tho)

But yeah, Fade To Black. That was something else, I tell you (and I mean that in a positive way). Probably reading this book after all the fuss that happened about the books a while ago wasn't the best idea possible. But even with…all that in mind, I still wanted to read this for a long time, and I'm glad I went ahead with it. I had a lot of fun with the book! And thinking about it a little over a month after finishing it, I think I can say that this book is up there as, like, one of my favorites of the Bendy books that have been released to date. Before this, I would have considered DCTL my favorite of the books, so I'm somewhere between saying that both of these two are my favorite books in this series and that I like them equally, or that FTB has now become my favorite book of the series, surpassing DCTL. (Maybe I'll have a better idea of ​​this later this year when I reread these books once again)

I really liked the story told, its concept had already interested me since its synopsis was revealed last year - the setting in the 50's, the TV show, the whole 3D glasses thing - so it's no surprise that I was very interested in what this book had to tell. And since I already brought that up: I liked the new concepts it brings to the table,specifically,of course,the glasses and the TV. An idea that,I admit,at first is something I thought was a bit different (and dare i say unusual?) from what I usually see in the Bendy universe (although, it's not something so out of the ordinary from what we've seen before in the series) but I have to say that it's something that I thought was cool even so. 3D glasses that end up transporting your mind into the televised cartoons (and,by all accounts,the ink realm). The jokes I saw that Joey created virtual reality in this book weren't so far-fetched after all lol. But still, it's a concept that I admit to having been interested in, and that it might be cool to play around with in fanon stuff. I also considered this could open doors for other, more "wild" ideas to be explored in the books (as long as they still make sense for a >Bendy< book, of course). I also liked the whole segment taking place in the ink realm at the end of the book, and I hope that this can open up possibilities for future novel stories to take place there, either partially (as in this one) or in full (I accept an entire novel taking place in the cycle,ngl). The additional lore for the ink realm is a nice treat and adds more to what we have in the games. I admit that, at the same time, I feel a little thoughtful about a certain part of this additional lore that - assuming the way I understand it is right - leaves me wondering if this "extended origin" of the cycle coupled with what we already know of its lore would make sense in the games, and how these ideias would be acknowledged in future entries. But at the same time, I may be overthinking this, and the stars may still be aligned, and I've gotten the information wrong. Despite everything, I liked what was told about the ink realm in this book, I appreciate this "extended origin" at the end of the day.

I really liked the cast, both the new ones and the old faces. Rose is great, I really liked her as the protagonist. She's already one of my favorite book characters, I hope we hear from her again in the future. Also, it's good to have a protagonist in these books who survives in the end. Okay, sure, she didn't come out of it 100% unharmed, considering what the ending implies, but still. Again. It's good to have a protagonist in these books who came out of this alive at the end. Evan is also very good. Even though I want to slap him on the back of the head, I also hope to hear from him again, especially considering the way he "exited the story" (is that how you say it?). I talked about the possibility of a future novel taking place in the ink realm, I think that would give a good chance of bringing him back, now as an ink creature. I don't have much to say about Ollie, but I also thought he was cool. The scenes between him and Rose are very nice and the scenes related to the "Bendy Visions" caused by the glasses is another concept that I found very interesting (Tense moments, but cool ones nonetheless) Very happy to see Dot again. I like her character, and I always wanted to see what happened to her after the events of DCTL (TLO had already implied that she was still alive, but I wanted to know more, you know). Her participation in this book is very good, and a chapter that I have to highlight is the one where she meets Rose and they talk in the cafe. Their conversation alone is very good, but the specific part that got me was Dot talking about Buddy, what happened to her after the first book, and Buddy's family. That part was like. A slap in the heart, I'm not going to lie. This chapter made me sad, 10/10. Favorite chapter of the book.

Archie Carter was a big surprise (not really, I already knew he would be here before reading the book), and he is another of my favorite aspects of the book. It's good to see one of the characters from BATDR's human cast ending up being used more in a story. Archie in the game, like other characters we saw in the audio logs in DR, is a "One and done" situation where we only hear from him once and that's it, combined with the fact that he is ultimately just another background character who exists mostly to fill the world and give information that is not necessarily integral to the main things that occur in the game and is more to tell about different things, people and events that were also occurring inside the studio and in the outside world ( those of the lost city and Gent Workshop, essentially) pre-game events. (I really don't know how to explain this properly, but I would say that the "thing" of the information given by the new human cast (with the exception of the Archs) is the same thing as the characters who are giving such information: filling the world. I hope you get the gist of what I'm saying) And while I wouldn't say the information on these tapes is really irrelevant (in Archie's case, he provides some of the most interesting), and in my case, I don't mind the addition of the newbies, I don't blame other people for not being interested, don't get attached to or even dislike these new characters who don't do much in the grand scheme of things in DR and in comparison to the BATIM cast (or at least, the majority of the IM cast). So seeing at least 1 of these newcomers being used more deeply in a story and having their characters expanded is good! And I liked what was done with Archie here. You know the guy who worked at Gent as a test subject and who saw bad things happening at the company? Guess what! Same company screwed up his life and now he's a half-human-half-ink creature guy infected with evil ink and his current situation is not good at all! He's going through horrors unfortunately (especially in the cycle), but I really like what Adrienne did with Archie in this book. Again, he is one of the highlights of this book, and I hope that something similar ends up happening with other DR characters in future stories (manifesting the novel that uses Bill Danton and/or Grace Conway in some capacity 🙌) Plus, I also think it's cool that of all the DR characters to be used, it was the one voiced by SuperHorrorBro who ended up being chosen for this book (I like SHB, what can I say)

Joey (like in the other books) is a standout (and considering what we specifically see of him in this book, he's especially a standout here). More of Allison, even though in the end it's just a small one-scene cameo. Finally, I'm being fed the bread crumbs I craved. And I think now I have another version of Henry to talk about. My collection is growing strong, now I have 3 versions of my favorite old man! Among the new ones, and especially the secondary and tertiary ones, Papa D and Gladys are nice, even though they don't have much time in the story. Oh, and Wilson showed up too. He doesn't do much either, he's just there to be creepy. But I will acknowledge him.

