#realistic feather patterns on cartoon birds

[summerlimeismethebrony]

Some art that is not a year old! Heck yeah I'm out of my funk y'all didn't know I was having

Also what even are Megavolt's eyes

Still figuring that one out

[ravenbrenna09]

Jij Verliest - Chapter Four: Clip 1

master list previous

...

Zaterdag 9:31

Robbe was used to waking up alone.

It had become something he was well-accustomed to. He missed the feeling of waking up with two arms around his waist and of holding someone to his chest. He was used to groggily waking up, slowly and surely becoming aware of his surroundings, turning over and stretching with eyes shut, the silent reprieve and internal pleading of ‘five more minutes’ of sleep that would certainly turn into two more hours. Some mornings, he woke up without a fuss, immediate and alert. Other mornings, he never slept.

However, this morning, he woke up slowly like the drowsiness was slowly and ineffectively wrung out of his body. His dream—whatever it might have been—vanished from his mind like smoke in the air. Robbe stretched against the silkiness of the sheets and the plushness of the mattress before whatever fight to get up and start the day vanished like a light and he collapsed against it again. There was something in his arms, soft and full, but Robbe’s tired brain knew right away that it was one of his pillows that he had grabbed overnight. Turning over, he pulled the sheets higher on his shoulders and snuggled into a pillow that smelled like Sander’s cologne.

Sander. 

Wait. What was Sander’s cologne doing in his bedroom?

Even as sleep sang its gentle siren song, trying to will him back to sleep, Robbe forced his eyes open. 

Immediately, Robbe spotted the navy blue sheets that were twisted around his legs and his waist, keeping him warm and comfortable. Next, he found the nightstand next to his bed with his phone and his watch sitting on the corner. When he checked, he saw the number of notifications, but his brain was still taking in the sights around him. Lastly, Robbe spotted the black joggers and the black t-shirt with a white building that he was wearing. Both articles of clothing weren’t his own. 

And, like that, his brain woke up with a snap and his memories of last night returned to him in full force. 

He remembered finding Sander looking up at the stars behind the warehouses—spotting the ocean mural hidden in the shadows, the ocean mural that Sander had created, the one that Sander was nervous to show him. He remembered the kiss that melted his thoughts, curled his toes, and surged new life through his body. He remembered how they kissed against the wall until their lips were red and bruised and the rain started falling. He remembered how they fled for shelter, giggling and laughing and unable to stop touching each other on the bike ride to Sander’s apartment, which was closest to the warehouses. 

Despite the gentle rain, they had somehow ended up soaked by the time they reached the fancy apartment complex. As soon as they arrived, Sander had wasted no time in hunting down clothes for Robbe to wear. Once all of their soaked clothes had been thrown into the dryer, Sander was dragging him into a bedroom. It was dark and Robbe wasn’t focused on the details of the room as they laid on Sander’s bed. 

As they waited for their clothes to dry, facing each other with their hands intertwined, Sander told him about how his mother used to make croques on weekend mornings. While Sander traced featherlight patterns on the back of his hand, Robbe told him about how his mama created an annual Valentine’s Day movie marathon because she didn’t like celebrating it anymore. Sander learned that his mother was incredibly partial to discovering all of the ways to make vegetarian dishes for Zoë. Robbe found out that Sander’s mother loved sunflowers more than anything. 

While the dryer had continued and their yawns increased, the two of them had traded stories, whispers, and kisses. He wondered which one of them would fall asleep first or if they would both be up all night, unable to stop talking to one another. Of the two of them, Robbe had been the first one to be lulled to sleep while Sander traced the outline of his face with his ringed finger.

Sitting up, Robbe glanced around the room, taking it all in now that he wasn’t focused on Sander. 

