#which is generally not very good for artists

[draconesmundi]

What’s your take on the idea that a “realistic” large flying dragon should have a short tail so as to lessen drag? Long tailed Pterosaurs and early birds were all fairly small. Birds have short tails, as did the largest Pterosaurs. Bats are variable but they’re small.

So when we say 'my take' are we meaning...

My Take As a Scientist

This is sound logic! In every large flying animal (we're talking Azhdarchid pterosaurs such as Quetzalcoatlus, or giant Cathartiformes birds like big vultures or Argentavis) the tails are short.

Image from www.prehistoric-wildlife.com

We just know this as a fact; every flying animal over a certain size has a small tail, and from our own experiments creating aircraft we can safely assume this is to reduce drag.

Image from NASA

Our long-bodied planes all have horizontal and vertical stabilizers on the end of the tail - the horizontal ones act as an extra earofoil to generate lift - similar to the tail feathers of birds. Our long bodied planes lack the dexterity of fighting planes, who are triangular (so the 'wing' extends down the full body, no tail) or have much shorter tails compared to the long bodied planes.

Image from Aviationfile.com

Planes have the added benefit of being lifted by jets rather than powered muscles. To make a dragon or monster a similar size to a plane, it would need equally novel ways to propel itself, and then it's tail would need to be short, ideally with horizontal flukes (think whale tail) so the tail could provide lift to perhaps counteract the drag. A creature of this size would not have nippy, fast flight; even thermal currents would be difficult for it to soar on (which is how large vultures manage to fly most of the time). Sure the dragon could get from A to B but it could not maneuver or hunt like a hawk or falcon while doing so. And it's tail? Kinda short.

Link to some cool dragonlike aliens designed by Cydork with short tails.

My Take As A Dragon Designer

As a dragon enjoyer I think dragons should have long tails - it ties them back to being majestic serpents from cosmology. Behind every legend that's "a dragon was slain here" is a "loathesome wyrme spat poison in a ditch" and behind that is a "ancient serpent symbol of dark and scary waters". Dragons should have the tails because they are fun.

So how do we make fun snakey dragon tails work when we know that logically, physically and biologically we need less tail to reduce drag while flying?

We could accept the dragon has short and powerful flights like a galliform (chickens, pheasants, peacocks) - peacocks can fly (not long distances like an albatross, but enough to be in the sky and get from A to B) while having 60% of it's length be long, dramatic tail feathers. Tail feathers are lighter than a meaty tail, but from an artistic perspective you can get a good wing-to-tail ratio for your dragon designs.

Image source: Haribabu Pasupathy/Wikimedia Commons, found attached to This Article

Alternatively you could go down the route of one of my favourite dragon designs ever and basically make a plane-shaped dragon and stick a swishy tail on the end for fun - the Ikran from James Cameron's Avatar are basically fighter-plane shaped with a thin tail sticking out the back. Realistically that little tail is contributing drag, but aesthetically we're enjoying this very cool dragon design.

Another take is something like the Legiana from Capcom's Monster Hunter games - this dragon has a thin whiplike tail which has extendable flaps - these flaps can form another lifting surface (think horizontal flukes on the plane tail or tail feathers of a bird). Legiana would still experience drag, but the way it can change it's surface area to meet it's aerodynamic needs is something fun you could consider in dragon design.

Of course Avatar and Monster Hunter take place in fantasy worlds with lower gravity (actually stated in the Avatar film about Pandora, and Monster Hunter's low gravity is just a fun theory because all the weapons and monsters are huge and you never suffer fall damage) - this doesn't affect drag but does affect the amount of lift compared to creature body size needed to be airborne!

My Take As Author Of Dracones Mundi Specifically

So this issue does not affect the Dracones Mundi dragons because they fly by levitation magic. This allows me to even allow wingless dragons, such as East Asian dragons, to fly around. As my dragons 'swim' through the air, long tails are permitted as they move like crocodiles, eels, sharks - all things that benefit with added length to their anguilliform-to-subcarangiform locomotion.

(images from my blog @draconesmundi )

To get into the gritty details, my dragons have magical fat throughout their bodies, and these fats produce a magic field that interacts with atmospheric magic, so they are 'swimming' through the atmospheric magic rather than through the air, their bodies pushing and pulling against unseen forces. So their tails aren't dragging as much because they are being used to actively push through the magic to propel the dragon forward.