I also enjoyed seeing some of the ideias showcased first in BATDR here (which makes sense, this book came out well after the game finally released). I always found it interesting to see more of Gent in the spotlight, and reading and knowing a little more about the things they were doing after JDS closed is nice. (And I think it's good to see more reaffirmation of what BATDR had already implied. That Gent also had eyes on the Ink Machine even when the studio was still open, and when the studio collapsed, they still continued the ink experiments in their own facilities. Again, this was already something that had been shown in DR, but it's good to see more reaffirmation here) The appearance of the Siverlane Express was something that I really appreciated, even if it was something very short. I ealready talk about Archie in one giant paragraph, and again, Wilson is here too.

There isn't really anything I "disliked" about this book, but at most, I only have a few nitpicks. The Ink Demon appears in the story, but compared to DCTL and TLO, I feel FTB is definitely the book where he appears the least. I mean, yeah, the story isn't about him in the end, but it's still something I managed to notice. I also feel that, in my opinion, this is the least "scary" of the 3. Not that it doesn't have "scary" elements but still, compared to moments in the other books like Buddy in the infirmary, or the TLO trio in the old factory, I don't know if this book would be the most "scary" of the trilogy. However,FTB still has several suspenseful scenes (the Bendy visions, some scenes with Ollie, Archie's pre-introduction, Wilson in the library), which I also like anyway. And I'll admit. While this idea isn't that far out there - and in the context of the story, it makes sense - I kind of raised an eyebrow a little at the whole "using your mind/imagination to get out of the ink realm" thing. It is not bad! And again, with what we saw in the book, this idea actually fits with what we had seen so far in the story. But I can't lie that when we got to this moment I was like "oh, this is something that happened, I guess", you know? But even so, I didn't dislike the idea.

(I once saw someone describe this part of the book as "they canonized no-clipping in Bendy" and you know what? I think that's funny. I think we need to start referring to this idea in the book as that instead of "using the imagination" /hj)

But even so, even with these small "nitpicks", I still had a lot of fun with this book. I really enjoyed reading it, and not only is it now one of my favorite Bendy books so far, I dare say it's one of my favorite things about the franchise in general. Like, if I had to make a top 3 of my favorite things from the Bendy series so far, I'd say it's this book and the first two mainline games. I guess this is to show how much I enjoyed the book!

And with that, my journey with the Bendy books ends. At least, with the books I managed to have access so far. I have no plans to pursue the updated version of the Employee Handbook so far, but from what I've heard and seen so far, I'm not missing anything too important. And the DCTL graphic novel….exists. It's definitely a graphic novel that exists. Dare I say that it is definitely one of the graphic novels of all time, alright. But what have I read so far? It was what I would say, a good journey. I've been interested in the Bendy books for a long time, and it's been a while since I read them, and I'm glad I did, despite recent events. Of course, they have their flaws and problems too, I have things about them that I myself identify as bumps in the road (and that applies to the novel trilogy too btw) But even with them in mind and acknowledging them, I still think that they are worth something. And I hope people still continue to recognize them and give them a chance. Even with its flaws, and with their whole canocity thing that happened a while ago, I still believe that people should check out the books eventually. Give it a chance, you know? If they did, and liked what they read, great! But if they don't like it, that's okay too! In the end, at least they, on both sides, gave it a chance. And that's what I at least want to see. I don't like the idea of ​​discarding these things and pretending they don't exist just because the devs said they aren't canon to the games (because, in my view, just because the books aren't canon doesn't make them without value or that you can't have fun with them after all)

WOW, this is getting long, I think I got carried away. I think that's all I had to say. To conclude everything, here is my list of the Bendy books that I like the most and the ones I like least:

Fade To Black (I've already talked a lot about this book)

Dreams Come To Life (hand in hand with FTB being in first place. It has its flaws, some that may have already been mentioned before, but I still found myself liking it in the end. For a first novel, it worked out fine)

Crack-Up Comics (Really liked the comics. It's good to see more things related to the cartoon characters, and I like some of the characters introduced. Pretty fun stuff)

The Lost Ones (it's not a very "Bendy" focused book compared to the others, and I don't blame those who didn't like this one because of the lack of many Bendy elements, but I confess that I still liked it as much as the other 2, and I loved the protagonists of this one. Even so, of the trilogy, it is the weakest book)

The Illusion of Living (In itself, it's an interesting read. It's really cool to see more of Joey from a deeper angle, and see more of his past. But I confess that it's not my favorite read, and I still prefer the main novels. Not bad, tho)

JDS Employee Handbook (2019) (For the first Bendy book overall, it's not bad, and I like the lore tidbits it has. But compared to the rest, it's actually the weakest)

The TL;DR is: Fade To Black is fun and my favorite, I liked its story and characters. I liked the books. Check them out if you want. If you liked them, cool. If you didn't like them, that's cool too. Read in general.

And if you've read this far: Thank you! And at the same time, I'm sorry! Have a good day/afternoon/night everyone. Peace.