#painted this to put it up on artfight

[neonvioletlight]

my twdg oc….. i lov her

[latexwife]

message to all butches: please survive

[psychicism]

my nerevarine lystor, when she was still bright-eyed and fresh faced ^_^ (it didn't last o_0)

[belligerentbagel]

Final two ArtFights!

Red (otherfireangel)

Suzuni Yukai (pikapillow)

[hplonesomeart]

YEAHHH WE GOT ANOTHER PLAYLIST ICON UPDATE!! Finally this gal gets the attention she deserves (although to be fair she’s my only original character playlist with saves from other users so technically already got the spotlight lol). Also did a bit of a bold maneuver and went for the bright saturation backdrop because I felt like it was a good indicator of their music taste/rambunctious personality. Pretty rainbow pastel accents 2000’s nightcore vibe we love <3

[chronicallyorange]

hii this is my new oc State Route 33 the human man. he enjoys all sorts of homo sapien activities such as digesting the nutrients and conversing with fellow man in neutral dialect

[cattocavo]

Full artwork of Baz in the bonus content room for @thewholelemon ! Go read Chapter 3 of their fic “Just Remember Me When” https://archiveofourown.org/works/57161218/chapters/145389706#workskin

This piece holds the record for digital painting I’ve spent the most time on, just 20 minutes shy of 50 hours! It definitely felt longer, somehow😅 i practically painted the whole background with the knowledge that i would blur it in the end. I felt if i didn’t draw it all, the blur would look incredibly unrealistic and weird.

Jenny and I talked extensively about how the composition should look. Or rather, originally i wanted to fit all 5 people from the scene into the drawing, but just couldn’t not make it work. Jenny was incredibly nice and flexible, and told me that i didn’t need to, since Baz looking at Simon was the important part. Thats how we ended up with this composition

We also talked about how we wanted to represent the bonus content room, and settled on drawing inspirations from long exposure photography. I tried my best to get the effect via combining procreates different blurring options, using a bit of perspective blur and motion blur. Perspective blur was used to keep Simon’s face as a sort of focal point in the blurring, making sure his face was still intelligible. Im not quite sure i actually managed to make the blurring look specifically like long exposure photography though😬 maybe in the future if i get to draw something like this again, i might try some different methods!

Im incredibly happy i could be part of Carry On Big Bang this year! Ever since i read the books in November 2021, I saw fics written for the project and thought it was the coolest thing. Since i adore this project so, i knew i had to give it my everything (something my mother was really unhappy about. At the same time i was in this project, i was chosen for a project to illustrate one of many stories for a book about loneliness, one that would be published, which my mother thought i should prioritize and basically shit on this project🙄 safe to say i didnt agree. In the end i managed both. Take that mother.) (although i did actually put way more time into COBB whoops… but the carry on fandom deserves it)

See you next time, when i might post an artdump of all the art i did for artfight this past month!

[artfightdramaconfessions]

Someone I drew a random attack for just edited my drawing when they put it on Toyhouse?? Not just like added a small missing marking or a scar on a flat colored piece, but on a rough painting liquified the face shape (sure, but it's blurry now), added more lighting, and touched up the background?? On their comment on Artfight they were nothing but complimentary.

I mean, whatever, I drew it for you so do what you want, but... wow.

.

[pompadorbz]

good morning pompadorbz nation as it turns out i am still sick and twisted

No, the Ender Prince AU has NOT left my brain, don't you think for a second that it hasn't, it is to the point that I am drawing this guy for one of my final assignments, ive already gotten an art trade of him its honetly a miracle i haven't put him on artfight yet. AND. And. I spent my entire evening on one singular short fic. Here is that fic. (note that. i very much made this for myself but i think ive pretty much talked about all the plot points so far in my that appear here in my older posts about this au, which you can find under the #ender prince au tag. if there's something that appears here that I've omitted from the posts then like. idk that's an issue not an issme lol. I'll probably post about whatever i didn't in like 2-3 business days knowing the state of my brainwaves rn. also shoutout to @fries-is-silly for beta reading this for me whilst i slept comfy and cozy in my bed)