The bedroom was larger than Robbe’s bedroom. The bed itself was at least a queen-size and there seemed to be more room than his room at the flatshare. Overall, the bedroom seemed immaculate. There was hardly any laundry on the floor or trash on the nightstand. Across from the bed, there was a large wooden dresser with a record player resting next to a Bluetooth speaker and a television mounted on the wall. There was a large, spacious window on the other side of the room, but it was covered by gray curtains to protect the room from the morning sun. 

Beneath the window, there was an artist’s table that was the messiest place in the room. There were three mason jars filled with a variety of paintbrushes, bristles up, and a sketch pad with an empty page resting on top. Beside it, there was a bookshelf filled with art supplies and what looked to be different kinds of paints, sketchbooks, and canvases. On the other side of the desk, there was an easel standing on a tarp with paint splattered across the wood and a leather jacket hanging off the back. 

But the walls quickly drew Robbe’s attention. The walls themselves were painted with a light cream color. There were a handful of David Bowie posters hung on them. But the rest was covered by what Robbe assumed to be Sander’s creations. Everywhere Robbe looked, there was something new to look at and absorb—sketches, paintings, photos—all hung up by a thumbtack or a string of tape.

Robbe tossed the sheets aside and climbed to his feet. He moved around the room, looking over each of the sketches and photos in turn. Near the nightstand, he found a photo of Senne with Sander and Amber at Christmas time. There was a sketch of a park and another of the night sky. Robbe found half a dozen professional-looking photos from around Antwerp stuck on the walls. There was a photo where Noor was used as a model, one with Senne, and another with both of them. Hidden amongst them all, he had even spotted one or two sketches of him.

In the midst of the realistic sketches of friends and people he didn’t know, Robbe also found a handful that looked like creatures from a cartoon. Some of them were paired with a similar-looking figure that looked like a video game character. Near the desk, he spotted a great bird on one of the sketches. It was standing with its wings folded beside him. But his dark feathers looked sharper than normal. It looked like it was wrapped in armor. 

Curious, Robbe grabbed his phone from the nightstand and typed “armored bird” in the search engine. Even as his phone pinged with notifications, he ignored them all. Flipping over to the images, Robbe scrolled past the Assassin’s Creed and photos that initially popped up. Thankfully, he didn’t need to scroll something before he found a photo with the creature that he was looking for. The photo didn’t seem to have been drawn by Sander, but Robbe could tell that it was the same creature: Corviknight. 

As Robbe moved to search for the word, the bedroom door opened behind him. There was a gentle patter of footsteps before two arms circled around his waist and pulled Robbe back against him. Sander placed a kiss against his clothed shoulder. “I thought I heard you shuffling around in here.” Robbe leaned over to press a kiss against his temple before returning to his abandoned search. “What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to figure out what this is,” Robbe said, pointing at the sketch with the bird—Corviknight. 

“It’s a Pokémon called Corviknight,” Sander said matter-of-factly. “It’s one of the Pokémon from the newest generation of their games.” Robbe bit down at his lip, staring at the sketch in question. Sander shifted against him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and placing a kiss against his cheek. “Have you never played Pokémon, Robbe?” 

“I have played,” Robbe said. “Just not recently. I played back in primary school. But I haven’t played it in years.” Sander nodded, snuggling closer into the crook of his neck. Robbe glanced at him, curious, and asked, “Do you play it?”

“Yeah, I’ve always gotten the games as soon as they were released,” Sander said, his breath brushing across the skin of his neck. Sander smiled, a small sad smile that Robbe felt against his shoulder. “After school, my little sister and I would play it all the time. She loved to play pretend and be a Pokémon trainer with all the cutest Pokémon.” 

Robbe nodded, reaching up to run a hand through his hair. “Will you teach me how to play?” 

Sander glanced at him, his green eyes wide in confusion. But soon, the corners of his lips tugged up in corners in a bright, dazzling smile. “Really? You want to learn how to play?” 

Robbe nodded. 

