#that and I just don't like the low-effort vibes from these sketches that don't even have backgrounds

[lutiaskokopelli]

(Featuring the following OCs: Syenite Nickel and Marshmallow by @merrydock, and Apatite C. Tin by me)

Warning: Context?? What's that? Can you eat it?

Sooooooooo considering how much stuff has been done about it (and considering the friends who enabled me into expanding what was originally just a dumb self-indulgent shitpost), and considering the fact that I said I would be posting about blue alien frogs only to then not post anything, I guess it is time for this AU to breach containment.

I am on the fence regarding whether or not this AU constitutes spoilers for the game Outer Wilds or not. This AU is sort of a quantumly official/unofficial sequel to my longfic Fate Knows No One, but also is sufficiently disconnected from it that spoilers for the fic itself are going to be limited for at least a very long while. Maybe even long enough that I will be able to convince my brain to finish the fic in question before the spoilers show up in the AU.

That being said: Modern AU? What's better about Outer Wilds than to take these wonderful Hearthians, living peacefully on their tiny cozy planet full of geysers, rocket-induced explosions, and pine trees, and throw them into the wonderful world of capitalism? /s

Anyway, the comic probably was extremely confusing for anyone who did not already know about this AU through the Campfire Discord server, but thankfully I can provide you with a slightly better explanation of what's going on right here. Just know that, um, I heavily recommend you already have caught up on the regular Outer Wilds lore, because it will spoil an important part about what happens in the ending of the game. It will also spoil some part of FKNO (the fic), but if you have played Outer Wilds, it's a part of the fic you already knew would happen anyway.

[its-short-for-jackalope]

greetings! i have made a thing! ✨️two✨️ things!

✨️ sketchboooooooooooks! ✨️

it took longer than anticipated (I've been trying to get this done since the end of last year, oops) but I finally finished putting these together today. all that's left to do is decorate the covers and start drawing in 'em!

they are slightly–moderately wonky and pretty clearly handmade, but I love them. gives em charm. these are only the second and third books I've made myself so I'm still learning.

if you're interested I'll drop a few more photos and babble a little about the process under the cut! (definitely not a tutorial if that's what you're hoping for lol i was winging it the whole time)

okay so we'll start with the little guy. this is meant to be more of a travel sketchbook.

I wanted something fairly small that I could take on the go without it being too much of a hassle, because I'm also hoping to get out more and like... go for walks to the park or the cemetery or w/e and try doing some studies and life drawing and such. or just get some fresh air and doodle while I make a valiant attempt to get some vitamin D.

THE PROCESS

both sketchbooks are made out of materials I just had lying around, but this one is even more "recycled" lmao

i took the inside pages from an old sketchbook, and about half of them had previously been used, so I went and erased my old sketches as much as I could (they were bad and low effort, so it's no loss I assure you) and that was a boring and frustrating endeavor but it was worth it because, well, I get to use the paper again! I did a very poor job the first time around, I almost never drew on both sides of the page and so many pages were just one shitty sketch and nothing else 🙈

i sorted the pages into signatures (tried to mix up the used and new paper because it'd annoy me if I had just like one big chunk of ghost drawings and then the rest of the book was good and clean lol) and stitched those together and then put just a couple layers of glue on the spine to hold it together.

I made the cover by gluing two pieces of thin cardboard together for each part (front cover, back cover, spine) to make em sturdier, and then I trimmed them down to size and glued the pieces to a paper shopping bag. I didn't have the patience to try flattening the cover under a heavy book or anything, so it's a little warped and will kind of open up on its own so I'm just using the binder clip to hold it closed. plus idk it looks cool!

once the cover was done and dry I just... glued it all together! added the end pages i cut out of construction paper to the.. chunk of book? the book brick? (is there a technical word for it when the signatures are all together....?) and then glued the other sides of the end pages to the inside covers.

now for the second book! the big boy!

this fella was intended to be the grand, improved follow-up to the first sketchbook I put together, and I started working on it right when said first book started running out of paper.

this one is the wonkier of the two but I think it's definitely a few steps up from the original, and I'm pleased with it. this is gonna be my everyday sketchbook, so I wanted it to have a ton of pages so I can use it for a good long while. I think it's at least twice as thick as my first sketchbook. 😂

THE PROCESS

...basically the same as the travel sketchbook, just bigger! the pages are sourced from a different sketchbook, one I started using in high school and promptly forgot about upon graduation.

fun fact: the end pages are covered in countless tiny little hatch lines that i drew by hand while I watched/listened to something on my computer. I don't quite remember what I was watching at this point, but it was almost certainly something from Starkid... probably VHSCC on repeat, since I did this part back in november/december. it might sound tedious but I shit you not I was thrilled to do this part and it was just a blissful neurodivergent turn the brain off and vibe kind of time.

the biggest difference in this process was doing the cover; it's not cardboard, it's some kind of particle board.. thing that was salvaged from the back of a busted picture frame. it is VERY stiff and sturdy and I did not cut the pieces out so much as score the board with my box cutter as deeply as I could, bend it back and forth, and pray it didn't break. 😅 the cover-cover is from the same bag I used on the smaller book!

most of the wonkiness comes from the fact that the cover is sliiiiiiiightly too small for the book brick inside. I had limited material for the cover so I couldn't stretch that at all, I made the cover as big as I possibly could, but I also did not feel like trimming the inside pages so that they would fit better because that would have taken FOREVER and also probably killed me. 😫 soooo the pages stick out a little bit, but that's fine and it doesn't bother me much. 🤷🏻‍♂️

and that's my two sketchbooks! finished em both up over 3 days after procrastinating for at least a month. and now that they exist I can finally draw again!!! been wanting to do that for WEEKS.

if you read all of this I hope you got something out of it, lol. whether you did or didnt, here's a skull for your troubles.

😊🤲🏻💀

enjoy!! <3

[okay-sky]

Hehehe hey!! For the artists asks how about 5, 19 and 27? :)

winnow!! ty for picking some questions!! 🥰

5. i think i post about 95% of my art online? like if i like a drawing enough to go past the very initial sketch phase, then usually i finish it, and i am so desperate for validation 24/7 that it always ends up online lol. the only stuff i keep for myself really is like low-effort pencil sketches (rare) or art that i get frustrated with bc i cant make it come out how i want it to :( and warmups? mostly bc those are super unpolished and i dont usually get any interaction from them, so its more painful to post them than to keep them private lol

19. i am not really a fan of drawing inanimate objects tbh ;w; i struggle with straight lines and perspective a lot so people and animals are my favorite to draw! but i do enjoy drawing clothes a lot, especially shoes!

27. i am a 100% self-taught artist and had no idea warming up was even a thing until my 20s, so i usually don't warm up. sometimes if i start drawing and everything is coming out wrong, or i get out of the vibe and am struggling to visualize perspective or proportions or something, i will do a "warmup" to try and loosen up and get back into the Zone. my favorite things to do for those are super loose, messy portraits or figure drawings where i just let my eyes unfocus and let my hand sort of do its own thing, not caring too much about being clean or having a goal or staying on my own style. my most recent example of what i mean is these portraits that i drew when i couldnt get my brain to cooperate with my erised piece (not the frame, just the people):