The claws of Phil’s exoskeleton lightly click against the cold purpur floors as he briskly makes his way across the long hallways of the end palace. The Ender King had requested the night prior that he visit the throne upon awakening, and Phil knew he was an impatient man. Phil knew better than to keep him waiting this long by now… He never failed to disappoint in that regard, it seemed. Phil truly could not move any quicker if he tried. The lavender tiles were so large that he would barely miss the edge of each square with every step, and he swore up and down to himself that walking back and forth across a single hallway would take him a complete twenty minutes, but this was assuming time was valuable enough in the end to fact-check that estimate to begin with. Perhaps he had only gotten used to it at this point, but Phil always felt as if the hallways had shrunk since his first days in the palace– not that the King had really allowed him to roam very far for that first while, anyway. He remembered the dread he felt as he was first carried off into the throne room; How staring up the unfathomably tall walls and to the impossibly high ceiling made him feel horribly nauseous. He thought that no closed space should ever be this colossal. It gave him a rare fear– a terror of heights. For once. But that was back then. This is Now. And right now, Phil was on solid ground, and he was nearly at the throne room. He thought that maybe- as he picks up the pace, if he could get away with a quick sprint, he would get there a little bit quicker. However, A familiar voice called from around the next corner, dripping with acid. It makes Phil freeze dead in his tracks. “You took your precious time getting here as is, little fly. It would be a waste of energy for you to scratch up my floor with your little claws.”Phil’s pace slows significantly at the comment as he turns into the throne’s open doorway, clasping his hands together in shame as he stares up towards the throne where the Ender king sat, shrouded in his usual cloak as his hair fell like waterfalls off the edges and arms of the seat. The golden mask that rested upon his face was one that Phil didn’t recall ever seeing him wear; a spider, with its giant mandibles protruding outward from the lower half, and eight eyes, painstakingly painted a bright red. Phil thought it looked rather striking.

“I… I’m sorry for rushing, my lord. I knew when I woke up that I would be cutting it close… It won’t happen again.” The ender king hums low and sarcastically. “You say it won’t happen again… And yet, every time, you always seem to break that promise without fail now, don’t you? Hm?”There was a faux-sweetness in the monarch’s voice that made Phil’s throat tighten, and before he could work up the courage to provide another pitiful excuse, the Ender King was already continuing. “Though, I suppose that it is to be expected by now, isn’t it?” He asks rhetorically. “But no need to fret it much, little prince. There are far, far more pressing matters we must discuss today.”Ah.Phil knew well what that probably meant. “Is… Is it nearly time..? And so soon?” He questioned, feeling a pit form in his stomach from the nerves alone. “Ohh, we are not quite ready just yet, foolish prince! There are still a mere few preparations to be made.” The king explains matter of factly. “I will tell you exactly when it is time.”So in other words, Phil had to prepare to receive this information at the very last minute. Cool. “For now, however… I can prepare you for your little adventure just a cinch more.”He slowly holds his hands out in front of him. “Come forward.”

Phil nods in silence and flutters his elytra, slowly lifting off of the ground and flying up into the king’s hands as he’d done dozens of times before. It was a practiced movement by now. The Ender king wordlessly carries Phil over to the arm of his throne, letting him carefully walk off and take a seat on the end stone as he’d done countless times before. Sometimes, if he was lucky, the king would allow him to wrap whatever draped from his cloak around him as he sat by his side. …That did not occur often, however. And most certainly not today after having arrived so late.

Phil instead watches the Ender King as he reaches a bony hand into his cloak and pulls out a tiny (by his standards, anyway), white-painted chest. He carries it between his fingers, placing it directly in front of Phil with just enough force to threaten to crush him; if he ever fell out of line, that is.

“A gift! Just for you, little orchid.~”Phil stares at the box for just a moment and reaches toward it… Only to look back at the Ender king for a moment in his hesitation.

The last time he had been given a gift, it was… Well, it was his very own room in the palace, complete with a rather comfortable bed, some soft wool carpet… Even a few trinkets that the king didn’t wish to keep for himself in the throne room. It wasn’t terribly big, nor was it filled with riches… But it made the castle feel a little more like a home.

It wasn’t a perfect home, but of course… Phil hadn’t a reason to complain that’d be worth the Ender King’s time.

“Oh, don’t just gawk at me like that, Corvus. Don’t you wish to know what’s inside? Are you not curious?” Says the king. “You could at the very least pretend to be grateful.”“I am grateful, my king! I really, truly am! It… just took me by surprise, is all-”

“Yes, well I believe that is in fact the point of a surprise, isn’t it?” The Ender King impatiently cuts him off, tapping his finger nails on the opposing arm of the throne.