Sander’s smile brightened further before he ducked down to press their lips together. Sander’s hands cradled his jaw and Robbe turned so he could wrap his arms around his neck. This kiss was more like the ones once they had reached the apartment, laying together in the bed and exchanging stories. It was sweet, simple, and overwhelmingly chaste, but Robbe didn’t mind at all. He loved the sweet, chaste kisses as much as he loved the passionate ones that ended up with him out of breath and pinned against a wall. 

Almost too soon, Sander pulled away, looking down at him over the tip of his nose as his lips curled into a bright smirk. “Later,” he said. “Right now, we’re going to have breakfast and then we’re going to lay in bed all day.”

“I can’t do all day,” Robbe said shyly. While the thought of laying in bed with Sander all day and night sounded amazing, Robbe knew that he promised a stream for this afternoon. He could always cancel the stream or move it tomorrow, but he had moved enough streams. Plus, he was supposed to be studying with Yasmina at the library for their remaining exams. “But I can lay in bed all morning and afternoon until 14:00. If that’s alright with you.”

“14:00,” Sander mumbled, his breath ghosting against his face. There was a part of Robbe that wondered if Sander was going to ask what plans he had. But Sander simply smiled down at him and said, “Laying in bed until any time is alright with me, Robin. I’m sure that you have to study your beautiful brain out for your remaining tests.” 

Robbe flushed at the compliment, thankful that Sander didn’t ask.

Sander seized Robbe’s face rather abruptly. He placed a peck against Robbe’s lips, fleeting and quick. Then, he repeated the motion before moving on to his jaw, his cheekbones, his eyebrows, and all over his face until Robbe was left squirming under his lips. Then, Sander returned to his original destination, giving him a long kiss that made Robbe’s knees melt, before he pulled Robbe off his feet—literally. As Robbe latched onto his waist and shoulders like a vice grip, Sander was moving out of the room, taking Robbe with him. “Come on, I made pancakes.”

Robbe leaned back and beamed down at him. “You left me alone in bed to make pancakes?”

“Yes,” Sander said, sounding almost sheepish as he grinned. “I didn’t want you to wake up with an empty stomach and no food to eat!” Robbe smiled, leaning down to kiss Sander. He paused in the middle of the hallway, putting all of his focus on kissing Robbe back. Then, as soon as the kiss broke and Robbe hovered over his lips, Sander was moving again, holding Robbe a little higher on his waist, and walking like he never stopped. “It’s not very nice to not have food for such a treasured guest.”

[tolifelechaim]

#5WomenArtists --the illustrative list!

I recently saw an article in the Huffington Post talking about art museums around the country trying to showcase women’s art. Additionally the challenge “Can you name #5WomenArtists?” made me think. 

I thought “Mary Cassatt, Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keefe.....and.....well crap”

But then I realized, WAIT I know ALL of these fantastic female illustrators and digital artists. But I didn’t think there names were “legitimate” answers to the #5WomenArtist questions, because they aren’t “fine artists” that get featured in the Met. 

SUCH NONSENSE.

Illustration is art. Digital Art is art. Tattoos are art. Comics are art. 

Additionally, Huffington Post compiled a list of 101 Female Artists to know about. Which is great. But when I browsed the list, I didn’t connect with a lot of the work. It was a bit too abstract or avant garde for me. I love artwork with figure drawing, illustration, women’s faces, watercolors, beauty, humor, and color. 

So I thought I’d compile some of my favorite female artists. Not necessarily the artists my liberal arts professors would laud, but people who create BEAUTIFUL work, that inspires me everyday to keep working. 

Trina Schart Hyman--Illustrator

Trina Schart Hyman is the best. Simply the best. I first fell in love with her artwork on the Patrica C Wrede Enchanted Chronicles book covers (pictures above). She has illustrated countless picture books too. My favorite is The Fortune-Teller, with St. George and the Dragon as a close second. Also Bearskin (a multi-racial fairy tale!) Go find her work at your local library. it’s worth it. Her line sensitivity... the organic and fluid postures of her figures....her attention to background details....it’s all tip-top.