[inkscapepony-art]

PSA

i got notified of more than one person doing this throughout a week, and i am just going to come out and fucking say it:

i'm not making this post to the artists that took inspiration: i'm directing this to artists that just don't care.

i understand some people who follow me or know me from my art can be inspired by her design, and that's fine. however, redrawing her in your style and putting eyes in her head and calling it good is NOT okay.

i've literally been sitting here, pondering if i should make this post because i could be too paranoid, or be too mean to fellow artists in the fandom, but finding out one of these artists blocked me because i was in their general vicinity, or in the same area as them after seeing their design made me rethink the decision of not saying anything.

i noticed three people in the fandom so far on separate platforms ripping her off, and it ain't coincidence of this happening. THREE. one of them, as i said, put eyes in her head and called it good. THEY EVEN REDREW HER DRESS. this stuff is incredibly infuriating and i am, frankly, very tired of seeing it on my dash, to a point where i want to stop drawing susan as a whole.

gonna say this again: being inspired is one thing, which i genuinely appreciate those who are inspired, but completely stealing her design for your OC is another.

this isn't coincidence anymore. this is blatant disrespect.

please stop.

[thealexchen]

what’s your fav bloom and rage outfit/style choice for the girls? Also is any of the specific characters look your fav?

I can't choose just one! Now that DN is uploading their Artstation portfolios, these are really easy to share as well.

For Kat, I love her second casual outfit. I love the cutoff overall shorts with the oil stain, which implies she repurposed old overalls into shorts. I love the bandana to get her hair out of her face but also adds a cute girlish touch. I love her purple t-shirt with star motifs. It's just an overall fun outfit for a kid who wants to have a good time outside.

I love all the concert outfits and how very over-the-top, 90's riot grrrl they are. Swann's glam makeup look is my fave though for how the colors complement the others' while still feeling distinctly Swann with the moth shape. Also, purple lipstick! And GLITTER!

Adult Nora as a whole both intrigues and saddens me, because compared to how enthusiastic and excitable she was as a teen, it's so much more difficult to get on her good side as an adult. Her avoidant tendencies are much more pronounced and her overall monochromatic look is so much more conformist and generic than her wild teen self. She's literally wearing business casual when reuniting with her friends. Girl, you're at a bar!! Still, I love her overcoat. I love a good winter peacoat, it's so timeless and looks great on all genders.

I also like Autumn's second casual look as a teen. It's so funny how 90s and Y2K fashion is making a comeback with today's teens, because Autumn's outfit wouldn't look out of place in 2025. She really nailed the fashion rule "baggy top and tiny pants OR tiny top and baggy pants" to a tee! Her crop top contrasting with sweatpants conveys "I'm a confident, sporty, skater gal who also is down to laze on the couch with video games." The skeleton design adds a cool, slightly edgy touch to her normally very cautious and serious personality.

The "riot" masks that the girls wear during their raid on the ranch goes SO hard, but I love how it still has that slight amateur, teen crafter look to it. I love the thought of Nora staying up all night to design the perfect themed mask for each of them and how all the protagonists have an artsy, nerdy side to them. They're definitely well-made masks, but they have visible uneven stitches, streaks of paint, and the textures suggest cheap materials. But it amazes me how DN went the extra mile to enhance the visual language of the game with this rougher, DIY look.

All the girls have their own handwriting, and it's consistent. Swann leaves doodles and old homework assignments all over her room, and they were clearly hand drawn by an artist at DN and have realistic imperfections like stains and scribbles. Kat's journal is a generic composition notebook that she covered in personalized stickers and slogans. When Kat mentioned the Bloom & Rage stickers I thought, "That's weird, when did she have time to design and print her own?" But then you see them, and of course they're not custom designed stickers, but just dollar store stickers that she wrote "BLOOM & RAGE" on with marker. The girls make do with what they have, and it just adds this really nice cohesive, charming look to the whole thing. Especially compared to (again, sorry) Max's journal in Double Exposure with these cartoony, borderline stock image drawings and such boring, corporate UI all over the game.