Phil stares into the vacant red eyes of the spider mask for a brief moment, but only sighs, accepting the swift dismantling of yet another poor excuse.

“Yeah, I guess it is, huh…” He concedes, turning back to the chest and gently placing his hands onto the lid.

He lifts it open and peers inside at what looked like… A wool blanket..? No… No, rather it was something wrapped inside a wool blanket. It glistens in gold through the holes in between each fuzzy woven thread as Phil carefully takes it out of the box and cradles it in his lap.

More of the object’s golden surface is revealed with each layer of wool that Phil unfolds, and after there is nothing left to cover it, there sits in front of him:

“A mask..? Like.. Like one of yours?” Phil tentatively asks.

The Ender King laughs with a disposition so sunny it was almost unnerving.

“That it is, clever prince! I made it especially for you to take along on your journey.~”Phil looks back down at the mask in slight awe, inspecting it further. It looked almost like a mantis’ face of some kind, with two large eyes protruding outward from the top, sitting just above where the real eyeholes sat… But more curiously, something was nestled in between the eyes…

“What’s this ender pearl for..?” Phil asks.

“Ah, now that, curious little prince, is because this mask serves a very important purpose.”

The king’s tone was the most fluttery and excitable it had ever been, letting the answer to Phil’s question dangle like a carrot on a string for a moment.

“This will be your ticket in and out of the universe I’ve picked for your first little expedition,” He begins. “and every universe beyond that for the rest of our forever time.” Oh.

This was more than just a mask… It was a priceless artifact; one more valuable than Phil could ever imagine being.

He couldn’t even think of something to say about it… This whole mission had a lot of responsibility to it already, but… This was different.

It was tangible.

It made any and all words elude him.

“Now, What do we say, Corvus…?”Though… He supposed he could start with that one, yeah.

“Thank you…” He nearly whispers, trailing a hand against the mask’s surface before he wraps it up in the blanket once more and places it carefully back into the white box.

The Ender King places a hand to his chin.

“Oh, Corvus… I didn’t quite catch that– What, with your incessant mumbling. Oh do repeat yourself, would you?~” Phil nervously clears his throat as he looks back up to the spider mask, looking into the eyeholes as if he could see the deity’s face underneath.

“Thank you so very much… My king.”

“Good boy.”The Ender King holds a hand out for Phil to once again climb upon, and Phil obliges; this time allowing himself to be brought down to ground level. The last thing he wanted was to drop his present.

“Run along now, little prince! There will be plenty of work to be done in due time, so do not disappoint me.”Phil nods and begins making his way toward the door… But he’s stopped by the monarch one final time just as he goes to turn through the exit.

“Oh… And one final thing before you leave, yes? It is incredibly important… So listen closely.” The Ender King begins.

Phil only barely turns around before the feeling of dread hits him like a brick. There was always a catch to these… Nicer interactions.

“Be careful with that mask. Don’t you lose it, and don’t you dare break it. Because if you do…”

Phil swallows the lump in his throat. He knew the threat he was about to hear. As empty as it seemed after constant reiteration… It never failed to strike fear into his heart.

“I have absolutely no qualms with plucking those little wings off of your ungrateful back.”

The silence hangs heavy between the two… And what was likely only a few seconds felt like minutes to Phil.

“Do I make myself clear, Icarus?”Phil Nodded.

“Crystal.”

[batking4342]

My Art journey so far! @snowglobe-system heard me constantly going "oh I wish I could draw" "If I could draw I'd draw..." And he kept going "then do it." He gave me access to a free art program (FireAlpaca if you're curious). I tried, it didn't work, but I kept it on my laptop. Then one day, we're talking about fursonas, and I say "hey! Maybe I can try that". So as we're having a sleepover, we're sat next to each other, drawing our furry little guys (@snows-realistic-warriors-designs if you want to see their art), I'm constantly going "Hey Snow, how do you do this. How do you do that" and constantly looking at their screen to get ideas on how to draw the body. Each art piece I took on after that,gave me more challenges. I learned half the art process was "ah fuck, ah fuck... shit." and erasing. but I did it! I completed three pieces! if I get time, next year I might even join artfight!

More stuff under the cut.