K.Y. Craft  (Kinuko Craft) --Illustrator (http://www.kycraft.com/)

I first fell in love with K.Y. Craft from her book Cupid and Psyche. As I got older, I started recognizing her style everywhere. Her work is incredibly delicate and detailed. You’ve seen her work on the covers of The Cry of the Icemark, Wildwood Dancing, and her various illustrated fairy tales. The detail and beauty simply astound me. How can someone focus to put that many fine details into one piece?

Lora Zombie --Pop/Grunge Art/ Illustrator --(http://lorazombie.com/2017/ )

Lora Zombie does a delightful mix of pop art and illustration. Many of her images feature animals (especially pandas) wearing hats, children with guns or blue hair, blue birds and text. Her work flow is relatively fast, and she just lets the pigment go where the water goes. The above picture is my favorite of her works. 

Carol Carter --Watercolor (http://www.carol-carter.com/)

This entry actually breaks my rule, because I did have a college professor show us Carol Carter’s work. But I knew about her before that, so I’m putting her on the list. Her control of the blend between pigment and water is amazing. Her subjects include figure, plants, and animals. Her colors are always beautifully saturated. 

Lois H  -- Digital Art (http://loish.deviantart.com/)

If you don’t know loish then you don’t visit Deviant Art. Her work includes both beautiful creative landscapes like the one above, and illustrations of women. The use of lighting in her work is always breathtaking.  She always creates different face shapes in her women. Long faces, short faces, big eyes, small eyes. It’s not just the traditional “beautiful women” art. 

Charlie Bowater--Digital Art  (http://charlie-bowater.deviantart.com/)

Charlie Bowater creates beautiful illustrations. Her figures, textures, proportions, perspectives are always on point. She brings her characters and scenes to life.  Given how much I love her, I feel like I’m not writing enough about her work....I guess when I think of Charlie Bowater’s work, I think it’s synonymous with “beauty.” And that alone should make you go look through her whole entire gallery.  

Stephanie Pui-Mun Law-- Watercolor/ Illustration (http://www.shadowscapes.com/)

I first fell in love with Stephanie Pui-Mun Law’s art when she illustrated the covers for Catherine Asaro’s The Lost Continent series (The Misted Cliffs’ cover is seen above). Her very delicate water color textures are distinctive to her, and feel especially magical. 

Alice X. Zhang --Digital Art (http://alicexz.deviantart.com/)

You might recognize Alice Zhang’s name from her official Dr. Who and Sherlock fan art. The art was so fabulous that the BBC commissioned her to do more. She uses saturated colors, beautiful textures and brushes to create a distinct style of work. While creatively using textures and color, she still manages to capture amazing likenesses of the actors she draws. 

Danielle Corsetto --Comics! / Illustration  (http://www.girlswithslingshots.com/)

Danielle Corsetto wrote the first webcomic that I read, and Girls with Slingshots will always have a soft spot in my heart. Danielle is currently making new comics on her Patreon and posts her figure drawings on instagram. Her work captures so many different unique faces and figures. Every character is a distinct, recognizable individual. And her comic is hilarious. 

Erica Moen --Comics/Illustration  (http://www.erikamoen.com/)

Erica Moen currently writes the comic Oh Joy Sex Toy, an often smutty educational/review site for all things sex and reproduction. I’ve learned A TON from reading her weekly comics. I love her commitment to showcasing a huge variety of skin tones, body types, genders, and abilities. Additionally, her figures feel like they’re always moving. Her work quite often features nudity and sex. Google away from your mothers.

Ryan Ashley --Tattoo art  (https://ryan-ashley-malarkey.format.com/)

Ryan Ashley specialized in “fine line black and grey” tattoos. I first encountered her on the show Ink Master (which she won!) The way her designs merge geometric patterns, jewels, and hair/feathers/leaves/flowers is beautiful. The precision of her values and lines is hard to achieve on paper, much less on human skin. 