But perhaps my favorite outfit is adult Swann's. It just looks SO cozy and SO comfy and SO her, exactly what a girl like her would wear by middle age. I bet the artists at DN pulled up Goblincore moodboards and said "That's it! That's our main girl!" She wears those earth tones beautifully. When Double Exposure was revealed, I was disappointed that (AGAIN, I AM SORRY!) Max seemed to be generically prettied up with feminine adult clothes of all random colors that didn't distinguish her from any other young working professionals her age. But what I love about Swann's adult look is that coupled with the fact that she learned to love herself as she aged, her 2022 outfit so clearly conveys that confidence and self-love. The overall silhouette hasn't changed (I bet Swann cried with joy when the low-rise jeans trend of the 2000s finally died off 😂), she still has her high-waisted clothes and backpack. But her visual evolution communicates way more narratively than Max's look in DE; Swann's outfit actually says something. At one point, adult Swann reveals, "I didn't feel like I was the type of girl who was 'allowed' to be into sexy, girly stuff." Aka, fashion choices that society said she wouldn't look "conventionally attractive" in due to her weight. So when we finally see her at the end of the game, it's extra rewarding to notice the longer hair, makeup, nail polish, jewelry, and skirt, which all wonderfully communicate that Swann has embraced her queerness, femininity, and inner and outer beauty as a plus-sized woman. I love Swann's character arc so much. Also, her tattoo is fucking sick.

Thank you for asking!! Dontnod (Juliette, Ricardo, Sam Bradley, and the rest of the art team) seriously knocked it out of the park with these character designs and the overall look of the game.

[myreia]

—for birthday shenanigans

Hello! Hi!

So, here's the deal: for a lot of different reasons, I have been unsubbed from FFXIV since June last year. Which means that I haven't seen my WoL Aureia in a very, very long time, and I also haven't played around in gpose for an equally long time. And I miss it!

My birthday is at the end of the month ����, and I was thinking that it would be fun to do a gpose for art trade.

I am a very new artist, but I like drawing other people's OCs for practice and for fun. You can see some of my art here. I am going to offer colour busts, something along the lines of my galaxy hair series. ✨

I'm still developing a style, so don't expect it to be exactly like this, but it's the vein of what I can currently do.

—Let's Trade!

Open to anyone, it doesn't matter to me if we're mutuals or not 💖

Message me via DM or an ask. My tumblr DMs only allow messages from blogs I follow to keep spam out, so if you can't reach me that way, send me an ask! You must be off anon so I know who you are. You can also DM me through Discord, if you have mine. Alternatively, if none of these work, reply to this post and I'll contact you!

I will send you the link to a folder with Aureia's .chara file and the single mod necessary to make her her (she's half-elezen/half-Midlander, so she needs her ears!)

Make whatever you would like! I am really easy going, I don't mind folks messing around with my OCs. This is her gpose tag for her general vibe, as well as her character tag and my fanfic tag.

Send me your WoL or FFXIV OC's gpose tag, and a couple good screenshots for refs. Something with neutral lighting is ideal, just so I can get their hair colour and skin tone right! If you have Hrothgar OC, I'm sorry but I probably won't be able to draw them since that's outside my skill level right now.

No Dawntrail spoilers, locations or gear please! I haven't played the expac yet and I'd like to stay surprised for when I do play it.

Aureia's usual vanilla hairstyles are Head Hound (Hilda's hair), the Bold and the Braid, and Great Lengths. I'm 100% open to modded hairstyles, too, if you have something that you think would suit her!

If you want to throw other mods on her, go for it! I have no idea what is current in the mod scene, and I'm very easy going about sticking her in different things.

We'll share what we've made during my birthday week, which is June 22 to June 28! 🎉

Post yours and make sure to tag me in it! 🩷

I will post my half of the trade and tag you in it! 💜

If you have any questions or would like to trade, please message me!✨🖤

[pikabysss]

I have drawings and writing ideas, but instead of doing either of them, I just keep imagining them in my head because I know the final result won't be as good as what I imagined.

And this, friends, is why I will never understand AI bros, because how can you tolerate every little mishap the machine makes? It'll never be to the level of my imagination. The only thing that can get close to matching it is my own writing, my own art, or if I heavily guide another artist to do it.