With The first one, Flora the Fox the specific things I'm proud of:

the fashion

using the flower tool to put flowers in her hair\

using the opacity to get a better fur colour on the hands and feet

the freckles

the boobs

it's my first successful digital drawing in this era.

With Battle Axe Bee (Yes I know that's a great axe, I mixed it up in the beginning and now I can't change it) the Dwarf.

First humanoid

body type

I took a full hour detailing that cloak

another hour doing each individual flower

I discovered the oil paint brush and it's SO good for details.

I did hands!

I learned how to do shading on the eyes

With Nerali the Tiefling, Zyvan the High Elf, and Smith the Tabaxi.

I learned how to do general shading

hair details!

fur highlights!

the wolf bite on Nerali's stomach!

Nerali's outfit, seriously it slays.

Smith and Zyvan's outfits are really detailed, and Im so proud of that.

Drawing that cowboy hat took FOREVER.

getting Zyvan's pose right was a HASSLE. There was also a lot of reworking I had to do.

the grassy mound

the sky (I put stripes of colour, then blurred the shit out of it)

the clouds

Smith's tail

in general, this one was a lot of time and hard work. I started working on it June 28th, and while there were some days I took away from it, this still took like a MONTH.

[dgdraws]

Artfight Postmortem

as you may know, i am prone to reflection on my art and process and progress. herein, i'm gonna navel gaze a bit about artfight 2024.

top line: really enjoyed myself, did a bunch of new things and this was "The Year of Artist Friends" which is spectacular.

i completed 20 attacks this year, including my first ever mass attacks! altogether I drew 28 different characters (incl 4 of my own).

for the first time, I had *users* i wanted to attack, rather than just characters i'd gathered via search or discord. honestly, three years ago when i picked up the stylus i was just excited at the prospect of drawing for other people, period. artfight was a cool way to be in community without prerequisites. i didn't quite dare to dream i might make some real connections and make proper friends. and yet :) here we are! i went in with three 'art friends' and i'm leaving with at least three more

in addition to being the year of artist friends, this could be "the year of clip studio paint was on megasale a week before artfight" because i knocked out like 2 practice pieces before July 1st so i wouldn't be starting with completely unfamiliar tools, but i used/learned csp for the vast majority of my attacks. one i finished in krita (lonnie), and my final attack i only used krita.

definitely trial-by-fired myself! but it motivated me to explore csp, and most important, gave me a reason to practice practice practice. last year i drew almost exclusively humans, lots of full bodys, because i wanted to get a better grip on anatomy and drawing a variety of faces. it worked then, and, well, i think i learned more of csp in one month of artfight than i would have if i was just plodding through my personal projects for 33 days :) *looks at my wip folder with months old files* pretty sure.

ok i'm gonna look at a few faves/standouts now:

came in hot with 0tt0 here! the main brush for this one (froggy pencil) was a mainstay for the whole month. so versatile!!! and lovely texture. this isn't quiiite brat green but this was what made me go, hmm, what if i... did a few pieces inspired by this album i can't stop listening to?

and then i took a huge turn and just used a soft round brush for Desa and Iryna for my dear friend @bobomcfoe bc i really wanted to turn these out in something approaching my "usual style" of late and i feared getting too deep into the temptations of csp if i put them off. and, um, yeah i love them. i got sooo close to matching that angle but ahh i can see the tilt now! nonetheless, love these two, not least bc brookie has some of the most pleasing color palettes to work w :)

then on to Rosé and baby's first vector lines! you can RESIZE lines in csp. did you know that? i didn't know that. i did forget to use it as much as i could have in later ones though, so i still only kinda know it ig. and halftone shading! bc why not? another thing i really only did this once, but want to experiment with more

Rook here, for my new friend @gender-premium-tm, was me realizing how to use filters/filter layers in csp. now THAT is something i used a lot this month! also something i use often in krita. i must say, though the csp options are slightly more limited (afaik), they have oomph!

okay these two are my "explicitly brat pieces"! artfight keeps you moving, which i find really valuable, bc i could have dithered foreverrr over Lonnie's gif here. like, do i add his arm? maybe he should be wearing a shirt? or, what if i just draw him twice, instead of splitting the expressi--see it just never ends. and as i am always going on about, art is so precious bc it is a reflection of us when we make it. maybe for some future artfight i'll redraw this (as Lonnie's artist @wenmistry did for me with Ebon this year), but for july 2024, i'm amazed at how well i executed this for just 2.5 days of work! (i did forget his glasses, which realization gave me a different take on the composition, so this is high on my list of potential redraws)

and then Aagatha. this is in my top 3 for this year. the pink just works so well with the green and her artist added the song to her character playlist AND added the necklace to her actual dnd inventory. like. omg. the impact your art can have!!! how freaking cool is that???