Teresa Sharpe --Tattoo art/ Illustration (http://teresasharpeart.com/)

I first encountered Teresa’s art on the show Best Ink (which she won). Her fine art is amazing (as seen on her website and Instagram). But her tattoos feature beautiful colors, amazing lines and textures. She fits her images to the human body and beautifully blends the elements that the client asks for. 

Anna Dittmann --Digital Art  (http://escume.deviantart.com/)

Anna Dittmann’s work often blends botanicals or feathers with women’s faces. She merges the two beautifully. I live for it. 

Elena Berezina -- Digital Illustrator (http://sharandula.deviantart.com/)

There are just many images I could have posted. Elena Berezina is working on a book called Silence is Golden, though it looks like it will be in Russian. She creates both really smooth blends and glorious texture. She also does very expressive cartoons of all her characters. 

Claire Hummel--Digital Art (http://shoomlah.deviantart.com/)

I first encountered Claire Hummel’s art first in her Historically accurate Disney Princesses series. Above is one of her Hamilton fan art pieces. Her art features precise lining, immaculate costume detailing, and great design. 

Jan Brett-- Illustration  (http://www.janbrett.com/index.html)

Fritz the Beautiful Pony, The Hat, The Mitten, Beauty and the Beast, go borrow them all from your local library. Jan Brett does beautiful detailing in the frames around her pictures. And she adds great life and humor into animal’s faces while keeping their proportions realistic. 

Susan Jeffers --Illustration (http://susanjeffersart.com/BioFrameset.html)

Susan Jeffers’ beautiful illustrations are also a staple of my childhood. Look at the lines in those plants! She uses color lines to create value, texture, movement, and dimension. 

Diane Goode --Illustration (http://www.dianegoode.com/works.htm)

I live for this woman’s illustrations of Charles Perrault's Cinderella. Literally my favorite book as a child. I (as a 7 year old) made sculptures in homage to dress above. She has these sassy little expressions, FABULOUS hair and clothing, and limited color palettes. 

Patricia Polacco --Author and Illustrator (http://www.patriciapolacco.com/#books)

Author of Just Plain Fancy, Thunder Cake, and so many more. Polacco’s illustrations capture the sweetness of human’s relationships. She draws a diversity of people: old, young, black, white, and many more. Her stories are always sweet.

Judy Schachner --Author and Illustrator (http://www.judithbyronschachner.com/books/)

Judy Schacherner’s Skippyjon Jones series of book is delightfully weird. Her illustrations use colorful chalk pastel, and her book uses a bizarre blend of Spanish and rhyming. The kitten Skippyjon Jones is always getting in trouble, being sent to his room, imagining he’s a Chihuahua, and dreaming up wild adventures with his band of imaginary dog friends. It’s as trippy as it sounds. Her latest book, Dewey Bob, is about a raccoon. The illustration are a really cool mix of collage and pastel.

AND OF COURSE

Mary Cassatt (Classic Impressionism)

Mary Cassatt rejected doing portraits of nicely dressed women on dark backgrounds. She focused on scenes from life, particular on mothers and children. She used bright colors, expressive brush strokes, and was interested in light. 

Note: Most of these female artists are white women. At least two have publicly queer identities, and at least two are non-white. Since this list is for Women’s History Month, I wanted to acknowledge that this list doesn’t meet standards for intersectional feminism. If you want to add on more diverse female artists, feel free. 

[summerlimeismethebrony]

Have some year-old trans Drakes!

Plus one reboot Gos

I'm deep in these old arts y'all

[summerlimeismethebrony]

Drake Mallard said trans rights and who am I to deny that

[summerlimeismethebrony]

Donald is a tiny duck and all his cousins have Big Birb genes

[summerlimeismethebrony]

"No one's ever wanted to stay before..."

Sorry it's kind of messy I'm sick and sad

[summerlimeismethebrony]

Abner Duck in my realistic-but-not-really style!