I used generative AI (for personal intertainment purposes only), and I was always annoyed at something. The more I was annoyed, the more I was realising: why am I even messing around with that? I'll just do it myself since the AI frustrates me so much.

So, in case you were scared of real artists becoming rare, I don't think you should. It's the same reason as to why lots of people still make their own plushies and get money from doing homemade plushies despite mass-produced plushies existing. It's all about the ability to heavily personalize something to your exact liking, which AI will never be able to do... it will get close to doing it, but it'll need a LOT of learning and inputs to do so.

Being scared of big companies getting rid of real artists because it can save them some money? Yeah, it's a fine concern. But, if we take game companies as an example... even with lazy triple A games existing (looking at you, EA) indie games still come out often and strive. Real art will never die. People like me who are never satisfied with AI or need to express themselves in very specific ways will keep existing in high number.

[dailyrothko]

Do you mind when other people blog Rothko

Ha, no. The whole point of this blog really is to educate people on his art and spread it around, the problem is that there are some things that go along with that.

One of them is that if I correct somebody online about their fake painting or a painting that's upside down generally they will not pay attention and if they do pay attention generally they will not fix it. Sometimes they block me. Other times, a "lifestyle blog" will put a bunch up and those are much more popular than art blogs so it's difficult to correct this new audience to the possibility that what they're looking at is fake or mutilated,

Sometimes, as many of you know, I will re-blog one as an example of something to avoid. I try not to blame the people that are putting it up because there's no reason they should know any better, but some of them don't want to know any better and it puts me in a weird position because the work is copyrighted and it could be taken down, and I'm not going to encourage that, but I also don't like to encourage people mutilating works of art. I'm not the person who thinks it's cool when you colorize old movies so we can all "relate" and I'm not the person who thinks that presenting color photographs in black-and-white is good if it goes along with your "theme", I just don't think we should meddle with the artist's intentions if possible

I have a close relationship with many people in the Rothko world and I know that, for instance, if a museum person sees a painting at their museum and somebody has photoshopped it or it's a terrible picture? they would love to see a good one in its place. This blog is often able to provide those pictures by keeping up with the newest scans, but people don't want to re-blog because they like to get the credit for posting the pictures in the notes, which, to me, is very immature blogger attitude.

My blog has greatly benefited from submissions and I get a lot of them, many here and many on Instagram, and I always credit the photographers and keep their credit intact, which seems like the normal thing to do, and that way when one of the people that takes museum trips and takes good pictures gets to the next Rothko exhibit, they are sure to offer me some pictures they took because I'm not going to just steal them. It's not that I am a saint, I think it's polite but its also practical, and I think that sometimes if you play the long game rather than alienating everybody, you end up in a better position to do the things that you like to do. (obviously I am speaking of etiquette here or not alienating nazis or punching fascists which I am greatly in support of).

It can also be a little bit frustrating when all the information is stripped from the painting, when a lot of people would like to know the details and they are right here.

I don't mean all of this to sound holier than thou I think of it as a simple fact. I have put this work in for reference. If you don't want to reblog me, or let's say you were at San Francisco MOMA and took a picture of number 14 1960. You could look it up here and get the details if you did not know them, and I would consider that to be a good use of this blog.

So no I am happy for people to spread the word and get the art around to different audiences and different people but I wish they would have cared about it, partially because I'm right here to help and it would not be much effort to ask me or Reblog, but the truth is that most people don't care about that stuff and there's nothing I can do about it unless I want to go to great lengths.

Sometimes frankly I just don't understand it. There are particular blogs who put up bad scans but worse they put up fake paintings year after year after year and it's not like they have not been informed that they are fake. I don't know if they are art bots like the off the easel scammers who had all the "artist Rothko" type blogs, but those people were tech Bros stealing your personal information and mining wiki paintings which is a terrible place to get art, and they were spreading paintings that were sideways year after year. There's a rule on Tumblr against bots but it's not enforced, like everything around here.

So the short answer is no, but the long answer if you made it through it, is  that I wish people had a little bit more interest in precision. This month I must've told 20 different people that they had a problem in their painting post, not a single person changed it. And everybody makes mistakes, but I actually prefer if people correct mine because it embarrasses me!