two mass attacks! i was in a silly goofy mood. i feel like i really got a handle on vectors w the anthro mass attack, i adjusted every single point on that one by hand. weird what hyperfocus makes you do sometimes, but i learned a lot from that. mainly that i will probably never user vectors as my main linework tool. there are circumstances it is perfect for, and outside of that i'm good w my raster lines lol

which is exactly what i used for this other mass attack, featuring mostly my ocs. hey, sometimes you need to shake things up! i can see here the style starting to hew back to my "usual style", though i'm thinking that might have a lot to do with drawing 5 people very quickly. falling back on practiced techniques. and by this time i apparently knew csp well enough to reproduce them pretty closely! ooh, one thing this made me miss was the transform tool in krita. that floor was ROUGH to wrestle into place in csp.

purple and green turned up a lot this year!

Echo is my crowning achievement with the froggy pencil, most of the shading here is just layers w that. and one last nod to brat green :)

i've worked in the paper cut style before (both my pfp's use it) but i really exploited csp's clipping layers to make Scraps here. they did make me briefly forget how they work in krita when i switched back, so well done w that

i played with gradient maps a little earlier in the month but for Okanar i actually made my own gradient! really a useful tool for ref'ing real human skin tones to make non-human ones, without muddying them up too much.

finally, Chaos. this actually might be my favorite! ironically this is the one that i made in krita. it was like, ahh, yes my old friend. wait where is the scroll bar. ah, okay, yes my old friend... the line layer is set to burn which just makes the whole thing so warm (and the cause of the red outlines on the earrings). used my old sable brush, a pattern fill set to overlay... my old stomping grounds! but plus a rendering technique i picked up this month and some other random habits i picked up in csp (like copying a detail to a new layer, moving it where i want a copy, and drawing/tracing it back onto the original layer in the new position. nothing i couldn't have been doing in krita all along, but made easier by the tool layout in csp, and therefore now discovered by me. amazing how one integrates new knowledge. it's like magic sometimes!!!)

that was a good roundup! if you actually read this to the end, wow! and thank you! i hope it was interesting... and inspiring! bc i want to read about your process and reflections too! yes you! and plz tag me, i'm always down to gush about art XD

[rjschoicesstuff]

1,10,17,19,20 from the Artist Ask :))

Thank u!!

1 When did you start creating art?

I've been making art since I could hold a pencil as a lil kid haha.

10 How do you deal with art block?

Try til it's over, I cannot take a break from it. Sometimes it helps to use a reference I like or something or draw in a different way for a bit (drawing in ms paint has often helped me).

17 Your personal favorite works of art (not made by you) are...?

Like all the art others ever made for me oh my gawd, one of my friends drew Ripley, Cas and Gabe together last summer and I still look at it weekly lol. And some pieces I got on art fight are Crazy like holy shit, I don't think I should uload them here lol but if anyone has an artfight account, my username is mangoat there so u can look trough my received art pieces lol.

19 What's your biggest insecurity when it comes to your artwork?

I think my art and the subjects and stuff are often rly cringy, like I'm constantly fighting the feeling to get myself to share lol and some pieces just stay for myself. I also don't think my art is like generally super impressive but like at the same time I know I'm able to create cool stuff if I put some time into it, but I'm v v quantity over quality regarding art so HBVHDFV yeah.

20 What motivates/inspires you artistically? (topics, emotions, etc)

I think in the end it boils down to loneliness and that drawing a lot of people and people connecting with each other somewhat comforts me. lol

And also being fuelled by ADHD/hyperfixations like straight up the only periods where I don't draw (much) for a while are when I've been away from my supplies lol. I need to draw, I need to get shit out.