He's a magpie duck and they are so pretty okay

Look at them

[summerlimeismethebrony]

Okay so I have a general outline for the Dugan story

If you don't know who he is I hope you at least like the pictures

So, our story starts, as the comic does, with Fethry and his girlfriend Gloria looking through a photo album, and almost imedeatly we reach our first divergence

Instead of a family tree with a blank egg on it, which was kind of stupid, I think they'll find a postcard from his sister from just before she disappeared (because where did she go after her egg was lost that was way more convoluted than necessary, so I'm combining the two disappearances)

(I also made the dad an Orinoco goose she met on her adventures bc I can)

Gloria asks who these people are, and why she's never met them

Fethry explains that's his big sister and her (boyfriend? Husband? Idk there's literally no canon information on her partner), who had disappeared on a wildlife expedition about four years ago, and their unborn egg

There were signs they'd been eaten, but the egg was never found

Gloria convinces Fethry to go find his nibling, but he's not too optimistic

I'm not entirely sure what kind of wacky hijinks they'd be getting up to in this story, because the original was kind of racist and I am not actually a writer who knows how to fix that, but the journey definitely has some twists and turns in it

So before I continue, I'd like to mention design and my decisions on what waterfowl to base each character on

So you may know that Fethry's mother's maiden name is Loon, so of course I draw her as one. I've also based Fethry as a yellow-billed loon for this

Gloria is a Common Eider to keep that bright yellow "hair" (also she's trans now bc I can)

I based Mary (Dugan's mom) on a Common Shelduck for the combination of a Pacific Loon (Lulubelle's base) and a Common Eider (the base for Fethry's dad, yes I reused a type of duck don't @ me)

And Dugan is based on a Ruddy Shelduck even though I probably won't ever draw him as an adult. In the comics he's identical to baby Fethry, but I'm mostly getting rid of that, and making them easily distinguishable and having a vague family resemblence maybe?

ANYWHO Back to story

When they do find Dugan, he doesn't trust them right away

(Oh and I don't know what language this story was originally in, so this was probably less of a problem, but I can't really think of why Dugan would be fluent in English. So I think he can 'speak' porcupine(bc that was the wild animal that raised him for four years) and Portuguese (so he can actually communicate with his uncle and Gloria when they find him))

He's a bit of an asshole in the original story, seemingly for no reason, so I'm tweaking that a bit as him being understandably misstrusting of this weird scrawny loon who claims to care about him and has a terrible accent

(He'll warm up eventually)

So they get him to go home with them, and everything seems to be going pretty well

But then Fethry realizes that he isn't prepared to raise a child. This was a spur-of-the-moment decision. He doesn't have kids' clothing, he doesn't know how or what to feed a duckling, and he's freaking out, and he's calling his cousins in the middle of the night for parenting advice

So! The origin story is over, but on goes Fethry's adventures in parenting. He gets better, although there are struggles

Dugan does learn English and get his own clothing eventually (I do really like how he's usually wearing shoes in his comic appearances. Gives him some individuality)

[summerlimeismethebrony]

Might I request a Darkwing on this, your day of birth?

You very well can! Thank you for the suggestion

((He's talking down to Gizmoduck probably))

[summerlimeismethebrony]

Expression memes are great for figuring out character design

[summerlimeismethebrony]

Fenton is probably one of the most evenly mixed redesigns I've got so far, because I actually really like both versions of his character

[summerlimeismethebrony]

Character design is fun

Lulubelle is a Pacific loon here, and I kind of prefer her this way

[summerlimeismethebrony]

I am not proud of what I've done here, but I feel obligated to share my day's work

[summerlimeismethebrony]

Okay so from how I understand it, Nestor is the Straight Man to Zé's Lovable Screw-Up

There's probably more to it than that, but I can't read Portuguese and the wiki has like one sentence on him, so any information you could give me would be helpful

[summerlimeismethebrony]

This is so goofy