Apologies for the long reply

[spitblaze]

i am on my hands and knees begging you. stop encouraging artists to nuke their internet presence every time a website updates its ToS or updates its functions. please

[artharakka]

Beautiful, But Broken

[bunnieswithknives]

Princess Jinjur! She may not be the rightful ruler of Oz but she has a can do attitude and a lifetime of injustices seething beneath her skin!

Jinjur without the portrait

[carnivallsarchive]

.

See the thing is. I know I'm good at writing. Like I have my weak areas or things I need to improve in, but it's not a skill I otherwise spend a lot of time feeling insecure about because a) if I don't believe in my writing literally who will b) if I want to publish my writing I ought to at least feel a resting level of good about it because editors and agents likely will not be cradling my face like a prize cat and telling me how talented I am while asking for their edits c) I've always had an audience for my writing even at its worst– I started sharing my original works online when I was around 16 & that really helped sell to me the idea of 'there will always be someone out there who likes what you do' d) untalented men never think this hard about the quality of their works and they always end up published anyway and e) I don't have many other thoroughly developed skills so why not have one I feel good about. Having said this. Awkward feeling to realize you're one of the authorial weak links in your postgraduate creative writing degree's social circle

[longagoitwastuesday]

Every day I am haunted by the fact JJK could be amazing but it will be just idk Bleach or something

[faksyan]

I had a dream about drawing Paz and having the time of my life. That's it I was just drawing. I should do that I think.

[red-dyed-sarumane]

one thing about me is i have very serious somewhat arbitrary opinions for things of and relating to aru sekai series & u will be hearing them

[satsuki-yumizuka]

Sacchin is your blog description a reference to anything in particular?

yes !! to HEARTLOVEPOWERTEMPLE

indie vn made by sofa/yogurt200 who is a rlly cool awesome artist i follow and made/is making 8eyes... its about girls who become LOVEMAIDENS at a temple where they worship VENUS and the BEATINGHEART and its rlly weird and odd but in a good way that i rlly like

[britneyshakespeare]

you know what it is. i talk about how vain he is and how he only talks about himself and that is the impression a lot of people have of him and it is the impression i favor leaning towards. he has a very coded way of self-disclosure; he often seems like he's trying to impress people but i know him to be not-the-most-assured in a lot of ways. when i first complimented him on his poetry and told him how much i liked a few pieces (and i loved some of what i read before i knew his last name, so when i read his poetry i did not assume the person whose poetry i so loved was, well, that retired male model i met in passing every now and then). when i told him that. he was very moved by it.

and i do talk about how vain he is; i do say he only talks about himself; but every now and then when he does say something about me it is not at all hidden that he does admire me. some of what he says that seems to coded to impress me or to get my validation, i know he is doing this towards me because he thinks im this smart poetry girl. and i am? i am that, he's not wrong. i think it makes me feel hopeless to think that he really does respect me and care what i think of him because i'd rather he didn't. i'd rather him be this charming but shallow pretty boy which i think he has been seen as by a lot of people throughout his life. despite that he is hardworking, despite that he has (or at least tries very hard to have) an intellectual side. perhaps what he says about himself is so often coded to please me even while it is fishing for my attention, and i want to see that as a reflection of his own self-regard but i don't know that it is.

i don't know that it's not, but i don't know that it is either and as neither of us is very frequently vulnerable with the other, it's not fair for me to say which is the case. or even that there's a "which" like it can't be both. i don't know that he admires me; i don't know that he sees me as this girl who is (or at least used to be) very charmed by him. i do know that he always comes to me and asks me about poetry because as far as he's told me, i'm the only one who has ever cared about his. for all i know that could also be bullshit, but then why should i assume it is either? i'm quite unfair to him in my assessments of him. i do have to admit, he has never actually seemed to have a disrespectful or unfair assessment of me.

[tamaharu]

ive inherited a copy of lolita from my parents (i.e. i stole it from the library in our basement and started treating it like its mine) with the 1989 vintage international cover and i think its actually not that bad. better than the 50th anniversary one with the lips anyway imo (which is the cover for the library ebook vers ive checked out).

like i think any cover that incorporates the "only convincing love story of our generation" quote anywhere kind of sucks on principle, and the fact that it features a photo of a girl at all really goes against nabakovs instructions, but compared to other covers that break those two rules, the haziness of the photo creates a really evocative atmosphere i feel matches the book more or less.