[nittroy]

✨ All of my Artfight 2023 works: a wrap up ✨

Character credits: 1. Ama and Robin for @samaelsinked 2. Cereza for @galantines 3. Will for @artichow 4. Anachronism for @paristandard  ♡ ♡ ♡ (Aand bit of my rambling about this year AF under the cut)

So this year artfight for me was,, a bit uncontrollable. Last year I feel like I had a good balance going between attacking and revenging, I managed to both reply to atackes and start the interactions; this year tho, was only attacks. And they were so random - some I did in like 3 days, and some I've been working on since the start of the month and only finished weeks after-

I'm honestly sad I couldn't revenge so many cool art I got. It all made my month so I hoped I could pay back a little! Hope yall are not offended and hope I can get back to it next year - If I survive ehh :,)

In my defence, it was hard from the start: 30th June was the last exam and then vine boom artfight, I got 0 time to relax and be stupid, oh and also goverment is after me. And health stuff, as per usual

But on the bright sight - at least I managed to paint this 4 pieces and tbh I'm proud of them!! ;w; Testing quick coloring, reading about characters (seriously I love to see other peoples stories), so I really tried to put some little pieces of plot and interaction into scenes and personalities into the portraits. I hope yall can see it too and it's all cool in the end ✨

[ourfuturefantasy]

So i just realized that since I take so long to get chapters out for Our Future Fantasy, but have the characters up on places like Artfight (and doodle them in my spare time) that some lore stuff might be overlooked and confusing- SO! I'm going to go down a kind of exhaustive lore rant below!

THE BASICS

The world of Elsyanne is similar enough to ours, it's just that around their "Middle Ages" when war was rampant and countries were rising and falling rapidly the Fey stepped in. Fey in the world of Elsyanne (and the lore of Our Future Fantasy as a whole) are "outerplanar" beings, basically meaning they are literally formed from magic and come from a realm of magic that holds realities together. They didn't intend to step in to stop the wars in Elsyanne wholly, rather Elsyanne's "veil" between the realm of magic and itself was very thin. This thinning put the Fey in danger, so they stepped in to try and fix THAT- but instead the Fey got pulled into the wars of Elsyanne as Fey were kidnapped, killed, and studied by humans.

Some spoiler-esque lore things occur and the Four step up, the Four are the first humans to weild magic, the first humans who the Fey queen taught to split the soul from the body in order to harness its natural power. The Four ended up overthrowing the largest (and dangerous) kingdom in power, and ended up becoming the new leaders instead. The Four aren't necessarily in power at the time of Our Future Fantasy (though they are still alive as they have become effectively immortal due to spoiler-lore reasons)

The Four also created the Covens...

THE COVENS

Covens are not like The Owl House, or regular witchcraft. They instead act as how an Arcane uses their magic (and there are four main covens. More have cropped up over the centuries since the Four introduced magic to humanity, but only four are recognized as "official")

Wizards; Mila Hecate created the Wizards coven. Wizards are noted as being Arcane who channel their magic simply through their body. They don't really use anything extra, if an Arcane doesn't join any of the other three covens they are normally placed into the Wizard coven because of its broadness. (Alira and Peach are Wizards)

Witches: Hestia Alfred created the Witches coven. Witches are noted as being Arcane who channel their magic through potions, salves, and brews. Some Witches also channel their magic through food, but that is a rarer case. (Mother Morgana and Imani are Witches)

Knights; Ares Hawthorne created the Knights coven. Knights are noted as being Arcane who channel their magic through their fighting style. Similar to Bards a Knight's fighting style is personal, but it's also not as hard to teach others. (Ambrose is a Knight)

Bards; Guenevere Euterpe created the Bardic coven. Bards are noted as being Arcane who channel their magic in a multitude of ways. Some through dance and music, some through writing or painting or public speaking. Each Bard's preferred art makes their magic personal meaning it's a bit harder to teach than the others, so Bards are a rarer coven out of the four. (Fable and Keres are Bards)

Unofficial, but notable covens (aka popular) are the Oracle and Wild coven.

Magic Basics

These images are up on my Bluesky as well, but I'm putting them up here so I can explain a few things in a bit more depth.

The runes are the Fey language, there are linguists dedicated to the study of the Fey language, but since the Fey are extinct and the realm they came from inaccessible by humans, progress in the field is slow.

Wands can be a crystal inlaid into ANYTHING, but at the end of the day is still a crystal. Jewelry is simply the most common form wands are crafted into. Ambrose's wand has been crafted into a sword for example. The reason wands must be crystals is because crystals are natural conduit and reservoirs for magic. Metal is also a natural conduit for magic, hence why jewelry is so common. Metal just can't hold magic as well as crystals can, and when you're putting your soul into a wand you want it to be able to contain your soul.

Speaking of the soul, because one is ripping the soul from the body to inlay into a wand it comes with some hiccups....

MAGIC CONSEQUENCES

When the soul is split from the body it immediately attempts to "recombine", but because it's split via magic that's nearly impossible.

The body is left hollow, the person that was slowly dies and withers into a husk. They aren't dead, but they are zombie-like. This happens more often than not, wands break and aren't replaced, a person attempts the ritual to split their soul to harness their magic without help, there's many ways it can happen. None are pretty. These husks of once-humans are called many names, but are generally referred to as "Hollows"

The soul however? What happens to the soul is worse, once it leaves the body it's a ticking time bomb. These so-named Blights mutate with overactive magic as they attempt to find their bodies to recombine. They are highly dangerous, so much so that an entire profession has popped up to deal with them.

But even worse than a Blight, is if it finds its old body. The Hollow and the Blight cannot truly recombine, so instead what occurs is a Wraith. The mutated soul re-enters the Hollow and mutates it, creating a far more powerful creature. Wraiths oftentimes retain intelligence and memories of their previous lives, but are overcome with the madness of their overactive magic. There are rumors of Wraiths who have consumed the souls of others to keep the madness at bay, but those rumors have been investigated by Hunters and seem to be unfounded.

[ruinouss]

Quickly drew up these guys for Artfight but they're NPCs for Faye's Arcane verse. Silas is on the left and Nil is on the right. May draw other prominent NPCs in her other verses in the future. Below is a bit of info on them:

Silas

A Chirean that appears to be in his mid-30s and stands at 6'5"

His father died in a tragic mining accident when he was young leaving his mother and 3 older sisters to raise him

Has a love for brawling and tends to punch first and ask questions later which got him in a lot of trouble in his younger years

Loves baking because it's something he and his mother/sisters used to do and allowed him to be creative when decorating the end product

Natural hair color is black but dyes it

Paints nails black except his ring fingernails are accented a deep red

Met Faye after starting up a fight in her club with her current bouncer and her fiery attitude put him in his place

Eventually, he convinced her to hire him as added protection and they became fast friends with benefits

Nil

A Yordle who stopped keeping track of his age after 200 that stands at 2'7"

Left home when he was a "young adult" and began traveling the world

After some bad experiences while traveling with others he quickly preferred to travel alone, moving at his own pace and not having to worry about someone stabbing him in the back

Eventually found his way to Zaun where he settled, losing interest in traveling

Eavesdropped and listened to others in bars and alleyways just to pass the time

Crossed paths with Faye several times before eventually learning about her line of work and offering to help gather information and vetting any new employees

Has been close friends with Faye for almost 40 years

Will only tolerate affection and gifts from her because of their long friendship otherwise he hates any kind of affection or gifts

Comes off as a standoffish prick but is actually very compassionate and kind but don't point it out

Secretly has a huge sweet tooth

[bugshark]

4, 7, & 14 for the art asks

ask game

4. What defines your artistic style?

Hmm, I mean I’d say I have multiple styles… maybe like three? I’d describe my art as usually nonhumans with either a lasso tool style, airbrush style, or colored sketch style. Usually having yellow. I often tend to add a color balance filter onto my art that makes it a bit more yellowy. I realized I use yellow a lot when I was painting something and just kept on running out of yellow (and ended up ruining it slightly because I was too lazy to keep getting more).

14. What do you like drawing the most?

My OCs! Once I make a design i’m really proud of, they can be pretty fun for me to draw. Currently i’ve been drawing a lot of Jarviz (not very new but I do want to redesign him again) and Vertigogo (newer, you don’t know this guy unless you’ve seen him on discord or on my artfight. i reallyyy like my design for them but i haven’t posted him because it’s for a Project and I don’t feel like posting about it yet).

7. Show us at least one picture you drew or sketched recently that you did not put on a public site.

Design concept of some bug liker that got eaten alive by bugs and got possessed by a fire ant. they commit arson now. 2 esperpoints if you guess what song they’re based off of.

Some sketches featuring a (re)design concept for a CandyCogs character and two familiar faces.

A sketch of what I saw when I overlayed a bunch of my OCs ontop of eachother + A character based off of a spaceship sprite generator result